Cleopatra Selene I

Cleopatra Selene I was a Ptolemaic queen who held royal authority from about 115 BC to 102 BC, with dates uncertain by about a year. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III, she was thrust into royal governance when her mother compelled Ptolemy IX Lathyros to divorce Cleopatra IV and marry her instead.

Following the flight of Ptolemy IX from Alexandria, Cleopatra Selene was briefly married to her younger brother Ptolemy X Alexander I. Her mother subsequently sent her to Syria as a diplomatic bride. In the Levant, she married three successive Seleucid monarchs: Antiochus VIII Grypus, Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, and Antiochus X Eusebes. Through these unions she played an active role in Syrian dynastic wars and bore sons who claimed the Seleucid throne, before she was eventually captured and put to death in Mesopotamia.

Cleopatra Selene left no distinct surviving architectural monuments in Egypt. Scholars understand her life primarily through Greek and Latin historical texts, contemporary coin issues, and references in administrative papyri from the late Hellenistic world. She was buried at Seleucia on the Tigris, and her tomb is lost.

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