The history of caesar and cleopatra

For his part, Caesar needed to fund his own return to power in Rome, and needed Egypt to repay the debts incurred by Auletes. The new calendar had 365 days and a leap year and is the basis of the calendar we use today (with minor alterations added by Pope Gregory in 1585 BC).

Cleopatra clearly had a profound effect on Roman art and culture.

Cleopatra and Caesar’s relationship was extremely unpopular with the Roman senate. The blaze spread to some of the warehouses on the shore and in the ensuing chaos Cleopatra’s younger sister Arsinoe fled with her tutor Ganymedes. While at this banquet, a servant of Caesar discovered that Achillas and Pothinus were plotting against him.

This is the Egypt that Cleopatra would inherit when her father died in 51 B.C.E.

Ptolemy XII’s will stated that Cleopatra and her 11-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII, would marry and reign as co-rulers (sibling marriage was a longstanding tradition of Egyptian rulers which the Ptolemies continued). – according to legend, either by allowing a cobra to bite her or otherwise poisoning herself with its venom.

READ MORE: How Did Cleopatra Die?

Bitten by an Egyptian Cobra

Caesarion, aka Ptolemy XIV, became the sole pharaoh of Egypt upon his mother’s death, but his reign lasted only 18 days. clearly had the upper hand, and Cleopatra and her supporters were forced to flee Alexandria for Thebes around the same time Julius Caesar was crossing the Rubicon.

She raised an army with help from Roman Syria but was unable to advance all the way to Alexandria.

While it was common for Ptolemaic pharaohs to place statues of themselves alongside the gods, this was not at all in line with Roman practice, as it appeared to give her divine authority. Fortunately, his own family had many strong Sulla supporters, who intervened on his behalf and earned Julius Caesar a pardon and exile, which the young Roman spent in Asia Minor in the Roman Army.

He would return to Rome in 79 B.C.E.

Caesar remained in Egypt with Cleopatra for a time, and around 47 B.C. she gave birth to a son, Ptolemy Caesar. when Sulla died and began his political career by establishing himself as a prosecuting advocate. As before, the Alexandrian forces were routed.

Many of the broken army attempted to flee in boats, including Ptolemy himself. Desperate, Pompey fled to what he believed was his only remaining ally – Ptolemy XIII, who for the moment had wrested the throne from his sister.

Pompey had been close with Ptolemy’s father, and the elder Ptolemy had fought beside Pompey in the past.

He also gave Cyprus back to Cleopatra and this increase in her revenues allowed her to reduce taxation while continuing to improve the Egyptian economy.

Cleopatra gave birth to Ptolemy XV Caesarion on 23 June 47 BC. A decree in demotic (a shorthand version of hieroglyphs) was set up in the Serapeum at Saqqara and his lineage proclaimed on monuments across Egypt (including a famous scene in the Temple of Dendera).

He had expected to regroup and continue his war against Julius Caesar from the shelter of Ptolemy XIII’s Egypt.

But his assumed ally had other ideas. But no sooner had the Roman leader arrived in Alexandria than he was fallen upon by assassins acting on Ptolemy’s orders.

Just three days later, Julius Caesar arrived in pursuit. Across the river, they faced a slightly larger force of Greek-equipped Egyptians.

Ptolemy set a detachment to prevent the Romans from fording the river, though he dispatched them too late.