Cleopatra And Brother →
But Caesar was a general, and Ptolemy XIII was a boy playing king.
Cleopatra VII (the one we know) was no exception. When her father, Ptolemy XII, died in 51 BCE, he left a shocking legal bomb in his will: Cleopatra, age 18, would rule jointly with her younger brother, .
Ptolemy XIII was not happy. The teenage king stormed out of the palace, threw off his diadem, and rallied the Egyptian mob against the Roman intruders. For nearly six months, Alexandria became a war zone. Caesar’s small force was besieged in the royal quarter, and at one point, he had to swim for his life.
When Caesar arrived in Alexandria chasing his rival Pompey, Ptolemy XIII made a gruesome gesture of loyalty: he had Pompey murdered and presented Caesar with the severed head. It backfired horribly. Caesar was disgusted. cleopatra and brother
In a final, desperate naval battle on the Nile in 47 BCE, Ptolemy XIII’s forces were crushed. He tried to flee across the river. His overloaded boat capsized.
She didn’t. While Ptolemy XIII partied in Alexandria with the head of his other sister’s severed children (long story), Cleopatra gathered an army in the desert. But she knew she couldn’t win in a straight fight. She needed an outside hammer.
She loved her children. She loved power. But as for her brothers? They were simply obstacles. But Caesar was a general, and Ptolemy XIII
Cleopatra, ever the strategist, saw her opening. The famous “carpet scene” (she had herself rolled in a rug and delivered to Caesar’s chambers) worked. She charmed Rome’s most powerful general, and Caesar agreed to enforce their father’s original will: Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII must rule .
She married her other younger brother.
And in Ptolemaic Egypt, obstacles were removed. Share this post with a friend who thinks “sibling rivalry” is just about fighting over the TV remote. Ptolemy XIII was not happy
They kicked Cleopatra out of the palace. Exiled. Demoted.
And he was only ten years old. Let’s rewind. The Ptolemy dynasty—Cleopatra’s family—was Greek, not Egyptian. For nearly 300 years, they ruled Egypt with a single, horrifying tradition: keep the bloodline pure by marrying siblings, and keep the power by killing anyone who gets in your way.
