The controversy about the Donations of Alexandria is that those lands were not theirs to donate. It was at this event that Cleopatra and Marc Antony “donated” lands to Caesarion and their three children. The Donations of Alexandria were a ceremonial event that took place in Ptolemaic Alexandria in 34 BC. Donations of Alexandria Map of the Donations of Alexandria (dark green shaded area shows Caesarion’s kingdom) via Wikimedia Commons But the Donations of Alexandria, although mostly meaningless pomp, cleared things up for a while. The combination of these new siblings and his father’s death made Caesarion’s destiny less clear. This bond was propitious for Cleopatra because Marc Antony was not only a statesman, but one of the three Triumvirs of the Roman Republic.Ĭleopatra and Marc Antony would go on to have three children together: Twins, Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy XVI Philadelphus. They met in Rome when she was young, and became romantically engaged after an infamous rendez-vous on a boat in Tarsus. But this time she tied herself to the loser of those conflicts rather than the victor.Ĭleopatra became acquainted with a new Roman statesman in 41 BC, a certain Marcus Antonius (Marc Antony). It was in the years after this that Cleopatra became embroiled in more Roman conflicts. Caesarion and Cleopatra after the assassination of Julius Caesar Statue of the falcon god Horus behind a smaller statue of Caesarion at the Temple of Edfu, Edfu, Upper Egypt Julius Caesar’s untimely death, however, spelled the beginning of the end for Cleopatra and Caesarion. Cleopatra had great hopes that Caesarion would become the ruler of the Roman Republic after his father. He lived at the court of Alexandria, except for two years that he and his mother spent as guests of Julius Caesar in Rome. And the relevance of Caesarion’s connection to a Roman statesman, and by extension Cleopatra’s, would fade.īut while his father lived, Caesarion was raised very much in the typical style of a Ptolemaic royal.
#Child of cleopatra and julius caesar series
After that a new series of Roman political battles would arise. So by tying herself so intimately to an important Roman statesman, she bought her kingdom that autonomy and prestige within the Roman power structure.īut this power structure would soon change in 44 BC, when Julius Caesar was assassinated. And that positive interactions with the Roman Republic would be necessary to remain autonomous. In this way, she acknowledged that the days of Greek hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean were over. It broke sharply with the traditional male names of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt in exchange for something profoundly Roman. Caesarion: What’s in a name? Statue of Julius Caesar, Bronze, Turin, ItalyĬaesarion was a very calculated name choice on the part of Cleopatra. The result was a child – one that Julius Caesar never directly acknowledged, but bore his name nonetheless. And on that tour, Julius Caesar supposedly fell for the charms of Cleopatra. This high profile duo is said to have taken a sightseeing tour of the Nile. And, unlike the other Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, which had each fallen to the Roman Republic one by one, it managed to remain this way for several more years thanks to Cleopatra’s political savvy.
At that time, Egypt was still a semi-autonomous state. In 47 BC, Cleopatra VII welcomed Julius Caesar to Alexandria.
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