She had a reported fool for a father, not one of the more accomplished or acclaimed Ptolemies in the long line of rulers; a country on the verge of being gobbled up by Rome; and far too many siblings in a fight for the throne to have a good chance of winning it (she had two older sisters who could claim it first, two brothers who no doubt would be preferred as rulers due to their gender, and one younger but very aggressive sister who couldn’t be discounted as a threat). That she won out is a testament to her aggressiveness and astuteness—neither of which she seemed to have inherited from her father, so the earlier Cleopatras must have been running solidly in her blood. Her father, Auletes, was not chosen by his father to ascend the throne. He was rather a desperation choice by the Alexandrians since the recently killed couple left no children. Auletes was the elder son of one of the Ptolemies who had been in hiding in Syria, and his mother was not of royal lineage (that Ptolemy was not expecting to be pharaoh), but Alexandrian elites had to pick someone, some Ptolemy, and he was the best they thought they could do.
What do You think about The Murder Of Cleopatra (2013)?
