The famous Cleopatra, that great queen who was actually a Greek woman of Macedonian descent and the seventh Cleopatra to rule Egypt, is oftentimes cited as the last of her line. It is true that after her demise Egypt fell to Rome and had no more kings or queens, but Cleopatra was not the last of her line. She was survived by her four children.

Approximately nine months after Cleopatra was smuggled into Julius Caesar’s chambers, and presented to him rolled out of a Persian carpet, she gave birth to a son. She named him Ptolemy Caesar, though he was best known to the world by his nickname: Caesarion, “little Caesar”.

Like any mother, Cleopatra had great hopes for her little Caesar. She wished that Julius Caesar, although already married to someone else, would recognise Caesarion as his son and heir. It was not a particularly selfless wish. Such acknowledgement would expand the influence of Cleopatra and her descendents all the way to Rome.

While Caesarion was still an infant, Cleopatra took him to Italy. For two years they stayed at one of Caesar’s country villas and Caesar even erected a statue of Cleopatra in his family temple.  Even so, when Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, he had still named Caesarion neither son nor heir.

After Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra and young Caesarion returned to Egypt where Cleopatra’s brother, co-regent, and husband, Ptolemy IV, suddenly died from ingesting poison.  Caesarion, still only a toddler, was thus allowed to fill the position as co-regent of Egypt with his mother.

Meanwhile, struggles broke out in Rome over who was the true heir to Caesar’s legacy. In his will, Caesar adopted his great-nephew Octavian as son and heir, but many of Caesar’s men were loyal to his former second in command, Mark Antony. As for Caesarion, perhaps a true son of Caesar, his position as a threat to Octavian became only greater when Cleopatra took Mark Antony as a lover.

In 40 BCE, four years after Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra gave birth to twins by Antony: a son and a daughter, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. The names Helios, “sun”, and Selene, “moon”, were bestowed upon them to give them divine rights, but unlike other Greco-Egyptian royals they received no lasting cult. The twins were born and educated at Alexandria, while their father was away in Rome. Soon before their fourth birthday, Mark Antony returned to Cleopatra for good. His and Cleopatra’s third child together was born in the following year: a son by the name Ptolemy Philadelphus.

In 34 BC, an event now known as the Donations of Alexandria, Cleopatra and Mark Antony officially declared Caesarion the true heir of Julius Caesar. It was a clear political attack against Octavian. At that same time, Alexander Helios was given kingship of Armenia, which Antony had just invaded, and the kingdoms of Media and Parthia, although neither Rome nor Egypt held those lands. Cleopatra Selene was made queen of Libya. Their youngest brother, Ptolemy Philadelphus, was proclaimed king of Syria and Anatolia. That these territories could not simply be claimed and granted did not bother many, but it was seen as one of the many eastern extravagances of Antony and Cleopatra and as such it worsened Mark Antony’s reputation in Rome.

In the following year, the seven year-old Alexander Helios was betrothed to the Median princess Iotapa. The children were set for greatness. Caesarion would rule Egypt, Alexander Helios the east, Cleopatra Selene the west, and Ptolemy Philaldelphus the north.

As the propaganda war between Mark Antony and Octavian escalated, Caesarion came of age and entered the military service. He was set for kingship. But once war broke out between Egypt and Rome in 31 BC, the lives of Cleopatra and her children fell quickly apart. Antony and Cleopatra both committed suicide in the summer of 30 BC.

Caesarion fled eastwards, but he was brought back to Alexandria by his tutors and executed by Octavian to ensure that he would never rise against him as Caesar’s heir.  He was 17 years old.

Cleopatra’s children by Mark Antony were spared. Octavian brought them to Rome so that he could parade them in golden chains throughout the streets behind an image of their mother. Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene were ten years old; Ptolemy Philadelphus was six. They were then taken in and raised by Octavian’s sister, their father’s Roman wife, together with their half-sisters.

That is the last history reveals with any certainty about Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus. When she reached marriageable age, their sister, Cleopatra Selene, was wed to King Juba II of Numidia. The couple were given the territory of Mauretania, on the northern coast of modern Algeria and Morocco.  Under their influence that kingdom flourished and Cleopatra Selene seems to have lived her life out, finally, in relative peace and prosperity.

But the line of Cleopatra did not truly end with Selene, for she had two children of her own: Ptolemy and Drusilla.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cassius Dio, Roman history.
Plutarch, The Life of Caesar.
Plutarch, The Life of Antony.
Suetonius, Julius Caesar.
Braund, D., “Anth. Pal. 9. 235: Juba II, Cleopatra Selene and the Course of the Nile” in The Classical Quarterly, 34:1 (1984), 175-178.
Meiklejohn, K.W., “Alexander Helios and Caesarion”  in The Journal of Roman Studies, 24 (1934), 191-195.
Reinhold, M., “The Declaration of War against Cleopatra” in The Classical Journal, 77:2 (1981), 97-103.

About the Author

Emma Oxenby Wohlfahrt's passion began at the age of twelve, being involved in a production at the local museum for the visitors of the touring Pompeii exhibition. Since then she has studied Celtic Civilisation and Classical Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen and Lund University respectively as well as having participated in archaeological excavations in the Caucasus and in the Middle East.

Read more about Emma »

Related Articles...

• Tony Holmes
• Speak My Name And I Will Live
• Women in Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian Art – Part 1
• Egyptian Art – Part 2