Cleopatra VII: Queen Of Egypt

I, Cleopatra VII, am writing this in the midst of my rule as queen of Egypt. Currently I control virtually the entire Eastern Mediterranean coast. My journey to become the sole ruler of Egypt was a difficult one. It all begins with my family. I was born in the beginning of the year 69 BC to my father Ptolemy XII. My father had been on the thrown for ten years before my birth. I was the second of his five children. I am three-quarters Macedonian and one-quarter Egyptian. My half-Egyptian mother was the one who gifted me with knowledge and respect for the Egyptian culture and civilization. Because of her I fell in love with the culture and thus eventually became queen of this beloved region.

My father had fled to Rome in 58 BC to escape

I was to become queen and rule together with the new king who was my younger brother Ptolemy XIII. I should have been the one chosen to rule alone however there was great opposition towards women ruling alone. I was 18 at the time while my brother was only 11. He was not fit to be a ruler of an entire kingdom at such a young age. Therefore I took it upon myself to become sole ruler of the Kingdom of Egypt. One of my first acts as queen was my journey to Hermonthis, just south of Thebes. I travelled there to install a new Buchis bull which was a mediator between the people and the god Montu. I was the first Ptolemy to attend this special ceremony in person which benefitted me in many ways. For example, the four hundred mile journey up the Nile River allowed many of my subjects to see who their new queen

My father was in great debt to many Romans which he had not completely paid before he died. So I consulted with my brother and we decided that the first thing we should do in our joint-rule is pay off the debts that my father owed. The first receiver of this action was the elder Pompeius. Ptolemy XIII and I sent him sixty ships and five hundred troops which covered the amount that my father had owed him.

Soon into our rule a civil war broke out between my brother and I. That is when Julius Caesar arrived. Caesar settled the war, with my brother as a casualty, and decided to enforce Roman involvement in Egyptian politics. Caesar left the spring after he created diminished the civil war and I was left with the throne of Egypt. A few months later I gave birth to my son Caesarion who was also the son of Caesar.

Now that my sole rule was secure with my brother annihilated, I could focus on making the kingdom more stable. I wanted to make myself known in the Roman political scene since I was now associated with Caesar. I made a trip to Rome and there I was given recognition as an allied monarch of Rome. After this I made frequent trips back to Rome to ensure my political status there and also to visit Caesar. Unfortunately I learned on one of my trips in 44 BC that my beloved Caesar had been killed. I attempted to make my son Caesarion heir to his father’s throne