Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter

The twins were formally acknowledged by their father, Triumvir Mark Antony, during a political meeting with their mother in 37 BC. She was raised and highly educated in Alexandria in a manner appropriate for a princess. Her second name ('moon' in Ancient Greek) opposes the second name of her twin brother, Alexander Helios ('sun' in Ancient Greek). Through their granddaughter Drusilla, the Ptolemaic line intermarried into Roman nobility for many generations.īronze statuette of a boy in Oriental dress identified as a possible depiction of Alexander Helios, mid-1st century BC, Metropolitan Museum of ArtĬleopatra Selene was born in approximately 40 BC in Egypt, as Queen Cleopatra VII's only daughter. The couple had a son and successor, Ptolemy of Mauretania. During their reign, the country became extremely wealthy. She had great influence in Mauretania's government decisions, especially regarding trade and construction projects. Selene eventually married Juba II of Numidia and Mauretania. After Antony and Cleopatra's defeat at Actium and their suicides in Egypt in 30 BC, Selene and her brothers were brought to Rome and placed in the household of Octavian's sister, Octavia the Younger, a former wife of her father.

In the Donations of Antioch and of Alexandria, she was made queen of Cyrenaica and Libya.

She was an important royal woman in the early Augustan age.Ĭleopatra Selene was the only daughter of Greek Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.

5 BC the numeration is modern) was a Ptolemaic princess, Queen of Numidia (briefly in 25 BC) and Mauretania (25 BC – 5 BC) and Queen of Cyrenaica (34 BC – 30 BC ).

Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter