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Cleopatra....
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was the queen of ancient Egypt. She was the last member of the
Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty and hence the last
Greek ruler of Egypt. Her father was
Ptolemy XII Auletes, and her mother was probably Auletes's sister,
Cleopatra V Tryphaena. The name "Cleopatra" is
Greek for "father's glory";
her full name, "Cleopatra Thea Philopator" means "the Goddess Cleopatra,
Beloved of Her Father."
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Today she is probably the most famous of all of ancient
Egypt's rulers, and is usually known as simply
Cleopatra, all of her
similarly-named predecessors having been largely forgotten. Cleopatra was
never in fact the sole ruler of Egypt, she only co-ruled with her father,
brother, brother-husband, and son. However, in all these cases, her
co-rulers were king in title only, with her keeping the true authority. |
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Cleopatra VII was
Greek and she was born in Alexandria,
Egypt,
took the throne alone at the death of her father Ptolemy XII in spring 51
BC. She was at the time the oldest child of Auletes, since two older sisters
had died. She also had one younger sister whose name was Arsinoë. She was
first briefly co-ruler with her father. She was subsequently co-ruler with
two of her brothers, Ptolemy XIII, who opposed the Roman domination, and
Ptolemy XIV. Since the Ptolomaic throne was transmited in matrilinear
fashion, the Kings had to marry their sisters in order to be qualified to
rule. Following the deaths of her brothers she named her eldest son co-ruler
as Ptolemy XV Caesarion (44–30 BC). |
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In 48 BC, the advisors of Ptolemy XIII, led by the
eunuch Pothinus, removed Cleopatra's power and forced her to flee
Egypt.
Her sister Arsinoë accompanied her. Later that year, however, The Emperor
Ptolemy
imperiled his own power by injudiciously meddling in the affairs of
Rome.
When Pompey, fleeing the victorious Julius Caesar, arrived in Alexandria
seeking sanctuary, Ptolemy had him murdered in order to ingratiate himself
with Caesar. Caesar was so repelled by this treachery that he seized the
Egyptian capital and imposed himself as arbiter between the rival claims
of Ptolemy and Cleopatra.
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