The history of Kabylia is still fallow, and risks remaining so for a very long time because those concerned think that they have no history. This is why they never ask themselves the question of who Selene was, who were her people who formed her guard, which even Rome dared not approach. Yet it is enough to scratch just a little to glimpse a glorious history, made of resistance, freedom and intellectual expansion. Could they one day ask themselves the question about the role of Imravden before the Islamic period? Will they one day be able to understand that as founders of the Egyptian city of Cairo, it is also a part of the history of Islam that they will unveil. A darkened story to give life to an Arab people. An imagined people..
In the program “Historically yours”, Stéphane Bern tells the story of the tragic and unknown history of a forgotten character of the great history, yet the eldest daughter of the famous Cleopatra and Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius): Cleopatra Selene. A princess, the only survivor of the dynasty and condemned to the prohibition of remembering her family.
You thought you knew everything about Egypt? But do you know Cleopatra Selene, the great forgotten of history and only daughter of Cleopatra? It all begins under a blazing sun, on August 15, 29 BC. Three young children parade in Rome during the triumph of Octavian, future first Roman emperor under the name of Augustus. But why do they have tears in their eyes? Isn’t this a happy event? For them, really not. Chained up, they are living a terrible humiliation, the one reserved for the defeated.
Their parents were defeated by Octavian at the naval battle of Actium two years earlier. They are the children of the most famous lovers of antiquity, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Carried through the streets of the capital, under the insults of the Romans, the children follow a statue of their mother. The one we are interested in today, at the age of 10, has the same first name as her. It is Cleopatra Selene. She is the eldest of the siblings, a place she shares with a twin brother.
Selene” is her nickname, from the name of the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. Her brother is Alexander Helios, the sun god. Why references to Greek deities, when their mother is queen of Egypt? Simply because these children were born at the crossroads of two of the greatest civilizations in history.
The “damnatio memoriae”, the prohibition of memory
Their mother, Cleopatra VII, belongs to the Lagid dynasty, also known as the Ptolemies, these pharaohs of Greek origin who reigned over Egypt since the 3rd century. She was a descendant of Alexander the Great and, after having been the companion of Julius Caesar, became the lover of the Roman general Mark Antony. Together they ruled Egypt from the sumptuous capital Alexandria.
Cleopatra Selene grew up in luxurious palaces, where she received the same education as her brothers. From the stories that lulled her childhood, she particularly remembered those of Homer and the exploits of Hercules. In the autumn of 34 BC, Mark Antony, who wanted to divide the Empire between the children he had with Cleopatra, made her queen of Cyrenaica, a region in present-day Libya. A decision which did not help to calm the tensions, already violent, between East and West since the death of Caesar.
In Rome, Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son, did not hear it this way. It was at Actium that he defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. In order not to fall into the hands of the Romans, the lovers commit suicide while Caesarion, the son of Caesar and Cleopatra, Selene’s elder brother, had his throat slit.
Here is an orphan of 10 years, Cleopatra Selene, who goes from the splendor of the beautiful Alexandria to the Roman humiliation. In 30 BC, Egypt becomes a province of Rome. And to top it all off, her parents are victims of an ordeal even worse than death: the damnatio memoriae. It is the condemnation of the memory, the prohibition of the memory.
But Cleopatra Selene knows. She never forgets where she comes from, even if she grows up with the enemy. Her education is entrusted to Octavia, Octavian’s sister, who was married to her father Mark Antony . She therefore grew up alongside her two half-sisters. Her brothers are all sooner or later murdered by the Roman conqueror. Cleopatra Selene is now the only survivor of the Ptolemy dynasty.
A “power couple” with king Juba
In 27 BC, in Rome, Octavian takes the title of Augustus. This is the beginning of the Roman Empire which includes, among others, the kingdom of Mauretania. Attention, nothing to do with Mauritania! This ancient region corresponds to what is Morocco and Algeria today. Augustus appointed Juba king of Mauretania. This Berber officer of about twenty years old is the son of the former king of Numidia .
