Realising that their lives were in danger, Cleopatra decided to return to Egypt immediately.įor the sake of her kingdom and of her son, Caesarion, she took Antony on a sumptuous cruise and a love affair ensued. Cleopatra and Caesarion were in Rome when Caesar was killed. He never acknowledged Caesarion as his heir and instead had written in his will that his great-nephew, Gaius Octavius (Octavian), was his heir. His plans would not be realised, for Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 B.C. ( For most Romans, becoming a citizen was the path to power.) Rumours spread that he was even mulling a transfer of the imperial capital to Alexandria. This era marked what Caesar saw as the beginning of an ambitious imperial project. He erected a statue of Cleopatra in the Temple of Venus Genetrix. His daughter, Julia, who had been married to Pompey, died in childbirth in 54 B.C.ĭespite the cool reception from the Roman people, Julius Caesar was optimistic about the relationship between Rome and Egypt. If Cleopatra’s claims were believed, Caesarion was Caesar’s only surviving child. Mark Antony, Caesar’s lieutenant, told the Senate that Caesar had acknowledged to his closest friends that Caesarion was indeed his son. Many Romans remarked that the child looked markedly like Julius Caesar. He even allowed her to call the son whom she had borne him by his own name.” Caesar welcomed Cleopatra and her family in one of his suburban villas, the Horti Caesaris, showering her with official honours. Plutarch wrote that Caesar “would not let her return to Alexandria without high titles and rich presents. ( Meet history's top ten, red-hot power couples.)Īt the end of 46 B.C., Cleopatra visited Rome at Caesar’s invitation, bringing Caesarion and all the royal pageantry of her court.
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Egyptian priests began to teach that the god Amun had incarnated himself in the person of Caesar, the most powerful man in the world at the time, to father the baby prince. and openly proclaimed Julius Caesar the father. to Ethiopia.” By the time Caesar left Egypt, Cleopatra was pregnant. Plutarch wrote: “ often feasted with her until dawn and they would have sailed together. Son of Rome and Egyptįor two months Cleopatra entertained Caesar, revealing to him the charms that both the Nile Valley and she herself had to offer. To consolidate the alliance, Cleopatra invited Caesar, 30 years her senior, to stay in Egypt with her. She would co-rule, in name, with a younger brother, Ptolemy XIV. The young king was killed, and Caesar placed the 21-year-old Cleopatra VII on the throne. He supported her claim to the throne, sparking an uprising of Ptolemy’s supporters who were defeated.
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She smuggled herself into Alexandria for a meeting with Caesar and won him to her cause. This gross miscalculation on the young pharaoh’s part was a prime opportunity for Cleopatra and her forces. how Caesar had “turned away in horror presented the head of Pompey, but he accepted Pompey’s seal-ring, and shed tears over it.”
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Caesar was saddened and disgusted: Ancient historian Plutarch wrote in the first century A.D. In a reversal, the young Ptolemy had Pompey executed and presented his head to Julius Caesar when he swept into Egypt later that year. In the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 B.C., Caesar defeated Pompey, who fled to Alexandria. Far from the capital, Cleopatra established her own base of operations where she raised an army and bided her time. Pompey needed Egypt and decided to back Ptolemy XIII over his sister, who went into exile. Two of its great military heroes, Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, were engaged in a civil war and were looking for alliances.
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Two years later, Ptolemy’s advisers tried to move against Cleopatra to make the young boy the sole ruler.Īs the two Egyptian siblings were squabbling over their throne, Rome was in the middle of its own power struggle. The Ptolemaic kings and queens had a long family tradition of competing for the throne: sibling against sibling or parent against child. ( Watch how Cleopatra achieved immortality through her personal story of love and tragedy.)Īfter their father’s death in 51 B.C., Ptolemy and his sister were symbolically wed, but there was no love between them, familial or otherwise. Because Egypt had become a Roman protectorate during the elder Ptolemy’s rule, Romans had a say in who would be ruling Egypt. They would serve together under the guardianship of Rome. Caesarion’s story began when his grandfather, Ptolemy XII, named his two oldest children, 18-year-old Cleopatra and 10-year-old Ptolemy XIII, as co-heirs.