Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

The Ptolemy queens were women, as a rule, presumably handsome, certainly able and sagacious, ambitious and brave, daring and cruel. To differentiate them accurately, particularly the latter members of the family, who were on the throne briefly, and in quick succession, requires a more extended knowledge of the subject than has yet been secured, either by the researches of students or the “finds” of archaeologists.

The deaths last mentioned extinguished, it is said, the claim of legitimate Ptolemy heirs to the Egyptian throne, but other writers assert that this is probably a Roman invention to justify their ultimate seizure of the country and that princes were living who would be recognized elsewhere as legal successors. Be this as it may, Ptolemy, familiarly known as Auletes (the flute player), son of Lathyrus, with the bar sinister, now came from Syria and assumed the crown, under the title of Ptolemy XIII. (Neos Dionysus, Philopater III, Philadelphus II), in 81 B. C. This was evidently with the consent of the Egyptians themselves and the tacit permission of Rome, to whom some even claim that Alexander had willed his kingdom. The Senate, however, did not give him official recognition, though he made great efforts and offered many bribes to secure it. A stele speaks of a high priest “who placed the uræus crown on the head of the new king of Egypt, on the day that he took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt. He landed at Memphis, he came into the temple of Qe, with his nobles, his wives and his children.”

The sons of the Egyptian princess Silene also came from Syria to Rome to assert a better right to the Egyptian succession, but were unsuccessful. The Romans engaged in other wars and interests, for the time being, concerned themselves little with the Egyptian question.

Tryphæna, Cleopatra V, possibly a sister of the king, was his legal consort and his eldest daughter, Berenike IV, was probably born 77 B. C. The last Cleopatra about 68 B. C., and later another daughter, Arsinoe, and two sons. Berenike was so much older than the other children that some suppose a second marriage, of which, however, no official record has been found. The imputation of illegitimacy has been thrown both on the king and his celebrated daughter, but the Romans, as previously stated, may, for their own purposes, have accepted or disseminated the idea. The first Ptolemy had in a sense wrested the country from its native rulers, and his successors were only receiving in their turn what they had meted out.

Like his predecessors, Ptolemy XIII built on the temples, and there are pictures of him between two goddesses in the favorite mode and in other situations. In spite of this he is spoken of as the “most idle and worthless of the Ptolemies.” His life “idle, worthless, devoted to the orgies of Dionysus (whence his title), and disgracing himself by public competitions on the flute (whence his nick-name), he has not a good word recorded of him.” And Cicero says he was plaintive and persuasive when in need, but worthless and tyrannous when in power. The direct testimony of Cicero and Diodorus Siculus (which we possess) in regard to this period is of great value.

It was the debasing of the coinage that especially caused the revolt that obliged Auletes to flee the country, in addition to the fact that he lent no help to his brother at Cyprus, overpowered by the Romans. Auletes had assumed the crown in 81 B. C., and kept possession for a number of years, but a revolt of the Alexandrians, for the reasons given above, forced him to fly in 58 B. C.

When he was thus driven from the country Cleopatra V, Tryphæna (whom some call his wife and some his eldest daughter), with the spirit of that dominant race of women, at once assumed the crown, of which, however, death deprived her within the year. She was followed by Berenike IV, possibly her daughter, certainly that of Auletes, who ruled for two years, marrying first Seleukos of the royal house of Syria (whom she put away, finding him weak and unsatisfactory), and substituted Archelaos, the high priest of Komana. Seleukos is supposed to have been the person who stole the golden coffin of Alexander the Great and replaced it by a glass one.

From subsequent events it is quite evident that Berenike IV possessed the usual characteristics of the Ptolemy women, both in capacity and ambition, having no intention of handing back the authority she had assumed to its previous possessor, her father though he might be.

But Auletes, either by persuasion or bribery, secured the powerful aid of the Romans, whom Egypt was no longer strong enough to resist. The Roman general Gabinius invaded Egypt and conquering in the battle put the husband of Berenike IV to death, restored Auletes and left him to mete out further retribution as he would.

No pleadings for mercy, no claims of relationship ever stayed the bloody hand of a Ptolemy from executing his will, and, doubtless regarding her as a traitor, Auletes put his daughter to death, of which details are not given. There then remained two daughters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe, and two sons merely called Ptolemy. Restored in 55 B. C. Ptolemy XIII only lived till 51 B. C. and died, bequeathing his kingdom jointly to his eldest daughter and son and disregarding the fact that he had virtually mortgaged it to the Romans he adjured them to carry out his intentions, calling all the gods to witness. A double copy of his will was made, the one being sent to Rome, the other kept in Alexandria.