Cleopatra was not only the last queen to rule
over Egypt before the country fell into Roman hands; she also was the last of the
Ptolemaic Dynasty founded by Ptolemy
I, a prominent general in the army of Alexander the Great.
After Alexander died in 323 BC,
his empire was divided among his generals after a long feud and endless wars
that lasted for forty years. From the onset, Ptolemy had his eyes set on Egypt, and
apparently, none of his competitors contested his territory. The Ptolemies
ruled Egypt for about three
hundred years, putting Alexandria as its glorious new capital on the world map.
In 53 BC, the 17-year-old Cleopatra
VII co-reigned
with her brothers Ptolemy
XIII Theos Philopator and Ptolemy XIV, whom she married following the Egyptian
tradition and desperately tried to keep Egypt out of Roman grip. It is
known that Cleopatra
was ambitious, and she arranged for her brothers to be eliminated to become the sole ruler.
So, Cleopatra significantly sought his support when Julius
Cesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BC. They became
lovers, and she bore him a son, Caesarion,
in 47 BC. Three years later, she left for Rome
with her son, but Caesar
was murdered by a group of Roman senators within a year. Rome
was divided by Octavian and Marc Antony supporters, and
since the latter was more popular, Cleopatra concentrated on gaining Marc Antony’s favors. This
chagrined the Romans, especially when Marc Antony gave away parts of his empire to Cleopatra in 34 BC.
Meanwhile, they became lovers, and Cleopatra gave birth to
twins, a boy, and a girl, Alexander
and Cleopatra, in
40 BC. Their names were changed to Alexander Helios (Sun) and Cleopatra Selene (Moon) three years
later when the queen joined Marc
Antony in Antioch (modern Turkey). This
name-giving happened on the day of an eclipse. This may have led to choosing of a
mythological name for the twins. Another son was born in 36 BC and received
the name Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Meanwhile, Octavian declared war on
this foreign queen in Rome,
and he won the Battle of
Actium over Marc
Antony. A year later, in 30 BC, Octavian landed in Alexandria to face Marc Antony personally, but rather than being killed
by his adversary Marc Antony
committed suicide. With Cleopatra
at his mercy, Octavian
refused negotiation of any kind, and Cleopatra, feeling that there was no way out, killed
herself – allegedly using poisonous snakes. With her death, the Ptolemaic
Dynasty ended.
Caesarion, or Ptolemy Caesar, was then 17 years of age, and
he was killed by Octavian
only ten days after his own mother. Egypt
became a province of the Roman Empire ruled by
Octavian, who
promoted himself to Emperor Augustus.
The three children of Cleopatra and Marc Antony were spared by
Octavian and
taken to Rome
instead. The twins were 10 years old, and the little brother was four by then. Their
care was entrusted to Octavia,
Octavian’s
sister, who was, ironically, the widow of Marc Antony. A few years later, the boys disappeared
from history, but the girl, Cleopatra
Selene, married King
Juba II of Mauretania. As far as we know, she had at least one son
whom she called Ptolemy
Philadelphus, probably in memory of her little brother. It seems
she ruled as an equal with her husband since both their images were minted on
the local coins.
Fate has added a little twist of its own.
Recently an Italian Egyptologist has dusted off a statue from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo portraying Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene as small
children. The sculpture was discovered in 1918 near the temple
of Dendera
on the banks of the Nile. It was stored away
in the museum. The ten-meter-high statue shows two naked children of identical
size, one male and one female, standing within the coils of two snakes. They
are holding each other with one arm around the shoulder of the other while they
are grasping the snake with their other hand. They have identified thanks to
the sun disc around the boy's head and the lunar disc and crescent held by the
girl. We also find the Horus eye on each disc, a typical symbol in Egyptian
art. The faces are not very clear, but the boy appears with curly hair and a
braid on the right side of his head, as was customary. The girl’s hair is cut
according to the fashion of the Ptolemaic dynasty and of Cleopatra in particular.
It is nice to see that at least a picture of
these poor children has survived for 2,100 years. What history they
could have written!
