It was the year 30 B.C. when Octavian’s victory at the Battle of Actium ended the Third Civil War, turning Egypt into a mere Roman province. With this new political-administrative status, the dignity of the Egyptian pharaoh disappeared and was replaced by that of a proconsul. The last one, who reigned alongside his mother Cleopatra as co-regent, was named Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, but he went down in history with the nickname given to him by his own subjects in Alexandria: Caesarion, meaning Little Caesar, as he was the alleged son of Julius Caesar.

We say alleged because, although this paternity is generally accepted as true, it is not entirely clear. The sources that attest to it are later, and Caesar himself never officially acknowledged it—although it seems he allowed the boy to use his name—probably due to the legal issues it would have caused in terms of his will.

Perhaps for this reason, there were authors who denied it; among the most significant was Gaius Oppius, a close friend and secretary of Caesar, who wrote a pamphlet attempting to prove the falsehood of the filiation.

Cleopatra and Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Cleopatra and Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

In any case, even in his time, it was believed that Caesarion was his son, conceived during the encounter that Caesar had with Cleopatra during the Siege of Alexandria, in the context of the succession struggle between the Egyptian queen and her brother Ptolemy XIII. They both remained together for two months after the hostilities ended, and she received the crown associated with another brother, the younger Ptolemy XIV (who was twelve years old). Cleopatra gave birth in Alexandria in June 47 B.C. and settled with her lover in the Horti Caesari, one of the two villas he had in Rome.

The reason for moving to the capital of the Republic would have been to wait for the newborn to be declared heir and successor, as he was the only known biological son of Caesar. However, as previously mentioned, Caesar never legally recognized him, increasing accusations of illegitimacy and the impossibility of that hereditary status, especially since Caesarion did not have Roman citizenship. This became even more apparent in 44 B.C., when Caesar adopted his great-nephew Octavian, the same year he was assassinated.

The dictator’s death prompted Cleopatra’s return to Egypt, bringing her son with her. They arrived in Alexandria, where barely five months later, the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIV died—probably poisoned by her—thus taking his place on the throne and appointing her son as co-regent, despite the fact that he was only three years old; the Roman Senate approved it.

Caesarion (right) waving sistrums before the goddess Isis
Caesarion (right) waving sistrums before the goddess Isis. Credit: Rama / Wikimedia Commons

The boy was named Ptolemy XV, but his mother added the cognomen Caesar, from which the popular nickname derives. They were, as she herself said and as iconography showed, equivalent to the goddess Isis and her son Horus.

There is no further news of him for eight years; this is a constant, as we barely have biographical data about him beyond what is strictly related to Cleopatra and Caesar. Perhaps, as an adolescent, he had a Greek tutor named Rhodon.

Even the iconography is scarce, basically reduced to a statue complementary to another found in the port of Alexandria in 1997, a relief from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera in which he is shown with his mother as an adult pharaoh, his infant effigy on some coins… Most of the artistic representations are much later.

Cleopatra and Caesarion in a relief from the temple of Dendera
Cleopatra and Caesarion in a relief from the temple of Dendera. Credit: Olaf Tausch / Wikimedia Commons

Except for a reference in 36 B.C., the so-called Donations of Antioch (so named because they were made in that city, where Mark Antony and Cleopatra, accompanied by their children, met), Caesarion is not mentioned again in documents until 34 B.C., in the Donations of Alexandria. These were a set of legacies by which Mark Antony distributed lands among Cleopatra’s children (besides the one in question, she had three others with the Roman: Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus) and proclaimed the end of his marriage to Octavia (he had married the Egyptian queen despite bigamy being illegal in Rome).

Through the Donations of Alexandria, Mark Antony gave Armenia and Parthia (which had not yet been conquered) to Alexander Helios, Cyrenaica and Libya to Cleopatra Selene II, and Syria and Cilicia to Ptolemy Philadelphus. He also named a teenage Caesarion, fourteen years old, Pharaoh and King of Kings, as a co-regent but subordinate to his mother (the iconography always shows him in a lower position, while Mark Antony appears at the same height), in addition to officially recognizing him as the son of Julius Caesar and self-designating as his tutor. He even added the distinction of Divi filius, meaning son of a god, something unprecedented.

All this was the final straw that exhausted Octavian’s patience, who until then was his partner in the triumvirate along with Lepidus (and who, ironically, would later also use the title Divi filius). The offense inflicted on his sister and the fact that Libya, which Mark Antony had given to his daughter, was under his jurisdiction, compounded by the recognition of Caesar’s paternity, posed a danger to his ambition to seize power because of the influence the child might have over the army and the Roman people themselves; pushing things to the extreme, there was the risk that he might even consider Octavian himself a usurper.

The Donations of Alexandria: the darkest tone is the Egyptian kingdom; the medium, the territories ceded to Cleopatra's children; the light, those retained by Mark Antony
The Donations of Alexandria: the darkest tone is the Egyptian kingdom; the medium, the territories ceded to Cleopatra’s children; the light, those retained by Mark Antony. Credit: Howard Wiseman / Wikimedia Commons

Consequently, in 33 B.C., not only was the triumvirate not renewed, but Octavian managed to get hold of Mark Antony’s will, which was deposited in the Temple of Vesta, and make it public. The document revealed that its author left nothing to his wife Octavia or to the daughters he had with her, despite them being the legal heirs according to Roman law. As expected, the scandal led to the declaration of war on Egypt, and as previously explained, the conflict ended with Octavian’s victory. Mark Antony and Cleopatra, after the defeat at Actium, took their own lives, and the fate of their offspring took a turn.

Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus had to parade in chains in the military triumph celebrated in Rome and were subsequently handed over to Octavia, who was already caring for Antony’s children from previous marriages. Nothing more is known about the two boys; she was married to the Numidian king Juba II. As for Caesarion, his mother initially informed him that he should assume the crown alone later, perhaps because she hoped Octavian would let her go into exile with her lover; after all, he had done so with Lepidus despite his having taken up arms.

However, Octavian was not willing to leave dangerous loose ends; as his mentor Arrius Didymus said, it is not good to have so many Caesars. Therefore, he was relentless when Caesarion made the mistake of listening to Rhodon’s advice to trust in the Roman’s magnanimity. Cleopatra had sent him to safety on a boat that, ascending the Nile, first took him to Coptos and then to Berenike on the Red Sea coast, from where he could seek asylum in Arabia or India. Instead, in 30 B.C., just after reaching adulthood, he returned to Alexandria, where Octavian ordered his death. His mother and Mark Antony had preceded him in this.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on June 17, 2024: La historia de Cesarión, el infortunado hijo de Julio César y Cleopatra

Sources

Plutarco, Vidas paralelas | Dion Casio, Historia romana | Suetonio, Vidas de los doce césares | Adrian Goldsworthy, César | Duane W. Roller, Cleopatra, biografía de una reina | Ernle Bradford, Cleopatra | Wikipedia

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