| Arsinoë IV | |
|---|---|
 Rescue of Arsinoe, byJacopo Tintoretto, 1555–1556 | |
| Reign | September 48 BC withPtolemy XIII (December 48 – January 47 BC) |
| Predecessor | Ptolemy XIII andCleopatra VII |
| Successor | Ptolemy XIV and Cleopatra VII |
| Father | Ptolemy XII Auletes |
| Mother | Unknown |
| Born | 68–63 BC Alexandria,Egypt |
| Died | 41 BC Ephesus (modern-daySelçuk,İzmir,Turkey) |
| Burial | Ephesus |
| Dynasty | Ptolemaic dynasty |
Arsinoë IV (Ancient Greek:Ἀρσινόη; between 68 and 63 BC – 41 BC) was the youngest daughter ofPtolemy XII Auletes. One of the last members of thePtolemaic dynasty, she claimed title of Queen ofPtolemaic Egypt and co-rulership with her brotherPtolemy XIII in 48 BC – 47 BC in opposition to her sister or half-sister,Cleopatra VII.[1][2][3][4] For her role in conducting thesiege of Alexandria (47 BC) against Cleopatra, Arsinoë was taken as a prisoner of war toRome by theRoman triumvirJulius Caesar following the defeat of Ptolemy XIII in theBattle of the Nile. Arsinoë was then exiled to theTemple of Artemis atEphesus inRoman Anatolia, but she was executed there by orders oftriumvirMark Antony in 41 BC at the behest of his lover Cleopatra VII.
Arsinoë was the third, possibly fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII by an unknown woman (Cleopatra VII's probable motherCleopatra V had died or been repudiated not long after Cleopatra VII was born, hence it's unclear if she bore her husband's younger children.)[1][2][3][4] When Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, he left his eldest son and eldest surviving daughter, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee fromAlexandria.Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BC pursuing his rival,Pompey, whom he had defeated at theBattle of Pharsalus. When he arrived in Alexandria, he was presented with Pompey's head. The execution of his long-term rival ended the possibility of an alliance between Caesar and Ptolemy, and he sided with Cleopatra's faction. He declared that in accordance with Ptolemy XII's will, Cleopatra and Ptolemy would rule Egypt jointly, and in a similar motion restoredCyprus, which had been annexed by Rome in 58 BC, to Egypt's rule and gave it to Arsinoë and her youngest brother,Ptolemy XIV.[5][6]
However, Arsinoë then escaped from the capital with her mentor, the eunuchGanymedes, and took command of the Egyptian army.[7] She also proclaimed herself Queen as Arsinoë IV, executedAchillas, whom she had replaced as the army commander, and placed Ganymedes second in command of the army immediately below herself.[6][8] Under Arsinoë's leadership, the Egyptians enjoyed some success against theRomans. The Egyptians trapped Caesar in a section of the city by building walls to close off the streets. Caesar countered this measure by digging wells into the porous limestone beneath the city that contained fresh water. This only partially alleviated the situation, so he then sent ships out along the coast to search for more fresh water there.[9] Caesar realized that he would need to break out of the city and hoped to do so by gaining control of the harbor. He launched an attack to seize control of theLighthouse of Alexandria but Arsinoë's forces drove him back. Recognizing his imminent defeat, Caesar removed his armor and purple cloak so that he could swim to the safety of a nearby Roman ship.
The leading Egyptian officers, having become disappointed with Ganymedes, and under a pretext of wanting peace, negotiated with Caesar to exchange Arsinoë for Ptolemy XIII.[10][11] After Ptolemy was released he continued the war until the Romans received reinforcements and inflicted adecisive defeat upon the Egyptians. Arsinoë, now in Roman captivity, was transported toRome, where in 46 BC she was forced to appear in Caesar'striumph and was paraded behind a burning effigy of theLighthouse of Alexandria, which had been the scene of her victory over him.[12] Arsinoe, along withJuba II, elicited sympathy from the crowd.[13] Despite the custom ofstrangling prominent prisoners in triumphs when the festivities concluded, Caesar was pressured to spare Arsinoë and granted her sanctuary at thetemple of Artemis inEphesus. Arsinoë lived in the temple for a few years, always keeping a watchful eye on her sister Cleopatra, who perceived Arsinoë as a threat to her power.[14] In 41 BC, at Cleopatra's instigation,Mark Antony ordered Arsinoë's execution on the steps of the temple.[15] Her murder was a gross violation of the temple sanctuary and an act that scandalised Rome.[16] The eunuch priest (Megabyzos) 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.[17]
Arsinoë's year of birth is generally regarded as being between 68 and 63 BC: TheEncyclopædia Britannica cites 63 BC, making her 15 at the time of her uprising and defeat againstJulius Caesar and 22 at her death,[18] while the researcher Alissa Lyon cites 68 BC making her 27 at her death.[19]Joyce Tyldesley places her birth date as between 68 and 65 BC.[20] An alternate hypothesis was in the docudrama "Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer", in which it was alleged a headless skeleton of a female child between the ages of 15 and 18 may be Arsinoë,[16] however it has turned out since then that body in fact belonged to a male (see below).
