Early life of Cleopatra
By adulthood she was well-versed in many languages, including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Median, Parthian, Latin, and her native Koine Greek.
After Ptolemy XII orchestrated the assassinations of Berenice IV's diplomats in Rome, seeking to gain Roman favor, he and Cleopatra left the city's hostile environment and settled at Ephesus in Anatolia.
One of his officers, Mark Antony, prevented Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion for their defiance, and rescued the body of Berenice's husband, Archelaos, after he was killed in battle.
Ptolemy XII died by 22 March 51 BC, the date of Cleopatra's first known act as queen: restoring the sacred Buchis bull in Hermonthis, Egypt.
[19] Roller assumes that Ptolemy XII's wife, whom he numbers as Cleopatra VI, was merely absent from the court for a decade after being expelled for an unknown reason, eventually ruling jointly with her daughter Berenice IV.
[14] Fletcher explains that the Alexandrians deposed Ptolemy XII Auletes and installed "his eldest daughter, Berenike IV, and as co-ruler recalled Cleopatra V Tryphaena from 10 years' exile from the court.
[26][27] During her youth Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum (including the Library of Alexandria), and possibly wrote Greek medical works which may have been inspired by the physicians at her father's royal court.
[30] Available to Cleopatra in historical records preserved by the 3rd-century BC Ptolemaic-era native Egyptian historian-priest Manetho were examples of strong, inspirational royal female predecessors (some of whom lived long before the Ptolemaic dynasty), such as Sobekneferu, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Twosret.
[31] Ptolemaic pharaohs were crowned by Egyptian priests of Ptah at Memphis but resided in the multicultural and largely-Greek city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great of Macedon in 331 BC.
[41] Although Egyptians were the dominant ethnic group in Cleopatra's kingdom, large minorities of Greeks, Jews, Celtic and Germanic peoples, Syrians, Nubians, and others inhabited Egypt during her reign and well before it.
[42][43] Greeks and Jews were primarily concentrated in the multicultural cities of Alexandria, the old colony of Naukratis, and Ptolemais Hermiou (near Thebes in Upper Egypt).
[66][67][20] Ptolemy XII remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which (along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans) damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies.
There he held an audience with his Roman host Cato the Younger, who while seated on a latrine and undergoing laxative treatment, castigated Ptolemy for losing his kingdom.
[66][70][71] Ptolemy XII then traveled to Athens, where he erected a monument in honor of his father and half-sister Berenice III, and finally to the triumvir Pompey's villa in the Alban Hills near Praeneste.
[74] Grant likewise argues in favor of this notion, stating that Ptolemy XII would have found it imprudent to leave all of his daughters in Egypt, given the political turmoil.
[80] The Roman Senate denied Ptolemy XII the offer of an armed escort and provisions for a return to Egypt, so he decided to leave Rome in late 57 BC for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
[84] Pompey persuaded Aulus Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy XII, offering him 10,000 talents for the mission.
[84][72][85] Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea; Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean, the father of Herod the Great, furnish the Roman-led army with supplies.
[84][68] Under Gabinius' command was the young cavalry officer Mark Antony, who distinguished himself by preventing Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion and rescuing the body of Archelaos after the latter was killed in another battle, ensuring him a royal burial.
[105][106][107] Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, the date of Cleopatra's first known act as queen: her voyage to Hermonthis, near Thebes, to install a new sacred Buchis bull, worshiped as an intermediary for the god Montu in ancient Egyptian religion.
