In the wake of Caesar’s assassination, Antony became one of the three dictatorial rulers of Rome’s Second Triumvirate government.

Mark Antony was an ally and distant relative of Caesar. “She ruled with him during the last year of his life,” says Jones, “and the way she interacts with the Romans reflects lessons she would have learned by observing the way her father leveraged Roman power to regain his throne when he was deposed.”Ĭleopatra’s Love Affair and Children With Mark Antony After Ptolemy XIII forced her out of Egypt, she decided she needed Roman support to reclaim her throne-something she had observed her father gather during his own exile. Historians don’t know much about the political advisors Cleopatra may have had, but it does seem that her late father served as an important political role model. Both Ptolemy XIII and Arsinoe IV “likely had tutors who were ambitious” about their own positions, and this influenced the decisions they made. Young Ptolemy XIII’s ouster of Cleopatra from Egypt was likely carried out “with the influence and assistance of his advisers,” Prudence Jones, a classics professor at Montclair State University, tells HISTORY. It can be difficult to tell exactly who was making the decisions in cases where ruling kings and queens were children. With Cleopatra in exile, her other sister Arsinoe IV attempted to claim the throne as co-ruler. Soon, however, her young co-ruler drove her out of Egypt.

This reflected their father’s wishes and, as was the political custom at the time, the siblings likely married each other. With her father’s death in 51 BCE, Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII, who was around 10 years old, became co-rulers of Egypt. In 52 BCE, he made Cleopatra his co-regent, and they ruled together until his death a year later. Using this support, he overthrew and killed his daughter Berenice. Young Cleopatra traveled with her father to Rome, where he gained support to retake the throne. (Her mother’s identity is uncertain.) During Cleopatra’s childhood, rivals ousted her father from Egypt, replacing him with her older sister, Berenice IV. Cleopatra was born around 70 or 69 BCE in Alexandria, Egypt to King Ptolemy XII.

Julius caesar and cleopatra death