Cleopatra Selene of Syria

Cleopatra Selene (Ancient Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη; c. between 135 and 130 – 69 BC) was the Queen consort of Egypt (Cleopatra Selene or Cleopatra V Selene) from 115 to 102 BC, the Queen consort of Syria from 102 to 92 BC, and the monarch of Syria (Cleopatra II) from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III of Egypt, Cleopatra Selene was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in Cleopatra III's political manoeuvres. In 115 BC, Cleopatra III forced her son Ptolemy IX to divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra IV, and chose Cleopatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt. Tension between the king and his mother grew and ended with his expulsion from Egypt, leaving Cleopatra Selene behind; she probably then married the new king, her other brother Ptolemy X.

Following the marriage of the Syrian Seleucid princess Cleopatra I to Ptolemy V of Egypt, dynastic marriages between the two kingdoms became common. In 102 BC, Cleopatra III decided to establish an alliance with her nephew Antiochus VIII of Syria; Cleopatra Selene was sent as his bride. After his assassination in 96 BC, she married his brother and rival Antiochus IX. Cleopatra Selene lost her new husband in 95 BC and married a final time to Antiochus IX's son Antiochus X, who disappeared from the records and is presumed to have died in 92 BC, but may have remained in power until 89/88 BC (224 SE (Seleucid year)). Cleopatra Selene then hid somewhere in the kingdom with her children. Eventually, Syria split between the sons of Antiochus VIII with Philip I ruling in the Syrian capital Antioch and Antiochus XII in the southern city Damascus.

Cleopatra Selene had many children by several husbands. Probably following the death of Antiochus XII in 230 SE (83/82 BC), she declared Antiochus XIII, her son by Antiochus X, king, and seems to have declared herself co-ruler; they claimed Antioch following Philip I's death. But the people of Antioch and the governor of Damascus, exhausted by the Seleucids' civil wars, invited foreign monarchs to rule them: Tigranes II of Armenia took Antioch, while Aretas III of Nabataea took Damascus. Cleopatra Selene controlled several coastal towns until Tigranes II besieged her in 69 BC in Ptolemais; the Armenian king captured the queen and later executed her.

By the second century BC, the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom were weakened by dynastic feuds, constant wars against each other (known as the Syrian Wars), and Roman interference. To ease the tension, the two dynasties intermarried. Cleopatra I of Syria married Ptolemy V of Egypt in 193 BC, and her granddaughter Cleopatra Thea married three Syrian kings in succession starting in 150 BC. Those intermarriages helped Egypt destabilize Syria which was especially fragmented between different claimants to the throne; brothers fought between themselves and Egypt interfered by supporting one claimant against the other.

Cleopatra Selene was born between 135 and 130 BC to Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III. Cleopatra Selene had many siblings, including Ptolemy IX, Ptolemy X, and Cleopatra IV. Ancient writers, such as Cicero and Appian, mention that the queen's name is Selene, and Strabo clarified that she was surnamed "Cleopatra". On the other hand, modern scholars, such as Arthur Houghton and Catharine Lorber, believed that Selene was actually an epithet. The archaeologist Nicholas L. Wright suggested that she assumed the epithet "Selene" when she became queen of Egypt and that it is a divinising epithet, indicating that Cleopatra Selene presented herself as the manifestation of the moon goddess on earth. Coins struck in her name record her as Cleopatra Selene. Selene was the name of the Greek moon goddess and it is connected to the word selas (σέλας), meaning "light". "Cleopatra" was a Ptolemaic dynastic name; it means "famous in her father" or "renowned in her ancestry". As a queen of Syria, she was the second to rule with the name 'Cleopatra'. Hence, she is termed "Cleopatra II Selene" to differentiate her from her predecessor and aunt Cleopatra I Thea, who was the mother of Cleopatra Selene's husbands Antiochus VIII and Antiochus IX. Classicist Grace Macurdy numbered Cleopatra Selene as "Cleopatra V" within the Ptolemaic dynasty and many historians have used this convention.

Sibling marriage was known in ancient Egypt and, although it was not a general practice, it was acceptable for the Egyptians; the Ptolemies practised it, perhaps to consolidate the dynasty. In 116 BC, Ptolemy VIII died and his will left Cleopatra III to rule alongside a co-ruler of her choice from between her two sons; she wanted to choose Ptolemy X but the people of Alexandria (the capital of Egypt) opposed this, forcing her to accept Ptolemy IX's ascension to the throne. Shortly after his elevation, Cleopatra III forced Ptolemy IX to divorce Cleopatra IV, his sister whom he had married before their father's death; the 2nd-century historian Justin implied that Cleopatra III made this a condition of accepting him as co-ruler. Cleopatra Selene, favoured by her mother Cleopatra III, was chosen as the new queen consort in 115 BC. In 107 BC, the relationship between Ptolemy IX and his mother deteriorated; Cleopatra III forced him out of Egypt, and he left his wife and children behind.

The same year, 107 BC, Cleopatra Selene was probably married off to the new king, her younger brother, Ptolemy X. In 103 BC, Ptolemy IX was fighting in Judea. The queen mother feared an alliance against her between Ptolemy IX and his friend Antiochus IX of Syria, who was fighting a civil war with his brother Antiochus VIII; this led her to send troops to Syria. Cleopatra III and Ptolemy X conquered Ptolemais, and according to Justin, the king, shocked by his mother's cruelty, abandoned her and ran away; Cleopatra III then decided to marry Cleopatra Selene to Antiochus VIII, as a step to bring Antiochus VIII to her side in order to counter an alliance between Ptolemy IX and Antiochus IX. If it is accepted that Cleopatra Selene married Ptolemy X, then Cleopatra III divorced her from him after he deserted.

The marriage of Cleopatra Selene and Antiochus VIII took place c. 102 BC; historian Leo Kadman suggested that Cleopatra III gave her daughter to the Syrian king in Ptolemais before she retreated to Egypt, and that Cleopatra Selene kept that city as her main base until the end of her life. Details of Cleopatra Selene's life with Antiochus VIII are not clear; no known offspring resulted from the marriage, though six of Antiochus VIII's children from his previous marriage are known. In 96 BC, Herakleon of Beroia, a general of Antiochus VIII, assassinated his monarch and tried to usurp the throne, but failed and retreated to his home-town Beroia. The capital of Syria, Antioch, was part of Antiochus VIII's realm at the time of his assassination; Cleopatra Selene probably resided there.