Section from the rear wall of the temple of Hathor at Dendara. Here we can see Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV Caesarion (the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar) offering to the deities of Dendara.
Caesarion (as he was nicknamed) was placed on the Egyptian throne as Cleopatra’s co-ruler following his father’s assassination in 44 BC. He proved to be a central figure in the political conflicts following Caesar’s death, as Cleopatra claimed that he was Caesar’s only legal heir. However, any power Caesarion managed to gain was brief: Octavian (or as he will later be known, Augustus Caesar), the adopted son of Julius Caesar, won the battle of Actium in 31. Following his mother’s suicide, Caesarion was murdered on the orders of Octavian. Octavian became the first emperor of the Roman Empire, ushering in Rome’s ‘golden age’.
Photo take by kairoinfo4u (cropped).
