Arsinoe IV: The Murdered Sister Of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

Arsinoe IV: The Murdered Sister Of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

Arsione IV

Year of birth of Arsinoe IV

Arsinoë’s year of birth is generally regarded as being between 68 and 63 BC The Encyclopædia Britannica cites 63 BC, making her 15 at the time of her uprising and defeat against Julius Caesar and 22 at her death, while the researcher Alissa Lyon cites 68 BC, making her 27 at her death. Joyce Tyldesley places her birth date between 68 and 65 BC. An alternate hypothesis was in the docudrama “Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer”, in which it was alleged that a headless skeleton of a female child between the ages of 15 and 18 may be Arsinoë.

Her actions in the brief war against Caesar naturally suggest that she was older than that and thus would make it impossible for her to be the headless female child buried in the tomb.

Perhaps the strongest evidence that she was in fact exercising her own authority is that Caesar, after the Pharos debacle, was prepared to release Ptolemy XIII, a male, who continued the war against Caesar just to get his hands on her.

Stacy Schiff, who places Arsinoë’s age at around seventeen during the events of 48-47 BC, notes that Arsinoë “burned with ambition” and was “not the kind of girl who inspired complacency,” writing that once Arsinoë escaped the royal palace, she became more vocal against her half-sister and that she assumed her position as head of the army alongside anti-Caesar courtier Achillas

Arsinoe IV Family

• Arsinoe IV was the youngest sister of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and she became a tragic victim of her powerful sibling’s political plots.
• Arsinoë was the third, possibly fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII by an unknown woman (Cleopatra VII’s probable mother, Cleopatra V had died or been repudiated not long after Cleopatra VII was born, hence it’s unclear if she bore her husband’s younger children).

Ptolemy XII

Arsinoe IV History

When Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, he left his eldest son and eldest surviving daughter, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to escape from Alexandria. Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BC, pursuing his rival, Pompey, whom he had defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus. Upon going to Alexandria, he was brought to see the head of Pompey.

The execution of his long-term rival ended the possibility of an alliance between Caesar and Ptolemy, and he sided with Cleopatra’s faction. He declared that in accordance with Ptolemy XII’s will, Cleopatra and Ptolemy would rule Egypt jointly, and in a similar motion restored Cyprus, which had been annexed by Rome in 58 BC, to Egypt’s rule and gave it to Arsinoë and her youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV.

However, Arsinoë then escaped from the capital with her mentor, the eunuch Ganymedes, and took command of the Egyptian army. She also proclaimed herself Queen as Arsinoë IV, executed Achillas, whom she had replaced as the army commander, and placed Ganymedes second in command of the army immediately below herself. Under Arsinoë’s leadership, the Egyptians enjoyed some success against the Romans. The Egyptians trapped Caesar in a section of the city by building walls to close off the streets.

Caesar countered this measure by digging wells into the porous limestone beneath the city that contained fresh water. This only partially alleviated the situation, so he then sent ships out along the coast to search for more fresh water there. Caesar realised that he would need to break out of the city and hoped to do so by gaining control of the harbour. He attempted to seize control of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, but Arsinoë’s forces drove him back. Then, he recognised his imminent defeat, Caesar removed his armour and purple cloak so that he could swim to the safety of a nearby Roman ship.

The leading Egyptian officers, having become disappointed with Ganymedes, and under a pretext of wanting peace, negotiated with Caesar to exchange Arsinoë for Ptolemy XIII. After Ptolemy was released, he continued the war until the Romans received reinforcements and inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Egyptians. Arsinoë, now in Roman captivity, was transported to Rome, where in 46 BC she was forced to appear in Caesar’s triumph and was paraded behind a burning effigy of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which had been the scene of her victory over him. Arsinoe, along with Juba II, elicited sympathy from the crowd.

Family Tree of the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt

Despite the custom of strangling prominent prisoners in triumphs when the festivities concluded, Caesar was pressured to spare Arsinoë and granted her sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Arsinoë lived in the temple for a few years, always keeping a watchful eye on her sister Cleopatra, who perceived Arsinoë as a threat to her power. In 41 BC, at Cleopatra’s instigation, Mark Antony ordered Arsinoë’s execution on the steps of the temple.. Her murder was a gross violation of the temple sanctuary and an act that scandalised Rome. The eunuch priest (Megabyzos) who had welcomed Arsinoë on her arrival at the temple as “queen” was only pardoned when an embassy from Ephesus made a petition to Cleopatra.

Arsinoe IV & Cleopatra

Amidst the Alexandrian War, Arsinoe IV had attempted to lead a rebellion against Cleopatra, who had allied with Julius Caesar. Just a teenager at the time, Arsinoe also tried to take Cleopatra’s throne. But the rebellion was unsuccessful, and Arsinoe IV was sent to Rome as a political prisoner. Though she initially avoided execution and was allowed to become a priestess at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, she wouldn’t be safe for long. Cleopatra was so concerned that Arsinoe would try to challenge her rule again that she orchestrated her own sister’s murder in 41 B.C.E.

Cleopatra

Arsinoe IV’s Early Life As A Ptolemaic Princess

The Ptolemaic leaders of Egypt were an intricate family. There were at least three queens and two kings among his children, King Ptolemy XII Auletes. It seems the Ptolemaic royalties used to execute one another. And Cleopatra is thought by some to have been implicated in the demise of, at least, two of her other sisters, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, as well as in that of Arsinoe.

Arsinoe IV was the youngest daughter in the family, who may have technically been a half-sister to Cleopatra, and was not ever supposed to be in line for the throne. All this however, became different after she tried to instigate a rebellion against her sister Cleopatra in order to rule Egypt.

Arsinoe IV Tomb at Ephesus

In the 1990s, an octagonal monument situated in the centre of Ephesus was hypothesised to be the tomb of Arsinoë. Although no inscription remains on the tomb, it was dated to between 50 and 20 BC. In 1926, the skeleton of a purported female estimated to be between the ages of 15 and 18 years at the time of her death was found in the burial chamber.

Thür’s identification of the skeleton was based on the shape of the tomb, which was octagonal, like the second tier of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the carbon dating of the bones (between 200 and 20 BC), the gender of the skeleton, and the age of the young woman at death. It was also claimed that the tomb boasts Egyptian motifs, such as “papyri-bundle” columns.

A DNA test was also attempted to determine the identity of the young woman. However, it was impossible to get an accurate reading since the bones had been handled too many times, and the skull was long thought to have been lost.

An essay by Mary Beard suggested that, first, the tomb has no surviving name and the assertion that it is alleged to invoke the shape of the Pharos Lighthouse does not add up; second, the skull does not survive intact and the bones are too young to be those of Arsinoea (the alleged bones being those of a 15-18 year old, but Arsinoea was in the middle of her twenties when they were found); and third, Cleopatra and Arsinoea were not known to have a common mother, the ethnic argument goes heavily astray.

In 2022, archaeologists of the University of Graz were able to locate the skull in Vienna. It could be identified thanks to the old notes and photographs. The scientists hoped that some DNA was conserved in the petrous temporal bone of the skull.

How did Arsinoe IV die?