Ptolemy XI Alexander

Relatives:

• Father: Ptolemy X Alexander
• Mother: Not known
• Wife: his stepmother, Cleopatra Berenice III

Main deeds:

• c. 105: Born
• 103: Ptolemy IX Soter, Egypt's king-in-exile, tries to return. Ptolemy X sends all Ptolemaic children to Kos, where they are safe. They stay in Greece when the crisis of over.
• Ptolemy X Alexander remarries; the new queen, Berenice III, recognizes the boy as her son
• 100 Ptolemy XI Alexander is proclaimed king and co-ruler
• 89: Outbreak of the Second Mithradatic War: king Mithridates VI of Pontus attacks the Roman possessions in Asia
• 88: Ptolemy XI Alexander and the other princes are handed over to Mithridates, but the young man can escape, flees to the Roman general Sulla. At the same time, Ptolemy IX Soter expels Ptolemy X Alexander from Egypt. Ptolemy XI Alexander is forced to remain in Sulla's company, and stays in Rome.
• December 81: Death of Ptolemy IX Soter. Sulla appoints Ptolemy XI Alexander as king of Egypt.
• 80: Ptolemy XI Alexander marries his stepmother, Cleopatra Berenice III. After eighteen days, he kills her, and is immediately lynched by the Alexandrine mob.

Information on the web:

• E.R. Bevan, The House of Ptolemy (1927), chapter 12.