Was Cleopatra Greek Or Egyptian?
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last reigning Ptolemaic King of Egypt, ruling from 51 to 30 BC. She belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty and was a direct descendant of Macedonian Greek general and friend of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I Soter. After Cleopatra’s demise, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, bringing an end…
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last reigning Ptolemaic King of Egypt, ruling from 51 to 30 BC. She belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty and was a direct descendant of Macedonian Greek general and friend of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I Soter.
After Cleopatra’s demise, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, bringing an end to the second-to-last Hellenistic monarchy and the period that had lasted from the rule of Alexander (336–323 BC).
Only she, a Ptolemaic ruler whose native tongue was Koine Greek, studied Egyptian.
In early 69 BC, Ptolemy XII, the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh, and an unidentified woman, most likely Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (also known as Cleopatra V Tryphaena), the mother of Cleopatra’s older sister, Berenice IV Epiphaneia, gave birth to Cleopatra VII.
A few months after Cleopatra Tryphaena’s birth in 69 BC, she disappears from history. While his wife was away, Ptolemy XII gave birth to his three younger children: his brothers Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator and Ptolemy XIV, as well as Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe IV.
Cleopatra studied Greek oratory and philosophy under Philostratos when she was a little girl. When Cleopatra was younger, she most likely went to the Museum, which housed the Library of Alexandria, to learn.
Was Cleopatra Greek Or Egyptian?
Egypt’s rulers in Alexandria, including Cleopatra, were of Greek descent, descended from Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy I Soter.
