12. Cleopatra III Deposed Her Own Son, to Replace Him With a More Favored Son
Family intrigues complicated the reign of Ptolemy IX Soter II, nicknamed Lathyros (“Chickpea”), who had married his sister, Cleopatra IV, sometime before he became king. When his father, Ptolemy VIII Potbelly, died in 116 BC, Chickpea’s mother and the reigning queen, Cleopatra III, made him co-regent. However, it seems that Ptolemy IX had not been her favorite son, and that she had been forced to choose him because of public pressure.
She worked out some of that resentment by forcing Chickpea to divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra IV, and replace her with her own sister and Ptolemy IX’s aunt, Cleopatra Selene I. The ditched sister and ex-wife fled to Syria. There, she married into the royal family, and reigned as queen until she was murdered. As to Ptolemy IX, Cleopatra III accused her son and co-regent of having tried to murder her, and deposed him in 107 BC. In his place, Cleopatra III installed her favorite son, Alexander, who ascended the throne as Ptolemy X.