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When she returned to Alexandria, her brother/husband/co-regent died, and she became co-regent with her infant son. Later, while Cleopatra was visiting Julius Caesar in Rome, he was assassinated (44 BC). When she gave birth to a son, she named him Ptolemy Caesar (nicknamed Caesarion, “Little Caesar”), leaving some question as to who the father was. With the help of Caesar and the Roman armies, she defeated Ptolemy XIII and was married to another brother, Ptolemy XIV. She raised an army and enlisted the support of Julius Caesar. Shortly after her father’s death, Cleopatra had to flee from her brother Ptolemy XIII, who was also possibly her husband.

Cleopatra became queen upon the death of her father in 51 BC, and she ruled with two of her brothers and then with her son. At the time of Cleopatra, Greeks had been ruling Egypt for almost 300 years. One of his generals, Ptolemy, received the territory that included Egypt. She was a central figure in the early development of the Roman Empire, which is the cultural and political backdrop for the New Testament.Īfter the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the Greek empire was divided among his generals.

She lived toward the end of the intertestamental period, the approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and beginning of the New. Neither Cleopatra is mentioned in the Bible.Ĭleopatra of Egypt (approximately 70-30BC), a member of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, was queen of Egypt for 22 years until her death at age 39. The more famous Cleopatra of Egypt is the subject of this article. Cleopatra of Jerusalem was the fifth wife of Herod the Great, and she is mentioned by the historian Josephus. First, a quick disambiguation, as history records two Cleopatras: Cleopatra of Jerusalem and Cleopatra of Egypt.