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The Weirdest Ways Children Were Treated in History

Khalid Elhassan March 28, 2021 36 min

Baby dangling over the street in a cage. The Sun

The unfortunate Ptolemy VII’s mother, Cleopatra II. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

11. It Was Unfortunate for This Child King That His Mother Trusted His Uncle-Stepfather, Who Was Also Her Brother-Husband

The three-way joint rule agreement of Ptolemy VI, his wife-sister Cleopatra II, and their brother Ptolemy VIII Potbelly, was complicated and icky. It did not take long for the situation to get even more complicated and icky, and for the deal to collapse. It was an unstable arrangement that lent itself to intrigues, conspiracies, betrayals, and further destabilized Egypt. Ptolemy Potbelly was not in Egypt when his brother Ptolemy VI died in 145 BC. Their sister Cleopatra II, the deceased king’s wife, promptly declared her child son as King Ptolemy VII.

The unfortunate Ptolemy VII’s uncle, stepfather, and murderer, Ptolemy VIII Potbelly. Wikimedia

When Potbelly returned, he convinced his widowed sister to marry him instead, and promised that the sibling-spouses would rule jointly. It was unfortunate for the child king Ptolemy VII that his mother trusted her brother-husband to keep his word. Ptolemy Potbelly double-crossed his sister/ new wife in the worst way possible. During their wedding feast, Potbelly had his new wife’s son and his nephew, Ptolemy VII, murdered. He also reneged on the promise to rule jointly with his sister-wife and declared himself sole ruler.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.