Duane W. Roller

CHAPTER FIVE
Consolidating the Empire
(47–40 b.c.)
on 23 june 47 b.c., according to the best evidence, Cleopatra’s
child was born. Th e date is from a stele at the Serapeion in Memphis,
supplemented by Plutarch’s account in his biography of Caesar. 1 It has
been suggested that he was not born until aft er Caesar’s death, based
primarily on interpretation of a passage in Plutarch’s Antonius (that
Cleopatra was “left pregnant”), 2 the absence of any mention of the child
in Greco-Roman sources before the death of Caesar, and the rumors of
Cleopatra’s pregnancy that Cicero heard in May of 44 b.c. 3 Yet the statement
in the Antonius probably refers to Cleopatra’s being left behind
in Alexandria, and indeed the same verb is used elsewhere by Plutarch
where there is no connection to Caesar’s death: “Cleopatra, left on the
throne of Egypt, a little later had a child by him.” 4 Moreover, a birthdate
in the late spring of 44 b.c. would make the boy rather young to
be enrolled among the Alexandrian ephebi 12 years later (see p. 142),
and to assume that the father was some unknown person misses the
point about Cleopatra’s careful choice of partners. Yet given the extent
of confusion about the parentage of the child, it is remotely possible
that Cleopatra invented Caesar’s role aft er his death, but the answer will
never be known. It also seems probable that (at least in Rome) there
would be uncertainty about his birthdate, and the explicit information
at the Sarapeion (not subject to Roman tampering) seems the best
evidence. 5 His offi cial name, “Pharoah Caesar,” was recorded on the
stele. As was customary for male children in the dynasty, he was also
Ptolemaios, and so is oft en called Ptolemy XV by modern reckoning.
But his most familiar name was one given to him by the Alexandrians,