|
Cleopatra
VII in popular culture - a Scooby-Doo animated feature film
Arsinoë IV (Greek: Ἀρσινόη)
was born between 68-63 BC and executed 41 BC. She was the fourth of six children and the youngest daughter of the Macedonian King,
Ptolemy XII
Auletes, her mother unknown. She was Queen and co-ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt with her brother Ptolemy XIII from 48 BC – 47 BC, one of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of
ancient
Egypt.
Arsinoë IV was also the half sister of Cleopatra
VII, and the kings Ptolemy XIII and XIV. Arsinoe attempted to lead the native forces against
Cleopatra VII, who had allied herself with Julius
Caesar.
Upon landing in Alexandria in 48, Caesar captured the members of the Ptolemaic royal family, but Arsinoe managed to escape with the aid of Ganymedes, her mentor, and joined the Egyptian army headed by Achillas. Following a feud between Ganymedes and the Egyptian commander, Arsinoe ordered Achillas executed. Ganymedes pressed Caesar’s forces hard and negotiated an exchange of Arsinoe for Ptolemy XIII, but the Romans, with reinforcements, defeated the Egyptian army, and Arsinoe was sent to Rome to be led in Caesar’s triumph by way of humiliation.
Later a factor in Cleopatra VII's suicide.
For her role in conducting the siege of Alexandria (47 BC) against her sister Cleopatra, Arsinoë was taken as a prisoner of war to Rome by the Roman triumvir Julius Caesar following the defeat of
Ptolemy XIII in the
Battle of the
Nile.
Arsinoë was then exiled to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Roman Anatolia, for she quite rightly feared her ambitious sister, Cleopatra, after securing the affections of the Roman triumvir Mark Antony. She was indeed was executed there by orders of
Mark Antony in 41 BC at the behest of his lover Cleopatra VII.
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.
|
|
THE TOMB AT EPHESEUS
In the 1990s an octagonal monument situated in the centre of Ephesus was hypothesized by Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 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 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 child 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 child. However, it was impossible to get an accurate reading since the bones had been handled too many times, and the skull had been lost in
Germany during
World War
II. Hilke Thür examined the old notes and photographs of the now-missing skull, which was reconstructed using computer technology by forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson to show what the woman may have looked like. Thür alleged that it shows signs of African ancestry mixed with classical Grecian features – despite the fact that Boas, Gravlee, Bernard and Leonard, and others have demonstrated that skull measurements are not a reliable indicator of race, and the measurements were jotted down in 1920 before modern forensic science took hold. Furthermore, Arsinoë and Cleopatra, shared the same father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) but had different mothers, with Thür claiming the alleged African ancestry came from the skeleton's mother.
Mary Beard wrote a dissenting essay criticizing the findings, pointing out that, first, there is no surviving name on the tomb and that the claim the tomb is alleged to invoke the shape of the Pharos Lighthouse "doesn't add up"; second, the skull doesn't survive intact and the age of the skeleton is too young to be Arsinoë's (the bones said to be that of a 15-18 year old, with Arsinoë being around her mid twenties at her death); and third, since Cleopatra and Arsinoë were not known to have the same mother, "the ethnic argument goes largely out of the window." Furthermore, craniometry as used by Thür to determine race is based in scientific racism that is now generally considered a pseudoscience that supported exploitation of groups of people to perpetuate racial oppression and distorted future views of the biological basis of race.
A writer from The Times described the identification of the skeleton as "a triumph of conjecture over
certainty". If the monument is the tomb of Arsinoë, she would be the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty whose remains have been recovered. It has never been definitively proven the skeleton is that of Arsinoë IV.
Ptolemy
XII Auletes was a member of the Ptolemaic
dynasty that ruled Egypt after
Alexander the
Great.
Cleopatra
V is thought to be mother to Cleopatra VII Philopator.
The most famous of Egyptian queens, who Arsinoe battled for
supremacy.
Please use our
A-Z to
navigate this site or return HOME
|