How Did Julius Caesar Meet Cleopatra?

Cleopatra was now, at age 14, put as joint regent and deputy of her father, although her power was likely to have been severely limited. Ptolemy XII died in March 51 BC, thus by his will making the 18-year-old Cleopatra and her brother, the 10-year-old Ptolemy XIII joint monarchs. The first three years of their reign were difficult, due to economic difficulties, famine, deficient floods of the Nile, and political conflicts.

Although Cleopatra was married to her young brother, she quickly made it clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him. In August 51 BC, relations between Cleopatra and Ptolemy completely broke down. Cleopatra dropped Ptolemy's name from official documents and her face appeared alone on coins, which went against Ptolemaic tradition of female rulers being subordinate to male co-rulers.

In 50 BC Cleopatra came into a serious conflict with the Gabiniani, powerful Roman troops of Aulus Gabinius who had left them in Egypt to protect Ptolemy XII after his restoration to the throne in 55 BC. The Gabiniani killed the sons of the Roman governor of Syria, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, when they came to ask for the assistance of the Gabiniani for their father against the Parthians. Cleopatra handed the murderers over in chains to Bibulus, whereupon the Gabiniani turned into bitter enemies of the queen.

14 This conflict was one of the main causes of Cleopatra's fall from power shortly afterward. The sole reign of Cleopatra was finally ended by a cabal of courtiers, led by the eunuch Pothinus, in connection with a half-Greek general, Achillas, and Theodotus of Chios. Circa 48 BC, Cleopatra's younger brother Ptolemy XIII became sole ruler.

She tried to raise a rebellion around Pelusium, but she was soon forced to flee with her only remaining sister, Arsinoë. While Cleopatra was in exile, Pompey became embroiled in the Roman civil war. After his defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus, in the autumn of 48 BC, Pompey fled from the forces of Caesar to Alexandria, seeking sanctuary.

Ptolemy, only thirteen years old at that time, had set up a throne for himself on the harbour, from where he watched as on September 28, 48 BC, Pompey was murdered by one of his former officers, now in Ptolemaic service. He was beheaded in front of his wife and children, who were on the ship from which he had just disembarked. Ptolemy is thought to have ordered the death to ingratiate himself with Caesar, thus becoming an ally of Rome, to which Egypt was in debt at the time, though this act proved a miscalculation on Ptolemy's part.

When Caesar arrived in Egypt two days later, Ptolemy presented him with Pompey's severed head; Caesar was enraged. Although he was Caesar's political enemy, Pompey was a Roman consul and the widower of Caesar's only legitimate daughter, Julia (who died in childbirth with Pompey's son). Caesar seized the Egyptian capital and imposed himself as arbiter between the rival claims of Ptolemy and Cleopatra.

Eager to take advantage of Julius Caesar's anger toward Ptolemy, Cleopatra had herself smuggled secretly into the palace to meet with Caesar. Plutarch in his "Life of Julius Caesar"17 gives a vivid description of how she entered past Ptolemy’s guards rolled up in a carpet that Apollodorus the Sicilian was carrying. At this point, Caesar abandoned his plans to annex Egypt, instead backing Cleopatra's claim to the throne.

After Mithridates raised the siege of Alexandria, Caesar defeated Ptolemy's army at the Battle of the Nile; Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile1920 and Caesar restored Cleopatra to her throne, with another younger brother Ptolemy XIV as her new co-ruler. 212223 When Caesar left Egypt he stationed there a Roman occupying army of three legions under the command of Rufio. Although Cleopatra was 21 years old when they met and Caesar was 52, they became lovers during Caesar’s stay in Egypt between 48 BC and 47 BC.

Cleopatra claimed Caesar was the father of her son and wished him to name the boy his heir, but Caesar refused, choosing his grandnephew Octavian instead. During this relationship, it was also rumored that Cleopatra introduced Caesar to her astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, who first proposed the idea of leap days and leap years. Cleopatra, Ptolemy XIV and Caesarion visited Rome in the summer of 46 BC.

The Egyptian queen resided in one of Caesar's country houses. 2526 The relationship between Cleopatra and Caesar was obvious to the Roman people and it was a scandal because the Roman dictator was already married to Calpurnia Pisonis. But Caesar even erected a golden statue of Cleopatra represented as Isis in the temple of Venus Genetrix (the mythical ancestress of Caesar's family), which was situated at the Forum Julium.

2728 The Roman orator Cicero said in his preserved letters that he hated the foreign queen. 26 Cleopatra and her entourage were in Rome when Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC. 29 She returned with her relatives to Egypt.

When Ptolemy XIV died – allegedly poisoned by his older sister – Cleopatra made Caesarion her co-regent and successor and gave him the epithets Theos Philopator Philometor (= Father- and motherloving God). In the Roman civil war between the Caesarian faction, led by Mark Antony and Octavian, and the faction including the assassins of Caesar, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, Cleopatra sided with the Caesarian party because of her past. Brutus and Cassius left Italy and sailed to the east of the Roman Empire, where they conquered large areas and established military bases.

At the beginning of 43 BC, Cleopatra formed an alliance with the leader of the Caesarian party in the east, Publius Cornelius Dolabella, who also recognized Caesarion as her co-ruler. 3334 But soon, Dolabella was encircled in Laodicea and committed suicide (July 43 BC). Cassius wanted to invade Egypt to seize the treasures of that country and for her support for Dolabella.