Caesarion

Um, now I forgot to mention.

How could we forget to mention Caesarion? Caesarion is Cleopatra's son, she says, by Julius Caesar.

Hmm.

This is really the threat to Octavian, right? That Caesar doesn't acknowledge this, as far as we know, although Antony will say that Caesar did acknowledge this in, in, in his last kind of wishes.

Um, but if there is an actual biological son of Julius Caesar as opposed to a great nephew who's been adopted in the will of Julius Caesar, then that could, that could be a real threat to Octavian as, as the true heir could be seen as Caesarion, and indeed, that's what they declare, and they call him King of Kings.

Um, so there's all of this stuff going on, direct challenges to Octavian and also potentially looking like the Roman Empire's being divided up here.

Um, I'm sure that Antony and Cleopatra, had they survived, could have, uh, spun it as a strengthening of the empire, as kind of combining it with the Ptolemaic dynasty-

Mm.

Beyond the theater, hers is a diplomatic mission.

She has come to present the case for her son, Caesarion.

Now seven years old, he co-rules with her as Pharaoh Ptolemy XV.

He is Caesar's biological child, she reminds Antony, his sole undisputed male offspring.

A sole female Pharaoh might well ruffle feathers, especially when that ruler was pregnant.

Cleopatra gave birth to Caesar's son, Caesarion, around the end of June 47 BCE.

The couple then toured the Nile on her luxurious barge, stopping off to see sights along the river.

But as romantic as this sounds, the reality of their situation was far from ideal.

While Cleopatra declared Caesarion to be Caesar's son and heir, Caesar never publicly acknowledged his son.

Perhaps this was out of respect for his Roman wife, Calpurnia, or because he understood how it might be received back home.

Nonetheless, the affair was common knowledge in Rome.

Cleopatra was still in Rome, likely at Caesar's lodgings, when she heard that he'd been killed in the Senate.

During his excursion with Cleopatra, which included a cruise down the Nile, their romantic tryst had produced a love child.

A boy whom Cleopatra named, unambiguously, Caesarion.

He will be just under three years old at the time of Caesar's death.

As he's illegitimate, Caesarion's claims to his father's inheritance are not recognized under Roman law.

But as the crown prince of Egypt, set to rule one day as Pharaoh Ptolemy XV, he's not to be removed completely from the equation.

Not yet.

And there, no secret being made of Caesar's infatuation for her, Cleopatra remained for the next few years, indeed until Caesar's death.

There, too, Caesar's son, Caesarion, was born, and with the boy's birth came to Cleopatra the hope that Caesar would will to him all his vast estates and other wealth, which would have been some slight compensation for the non-restoring of her throne.

While Cleopatra abode in Rome, more than one man of world fame bowed in homage before her.

For example, Lepidus, fat, stupid, inordinately rich, fit dupe for cleverer politicians.

Cleopatra, avoiding the mob and dodging arrest, fled from Rome with her son, her fortune, and her few faithful serfs.

One more hope was gone.

For instead of leaving his money to Caesarion, Caesar in his will had made the cold-eyed youth, Caius Octavius, his heir.

Back to the East went Cleopatra, her son of success temporarily in shadow.

He's regained it.

Global Church History said, today in 44 BC, Cleopatra made her son Caesarion Ptolemy XV Caesar.

Right, yeah, because that would be wrapped up with the Battle of Actium, won't it? Her son by Caesar.

That's Caesarion.

That's a

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Get it right.

In 44 BC, Cleopatra made her son Caesarean Ptolemy Caesar.

He co-ruled Egypt with Cleopatra and he had been declared king of kings.

If Antony and Cleopatra had secured their power, Caesarion might have been seen as the primary heir, given his amazing lineage connecting Greece, Egypt, and Rome.

And let us be clear, by the way, that all of Cleopatra's children were half Greek and half Roman.

None of them were Egyptian at all.

Like Cleopatra was not Egyptian at all.

Okay, she was Greek only.

Caesarion would likely have ruled Egypt due to his connection to Cleopatra's dynastic legacy and Julius Caesar's Roman bloodline.

We might have also had, who knows, a joint sibling rule with territories divided among the children.