Cleopatra Thea

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Coin of Cleopatra Thea

Cleopatra Thea (* around 165 BC ; † 121 BC ), called Euergetis , was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy VI. Philometor of Egypt and his sister wife Cleopatra II. She ruled the Seleucid Empire from 125 BC. Until her death.

Marriage to Alexander Balas

Cleopatra Thea and Alexander Balas

As a usurper of dubious origin, Alexander I. Balas , with the blessing of Rome in 153 BC. BC against the Seleucid Demetrios I. Soter fought for the Syrian throne, supported Ptolemy VI. this usurper militarily and helped him 150 BC. To victory. In the same year the Egyptian king married his daughter Cleopatra Thea to Alexander Balas and accompanied her personally to Ptolemais , where the wedding took place. Presumably this city was chosen as the wedding location because it was the most important Hellenistic center in the region. Cleopatra Thea also received rich gold and silver treasures as dowry. Jonathan , who belongs to the Jewish family of the Maccabees , also took part in the wedding celebrations and was elevated to the rank of strategist by Alexander Balas. Cleopatra Thea gave birth to her husband the son Antiochus VI. Epiphanes Dionysus .

Marriage to Demetrios II. Nikator

But after four years of marriage, Cleopatra Thea's first marriage ended, because her father blamed his son-in-law for an attack on him in the city of Ptolemais, so he no longer supported him and took his daughter away from him. Instead, the Egyptian king entered into an alliance with the new Seleucid pretender Demetrios II. Nikator , the son of Demetrios I, and gave him his daughter Cleopatra Thea as his wife (146 BC). The next year, Ptolemy VI defeated. and Demetrios II the Alexander Balas, who was murdered soon afterwards. However, the Egyptian king also died from his injuries sustained in battle.

Cleopatra Thea's children from her second marriage were Seleukos V , Antiochus VIII. Grypus and presumably a daughter whose name could have been Laodike.

The despotic style of government of Demetrios II soon made it possible for a new usurper, Tryphon , to bring parts of Syria under his control. 145 BC He appointed the only two-year-old Antiochus VI. to the king in order to be able to exercise the rule as his guardian. However, he soon had the little king murdered (142/141 or 139/138 BC). Demetrios increasingly lost territory to Tryphon and was captured on a campaign against the Parthians (around 140/139 BC) and held for ten years. So Tryphon could now seize further areas of the Seleucid Empire. With her two sons of Demetrios II, Cleopatra Thea went to Seleukeia Pieria , where she was protected by the royal strategist Aischrion.

Marriage to Antiochus VII. Sidetes

After Cleopatra Thea learned of her captive husband's marriage to Rhodogune , daughter of the Parthian king Mithridates I , she was outraged and hoped for support from her husband's brother, Antiochus VII Sidetes . She offered to him, still staying in Seleukeia Pieria, her hand and with it the Seleucid royal dignity (around 138/137 BC). Antiochus VII gladly accepted, was able to defeat the usurper Tryphon and married Cleopatra Thea. This had the son Antiochus IX with her third husband . Kyzikenos . The Neo-Platonist Porphyrios ascribes four more children to Antiochus VII and Cleopatra Thea: two daughters named Laodike (see Laodike (wife of Phraates II) ) who died of an illness like a son Antiochus, a son Seleucus who was captured by the Parthians and who died as the youngest son of Antiochus IX. But Porphyrios probably made a mistake by mixing the children of Antiochus VII and those of his brother Demetrios II.

Antiochus VII opened in 131 BC. A new war against the Parthians and was able to achieve great successes against them at the beginning. Therefore, Phraates II released Demetrios II, who had been imprisoned for ten years, because he was supposed to fight his brother in order to regain the Seleucid throne. But already at the beginning of 129 BC Antiochus VII fell in the battle against the Parthians, while Demetrios II regained his crown.

Return and death of Demetrios II.

Cleopatra II was fighting against her brother Ptolemy VIII for power in Egypt and turned to her son-in-law Demetrios II for help. He agreed, but was defeated by Ptolemy VIII at Pelusion (129/128 BC). Cleopatra II fled to the Seleucid Empire, but the Egyptian monarch set up an anti-Syrian king, Alexander II Zabinas , who was allegedly a son of Alexander I - according to other sources, an adopted son of Antiochus VII. The Ptolemaic ruler thus provoked a civil war in the Seleucid Empire.

