When Cleopatra took her own life, she left behind her four surviving children.

Her firstborn, and only living child with Caesar, Caesarion, did not live for long after her death. She had sent him away from Egypt for his own safety, but he was falsely lured back with promises of being allowed to rule in her place. He was murdered by Octavian’s men, after he’d received advice that “Too many Caesars is not good". As Caesar’s biological son, he was too much of a threat to Octavian’s rule. It’s thought he was likely killed by strangulation, but no one knows that for certain, or what happened to his body. He was only 17 years old.

It was a different story for her children with Mark Antony. There were the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, who were both 9 at the time of their mother’s death, and Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was just 5 or 6. The three of them were taken to Rome by Octavian, and forced to walk behind his chariot in his Triumph Parade, attached to it with chains so heavy they could barely walk. This aroused not the scorn he’d been expecting, but sympathy for the poor young children. Octavian gave them to his sister Octavia, who had been married to their father, to be raised along with her children.

Neither of the boys would see adulthood, both apparently dying sometime before 25 B.C. There were rumours that Octavian had both of them killed, not wanting any adult sons of Antony and Cleopatra to remain alive.

On this day in history, August 12th, two thousand and forty seven years ago, Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of Ancient Egypt, committed suicide.

Eleven days previously, her husband Marc Antony had already done the same. The couple had been engaged in a civil war against Octavian, the great nephew of Julius Caesar who had been declared his legal heir. During the final battle in Alexandria, Antony suffered serious desertions among his troops and lost the fight. Upon his return, he falsely heard Cleopatra had killed herself and fell on his sword.

After Antony’s death, Octavian arrived in Egypt and effectively took Cleopatra and her children by Antony prisoner. She had sent her eldest son Caesarion, her only living child with Caesar, away for his own safety. She knew that Octavian planned for her to march in chains behind his chariot during his triumph parade, and would very likely have her killed afterwards. Rather than suffer such humiliations and indignity, she chose to take her own life.

Popular history and mythology leads us to believe that she was killed by inducing an asp to bite her, after having locked herself in her mausoleum with her two handmaidens. However, many modern scholars believe that she instead took a mixture of poisons, since the venom of an asp does not cause a quick or painless death. Octavian and his men found her too late to do anything, Cleopatra was already dead and one handmaiden, Iras, was nearly dead on the floor. The second, Charmian, was straightening the Queen’s diadem. According to legend, one of the men asked if this was well done of her mistress, and she shot back “Very well done, as befitting the descendant of so many noble Kings.”

Upon her death, Octavian honoured her wish to be buried in her mausoleum at Antony’s side. He took her children with Antony, the twins Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, along with their younger brother, Ptolemy Philadelphus, to Rome with him as prisoners of sorts. They were fated to march in his triumph parade in their mother’s place, the chains so heavy they could hardly walk. After this they were given to Octavian’s sister Octavia, who had been Antony’s third wife, to look after.

Cleopatra’s son with Caesar, Caesarion, was nominally sole ruler of Egypt after his mother’s death. Eleven days after her suicide, he was found after being lured back to Alexandria under false pretences of being allowed to rule in his mother’s place. Octavian ordered his murder, on advice that “Two Caesar were too many.”

At the age of only thirty-three, Octavian had finally achieved the undisputed control of the Roman world which had been his unwavering ambition through fourteen years of civil war.  To this end, he had been responsible for death, destruction, confiscation, and unbroken misery on a scale quite unmatched in all the previous phases of Roman civil conflict over the past century.

Ankles crossed, fingers tangled in her lap, Demetria sat demurely on her seat upon the stage, wishing she was anywhere but where she was but ( in her mind ) faking just the right level of interest in his speech to be convincing. 

As he began introducing Octavian and began the usual stick about Caesar and their loving bond, Tria felt a knot form in her stomach that tightened as he continued. Out of loyalty to Caesarion she couldn’t sit there ( thousands strong crowd or not ) and co-sign the rubbish her father was sprouting. She knew what it did to him, could see his face before her eyes, when he heard about what they said and how they tried to erase him and abused his mother as they did. 

“I will not trade Demetria’s safety for my life. No. […] Tell Demetria I love her very much, and I am so proud of her and the woman she has become. Tell her I love her.”

On this day in history, August 23rd, in 30 B.C., Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar was murdered. Better known by his nickname of Caesarion, he was the only living child born to Cleopatra VII and Gaius Julius Caesar. Although often portrayed as a young child at the time on film, he was in fact 17 years old at the time of his death.

Despite the fact that he was Caesar’s biological son, he was not a Roman Citizen and when Caesar was murdered his will named his great-nephew as heir instead. Cleopatra knew that Caesarion would be in great danger because he was a threat to Octavian’s position. She had sent her eldest son away from Egypt during the final stages of the war against Rome for his own safety.

After her defeat and subsequent suicide, he was nominally sole ruler of Egypt. He was lured back to Alexandria by false promises that he would be able to rule the country in his mother’s place and upon his return Octavian had him murdered. He had been given advice to do so based on a pun on a line in Homer “Too many Caesars is not good.”