Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator

So there's many interesting figures.

For instance, Ptolemy, the brother of Cleopatra, is positioned in the opening of the film as having three key advisors.

And one of them's the chief eunuch, Plotinus.

One of them is his tutor, Theodotus.

And each of these three are attested in the historical record with these names.

And I think, you know, this was a great start for me.

I was like, oh, look, Ptolemy, surrounded by his henchmen.

And while there are some nuance of difference.

And here we are in the 2nd century BCE.

Two brothers, known collectively today as the Gracchi, are... convinced that the Roman elite must be challenged, must be challenged by laws that favor the plebeians, the common people.

Sound familiar? It's called, they're reformers.

However, they come up against a Roman Senate and a Roman elite that is not going to give in.

And it turns to tragedy.

But in this is one character who emerges as behind the scene of these two brothers, the Gracchi.

And that is Cornelia, their mother, celebrated by centuries since then.

Daisy, thank you very much for this.

Pompey's center broke, and he fled the field before the battle was even fully over.

He ran for Egypt, looking for sanctuary from the young Ptolemy XIII, who was about 13, and whose father Pompey himself had helped put back on the throne.

He thought the debt would protect him.

The past favors were money in the bank.

It hangs in the Louvre under inventory number E13482, a sandstone relief measuring roughly two hundred fifty-five by two hundred fifty-three centimeters.

The museum identifies it as the Dendera Zodiac and dates it to June to August 50 BC during the reigns of Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII.

Its decoration includes the zodiac, decans, and constellations, while the celestial field is supported by eight falcon-headed gods and four standing female figures.

Those details provide a far firmer starting point than 19th century speculation about primordial zodiacs and lost epochs.

Older discussions linked its placement in the zodiac with proposed dates around the reign of Cleopatra.

The Louvre's present dating of the relief to 50 BC sits firmly within that same historical setting.

Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII are named by the museum as the reigning monarchs under whom the object was produced.

That date is itself worth dwelling on.

It contained hundreds of thousands of scrolls, perhaps even every important work that ever existed.

Then, in 48 BCE, in a civil war with Ptolemy XIII, Caesar started a fire in the docks, which spread to the library, and the story goes that the Library of Alexandria burned.

But it is not quite that simple.

You see, Caesar was a man of propaganda and stories, which could explain why the stories of this great fire are inconsistent with others.

Its intellectual world was already changing.

Political instability affected Alexandria's scholarly community.

And during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, intellectuals were expelled from the city, including the librarian Aristarchus of Samothrace.

That did not mean that scholarship in Alexandria suddenly ended, but it demonstrates something really important here.

Meanwhile, on Egypt's eastern border, two armies face each other across the sand.

On one side, the forces of the boy king Ptolemy XIII, 20,000 professional soldiers...

Trained, supplied, commanded by a general named Achilles, one of the most experienced military men in Egypt.

On the other side, Cleopatra.

Asinue is apparently not a frightened girl playing at politics.

She is Cleopatra's sister, and she has learned from the same school.

Ptolemy XIII, the boy king, Caesar's reluctant guest inside the palace, has been watching all of this with growing fury.

He still considers himself king.

Perhaps he was afraid of some treachery or surprise, or perhaps in his fallen and hopeless condition he was unwilling to expose himself to the gaze of those who had so often seen him in all the splendor of his former power.

at length when all was ready he sailed away he passed eastward along the mediterranean touching at such ports as he supposed most likely to favor his cause vague and uncertain but still alarming rumors that caesar was advancing in pursuit of him met him everywhere and the people of the various provinces were taking sides some in his favor and some against him the excitement being everywhere so great that the utmost caution and circumspection were required in all his movements sometimes he was refused permission to land at others his friends were too few to afford him protection and at others still though the authorities professed friendship he did not dare to trust them he obtained however some supplies of money and some accessions to the number of ships and men under his command until at length he had quite a little fleet in his train several men of rank and influence who had served under him in the days of his prosperity nobly adhered to him now and formed a sort of court or council on board his galley where they held with their great though fallen commander frequent conversations on the plan which it was best to pursue it was finally decided that it was best to seek refuge in egypt there seemed to be in fact no alternative all the rest of the world was evidently going over to caesar pompey had been the means some years before of restoring a certain king of egypt to his throne and many of his soldiers had been left in the country and remained there still it is true that the king himself had died he had left a daughter named cleopatra and also a son who was at this time very young the name of this youthful prince was ptolemy Ptolemy and Cleopatra had been made by their father joint heirs to the throne.

But Ptolemy, or rather the ministers and counselors who acted for him and in his name, had expelled Cleopatra that they might govern alone.

Cleopatra had raised an army in Syria and was on her way to the frontiers of Egypt to regain possession of what she deemed her rights.

Ptolemy's ministers had gone forth to meet her at the head of their own troops, Ptolemy himself being also with them.

They had reached Pelusium, which is the frontier town between Egypt and Syria on the coast of the Mediterranean.

Here their armies had assembled in vast encampments upon the land, and their galleys and transports were riding at anchor along the shore of the sea.

Pompey and his counsellors thought that the government of Ptolemy would receive him as a friend on account of the services he had rendered to the young prince's father, forgetting that gratitude has never a place on the list of political virtues.