The Ptolemaic dynasty, also known as the Lagid dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal house which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Reigning for 275 years, the Ptolemaic was the longest and last dynasty of ancient Egypt from 305 BC until its incorporation into the Roman Republic in 30 BC.
Arsinoë II was a Ptolemaic queen and possibly co-regent of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of ancient Egypt. She was given the Egyptian title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt", that could potentially suggest she was co-ruler of her husband, however the exact meaning of this elevation or even wheter it happened during her life or posthumously is a debated.
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language. After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the last Hellenistic-period state in the Mediterranean, a period which had lasted since the reign of Alexander.
Ptolemy XV Caesar, nicknamed Caesarion, was the last pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, reigning with his mother Cleopatra VII from 2 September 44 BC until her death by 12 August 30 BC, then as sole ruler until his death was ordered by Octavian.
Berenice II Euergetis was queen regnant of Cyrenaica from 258 to 246 BCE and queen of Ptolemaic Egypt from 246 to 222 BCE as the wife of Ptolemy III. She is sometimes considered co-regent of her Ptolemaic husband.
Arsinoe III Philopator was Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt in 220 – 204 BC. She was a daughter of Ptolemy III and Berenice II and spouse of her brother Ptolemy IV, possibly co-ruler. She was the first Ptolemaic queen to bear her brother's child.
Cleopatra I Syra was a princess of the Seleucid Empire, Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt by marriage to Ptolemy V of Egypt, and regent of Egypt during the minority of their son, Ptolemy VI, from her husband's death in 180 BC until her own death in 176 BC.
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt following a period of political division known as the First Intermediate Period. The Middle Kingdom lasted from approximately 2040 to 1782 BC, stretching from the reunification of Egypt under the reign of Mentuhotep II in the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. The kings of the Eleventh Dynasty ruled from Thebes and the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty ruled from el-Lisht.
Cleopatra Selene II was a Ptolemaic princess, Queen of Numidia and Mauretania and Queen of Cyrenaica. She was an important royal woman in the early Augustan age.
Cleopatra Selene was the Queen consort of Egypt from 115 to 102 BC, the Queen consort of Syria from 102 to 92 BC, and the monarch of Syria from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III of Egypt, Cleopatra Selene was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in Cleopatra III's political manoeuvres. In 115 BC, Cleopatra III forced her son Ptolemy IX to divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra IV, and chose Cleopatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt. Tension between the king and his mother grew and ended with his expulsion from Egypt, leaving Cleopatra Selene behind; she probably then married the new king, her other brother Ptolemy X.
The Ptolemaic Kingdom or Ptolemaic Empire was an Ancient Greek polity based in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Macedonian general Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. Reigning for nearly three centuries, the Ptolemies were the longest and final dynasty of ancient Egypt, heralding a distinctly new era for religious and cultural syncretism between Greek and Egyptian culture.
The Esquiline Venus is a smaller-than-life-size Roman nude marble sculpture of a female in sandals and a diadem headdress. There is no definitive scholarly consensus on either its provenience or its subject. It is widely viewed as a 1st-century CE Roman copy of a Hellenistic original from the 1st-century BCE Ptolemaic Kingdom, commissioned by emperor Claudius to decorate the Horti Lamiani.
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty spanned the period from 1550/1549 to 1292 BC. This dynasty is also known as the Thutmoside Dynasty) for the four pharaohs named Thutmose.
Women in ancient Egypt had some special rights other women did not have in other comparable societies. They could own property and were, at court, legally equal to men. However, Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal society dominated by men. Only a few women are known to have important positions in administration, though there were female rulers and even female pharaohs. Women at the royal court gained their positions by relationship to male kings.
The Bust of Cleopatra VII is a granite bust currently on display in the Gallery of Ancient Egypt at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). It is believed to have been discovered in Alexandria, Egypt at the site of Cleopatra's sunken palace on the island of Antirhodos. The bust was purchased by the ROM's founder Charles Trick Currelly while on expedition in Egypt in the early 20th Century.
The early life of Cleopatra VII covers the period from Cleopatra's birth in early 69 BC to her accession to the throne during or before March 51 BC. Cleopatra was born to the reigning pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, Ptolemy XII Auletes; the identity of her mother is disputed and is presumed to have been Cleopatra V or Cleopatra VI, who may have been the same person. During her early childhood, Cleopatra was brought up in the palace of Alexandria in Egypt and received a primarily Hellenistic Greek education. By adulthood she was well-versed in many languages, including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Median, Parthian, Latin, and her native Koine Greek.
The royal sealer, also called royal seal-bearer, was an Ancient Egyptian official position and title. The name literally means "sealer of the king of Lower Egypt," but it seems unlikely that the position was ever geographically limited. In the Early Dynastic period and Old Kingdom, it was one of the most important positions in Egypt. The bearer seems to have headed the treasury and had significant symbolic power as an official representative of the Pharaoh. As a "ranking title," it indicated the bearer's pre-eminence in court. In the late Middle Kingdom, it was revived as a ranking title borne by many of the highest officials in the court. This apparently coincided with an increased prominence of seals in the Egyptian administration, as part of a centralisation of the bureaucracy. The title spread more widely in the Second Intermediate period, diluting its power.
