Cleopatra Selene I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III of Egypt. For the daughter of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony see Cleopatra Selene II.

Cleopatra Selene I (Greek:η Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη) was the daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III of Egypt. She was queen consort to Ptolemy IX Lathyros of Egypt, and later queen of Syria, wife of three different kings.

In Egypt, she was married to Lathyros after her sister Cleopatra IV was pushed out by her mother. She was not made co-ruler, unlike the many sister-wives of Ptolemaic kings. She bore Lathyros Berenice III, Ptolemy XII, and another son, named also Ptolemy. (All the male kings and princes in Ptolemaic dynasty were named Ptolemy, as the founder of the dynasty, Ptolemy I (greek : Πτολεμαίος, which meant "warrior"), who was one the generals of Alexander the Great).

In 107 b.C., as relations between Lathyros and his mother and co-ruler, Cleopatra III, were getting worse, Cleopatra's III indrigues forced Lathyros to leave Egypt and his wife. He went to Cyprus to raise an army, and then to south Syria. From there, he tried, in 103 b.C., to invade Egypt. Cleopatra III set an alliance with the king of Syria, Antiochus VIII Grypus, and gave him Cleopatra Selene as his wife. Grypus' previous wife, Cleopatra Tryphaena, who was Cleopatra's Selene older sister, had been killed in 111 b.C. by Antiochus IX Cyzicenus.

In Syria, the civil war between Grypus and Cyzicenus over the throne in Antioch lasted until 96 b.C., and exhausted financially the country. In 96 b.C. Grypus was assassinated in Antioch, and, so, Cyzicenus captured the capital and married Cleopatra Selene. (Cyzicenus had been married with Cleopatra's Selene older sister, Cleopatra IV, but she was killed by Grypus in 112 b.C.)

However, Cyzicenus was not to live for a long time. Grypus had five sons with Cleopatra Tryphaena and all of them wanted the throne of Antioch. In 95 b.C., Cyzicenus was killed during a battle with Seleukus VI, the older son of Grypus.

After Cyzicenus death, his son with Cleopatra IV, Antiochus X, married his stepmother, Cleopatra Selene, and regained Antioch again, while Seleukus VI was killed. Against what was expected, the marriage was "real" and Cleopatra Selene bore a son, Antiochus, later named the XIII.

Antiochus X was killed in 92 b.C. in a battle with the Parthians. For the next ten years the three sons of Grypus were fighting each other over the throne, and Cleopatra Selene stayed away from the power, probably for one good reason : to keep her baby son alive.

By 83 b.C. all the sons of Grypus were dead, and it was when Cleopatra Selene appeared again, claiming her son's rights to the throne. But it was too late for the Seleukid dynasty. The people of Antioch were already too tired with the unstable situation and with the royal indrigues, and so, they chose to surrender to the king of Armenia.

Cleopatra Selene did not give up. She fled to coastal cities of Syria. Her movement left the state divided and many cities became independent. Finally, in 69 b.C. the Armenians capture the city of Ptolemais and they seized and killed the old Queen.

One year later, the Romans disrupted the Armenian state, and Cleopatra's Selene son, Antiochus XIII, the last king of the Seleukid dynasty, tried unsuccessfully to unify the state. Finally, in 63 b.C., the Romans captured Syria and the Hellenistic state that Seleukus I Nikator (greek :Σέλευκος Νικάτωρ) created 240 years ago, became part of Rome.