Cleopatra’s Rise and Family Civil War

In 51 BC, an 18-year-old woman named Cleopatra ascended to the throne of Egypt.

But this was no ordinary kingdom. Cleopatra was part of the Ptolemaic dynasty,

a family of Greek-Macedonian rulers who had controlled Egypt for nearly 300 years. She was the first

in her line to even bother learning the Egyptian language. But she didn't just learn it; she embraced

it. She dressed as the Egyptian goddess Isis and presented herself as a true

pharaoh to her people. Her rule began with a power-sharing agreement with her 10-year-old brother,

Ptolemy XIII, whom she was forced to marry. But sharing was never the plan.

Their advisors, hungry for power, turned brother against sister. Soon,