Caesarion, son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

Episode 48 The Grand Finale

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

This final lecture ends with Cleopatra’s children. I found this somewhat disappointing as it omits roughly 2,000 years of Egyptian history.

Following Cleopatra’s suicide, Octavian (the future Augustus Caesar), had her son Caesarion killed as he was about to sail to India to start a new dynasty. Cleopatra’s other three children were sent to Rome to be raised by Octavia (Mark Anthony’s widow).

Cleopatra Celine, who was 14, eventually married King JubaII of Mauratania. They had a son Ptolemy and a daughter Drusilla, who married Antonius Felix, the governor of Judea.

Cleopatra Celine’s twin brother Ptolemy set up a dye industry making purple dye from Murax shell. When he went to  Rome to visit his cousin Caliguila, who had him killed because his cloak was too purple.

Brier concludes the series by listing gifts modern civilization owes to ancient Egypt, including the 365-day calendar, paper (from papyrus), monotheism, the pope’s mitre (the white crown of Upper Egypt), the bishop’s crook (Egypt’s royal symbols of power), religious trinities, Madonna and child imagery (from Isis suckling Horace) and stone building technology.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492897