The other Cleopatra

Fernando Kaskais

Jan 29

A silver coin dated 25-24 BCE featuring King Juba (REX IUBA) and, on the obverse, the Greek legend BASILISSA KLEOPATRA and a crocodile (associated with Egypt). Photo courtesy the British Museum

Daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, she became the influential queen of a mysterious, abundant North African kingdom

Jane Draycott is a lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow. Her books include Prosthetics and Assistive Technology in Ancient Greece and Rome (2021) and Cleopatra's Daughter: Egyptian Princess, Roman Prisoner, African Queen (2022).

You may not have heard of the Roman client kingdom of Mauretania, not to be confused with the contemporary African country Mauritania. The former existed for a scant 65 years, from around 25 BCE, when it was created by the first Roman emperor Augustus, until 40 CE, when its second and final king was executed by Augustus' great-grandson Gaius, better known to posterity as Caligula. Unlike its contemporary – the Roman client kingdom of Judea (modern Israel), whose history was recorded for posterity by the historian Josephus – no written record of Mauretania (modern Algeria and Morocco) has survived from antiquity. If we want to attempt to reconstruct what was going on in the kingdom during this period, we have to look at other types of evidence – archaeological evidence. By far the most informative type of archaeological evidence for this time and place is numismatic: the coinage issued by King Juba, Queen Cleopatra Selene, and their son King Ptolemy – three historical figures of whom you may likewise not have heard.

In my opinion, the most historically significant of the three is Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, and Marcus Antonius (known today as Mark Antony), Roman consul and triumvir. The other Cleopatra, if you will. While considerably less well-known than her infamous mother, she was arguably a more successful and ultimately more effective Roman client queen.

Cleopatra Selene was born in 40 BCE, in the wake of her parents' renowned and fabled encounter in the city of Tarsus, so memorably described by Antony's biographer Plutarch, invoked by William Shakespeare, and painted by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. This meant that she was around 10 years old when the civil war between her father and his fellow triumvir Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (known today as Octavian, he would go on to become the first Roman emperor Augustus) culminated in Octavian's victory over Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and his conquest and annexation of Egypt the following year. After her parents' suicides, she was taken back to Rome by Octavian and spent the remainder of her childhood in the household of his sister Octavia, who also happened to be her father's ex-wife and the mother of two of his daughters, Cleopatra Selene's half-sisters.

While Octavian's biographer Suetonius claimed that he was a kindly father figure and reared her as carefully as if she was his own flesh and blood, there was undoubtedly a political dimension to this decision, and it was probably his foremost concern. Retaining control of Cleopatra Selene meant that any potential threat to Rome's power over Egypt was neutralised before it could gain any momentum. It would be impossible for anyone to attempt to lay claim to Egypt while the last scion of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the true heir to the throne, was alive and well. But that is not to say that Octavian's tenure as Cleopatra Selene's guardian was entirely benign.

Octavian forced Cleopatra Selene to participate in the events of the third day of his Triple Triumph in the summer of 29 BCE: this third and final day commemorated his conquest of Egypt and, in the absence of their mother, Cleopatra Selene and her twin brother Alexander Helios walked alongside an effigy of Cleopatra entwined with the snakes that had supposedly ended her life. Cleopatra Selene was dressed as the Moon and Alexander Helios as the Sun in reference to the celestial and divine names that Antony had bestowed upon them in addition to their more prosaic Ptolemaic names that they shared with numerous other members of the dynasty. This was undoubtedly Octavian's attempt to ensure that the crowd of thousands lining the processional route would be certain to recognise them. Luckily for them, unlike other enemies of Rome such as Vercingetorix of Gaul, their participation in a military triumph did not culminate in their ritual execution.

Following the conclusion of the Triumph, what was Octavian to do with a princess whom he had ensured was no longer in possession of a kingdom? Octavian made sure that Antony's other surviving children were raised as traditional Romans: his son by his third wife Fulvia, Iullus Antonius, climbed the cursus honorum ('ladder of offices') and was eventually elected consul, while his two daughters by his fourth wife Octavia – Antonia Major and Antonia Minor – were married to suitable Roman men, and numbered among their descendants the general Germanicus and the emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero...

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