Arsinoe IV of Egypt

Arsinoë IV (Greek: Ἀρσινόη, ca. 68 or 67 BC – 41 BC) was the youngest daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, and one of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt. Arsinoe IV was the half-sister of Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII, sharing a father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) but having a different mother.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

History

When their father died, he left Ptolemy and Cleopatra as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee Alexandria. When Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BC and sided with Cleopatra's faction, Arsinoë escaped from the capital with her mentor, the eunuch Ganymedes, and joined the Egyptian army under Achillas, assuming the title of pharaoh. When Achillas and Ganymedes clashed, Arsinoë had Achillas executed and placed Ganymedes in command of the army.^[6] Ganymedes initially enjoyed some success against the Romans, but the leading Egyptian officers were soon dissatisfied with the eunuch. They pretended to want peace and negotiated an exchange with Caesar of Arsinoë for Ptolemy XIII, who was released.^[7] But Ptolemy continued the war. Soon the Romans received reinforcements and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Egyptians.

Arsinoe was transported to Rome, where she was forced to appear in Caesar's triumph, 46 BC, but the Romans had pity on her.^[8] Despite usual traditions of prisoners in triumphs being strangled when the festivities were at an end, Caesar spared Arsinoe and granted her sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Arsinoe lived in the temple for a few years, always keeping a watchful eye for her sister Cleopatra, who saw her as a threat to her power. Her fears proved well-founded; in 41 BC, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony ordered Arsinoë executed on the steps of the temple, a gross violation of the temple sanctuary which scandalised Rome.^[9] The priest Megabyzus, who had welcomed Arsinoë on her arrival at the temple as Queen, was only pardoned when an embassy from Ephesus made a petition to Cleopatra.^[10]

Her possible tomb at Ephesus

In the 1990’s an octagonal monument situated in the centre of Ephesus was identified as the tomb of Arsinoë by Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.^[9] There is no inscription in the tomb anymore, but the tomb can be dated to between 50 to 20 BC. In 1926 the body of an approximately 15-18 year old woman of aristocratic rank was found in the burial chamber.

The assumption of the skeleton's identity was based on the shape of the tomb (octagonal, like the Lighthouse of Alexandria), the timing of the death (around 20BC), the gender of the skeleton, and the age of the child at death.^[11] It is also claimed that the tomb contains Egyptian motifs, such as "papyri-bundle" columns.^[9]

Others remained less certain regarding the identification, for example,^[12] pointing out that if the body in the tomb is Arsinoë, then, given the age of the body, Arsinoë was born between 59 BC and 56 BC, making her between 8 and 11 at the time of Caesar's arrival in Alexandria. Her actions in the brief war that followed had suggested she was someone older than that.^[13] As a result of the earlier assumption that she was older, her date of birth was usually placed between 68 BC and 62 BC.^[14] which would have made it impossible for her to be the woman buried in the Octagon. However the possibility remains that she was in fact younger than had previously been assumed, and that she may just have been a figurehead rather than an active participant in the war.

A writer from the London Times described the identification of the skeleton as “a triumph of conjecture over certainty”.^[15]

The skull was lost in Germany during WWII. However Hilke Thuer examined the old notes and photographs of the now-missing skull,^[16][17] and concluded that it shows signs of an admixture of African & Egyptian ancestry mixed with classical Grecian features^[9] - despite the fact that Boas, Gravlee, Bernard and Leonard and others have demonstrated that skull measurements are not a reliable indicator of race.^[18][19] Although Arsinoe was only a half-sister to Cleopatra, Afrocentrists have accordingly claimed that Cleopatra VII was black. {see also Ancient Egyptian race controversy}

If the monument is really the tomb of Arsinoë, she would be the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty whose body has survived until today.^[20]

Ancestry

Notes

1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_XII_Auletes
2. ^ http://www.kingtutone.com/queens/cleopatra/idea/
3. ^ The lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, By Sarah Fielding, Christopher D. Johnson
4. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=cPgR2mW2OuEC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=%2Bcleopatra,+%2B%22half+sister%22,+%2B%22Dio+Cassius%22,+%2Barsinoe&source=bl&ots=3Y-CKLNs88&sig=oB2xbb9viAuPbzJNNKw6ivsQa5I&hl=en&ei=tBTfSYLCIIPu7AOI_oWQDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10
5. ^ http://www.egyptvoyager.com/features_womeninancientegypt_cleopatra.htm
6. ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili 3.112.10-12; De Bello Alexandrino 4; Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.39.1-2; 42.40.1; Lucan, Pharsalia 10.519-523
7. ^ De Bello Alexandrino 23-24 and, with some deviations, Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.42
8. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.19.2-3; Appian, Civil Wars 2.101.420
9. ^ ^{a b c d} BBC documentary, Cleopatra portrait of a killer
10. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15.89; Josephus, Contra Apion 2.57; inaccurate Appian, Civil Wars 5.9.34-36 and Cassius Dio Roman History 48.24.2
11. ^ http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-BBC-invents-its-own-Cleopatra..html&Itemid=102
12. ^ Mary Beard, "The skeleton of Cleopatra's sister? Steady on.", A Don's Life, March 16, 2009.
13. ^ http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-BBC-invents-its-own-Cleopatra..html&Itemid=102
14. ^ http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/arsinoe_iv.htm
15. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5931845.ece
16. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5908494.ece
17. ^ Cleopatra's mother 'was African' - BBC (2009)
18. ^ http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/people/faculty/CG_pubs/gravlee03b.pdf
19. ^ Clarence C. Gravlee, H. Russell Bernard, and William R. Leonard find in “Heredity, Environment, and Cranial Form: A Re-Analysis of Boas’s Immigrant Data” (American Anthropologist 105[1]:123–136, 2003)
20. ^ Hilke Thür: Arsinoë IV, eine Schwester Kleopatras VII, Grabinhaberin des Oktogons von Ephesos? Ein Vorschlag. (Arsinoë IV, a sister of Cleopatra VII, grave owner of the Octagon in Ephesus? A suggestion.) In: Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts, vol. 60, 1990, p. 43–56.

References

• Encyclopædia Britannica, 2003 edition

External links

• www.livius.org: Arsinoe IV
• Biography by Christopher Bennett: Arsinoe IV