In addition to the best known and last to rule with the title of pharaoh, there were six more Cleopatras who dominated Ancient Egypt.
Cleopatra lwas a popular name among Egyptian royalty women, especially during the late Ptolemaic dynasty.
Of Greek origin, this dynasty administered Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC, and from it emerged 15 Ptolemies and 7 Cleopatras.
Therefore, before the one who ruled with mastery and that hangs in the popular imagination as the last great pharaoh of Egypt, there were six powerful women who also carried that name.
Cleopatra 1
The first Cleopatra became Queen of Egypt in 193 BC, through her marriage to Ptolemy 5. She was a princess of the Seleucid Empire, and her marriage served to seal the Peace of Lysimacheia, ending wars and conflicts between Syria and Egypt.
The agreement also ensured that Egypt remained neutral during the fighting between Syria and Rome.
Cleopatra 2
This is a troubled story of mother and daughter. Married to Ptolemy 6 and later to her brother, Ptolemy 8, Cleopatra 2 ruled from 175 BC to 116 BC. Her four children were Ptolemy Eupator, Cleopatra 3, Ptolemy 7, and Cleopatra Thea.
When her daughter married her brother Ptolemy 8, she decided to expel them from the country through a civil war. Years later she reconciled with both, governing until the end of her life.
CLEOPATRA 3
After her mother’s death, Cleopatra 3 succeeded her in power alongside her husband and children Ptolemy 9 Philometor Soter, Ptolemy 10 Alexander 1, Cleopatra Selene, Cleopatra 4 and Cleopatra Tryphaena.
With a very troubled reign, she would constantly turn against her own children – finding her down there, as she would finally be murdered by one of them.
CLEOPATRA 4
Daughter of King Ptolemy 8 and Cleopatra 3, she married her brother Ptolemy 9 Soter. But the marriage did not succeed: her mother, fearing the influence that the two might have, forced her son to repudiate her and marry with Cleopatra Selene, who was more easily influenced.
With that, she left Egypt and became princess consort of Syria. In 108 BC, Cleopatra 3 would also lead a popular uprising against her son, forcing him to leave Egypt.
CLEOPATRA 5
This is Cleopatra Selene, who married Ptolemy 9 at the behest of her mother, because she represents a lesser danger. He married three more times, and they all died in battles.
In 75 BC, she tried to make her son Antiochus Asia the king of Syria , which did not work, as the local king Tigranes 1 defeated her army and kill her in 69 BC
CLEOPATRA 6
Daughter of Cleopatra 5 and Ptolemy 12, she was the mother of Epiphanes 4, the older sister of Cleopatra that we know so much. Her life is a mystery to researchers, because after the birth of her daughter in 69 BC, she disappeared from official records.
Throughout the reign, Cleopatras and Ptolemies fought for the throne. Cleopatra 7th shared the throne with her brother, Ptolemy 13, with many conflicts between the brothers, who were also married.
During the civil war generated by the great conflict between the two, Cleopatra meets Julius Caesar, seduces him, and manages to get Ptolemy from the throne, drowning him in the Nile during the war.
