Cesarion. The last Ptolemy

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In this pharaoh united two glorious families: the royal - the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Roman patrician - Julius.

Among the people who accompanied him on a voyage along the Nile was the defeated Egyptian queen Cleopatra, who on January 13, 47 BC, he elevated to the Egyptian throne. Historian Ammian noted that, having conquered the state of the Ptolemies (the royal dynasty that ruled Egypt in the IV-I centuries BC, founded by Ptolemy I, the commander of Alexander the Great), Caesar sailed the Nile on four hundred ships "giving himself to other pleasures." What Caesar did on the ship, we can only guess.

It is known, however, that when he finally arrived in Rome (and that was about 47 BC), leaving in Egypt three legions under the command of the commander Rufina, then two months later, on June 23 of the same year, Cleopatra gave birth son, who was called Caesar, in honor of the commander, who recognized him as his son.

Caesar's admirer Gaus Oppi even wrote a pamphlet in which he tried to prove that Caesar could not be the boy's father, but to no avail. But the Egyptian priests announced that he was the son of the god Ra, who came to Cleopatra in the image of Julius Caesar. In the people the boy received the nickname Caesarion (little Caesar).

So the boy united two glorious families: the royal - the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Roman patrician genus Julius. In history, the son of Cleopatra entered as Ptolemy XV Caesar Philopator Philometor, the last pharaoh of Egypt.

But at first he was just a child who was officially considered the son of a ruler of Rome, and some eyewitnesses even found common features of a large and small Caesars.

When in 46 BC. e. Guy Julius Caesar returned triumphantly to Rome from a distant defeated Egypt, among the honored guests of the triumphant were Cleopatra and his son Caesarion and brother-co-ruler Ptolemy XIV. Together they settled in the domain of Caesar, who even dedicated a gold statue to Cleopatra in his new temple of Venus the Progenitress - from her, after retelling, the genus Julius went.

It was at that time that Caesar recognized Cleopatra's son as his heir, although he was married to the Roman Calpurnie, and had no children with her. At the same time, the dictator did not give his son the right to be legitimate. But historians do not exclude that, while staying in Rome, Cleopatra had a goal: to marry her lover Caesar. So it or not, but her plans were not meant to come true. On May 15, 44 BC, a group of conspirators killed Guy Julius Caesar. And where, two weeks after the tragedy, Cleopatra with his son and brother fled from Rome to their homeland.

In the same year, Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy XIV died under unknown circumstances, and the little Cesarion, under the name of King Ptolemy XV, formally began to rule with Egypt with his mother. The boy became the last king of the ruling Ptolemaic dynasty.

Moreover, little Ptolemy XV actually had no power. Cleopatra herself compared her relationship with her son to the relationship of the Egyptian goddess Isis and her divine son Horus.

In general, Cleopatra did everything to hold power in her hands. And for this she applied the very methods that she seduced Caesar. This time, the commander Marc Antony, who along with other associates of the deceased Caesar, Octavian Augustus and Marcus Emilie Lepidus, created the so-called triumvirate, which ruled the Roman state, before its feminine charm. With Antony, Cleopatra had three children: the twins of Alexander Helios the Sun and Cleopatra Selena the Month and the son of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

As the chroniclers note, during one of the ceremonies, Anthony and Cleopatra were sitting on thrones made of gold, and next to them sat a young pharaoh Ptolemy XV and the children of Antony and Cleopatra: Alexander Helios the Sun in the clothes of the Median king, Ptolemy Philadelph in dress Macedonian king and daughter Cleopatra Selena-Month. Subjects were announced that from now on Cleopatra will have the title of Queen of Kings, Caesarion will be the king of kings, Alexander Helios received the title of the great king of Armenia and all the eastern provinces, Ptolemy Philadelph of Syria and Asia Minor, and little Cleopatra Selene became Queen of Cyrenaica.

But this time the tsarina's happiness was not long. Co-ordinator Anthony Octavian declared war on him and eventually won. August 1, 30 BCE Octavian captured Alexandria, and Cleopatra, fearing for the fate of her eldest son, sent the 17-year-old Caesarion to the south of Egypt.

But the guy was not saved. The teacher of Ptolemy, named Rodon, persuaded him to return to Alexandria. Here he was seized and executed by order of Octavian. As they say, the explanation of the reason for this decision was the words that Octavian seemed to have said about Ptolemy XV: "There are a lot of Caesars."

So the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian executed the son of his father named.