The STANDS4 Network. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. [231], Relations between Antony and Cleopatra perhaps soured when he not only married Octavia, but also sired her two children, Antonia the Elder in 39 BC and Antonia Minor in 36 BC, and moved his headquarters to Athens. [417] Cleopatra had actually achieved this masculine look in coinage predating her affair with Antony, such as the coins struck at the Ashkelon mint during her brief period of exile to Syria and the Levant, which Joann Fletcher explains as her attempt to appear like her father and as a legitimate successor to a male Ptolemaic ruler. It was a 13-volume mathematical explanation of astronomycontaining information about the numerical and geometrical concepts behind the motions of the Moon and known planets. [49][50] In it she wears a royal diadem, red or reddish-brown hair pulled back into a bun,[note 76] pearl-studded hairpins,[444] and earrings with ball-shaped pendants, the white skin of her face and neck set against a stark black background. The science of astronomy is one of humanity's oldest sciences. Also "Thea Neotera", lit. Ptolemy I Soter [230] Cleopatra attempted to provide him with a military assignment, but Herod declined and traveled to Rome, where the triumvirs Octavian and Antony named him king of Judea. [231][232] This act put Herod on a collision course with Cleopatra, who would desire to reclaim the former Ptolemaic territories that comprised his new Herodian kingdom. Ptolemy was also a prolific writer in the subjects and disciplined he studied. They were captured by Mithridates VI of Pontus probably in 88 BC, around the time Ptolemy IX returned to the Egyptian throne. [69][72] As a young cavalry officer, Mark Antony was under Gabinius's command. [3][422][423], Of the surviving Greco-Roman-style busts and heads of Cleopatra,[note 67] the sculpture known as the "Berlin Cleopatra", located in the Antikensammlung Berlin collection at the Altes Museum, possesses her full nose, whereas the head known as the "Vatican Cleopatra", located in the Vatican Museums, is damaged with a missing nose. They didn't always understand what they observed, but realized that the sky's objects move in periodic and predictable ways. Cleopatra took the opportunity to approach Caesar with different tactics, sneaking into the palace at Alexandria that Caesar was occupying and reading the situation becoming his lover. [409][435], The woman in the painting wears a royal diadem over her head and is strikingly similar in appearance to the Vatican Cleopatra, which bears possible marks on the marble of its left cheek where a cupid's arm may have been torn off. [329] When a spy informed her that Octavian planned to move her and her children to Rome in three days, she prepared for suicide as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV. [329][333][334] Cleopatra's physician Olympos did not explain her cause of death, although the popular belief is that she allowed an asp or Egyptian cobra to bite and poison her. Pompey the Great assassinated. Caesar used his authority as dictator of Rome and an apparent will left by Ptolemy XII the former pharaoh having conveniently sent one copy to Rome and kept one in Alexandria to reunite the two as co-rulers of Egypt. Alexandria was built by the Ancient Greeks, but later conquered by the Romans. [412][note 65] Cleopatra was the first foreign queen to have her image appear on Roman currency. Ptolemy [448] The sculpture also has pronounced eyes that share similarities with Roman copies of Ptolemaic sculpted works of art. [221] By the end of 40 BC, Cleopatra had given birth to twins, a boy named Alexander Helios and a girl named Cleopatra Selene II, both of whom Antony acknowledged as his children. [286][272] Octavian highlighted parts of the will, such as Caesarion being named heir to Caesar, that the Donations of Alexandria were legal, that Antony should be buried alongside Cleopatra in Egypt instead of Rome, and that Alexandria would be made the new capital of the Roman Republic. We get a few clues about his background from his name: Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy was his mothers co-ruler, killed by Octavian, later the emperor Augustus, after Cleopatras death in 30. He propounded the geocentric theory of the solar system that prevailed for 1400 years. [314], After lengthy negotiations that ultimately produced no results, Octavian set out to invade Egypt in the spring of 30 BC,[315] stopping at Ptolemais in Phoenicia, where his new ally Herod provided his army with fresh supplies. Caesar agreed to the trade, believing it better for his reputation to defeat Ptolemy than Arsinoe and using the opportunity to stall while waiting for reinforcements. He used at least 80 of these tiny circular "orbits'to explain the motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known in his time. [238][239] Cleopatra brought her now three-year-old twins to Antioch, where Antony saw them for the first time and where they probably first received their surnames Helios and Selene as part of Antony and Cleopatra's ambitious plans for the future. was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great (356323 B.C.E. ) [307] In Alexandria he built a reclusive cottage on the island of Pharos that he nicknamed the Timoneion, after the philosopher Timon of Athens, who was famous for his cynicism and misanthropy. In 51 B.C., Ptolemy XII died, leaving the throne to 18-year-old Cleopatra and her brother, the 10-year-old Ptolemy