Cleopatra VII (69–30 BCE), queen of Egypt, was the last ruler in the Ptolemaic dynasty,
Cleopatra VII (69–30 BCE), queen of Egypt, was the last ruler in the Ptolemaic dynasty, which held power in Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE. The Egyptian ruler referred to as Cleopatra was Cleopatra VII, daughter of Ptolemy XII, one of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian generals. The identity of Cleopatra’s mother is not known for certain. She may have been the daughter of Ptolemy XII and his first wife, Cleopatra V. Cleopatra V disappears from the historical record sometime before 68 BCE, however, and it is unclear whether this disappearance occurred before or after Cleopatra’s birth in 69 BCE. It is possible that Cleopatra’s mother may have been a concubine of Ptolemy XII (who himself was the son of Ptolemy IX and a concubine). The third option is that Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XII’s second wife (name unknown). This wife was the mother of Ptolemy XII’s three youngest children, Arsinoe IV, Ptolemy XIII, and P...