| Alexander Helios | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koine Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Ἥλιος Romanized: Alexandros Helios Latin: Alexander Sol | |||||||||
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 Bronze statuette identified as Alexander Helios at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (CC0) | |||||||||
| Dynasty | Ptolemaic Dynasty | ||||||||
| Pharaoh(s) | Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV | ||||||||
| Titles | King's Son | ||||||||
| Father | Mark Antony | ||||||||
| Mother | Cleopatra VII | ||||||||
| Born | 40 BC, Alexandria | ||||||||
| Died | Possibly between 29 and 25 BC (aged ca. 11-15), Rome | ||||||||
| Burial | Unknown | ||||||||
- For other pages by this name, see Alexander.
Alexander Helios (Koine Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Ἥλιος, romanized: Alexandros Helios) was a prince of the Ptolemaic Dynasty during the Hellenistic Period.
Family[]
Alexander Helios was a son of queen-regent Cleopatra VII and Roman triumvir Mark Antony. Alexander's fraternal twin sister was Cleopatra Selene II.[1][2] Cleopatra named her son after Alexander the Great.[3] His second name in ancient Greek means "Sun"; this was the counterpart of his twin sister's second name Selene (Σελήνη), meaning "Moon".[4] He also had a younger brother named Ptolemy Philadelphos. His older half-brother, Ptolemy Caesar, was made their mother's co-regent.
Biography[]
Alexander Helios was born and raised at Alexandria in Egypt. The twins were formally acknowledged by their father, Triumvir Mark Antony, during a political meeting with their mother in 37 BC. Their younger brother, Ptolemy Philadelphos, was born approximately a year later.
Over the next two years, Antony bestowed a great deal of land on Cleopatra and their children under his triumviral authority. In late 34 BC, at the Donations of Alexandria, huge crowds assembled to witness the couple sit on golden thrones on a silver platform with Ptolemy Caesar, Cleopatra Selene, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy Philadelphos sitting on smaller ones below them. Antony declared Cleopatra to be Queen of Kings, Caesarion to be the true son of Julius Caesar and Pharaoh of Egypt, and proceeded to bestow kingdoms of their own upon Alexander and his siblings. Alexander Helios, aged six, was dressed in a Median costume and was given the title King of Kings and proclaimed ruler of Armenia, Media, Parthia and any countries yet to be discovered between the Euphrates and Indus Rivers.[5][6] Although most of this territory stood outside of their control at that time[7] and neither of the children were old enough to assume control of their assigned lands, it was clear that their parents intended they should do so in the future. This event, along with Antony's marriage to Cleopatra and divorce of Octavia Minor, older sister of Octavian (future Roman Emperor Augustus), marked a turning point that led to the Final War of the Roman Republic. In 33 BC, Alexander was engaged to his distant relative Iotapa,[8] a princess from Media Atropatene and daughter of King Artavasdes I.[9]
The twins Alexander Helios (right) and Cleopatra Selene (left), adorned by Egyptian and Greek cultural references, representing the sun and moon gods. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. By the time Octavian arrived in Egypt in the summer of 30 BC, the couple had sent the children away. Caesarion went to India, but en route he was betrayed by his tutor, intercepted by Roman forces and executed. Cleopatra Selene, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy Philadelphos were sent south to Thebes, but were apprehended by Roman soldiers en route and brought back to Alexandria. Iotapa, who was engaged to Alexander, left Egypt to return to her father and later married her maternal cousin King Mithridates III of Commagene, who was of Armenian and Greek descent.[10] Meanwhile, their parents committed suicide as Octavian and his army invaded Egypt. The deaths of their mother Cleopatra VII and older half-brother Caesarion left Selene and Alexander as the nominal heirs to the throne of Egypt until the kingdom was officially annexed by the Roman Empire two weeks later, bringing the Ptolemaic Dynasty and the entirety of pharaonic Egypt to an end.
Later life[]
When Octavian returned to Rome he brought the captured Alexander Helios and his surviving siblings with him as captives. During his triumph celebrating his conquest of Egypt, he paraded the twins dressed as the sun and moon in heavy golden chains, behind an effigy of their mother clutching an asp to her arm. The chains were so heavy that the children were unable to walk in them, eliciting unexpected sympathy from many of the Roman onlookers.[11] Octavian gave the children to Octavia Minor, his elder sister and a former wife of Mark Antony, to be raised under her guardianship in Rome. They were generously received by Octavia, who educated them with her own children in her household on the Palatine Hill.[11][12]
The fate of Alexander Helios afterwards remains unknown. Plutarch, Cassius Dio and Suetonius state that Octavian had only killed Antony's son Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Cleopatra's son with Julius Caesar, Caesarion.[13] The only further mention of Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphos comes from Cassius Dio, who states that when their sister, Cleopatra Selene II, married King Juba II of Mauretania, Octavian (by then named Augustus) spared the lives of Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphos as a favor to the couple.[14] After Helios arrived in Rome he disappears from the historical records.
References[]
- ↑ Desmond 1983, p. 1.
- ↑ Magnusson & Moorcroft 1998, p. 16.
- ↑ Sapet 2007, p. 110.
- ↑ Mason 1867, p. 112.
- ↑ Hughes-Hallett 1991, p. 99.
- ↑ Jones 2006, p. 96.
- ↑ Plutarch, Antony 54.6-9; Cassius Dio xlix. 41.1-3; Livy, periochae 131.
- ↑ Southern 2007, p. 168.
- ↑ Weigall 1914, p. 332.
- ↑ Cassius Dio xlix. 40.2; xlix. 44.1-4; li. 16.2; Plutarch, Antony 53.12.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Roller 2003, p. 82-89.
- ↑ Plutarch, Antony 87.1; Suetonius, Augustus 17.5.
- ↑ Plutarch, Antony 81.1 - 82.1; 87.1; Cassius Dio li. 15.5; Suetonius, Augustus 17.5.
- ↑ Cassius Dio li. 15.6; compare Plutarch, Antony 87.1-2.
Bibilography[]
- Desmond, A., 1983: Cleopatra's children. New York, Dodd, Mead.
- Hughes-Hallett, L., 1991: Cleopatra: histories, dreams and distortions.
- Jones, P., 2006: Cleopatra: the last pharaoh.
- Magnusson, M./Moorcroft, C., 1998: Cleopatra (Famous People Story Books).
- Mason, C.P., 1867: Alexander. In: William Smith (ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
- Roller, D.W., 2003: The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene: Royal Scholarship on Rome's African Frontier. New York: Routledge.
- Sapet, K., 2007: Cleopatra: Ruler of Egypt (World Leaders).
- Southern, P., 2007: Cleopatra.
- Weigall, A., 1914: The life and times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
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