The contradicting ancient sources do not reveal exactly how Cleopatra Thea behaved towards her returned second husband. According to some sources, she had her son Antiochus IX out of fear of him. sent to Kyzikos in Asia Minor (from where he got his nickname). In addition, revenge for his marriage to Rhodogune is given as a motive for her later order to murder her husband. The historian Iustinus states, however, that her mother Cleopatra II fled to her and her husband, which suggests that the married couple would live together again. Only after Demetrios II defeated Zabinas' forces near Damascus did Cleopatra Thea and her children leave him. Demetrios II fled to Ptolemais after his defeat, but found the city gates locked on the orders of his wife who was there. She also denied entry to Tire and murdered him instead (126/125 BC).

Reign in Syria

While Zabinas controlled parts of the Seleucid Empire, Cleopatra Thea ruled from 125 BC. Over the rest of the territory. She had her eldest son, Seleukos V, who was still alive, eliminated that same year. Two different reasons are given as the motive: According to one version he tried to win the throne without her permission, according to the other she was afraid that he might take revenge for the killing of his father. On a coin image of 126/125 BC Chr. Embossed silver tetradrachms, it is represented only with royal jewelry.

In order to legitimize her government according to tradition, Cleopatra Thea had her younger son Antiochus VIII Grypus brought from Athens and ruled as his guardian. There is hardly any literary information about their reign. Therefore, only from the coins minted at the time, it can be inferred that she held the reins of government firmly in her hand. The coin images show the heads of mother and son and in the inscription she is named before her son: Queen Cleopatra and King Antiochus .

death

After Antiochus VIII. 123/122 BC. B.C. had succeeded in gaining a decisive victory over the pretender Alexander Zabinas with Egyptian help, he must have demanded greater participation in power. Cleopatra Thea is said to have planned to get rid of this son, who had become uncontrollable for her, in order to be the guardian of her youngest son Antiochus IX. to remain regent. When Antiochus VIII returned from a military exercise, she wanted to murder him with a poisonous drink, but he had already been warned and forced his mother to drink the cup intended for him herself. Her death falls in the year 121 BC. Chr.

Literary reception

In the Baroque period , the subject of the dispute between Cleopatra Thea and the Parthian princess Rhodogune over the sons of their husband Demetrios Nikator is taken up. Both Pierre Corneille (1644) and Gabriel Gilbert (1646) write tragedies called Rodogune , which allegorize the reign of Anna of Austria 1643-1651.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 13.80-82; 1. Maccabees 10: 51-58.
  2. ↑ 1 Maccabees 10:65.
  3. ↑ Appian , Syriaca 68.
  4. ↑ See the presentation by the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus , Jüdische Altert leads 13,4,6.
  5. ↑ Diodorus 32.9c; Justin 35,2,3; Titus Livius , Periochae 52; Flavius ​​Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 13,106 ff .; 13.109 ff .; 13,116; 1. Maccabees 11: 9-12.
  6. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 68; OGIS 258-260.
  7. ↑ Diodorus 33:28; Flavius ​​Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 13,221.
  8. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 68; Justin 36,1,9; Flavius ​​Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 13,222.
  9. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 68; OGIS 255f.
  10. ^ Felix Jacoby , The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH), No. 260 F 32, 20 in Eusebius of Caesarea , Chronik 1,257 ed. Schöne; on this Felix Staehelin : Cleopatra 24. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XI, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Col. 785-787, here Col. 786.
  11. ↑ Porphyrios with Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronik 1,257 ed. Schöne; see. Appian, Syriaca 68 and Flavius ​​Josephus, Jüdische Geschichte 13,271.
  12. ↑ Appian, Syriaca 68.
  13. ↑ Justin 39,1,4 and 7; for theories on Cleopatra Thea's relationship to the returned Demetrios II. cf. Felix Staehelin : Cleopatra 24. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity science (RE). Volume XI, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Col. 785-787, here Col. 786 f.
  14. ↑ Justin 39,1,8; Porphyrios with Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronicle 1.257 f. ed. beautiful; Titus Livius, Periochae 60; Appian, Syriaca 68; Flavius ​​Josephus, Jewish War 13.268.
  15. ↑ Titus Livius, Periochae 60; Justin 39.1.9.
  16. ^ Appian, Syriaca 69.
  17. ↑ Justin 39,1,9; Appian, Syriaca 69.
  18. ↑ Justin 39,2,7 f .; Appian, Syriaca 69.
  19. ↑ Michael Wenzel: Heroine Gallery - Beauty Gallery. Studies on the genesis and function of female portrait galleries 1470–1715. Dissertation, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, p. 86, note 259 ( online ).
predecessor Office successor
Alexander II. Zabinas Queen of the Seleucid Empire
125–121 BC Chr. 		Antiochus VIII.
personal data
SURNAME Cleopatra Thea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yours
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter of Ptolemy VI. of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH around 164 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 121 BC Chr.