Ptolemy XV Caesar (/ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Ptolemaĩos; 23 June 47 BC – 30 August BC), nicknamed Caesarion (Καισαρίων, “Little Caesar“), was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt, reigning with his mother Cleopatra from 2 September 44 BC until her death by 12 August 30 BC, then as sole ruler, until his death was ordered by Octavian (who would become the first Roman emperor as Augustus).
Caesarion was the eldest son of Cleopatra and the only known biological son of Julius Caesar, after whom he was named. He was the last sovereign member of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
The early life of Caesarion
Ptolemy Caesar Philopator Philometor (Koinē Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Καῖσαρ Φιλοπάτωρ Φιλομήτωρ, romanised: Ptolemaĩos Kaĩsar Philopátōr Philomḗtōr, lit. ’Ptolemy Caesar, Beloved of his Father, Beloved of his Mother’) was born in Egypt on 23 June 47 BC. Cleopatra‘s mother insisted that he was the son of Roman politician and dictator Julius Caesar. While he was said to have inherited Caesar’s looks and manner, Caesar did not officially acknowledge him. One of Caesar’s supporters, Gaius Oppius, even wrote a pamphlet which attempted to prove that Caesar could not have fathered Caesarion. Nevertheless, Caesar may have allowed Caesarion to use his name. The matter became contentious when Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, conflicted with Cleopatra.
Caesarion spent two infant years, from 46 to 44 BC, in Rome, where he and his mother were Caesar’s guests at his villa, Horti Caesaris. Cleopatra hoped her son would eventually succeed her father as the head of the Roman Republic and Egypt after Caesar’s assassination on 15 March, 44 BC. Cleopatra and Caesarion returned to Egypt. Caesarion was named co-ruler by his mother on 2 September 44 BC at the age of three, although he was a pharaoh in name only, with Cleopatra keeping actual authority. Cleopatra compared her relationship with her son with that of the Egyptian goddess Isis and her divine child Horus.
Records
There is no historical record of Caesarion between 44 BC and the Donations of Antioch in 36 BC. Two years later, he also appears at the Donations of Alexandria. Cleopatra and Antony staged both “Donations” to donate lands dominated by Rome and Parthia to Cleopatra’s children: Caesarion, the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II, and Ptolemy Philadelphus (the last three were his maternal half-siblings fathered by Mark Antony). Octavian approved the Donations of Antioch in 36 BC, described as an Antonian strategy to rule the East, using Cleopatra’s unique royal Seleucid lineage in the regions donated.
