Ptolemy Philadelphus

The Parthians’ defeat of Antony’s invasion forces in 36 BCE and Octavian’s refusal to support him in his eastern adventures has made him more dependent on Cleopatra’s support; this leads to an open breach with Octavian, who uses Antony’s relationship to rouse popular opinion against him.

Octavian argues that Antony is a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt.

Antony is accused of everything, but most of all, of "becoming native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans.

Several times Antony is summoned to Rome, but remains in Alexandria with Cleopatra.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, the couople's’s second son together, is born in August or September of 36 BCE.

A Roman Triumph is celebrated in the streets of Alexandria upon Antony’s return from his successful expedition to Armenia.

The parade through the city, a proceeding regarded by Romans as an impious parody of their traditional Triumph, is a pastiche of Rome's most important military celebration.

For the finale, the whole city is summoned a few days later to hear a very important political statement.

Antony, surrounded by Cleopatra and her children, is about to put an end to his alliance with Octavian.

He distributes kingdoms between his children by Cleopatra, giving them imposing royal titles: Alexander Helios is named king of Armenia, Media, and Parthia (which was never conquered by Rome), his twin Cleopatra Selene receives Cyrenaica and Libya, and the young Ptolemy Philadelphus is awarded Phoenicia, Syria and Cilicia.

As for Cleopatra, she is proclaimed Queen of Kings and Queen of Egypt, to rule with Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Caesar, son of Julius Caesar), King of Kings and King of Egypt.

Most important of all, Caesarion is declared the legitimate son and heir of Caesar, for Cleopatra, and now Antony, claim that Julius Caesar had fathered the boy).

These proclamations, known as the Donations of Alexandria, cause a fatal breach in Antony's relations with Rome.

The exact significance and substantiality of these Donations are disputable, but critics interpret them as involving the transfer of Roman territories into alien, Greek, hands.

Distributing insignificant lands among the children of Cleopatra is not a peace move, but neither is it a serious problem.

The serious threat to Octavian's political position, however, is the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name.

Octavian's base of power is his link with Caesar through adoption, which grants him much-needed popularity and loyalty of the legions.

To see this convenient situation attacked by a child borne by the richest woman in the world is something Octavian cannot accept.

Octavian, now close to absolute power, does not intend to give Antony and Cleopatra a rest, although it is nearly a year before Octavian reaches his two principal enemies in Egypt.

Assisted by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in August 30 BCE, he invades.

Marching on Alexandria, he is initially repulsed by Antony’s forces.

Antony, with no other refuge to which he can escape, commits suicide by stabbing himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra had already done so.

When he finds out that Cleopatra is still alive, his friends bring him to Cleopatra's monument in which she is hiding, and he dies in her arms. (However, some sources claim that he did not commit suicide but was killed by an Egyptian priest who favored Octavian.)

Cleopatra, after her capture by Octavian, is allowed to conduct Antony's burial rites.

Realizing that she is destined for Octavian's triumph in Rome, she makes several attempts to take her life and is finally successful in mid-August, probably by permitting herself to be bitten by a poisonous asp (alternately, she may, on Octavian’s orders, have been beheaded).

Cleopatra's son by Caesar, Caesarion, is proclaimed pharaoh by the Egyptians, after Alexandria falls to Octavian.

Caesarion is captured and killed, his fate reportedly sealed when one of Octavian's advisers paraphrased Homer: "It is bad to have too many Caesars."

This ends not just the Hellenistic line of Egyptian pharaohs, but the line of all Egyptian pharaohs.

The daughter and two sons of Cleopatra and Antony are spared and taken back to Rome where, after being paraded through the streets, they are cared for by Antony's wife, Octavia Minor.

The daughter, Cleopatra Selene, is married through arrangements of Octavian to Juba II of Mauretania.

Antony’s elder son and designated heir, the seventeen-year-old Marcus Antonius Antyllus, is killed by Octavian's men while pleading for his life in the Caesareum.

The Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt is no more.

The seizure of Cleopatra's treasure enables Octavian to pay off his veterans and make him finally master of the entire Greco-Roman world.