Ptolemy XIII tried to convince Caesar to acknowledge him as sole ruler of Egypt and barred Cleopatra from seeing him. It could be because Rome depended on Egypt for its grain supplies and a stable Egypt was seen by Caesar as being in Rome's interest. For reasons lost to history, Caesar decided to stay in Egypt and deal with the dispute between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra. When Caesar landed with a small body of troops in Alexandria, he was presented with Pompey's head - something that he was said to be unhappy about. The young pharaoh decided that Pompey was more trouble than he was worth and had him executed. He had been fighting a civil war against the Roman general Pompey.Īfter a series of defeats, Pompey fled to Egypt in 48 B.C., hoping to win support from Ptolemy XIII. (Image credit: traveler1116 via Getty Images)Ĭaesar was about 30 years older than Cleopatra, and his arrival in Egypt was something of an accident. This engraving from 1894 shows Augustus Caesar and Cleopatra - who is dead with a snake in her hand.
It would be Julius Caesar who helped Cleopatra regain her throne. Ptolemy XIII and his advisers refused to acknowledge this arrangement and fighting broke out between them, with Cleopatra being forced to flee the royal palace. After the king died in 51 B.C., his will said that Cleopatra should share the throne with her brother (and husband) Ptolemy XIII. In 55 B.C., with the support of the Romans, Ptolemy XII was put back on the throne and took his 17-year-old daughter Cleopatra VII as his co-ruler. She was succeeded by another woman named Berenice IV.
In 58 B.C., Ptolemy XII was exiled and a woman named "Cleopatra Tryphaena" (a different Cleopatra) became ruler of Egypt, dying not long afterwards. "Ptolemy XII was heavily dependent upon the Romans and as their ‘friendship' put an increased strain upon the Egyptian economy, his rule came under increasing scrutiny from the Egyptian elite," writes Sally-Ann Ashton, a keeper at the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, in her book "Cleopatra and Egypt" (Blackwell Publishing, 2008). Ptolemy XII (reign 80-58 B.C.) was under a great deal of pressure from the Romans and struggled to hold onto power. Although they had ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries, their kingdom was eclipsed by the power of Rome and there was a great deal of internal dissension that eventually led to Cleopatra fighting against her own brother.Ĭleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII and a mother whose identity we do not know. The Ptolemies were descended from a Macedonian general who had served under Alexander the Great.
(Image credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)Ĭleopatra was born in 69 B.C.
Sally-Ann Ashton admires one of the statues of Cleopatra at the launch of an exhibition at the British Museum in London in 2001.
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