CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.
PTOLEMY QUEENS (CONTINUED).
Cleopatra II appears with her husband Philometor, Ptolemy VII, in statutes excavated at Cyprus, which were set up “at a temple to the Paphian Aphrodite,” yet we know little of her. There is also an appeal spoken of by Josephus in which a certain Jew begs the king and queen’s permission to build a temple to the God of Israel and reports their majesties’ favorable reply, but the story is not altogether credited. We hear also of the king and queen receiving other petitions, usually a popular action. Polybius, whose testimony seems so generally full and reliable was in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy Philometer.
Of course there was a daughter of Philometor and Cleopatra II, also called Cleopatra, whom Philometor gave in marriage to an aspirant to the throne of Syria (though apparently not the rightful heir) called Alexander Bala, and accompanied the princess to Ptolemais in Palestine, where the ceremony took place, probably about 150 B. C. After this Ptolemy VII discovered a real or pretended conspiracy against his life, in which his new son-in-law was implicated. He then went over to the side of the other claimant to the Syrian throne, Demetrius Nicator, and regardless of the marriage contract previously concluded, transferred his daughter to him. She seems to have been still in the power of her father, rather than that of her husband, and neither she nor her mother appear to have had any voice in the matter. It is possible she may not have really lived with Bala at all.
Ptolemy Philometor himself was crowned king at Antioch, and it is on this account, probably, we have the Syrian coin with his head, but he evidently did not care to retain the position, for he finally persuaded the people to accept Demetrius in his stead.
Philometor, Ptolemy VII., died, as had few of his race, in, or rather as the result of, a battle, he was thrown from an elephant, or some say a horse, like Keraunos, and wounded by his enemies with fatal results following, first having learned of the death of Bala, with whom he had been fighting. In contrast with his brother Euergetes II. he is spoken well of by many writers, and his gentleness and humanity are dwelt upon, which recalls the familiar axiom that “all things go by comparison.” So some speak highly of and some judge him harshly. In youth he is said to have been handsome, with a countenance full of sweet expression. His death occurred 146 B. C.
There were now again rival claimants for the throne, Euergetes II, Physcon, the brother of the late king, with whom the kingdom had been divided, and Ptolemy Philometor’s son, Ptolemy Neos, Philopator II, Ptolemy VIII, whose cause his mother Cleopatra II. espoused. But Physcon proved to be the more powerful and either directly or indirectly murdered his young nephew, feeling that while the boy lived his own claim to the throne would not be secure. It is said the unfortunate heir had been recognized as the crown prince over the whole empire, not only at Cyprus, but at Philæ, for Professor Cayce found on the island of Huseh a granite slab, which had supported figures of the king and queen with this youth standing between them.
The list of queens, a puzzling one, as all must admit, is as follows: Ptolemy I, Sotor, married Eurydike, and Berenike I, Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, married Arsinoe I and Arsinoe II; Ptolemy III, Euergetes I, married Berenike II; Ptolemy IV, Philopator, married Arsinoe III; Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, married Cleopatra I; Ptolemy VI, Eupator, died in childhood. Ptolemy VII, Philometor, married Cleopatra II; Ptolemy VIII, Philopator II, Neos, was murdered in youth. Ptolemy IX, Euergetes II, Physcon, married Cleopatra I, widow of his brother, and Cleopatra III, his niece. Ptolemy X, Lathyrus, married Cleopatra IV, and subsequently Selene, his sisters. Ptolemy XI, Alexander, married Berenike III, whose parentage seems in doubt. Ptolemy XII, Alexander II, married this same Berenike, his stepmother. Ptolemy XIII, Auletes married Cleopatra V, surnamed Tryphæna. Ptolemy XIV and Ptolemy XV reigned in conjunction with their sister, Cleopatra VI, to whom they were successively married, and died young, as did Ptolemy XVI, her son Cæsarion, who died unmarried.
Within the year (and some say the murder of her son occurred during the nuptial ceremonial) Physcon married the widow of his brother, Cleopatra II. Evidently no love was lost between them; how could it be under the circumstances? If this marriage, perhaps, insisted on by the Alexandrian party of Cleopatra II, she having a claim to the crown, jointly with her brothers, there seems to have been one son, Memphites, who soon died, or was murdered, it is even reported, by his own unnatural father, who feared a rival.