Alexander Helios

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Alexander Helios (* late 40 BC ) was a son of the Roman triumvir Marcus Antonius and the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII.

Life

Alexander Helios had a twin sister, Cleopatra Selene , and a younger brother, Ptolemy Philadelphos . He was also the half-brother of Ptolemy Kaisar , the only natural son of Gaius Julius Caesar .

When Antonius at the end of 37 BC When he met the Ptolemaic queen again in Antioch , he recognized Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene as his children. At that time, Alexander received his nickname Helios ("sun") as a counterpart to that of his sister ("moon"). With these epithets Cleopatra probably made associations with the " Golden Age ", dreamed of in eschatological hopes by many inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean , which was thought of as a time of peace and prosperity and through the rule of the sun incarnated in the Pharaoh (symbol of divine justice) should be established. The first name of Antony's son was believed to be Alexander the Greatremind. In modern research, Alexander Helios is one - albeit less likely - of the numerous contenders for the divine child of the famous fourth eclogue of the Roman poet Virgil .

Antony blamed King Artavasdes II of Armenia for his defeat against the Parthians (36 BC) . Nevertheless, he suggested 34 BC. Before to betroth his six-year-old son Alexander Helios to a daughter of the Armenian king. According to the ancient historian Cassius Dio , the offer was a deception to capture Artavasdes. In any case, the Armenian king did not respond, whereupon Antonius defeated him militarily.

Then Antonius celebrated a spectacular ceremony in the huge gymnasium in Alexandria . The Triumvir gave Cleopatra and their children large territories and apparently wanted to lay the foundation for a great Egyptian (connected to the Roman?) Empire. Alexander Helios appeared at this event in the robe of a Medieval king with an associated bodyguard and was crowned ruler of Armenia , Cilicia , Media and all the land east from the Euphrates to the Indus (which was still to be conquered by the Parthians ). Since he, like his siblings, was still a minor, nothing changed in the status quo of the administration of the Orient.

To confirm an alliance between Antony and King Artavasdes II of the media , Alexander Helios was betrothed to Iotape, Artavasdes' little daughter.

After Antony and Cleopatra lost to Octavian - the later Emperor Augustus - and then committed suicide (30 BC), Alexander Helios and his siblings Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemaios Philadelphos were brought to Rome and carried along in a triumphal procession , Octavian was on August 29 v. Chr. Held. The three children were raised by Octavia Minor , Octavian's sister and former wife of Mark Antony.

The further fate of Alexander Helios is not known. The ancient historian Michael Grant interprets a remark by Cassius Dios - that Augustus spared the lives of Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphos out of a favor to Cleopatra Selene and her husband Juba II - in the sense that both sons of Cleopatra at the time of Cleopatra's marriage and Selene Juba II. (Around 20 BC) was still alive and went to Mauritania with the couple . Duane W. Roller rejects Grant's interpretation, arguing that Cleopatra's children only occurred at the time of Octavian's final victory in 30 BC. Were threatened and assumes an early death of Alexander Helios and Ptolemaios Philadelphos (about 29 to 25 BC), since neither of Cassius Dio nor of Plutarch after 29 BC. Be mentioned.

Trivia

The two moons Alexhelios (also S / 2008 (216) 1 or Cleopatra I) and Cleoselene (also S / 2008 (216) 2 or Cleopatra II) of the minor planet (216) were named Cleopatra after Alexander Helios and his twin sister Cleopatra Selene .

literature

  • Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period. 332-30 BC Chr.Beck , Munich 2001, pp. 733, 739 f., 749, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 .
  • Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 1994, pp. 216 f., 219 f., 226, ISBN 3534-10422-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch , Antonius 36, 5; Cassius Dio 49, 32, 4.
  2. ^ Manfred Clauss : Cleopatra , 1995, p. 56f .; Michael Grant : Cleopatra , German 1998, p. 200ff.
  3. ^ Cassius Dio 49, 39, 2.
  4. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 54, 6-9; Cassius Dio 49, 41, 1-3; Livy , periochae 131.
  5. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 53:12; Cassius Dio 49, 40, 2 and 49, 44, 2.
  6. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87, 1f .; Cassius Dio 51, 15, 6 and 51, 21, 8; Suetonius , Augustus 17: 5; Eusebios of Caesarea , Chronicle , p. 163 (ed. Helm).
  7. ↑ Cassius Dio 51, 15, 6; on this Michael Grant, Kleopatra , German 1998, p. 319.
  8. ^ Duane W. Roller: The World of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene. New York and London 2003, p. 83 f.
  9. ↑ MPC 73983 (PDF; 2.2 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Alexander Helios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius
DATE OF BIRTH 40 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century BC BC or 1st century