queen Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus III., the Great, and sister of
Antiochus IV., Epiphanes. Now for the first time, with this Syrian
princess, enters the name of Cleopatra in the annals of Egypt. Previous
queens have been named either Berenice or Arsinoe, and from this time on
the three names appear in almost inextricable confusion, Cleopatra
prevailing and being applied at times even to sisters of the same house.
The first Cleopatra was a great and good queen, and after the death of
her husband, whose reign was short and uneventful, and of her elder son,
who seems to have died soon after his accession, she became regent of
her second son, Ptolemy VI., Philometor, who was not seven years old
when he began to reign, Philometor married his sister, Cleopatra II.,
and was the last of the Ptolemies who could in any sense be called good.
His later years were clouded by the rivalry of his wicked brother
Physcon, who sought the throne.

When Philometor was killed in battle, Physcon, or Euergetes II., laid
siege to Alexandria, forced the widowed queen Cleopatra II. to marry
him, murdered her young son Ptolemy, Philopator Neos, the rightful heir,
for whom the mother had made a bold attempt to maintain the throne, and
reigned as Ptolemy VII. Physcon even married the queen's daughter,
Cleopatra III., and we see this remarkable man managing, at the same
time, two ambitious queens, mother and daughter, who were probably at
deadly enmity throughout the period in which they were associated with
him in the royalty. One story, almost too horrible to obtain credence,
tells that Physcon served up as a birthday feast to the mother,
Cleopatra II., his own heir Memphitis. When this wretch finally ended
his days, Cleopatra III., who was as great a monster of ambition,
selfishness, and cruelty as Physcon himself, seems to have murdered her
queen-mother and to have assumed the reins of government, at first
alone, and later associated with her eldest son, Lathyrus Soter II., who
reigned as the eighth Ptolemy. Lathyrus first married his sister
Cleopatra IV., but was finally compelled by his mother to divorce her
and to marry his other sister, Selene. He was finally turned out of his
kingdom by his mother, who desired the accession of his younger brother,
Alexander I., the ninth Ptolemy; and the latter repaid her maternal
interest in him by murdering her as soon as he was secure on the throne.
His queen was Berenice III., with whom he reigned