Cleopatra Wins Back Egypt’s Throne with Caesar’s Help

When Ptolemy XII Auletes died in 51 BC, he bequeathed the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt jointly to his eighteen-year-old daughter Cleopatra VII and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII. Governing from Alexandria, Cleopatra faced immediate domestic crises, including agricultural famine caused by low Nile floods and heavy debts her father had run up with Roman lenders while struggling to keep his throne. Cleopatra quickly asserted independent authority, dropping her brother's name from official records by August 51 BC. However, influential courtiers, led by the young king's tutor and regent Potheinos, coordinated resistance against her. By 49 BC, Ptolemy XIII's faction seized the upper hand, forcing Cleopatra to flee Alexandria.

Cleopatra withdrew through Upper Egypt to Roman Syria, where she recruited an army to challenge her brother. She returned to Egypt in 48 BC and established an armed encampment near Pelousion in the eastern Nile Delta, facing Ptolemy XIII's opposing force. The dynastic stalemate was abruptly upended by the arrival of the Roman civil war. After suffering defeat at Pharsalus, the Roman statesman Pompey fled to the Egyptian coast seeking sanctuary. Anxious to avoid becoming entangled in Rome's internal struggle, Ptolemy XIII's advisers arranged Pompey's assassination upon his landing in September 48 BC, presenting his severed head to his pursuing rival, Julius Caesar.