Presumed daughter
of Ptolemy IX.
Wife of Ptolemy XII.
Coregent & probable mother of
Berenice IV.
Presumed mother of Cleopatra
VII, Ptolemy XIII,
Ptolemy XIV, &
Arsinoe IV.
The only
thing certain about this shadowy queen is her marriage to Ptolemy XII in
79
BCE. While there is no record of her
parentage, given her name & the long tradition of brother-sister
marriages in the ruling families of Egypt scholars have presumed that
she had the same parents as her husband, though she may have had a
different mother. Her name disappears from royal inscriptions of
her husband after 69 BCE but
reappears as co-ruler with her daughter Berenice eleven years later.
Scholars have proposed
different scenarios to account for these facts. The oldest theory is
that she either died (in childbirth?) or was divorced by her husband in
68 BCE. This theory necessitates identifying
Berenice IV's co-ruler as another person, presumably a younger sister
whom scholars identified as Cleopatra VI when they invented the
numbering system for Egyptian royalty.
Since the historical
records do not include the name of Cleopatra Tryphaena among the
children of Ptolemy XII, however, recent scholars have tended to
interpret all mentions of this name as referring to the same person. If
so, she may have suffered the same fate as Berenice IV after her husband
returned from exile (55 BCE). Yet, since ancient
historians do not name her as one of the victims of Ptolemy XII's wrath,
it is just as possible that she died of natural causes before his
return.
Whatever her origin &
fate, it is probable that Cleopatra V was so overshadowed by the dramas
surrounding her husband & children that details of her own life passed
unnoticed.
Other resources
on line:
Perspective on the
World of Jesus 