Arsinoë IV.

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Arsinoë IV. (* Between 68 and 65 BC; † 41 BC in Ephesus ) was an Egyptian queen from the Ptolemaic dynasty . During the Alexandrian War , Gaius Iulius Caesar in the interests of her older sister (or half-sister) Cleopatra against a for the throne rights of her brother Ptolemaios XIII. fighting Egyptian army, Arsinoë had 48/47 BC For some time the role of the queen against Cleopatra. During this time she was formally at the head of the Egyptians who were fighting against Caesar. After their defeat they had to 46 BC. Appeared in Caesar's triumphal procession and then went into exile in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus . There she was born in 41 BC. Executed on the orders of Marcus Antonius , who thereby complied with the wish of Cleopatra, who has meanwhile become his lover.

ancestry

Arsinoë IV was the youngest daughter of Ptolemy XII. Neos Dionysus and probably came from a marriage with a wife, illegitimate according to the Greek view, probably a high-ranking Egyptian (cf. Cleopatra VI. ). She was also the younger sister and rival of the well-known Cleopatra . Her exact date of birth is unknown.

Role in the Alexandrian War

After Gaius Iulius Caesar 48 BC. BC Alexandria had (partially) occupied, he decided to end the throne dispute between Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII. to arbitrate, and called the siblings to him in the palace of Alexandria. There he decided in favor of the disempowered Cleopatra VII, to let her participate in the rule again. In order to calm the resulting crowd, he gave the 58 BC. BC from Rome annexed Cyprus back to Egypt and appointed Arsinoe and her youngest brother Ptolemy XIV as regents of the island.

When the Alexandrian War began anyway, Caesar not only held Ptolemy XIII. and his brother Ptolemy XIV, but also Arsinoë in the royal palace in Alexandria in his custody. The "guard" (nutricius) Arsinoës, a eunuch named Ganymedes , was able to flee together with Arsinoë to the troops of the Egyptian commander Achillas . The presence of a member of the Ptolemaic house now legitimized the military action of the Egyptian army against Caesar. The king's daughter was also old enough to be able to play a relatively independent and power-conscious role following the example of earlier Ptolemaic women. She was raised to the rival queen of Cleopatra, who was unpopular with the Alexandrians and allied with Caesar. This action was not directed against Ptolemy XIII, who was also hostile to Caesar. In the event of an Egyptian victory, Arsinoe could have taken Cleopatra's place at her brother's side. In order to strengthen her position of power, she had to get a free hand in the high command over the troops and got into an argument with Achillas over it. Her confidante Ganymedes was to take his place. Both sides tried to win over the soldiers by bribes. The Minister Potheinos was in the royal palace in Caesar's sphere of influence, but nevertheless secretly supported Achillas through messengers. But the Roman general found out about their contacts and had Potheinos executed. But this strengthened Arsinoë's position on the other side. In order to take action against Achillas, Ganymedes accused him of attempting to betray the Egyptian fleet. Arsinoë then had Achillas executed with the sword, and Ganymedes now advanced to become the new commander in chief.

Despite some respectable successes against Caesar, the Egyptians were soon dissatisfied with the eunuch. Apparently, Arsinoë and Ganymedes were at least partially disempowered when the Alexandrians Caesar for the release of Ptolemy XIII. requested and were able to reach them. After that, Arsinoë played no role until Caesar's victory (beginning of 47 BC).

Exile and death

When the dictator actually gave his lover Cleopatra complete power over Egypt, he also had her younger sister Arsinoë removed from the country. This had to be in July 46 BC. BC also appear in Rome at Caesar's great triumphal procession . The watching Romans regretted the tied king's daughter, while they were happy about the pictures of the defeated enemies Potheinos and Achillas, which were also on display. After that Arsinoe was allowed to go into exile in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus .

When Cleopatra, succeeding the murdered Caesar, made the Roman triumvir Mark Antony her lover, she induced him to have her hated sister Arsinoe executed in her exile (41 BC). Since Arsinoë was a member of the Ptolemaic house, she posed a latent, if not an immediate threat to Cleopatra, who wanted to secure the throne of Egypt through her son Kaisarion of her own line. By killing her sister, Cleopatra acted in the typical tradition of the Ptolemies, whose respective rulers often had relatives murdered as a potential source of danger for their own government. The priest ( Megabyzos ) who had welcomed Arsinoe as queen on her arrival at the Temple of Artemis was only spared at the request of an embassy from Ephesus . The historian Christoph Schäfer considers the statement by the ancient historian Appian that Antonius only allowed the Megabyzos to live after a request from the Ephesian messengers to Cleopatra himself as deliberately false propaganda. Instead, Schäfer believes that Antonius acquitted the priest on his own initiative.

The tomb of Arsinoë has almost certainly been identified with an octagonal tomb on Curetes Street in central Ephesus. The grave inscription is missing, but the monument dates from 50 to 20 BC. In 1926 the skeleton of a 20-year-old woman, who apparently belonged to the high aristocracy of the time, was found in the underground burial chamber. Of their representatives, however, only Arsinoe is known to have died in Ephesus. If it were indeed her final resting place, her remains would have been preserved as the only ones of her dynasty to this day.

literature

  • Hilke Thür: Arsinoë IV, a sister of Cleopatra VII, owner of the grave of the Octagon of Ephesus? A suggestion. In: Annual books of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna. Vol. 60, 1990, ISSN  0259-1456 , pp. 43-56.
  • Werner Huss : Egypt in Hellenistic times (= Munich contributions to papyrus research and ancient legal history. Vol. 105). Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 705; 714; 716-718; 723; 727; 730f.
  • Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1994, ISBN 3-534-10422-6 , p. 204; 210-212; 216.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Cassius Dio , Roman History 42, 35.
  2. ^ Caesar, Civil War 3, 112, 10ff .; Alexandrian War 4; Cassius Dio, Roman History 42, 39, 1f .; 42, 40, 1; Lucan , Pharsalia 10: 519-523; Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita 112, fragment 50 in Adnot. super Lucan 10,521; on this Christoph Schäfer , Kleopatra , 2006, pp. 69–71.
  3. ↑ Alexandrian War 23f. and, partly different, Cassius Dio, Roman History 42, 42.
  4. ↑ Alexandrian War 33, 2.
  5. ^ Cassius Dio, Römische Geschichte 43, 19, 2f .; Appian , Civil Wars 2, 101, 420.
  6. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 15, 89; Against Apion 2, 57; inaccurate Appian, Civil Wars 5, 9, 34. 36 and Cassius Dio, Roman History 48, 24, 2; C. Schäfer: Cleopatra . 2006, p. 131f.
  7. ↑ Hilke Thür: Arsinoë IV, a sister of Cleopatra VII, owner of the grave of the octagon of Ephesus? A suggestion . In: Annual Issues of the Austrian Archaeological Institute , Volume 60, 1990, pp. 43–56.
personal data
SURNAME Arsinoë IV.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arsinoe IV.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Cyprus, sister of Cleopatra
DATE OF BIRTH around 63 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 41 BC Chr.
Place of death Ephesus