Ptolemy XI Alexander II: A Brief Reign in Hellenistic Egypt

Introduction

Ptolemy XI Alexander II was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty who briefly ruled Hellenistic Egypt in 80 BC. He was a son of Ptolemy X Alexander I and was brought to Alexandria after the death of his uncle Ptolemy IX (81 or 80 BC) with the backing of the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who displayed Ptolemy X’s will in Rome to justify the intervention. According to that testament, Ptolemy XI was to marry Cleopatra Berenice (Berenice III), who was his stepmother and close kinswoman; the marriage was concluded on his arrival.

Nineteen days after the wedding Ptolemy XI murdered Berenice for reasons not recorded in the surviving accounts. The killing provoked immediate popular outrage in Alexandria; a mob seized and lynched him within days. His death ended the short restoration of a direct male Ptolemaic heir and led to the succession of his cousin Ptolemy XII, an illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX. Contemporary reports and later authors also record a circulating claim that Ptolemy XI had left a testament or arrangement favoring Rome, a matter whose authenticity was disputed even in antiquity. Ptolemy XI’s reign is therefore remembered for its abrupt Roman intervention, the enforced royal marriage, the assassination of Berenice III, and the swift popular retribution that terminated his rule.