3. Cleopatra III Got No Gratitude From Her Favorite Son
After engineering the deposition of her son Ptolemy IX, and replacing him on the throne with a more favored son, Ptolemy X, Cleopatra III settled in to enjoy her twilight years as queen and co-regent. Unfortunately for her, that enjoyment did not last as long as she might have hoped, because the favorite son whom Cleopatra III had made king demonstrated his ingratitude in the most visceral way possible. Six years into their joint rule, Ptolemy X tired of his mother, and had her murdered in 101 BC.
After murdering his mother, Ptolemy X made his wife, Cleopatra Bernice III, queen and co-regent. An incestuous tie being a Ptolemaic norm by this point, Ptolemy X’s wife Bernice III was also his niece – the daughter of his brother, the Ptolemy IX who had been deposed by their mother Cleopatra III. A popular uprising in 88 BC overthrew Ptolemy X, who fled to Syria. He returned with a mercenary army, whom he paid by looting and melting down the golden sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. That infuriated the Alexandrians, who deposed and chased him out of Egypt again. He was killed while trying to flee and was succeeded by his brother and father-in-law, the previous king Ptolemy IX, who had been deposed by his mother Cleopatra III.
