Aristocratic rule is family rule, in which women often have a voice in policy and public power. Many women held power in Hellenistic Egypt. The first Ptolemy married his sixteen-year-old daughter, Arsinoe, to rich sixty-year-old Lysimachus, king of Thrace, who gave Arsinoe several cities as wedding gifts. Outliving him, she returned to Egypt, married her brother, and became Pharaoh. Berenice II, “the female pharaoh,” ruled jointly with her husband until she was assassinated by her son, Ptolemy IV. The Cleopatras we re very rich. Cleopatra II owned the ships that transported grain owned by the royal house. Cleopatra III overthrew her mother, married her uncle, and ruled with both her sons successively. The brilliant Cleopatra VII, the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn Egyptian, first ru l e d alone, next with her brothers, each of whom she married and eliminated, and then ruled alone once again.
From Eve to Dawn - Marilyn French
