Cleopatra Selene of Syria

Cleopatra II Selene was the monarch of Syria from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III of Egypt, she was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in her political manoeuvres. She had many children by several husbands. She was executed by Tigranes II of Armenia in 69 BC after he captured her and later executed her.

About Cleopatra Selene of Syria in brief

Cleopatra II Selene was the monarch of Syria from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III of Egypt, she was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in her political manoeuvres. She had many children by several husbands. She was executed by Tigranes II of Armenia in 69 BC after he captured her and later executed her. As a queen of Syria she was termed the second name ‘Cleopsatra I’ to differentiate her from her predecessor and aunt and mother of her husbands Antiochus VIII and Antiochus IX. The name Selene is connected to the word selas, meaning ‘light’ or’moon’ and may have been a divinising epithet for her as the moon goddess on earth. She may have declared herself co-ruler after the death of Antiochus XII in 230 SE, and seems to have named her son Antiochus XIII as her king. She also married a final time to Antiochus X, who disappeared from the records and is presumed to have died in 92 BC, but may have remained in power until 8988 BC. In 116 BC, she left Egypt and left Syria, perhaps to consolidate the will of the Egyptians; the Ptolemies left Egypt in 116 BC and died in 116BC. She is thought to have had many siblings, including P tolemy IX, PtoLEmy X, and Cleoopatra IV. In 115 BC she forced her son PtoLemy IX to divorce his sister-wife Cleoopera IV, and chose Cleopsatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt.

She probably then married the new king, her other brother PTolemy X. By the second century BC, the Seleucid Empire and the P Tolemaic Kingdom were weakened by dynastic feuds, constant wars against each other, and Roman interference. To ease the tension, the two dynasties intermarried. Those intermarriages helped Egypt destabilize Syria which was especially fragmented between different claimants to the throne; brothers fought between themselves and Egypt interfered by supporting one claimant against the other. The people of Antioch and the governor of Damascus invited foreign monarchs to rule them: TigranES II of Armenians took Antioch, while Aretas III of Nabataea took Damascus. In 193 BC, Cleoparat I of Syria married Ptolmy V of Egypt in 193 BC. Her granddaughter Cleoprat Thea married three Syrian kings in succession starting in 150 BC. Sibling marriage was known in ancient Egypt, although it was not a general practice, although not acceptable for the Egyptians, and many historians have used this convention in ancient times. It was also practised in ancient Syria and Egypt, but not known in the ancient Egyptians, although the Egyptians and Egyptians, perhaps the P tolemies, left it out of their will, perhaps because it was acceptable for them to consolidate their will.

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