cleopatra1

The Ptolemaic inheritance: 51 BC
The king of Egypt, Ptolemy XII, dies in 51 BC. He leaves the kingdom to his ten-year-old son, Ptolemy XIII. But he decrees that the boy shall rule jointly with his older sister, Cleopatra. He must also marry her, in the tradition of royal incest which has become a feature of the Ptolemaic dynasty.The seventeen-year-old Cleopatra soon proves herself one of the most ambitious and flamboyant figures in this period of Mediterranean history. But her close personal involvement in Roman politics will eventually lose Egypt its independence.
Caesar and Cleopatra: 48-44 BC
The arrival in Alexandria of Julius Caesar gives Cleopatra her first chance of a wider role in the world. She seizes it, becoming the mistress of the man who is now unmistakably - after his defeat of Ptolemy - the most powerful Roman. Caesar spends the winter of 48-7 BC in Egypt, helping the young queen suppress the forces of her even younger brother (who fails to survive these events).Soon after Caesar's departure from Alexandria, Cleopatra gives birth to a son (in the summer of 47), whom she claims - almost certainly correctly - to be Caesar's. In 46 Caesar invites Cleopatra to Rome with her son (subseqently known by the nickname Caesarion, 'little Caesar') and provides them with a villa. After Caesar's assassination, in 44, she returns to Egypt with the child.