But although he was originally from the region, Juba did not know it. His father was killed during a war against Julius Caesar, who was seeking to extend his influence and was fighting for the natural resources of North Africa. Juba, a prisoner at the age of three, was raised in Rome by the wife of his father’s killer, Calpurnia. His journey is very similar to that of Cleopatra Selene.
And now that Mauretania has a king, it needs a queen. On an idea of Octavia, who became attached to her prisoner, Cleopatra Selene was sent to Juba. She is 20 years old, he is eight years older. If she does not believe she has inherited her mother’s beauty, she also shines by her intelligence.
The spouses reign over the Berbers in the land of Mauretania. They make of their different origins a strength. She speaks Greek and Egyptian, but not Berber. He is Kabyle and speaks Punic, the language of Carthage, Libyan and Greek. Very educated and literate, Cleopatra Selene wants to satisfy her thirst for revenge against Rome. Not in war, nor in blood. It is first of all a cultural and religious revenge which is within her reach. By putting forward her Egyptian and Greek culture, she emancipated herself from Rome.
An international cultural aura
Their representations on the coins testify to the richness and diversity of their cultures. They are the only ones to have gold coins like the Romans. And they do not hesitate to display their origins. In the legend for him, it is written “Rex Juba”, in Latin, while she writes “Cleopatra Basilissa”, in Greek. She was represented with elements from her home country: crocodiles from the waters of the Nile, lotus flowers, horns of the goddess Hathor, the great eagle of Alexandria, or with the elephant headdress that symbolizes Africa.
In the architecture, it is the same. They made Caesarea, now Cherchell in Algeria, the capital of Mauretania. And they built a palace with columns coming from Egypt and a lighthouse, whereas the only lighthouse at the time was that of Alexandria. They perpetuated the Egyptian cult by building a temple of Isis. The couple also developed their cities in Morocco, such as Volubilis, which saw forums, baths and temples of Saturn and Hercules, local gods, rise from the ground. And that’s not all.
By marrying Juba, Cleopatra Selene hoped to perpetuate the Ptolemy dynasty. For that, it was necessary to her to ensure a descent. From her union with Juba was born, after several children died in infancy, a son, in 5 or 6 BC. How to call him? Ptolemy, quite simply!
When did Cleopatra Selene disappear? We do not know. She died, according to some historians, in 5 or 6 after Jesus Christ. According to others, it was between 14 and 17, when the poet Crinagoras of Mytilene published a funeral epigram in honor of a mysterious Selene. Unless she lived as long as her half-sisters, who will see three Emperors succeeding each other at the head of the Roman Empire.
A descendant also cursed
In 23, Ptolemy succeeded his father at the head of the kingdom of Mauretania. But once again, due to rivalries and jealousy, the family’s destiny was turned upside down. A few years later, Ptolemy is invited to Rome by his cousin, the emperor Caligula. He accepted the invitation and crossed the Mediterranean. But during a gladiatorial show, he dared a terrible affront by wearing a coat of purple, the imperial color. And of a purple more beautiful than that of the Emperor, moreover.
Caligula, who is a mad and jealous emperor, immediately has him assassinated. Thus disappears the son of Cleopatra Selene, last descendant of Ptolemy of Egypt. The Romans then annexed Mauretania.
Today, Moroccan and Algerian cultures keep almost no trace of Cleopatra Selene, or even of the Roman presence in their regions. As soon as they became independent in the 20th century, the countries of ancient Mauretania began their history with the advent of Islam.
At the bend of Tipaza, in Algeria, we find today a masterly royal tomb. As high as a small pharaonic pyramid but with a rounded shape, it is inspired by Greek and Berber funerary architecture and illustrates the incredible cultural diversity embodied by Cleopatra Selene, Cleopatra’s daughter.
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