Mark Gagnon

But despite the marriage, Cleopatra has no intention of sharing power with this 10-year-old little brother, right, slash husband brother.

So within three years, she begins issuing decrees in her own name and just sidelining her brother entirely.

And his court advisors, who were worried about being pushed out of power, rallied around this boy and framed Cleopatra as a threat to Egypt's stability.

And this is like just the classic story with...

you know, ancient empires, is there's just constant battles for secession and constant battles for who's actually going to take over power.

So, shortly after, these political moves turned into open rebellion and backed by Alexandria's military and bureaucracy, her brother's faction forced Cleopatra to leave Egypt, just fully flee, and it triggered, like, a civil war, basically, right?

Which, if you're Ptolemy XII, you gotta know you can't have two rulers.

Like, that's just bad...

Just bad etiquette, right?

You just pick one.

And as a result, he didn't.

He picks two.

Immediately there's infighting and a civil war breaks out.

And this is where most people would have given up.

But Cleopatra starts raising her own army in Syria.

Yeah, she's preparing to basically fight her way back when something unexpected happens.

A man shows up in Alexandria and that man is Julius Caesar.

So 48 BC, Julius Caesar is chasing his rival Pompey across the Mediterranean.

And we did a whole episode on Julius Caesar and kind of his beef with Pompey.

You should check that out.