Cleopatra IV ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα) was Queen of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

briefly from 116 to 115 BC, jointly with her husband

Ptolemy IX Lathyros Ptolemy IX Soter II Ptolemy IX also took the same title 'Soter' as Ptolemy I. In older references and in more recent references by the German historian Huss, Ptolemy IX may be numbered VIII. ( el, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτ� ...

. She later became queen consort of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

as the wife of Antiochus IX Cyzicenus.Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004

Biography

Queen of Egypt

Cleopatra IV was the daughter of

Ptolemy VIII Physcon Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Tryphon ( gr, Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης Τρύφων, ''Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs Tryphon'' "Ptolemy the Benefactor; c. 184 BC – 28 June 116 BC), nicknamed Physcon ( "Fatty"), was a king of the Ptolema ...

and Cleopatra III of Egypt. She was born between 138 and 135 BC. She was the sister of

Ptolemy IX Ptolemy IX Soter II Ptolemy IX also took the same title 'Soter' as Ptolemy I. In older references and in more recent references by the German historian Huss, Ptolemy IX may be numbered VIII. ( el, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτ� ...

, Ptolemy X, Cleopatra Selene I and Tryphaena. Cleopatra IV married her brother Ptolemy IX when he was still a prince in c. 119/118 BC. Cleopatra IV may be the mother of

Ptolemy XII Auletes Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus Philopator Philadelphus ( grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος Νέος Διόνυσος Φιλοπάτωρ Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaios Neos Dionysos Philopatōr Philadelphos; – 51 BC) was a pharaoh of the Ptolemai ...

and

Ptolemy of Cyprus Ptolemy of Cyprus was the king of Cyprus c. 80-58 BC. He was the younger brother of Ptolemy XII Auletes, king of Egypt, and, like him, an illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX Lathyros. He was also the uncle of Cleopatra VII. Reign over Cyprus He appea ...

, although an unnamed concubine could be the mother of these two men as well.Cleopatra IV
by Chris Bennett. In c. 115 BC Cleopatra III forced Cleopatra IV and Ptolemy IX to divorce. She replaced Cleopatra IV with her sister Cleopatra Selene.

Queen of Syria and death

After her forced divorce, Cleopatra IV fled Egypt and went to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, where she married Antiochus IX Cyzicenus and brought him the army of his half brother

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

King

Antiochus VIII Grypus Antiochus VIII Epiphanes/Callinicus/Philometor, nicknamed Grypus ( gr, Γρυπός, "hook-nose"), was the ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire from 125 to 96 BC. He was the younger son of Demetrius II and Cleopatra Thea. He may have spent h ...

of Syria, which she had convinced to follow her. Grypus fought Cyzicenus and eventually chased him to Antioch. Grypus was married to Cleopatra IV's sister Tryphaena. Tryphaena decided that Cleopatra IV should die and over the protests of her husband summoned some soldiers and had Cleopatra IV murdered in the sanctuary of Daphne in Antioch. In his comprehensive website about Ptolemaic genealogy, Christopher Bennett also notes the possibility that Cleopatra IV, from her brief marriage to Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, may have been the mother of the later Seleucid monarch, Antiochus X Eusebes ("the Pious").Chris Bennett
''Arsinoe IV''
/ref> Antiochus X would go on to marry Cleopatra IV's younger sister, Cleopatra Selene, thus making him the spouse of a woman who was his stepmother (Selene married both of her sisters' widowers, Grypus and Cyzicenus, before marrying Eusebes) and perhaps his maternal aunt.

Ancestry

References

External links