XIII. [483] By the end of the 20th century there were forty-three films, two hundred plays and novels, forty-five operas, and five ballets associated with Cleopatra. Due to Ptolemy's age, a regent was appointed for him, the eunuch Pothinus. [198][199] Cleopatra received messages from both Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, and Publius Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Syria and Caesarian loyalist, requesting military aid. [42] The high degree of inbreeding among the Ptolemies is also illustrated by Cleopatra's immediate ancestry, of which a reconstruction is shown below. [379] Despite not being a biography of Cleopatra, the Life of Antonius written by Plutarch in the 1st century AD provides the most thorough surviving account of Cleopatra's life. For instance, The observation that the left cheek of the, For further information about the painting in the House of Giuseppe II (Joseph II) at Pompeii and the possible identification of Cleopatra as one of the figures, see, For further information on Cleopatra's Macedonian Greek lineage, see, For further information and validation of the foundation of Hellenistic Egypt by Alexander the Great and Cleopatra's ancestry stretching back to Ptolemy I Soter, see, For the Sogdian ancestry of Apama, wife of Seleucus I Nicator, see, For further information on the identity of Cleopatra's mother, see, The family tree and short discussions of the individuals can be found in, Reign of Cleopatra Egypt under the monarchy of Cleopatra, Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners, Death of Cleopatra Depictions in art and literature, A life-sized Roman-style statue of Cleopatra, the white skin of her face and neck set against a stark black background, "Radio 4 Programmes A History of the World in 100 Objects, Empire Builders (300 BC 1 AD), Rosetta Stone", the other sculpted head from Cherchel featuring a veil, "It is possible that Mark Antony met the young Cleopatra when he served under the Roman general Gabinius in 55 BCE", "Cleopatra Couldn't Spell (And Neither Can We! [169][170][171], Caesarion, Cleopatra's alleged child with Caesar, was born 23 June 47 BC and was originally named "Pharaoh Caesar", as preserved on a stele at the Serapeum of Saqqara. Information and translations of Ptolemy in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. [330][331][note 4] It is said she was accompanied by her servants Eiras and Charmion, who also took their own lives. [206][205] Cleopatra sailed up the Kydnos River to Tarsos in Thalamegos, hosting Antony and his officers for two nights of lavish banquets on board the ship. Ptolemy [339][340][318] Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere 18 days until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, after returning to Alexandria under the false pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king. [307][308], Lucius Pinarius, Mark Antony's appointed governor of Cyrene, received word that Octavian had won the Battle of Actium before Antony's messengers could arrive at his court. For astronomy, he described his system in his books that make up theAlmagest (also known as Mathematical Syntaxis). [388], Cleopatra's gender has perhaps led to her depiction as a minor if not insignificant figure in ancient, medieval, and even modern historiography about ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman world. [329][332], Octavian was said to have been angered by this outcome but had Cleopatra buried in royal fashion next to Antony in her tomb. Octavian engaged in a war of propaganda, forced Antony's allies in the Roman Senate to flee Rome in 32 BC, and declared war on Cleopatra. Her ships were heavily damaged in a Mediterranean storm and she arrived too late to aid in the fighting. The Egyptian court immediately had Pompey's head delivered to the dictator. [145][146][147][note 37] Ganymedes then tricked Caesar into requesting the presence of the erstwhile captive Ptolemy XIII as a negotiator, only to have him join the army of Arsinoe IV. [273][272], In late 34 BC, Antony and Octavian engaged in a heated war of propaganda that would last for years. [2] Surviving works include statues, busts, reliefs, and minted coins,[2][378] as well as ancient carved cameos,[404] such as one depicting Cleopatra and Antony in Hellenistic style, now in the Altes Museum, Berlin. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Ptolemaic dynasty. https://www.worldhistory.org/Ptolemy_XIII_Theos_Philopator/. [8] Cleopatra was the name of Alexander the Great's sister, as well as Cleopatra Alcyone, wife of Meleager in Greek mythology. After their father died in 81 BC, Ptolemy XII's half-sister Berenice III took the throne. [158][159][160], Caesar's term as consul had expired at the end of 48 BC. He drowned, aged 15, while trying to escape the victorious Roman dictator. [243] Given her ancestral relations with the Seleucids, she was granted the region of Coele-Syria along the upper Orontes River. Upon landing in Egypt, Roman general and politician Pompey is murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt. [131][134][135] Plutarch provides an entirely different account that alleges she was bound inside a bed sack to be smuggled into the palace to meet Caesar. [28][29] Ptolemy XI had his wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC, and was lynched soon after in the resulting riot over the assassination. [246][232] To the west Cleopatra was handed Cyrene along the Libyan coast, as well as Itanos and Olous in Roman Crete.