Her actions in the brief war against Caesar naturally suggest that she was older than that and thus, would make it impossible for her to be the headless female child buried in the tomb. Perhaps the strongest evidence that she was in fact exercising her own authority is that Caesar, after the Pharos debacle, was prepared to release Ptolemy XIII — a male, who continued the war against Caesar — just to get his hands on her.[21][22]Stacy Schiff, who places Arsinoë's age at around seventeen during the events of 48-47 BC, notes that Arsinoë "burned with ambition" and was "not the kind of girl who inspired complacency," writing that once Arsinoë escaped the royal palace she became more vocal against her half-sister and that she assumed her position as head of the army alongside anti-Caesar courtier Achillas.[23]
In the 1990s an octagonal monument situated in the centre ofEphesus was hypothesized by Hilke Thür of theAustrian Academy of Sciences to be the tomb of Arsinoë.[16] Although no inscription remains on the tomb, it was dated to between 50 and 20 BC. In 1926 the skeleton of a purported female estimated to be between the ages of 15 and 18 years at the time of her death was found in the burial chamber.[24][4] Thür's identification of the skeleton was based on the shape of the tomb, which was octagonal, like the second tier of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the carbon dating of the bones (between 200 and 20 BC), the gender of the skeleton, and the age of the young woman at death.[25][26] It was also claimed that the tomb boasts Egyptian motifs, such as "papyri-bundle" columns.[16]
A DNA test was also attempted to determine the identity of the young woman. However, it was impossible to get an accurate reading since the bones had been handled too many times,[27] and the skull was long thought to have been lost. Hilke Thür examined the old notes and photographs of the now-missing skull,[28][29] which was reconstructed using computer technology byforensic anthropologistCaroline Wilkinson to show what the woman may have looked like.[30] Thür alleged that it shows signs of African ancestry mixed with classical Grecian features[16] – despite the fact that Boas, Gravlee, Bernard and Leonard, and others have demonstrated that skull measurements are not a reliable indicator of race,[31] and the measurements were jotted down in 1920 before modern forensic science took hold.[30] Arsinoë and Cleopatra, shared the same father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) but may have had different mothers,[32] with Thür claiming the alleged African ancestry came from the skeleton's mother. Furthermore,craniometry as used by Thür to determine race is based inscientific racism that is now generally considered a discreditedpseudoscience with "a long history of being put to use in racially motivated and often overtly and explicitly racist ways."[33]
Mary Beard wrote a dissenting essay criticizing the findings, pointing out that, first, there is no surviving name on the tomb and that the claim the tomb is alleged to invoke the shape of thePharos Lighthouse "doesn't add up"; second, the skull doesn't survive intact and the age of the skeleton is too young to be Arsinoë's (the bones said to be that of a 15-18 year old, whereas Arsinoë was in her mid twenties at her death); and third, since Cleopatra and Arsinoë were not known to have the same mother, "the ethnic argument goes largely out of the window."[4]
In 2022 archeologists of theUniversity of Graz were able to locate the skull in Vienna. It could be identified thanks to the old notes and photographs. The scientists hoped that some DNA was conserved in the petrous temporal bone of the skull.[34]
A writer fromThe Times described the identification of the skeleton as "a triumph of conjecture over certainty".[35]
In 2025, a study was published that identified the skull and skeleton as belonging to a boy, rendering Arsinoë's remains missing.[36]
Arsinoe IV Born: 68–63 BC Died: 41 BC | ||
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| Preceded by | Pharaoh of Egypt (claimant) 48–47 BC withPtolemy XIII | Succeeded by |
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