Arsinoë IV (; between 68 and 63 BC – 41 BC) was the youngest daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes. One of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she claimed title of Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt and co-rulership with her brother Ptolemy XIII in 48 BC – 47 BC in opposition to her sister or half-sister, Cleopatra VII.

However, Arsinoë then escaped from the capital with her mentor, the eunuch Ganymedes, and took command of the Egyptian army. She also proclaimed herself Queen as Arsinoë IV, executed Achillas, whom she had replaced as the army commander, and placed Ganymedes second in command of the army immediately below herself. Under Arsinoë's leadership, the Egyptians enjoyed some success against the Romans. The Egyptians trapped Caesar in a section of the city by building walls to close off the streets. Caesar countered this measure by digging wells into the porous limestone beneath the city that contained fresh water. This only partially alleviated the situation, so he then sent ships out along the coast to search for more fresh water there. Caesar realized that he would need to break out of the city and hoped to do so by gaining control of the harbor. He launched an attack to seize control of the Lighthouse of Alexandria but Arsinoë's forces drove him back. Recognizing his imminent defeat, Caesar removed his armor and purple cloak so that he could swim to the safety of a nearby Roman ship.

The leading Egyptian officers, having become disappointed with Ganymedes, and under a pretext of wanting peace, negotiated with Caesar to exchange Arsinoë for Ptolemy XIII. After Ptolemy was released he continued the war until the Romans received reinforcements and inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Egyptians. Arsinoë, now in Roman captivity, was transported to Rome, where in 46 BC she was forced to appear in Caesar's triumph and was paraded behind a burning effigy of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which had been the scene of her victory over him. Arsinoe, along with Juba II, elicited sympathy from the crowd. Despite the custom of strangling prominent prisoners in triumphs when the festivities concluded, Caesar was pressured to spare Arsinoë and granted her sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Arsinoë lived in the temple for a few years, always keeping a watchful eye on her sister Cleopatra, who perceived Arsinoë as a threat to her power. In 41 BC, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony ordered Arsinoë's execution on the steps of the temple. Her murder was a gross violation of the temple sanctuary and an act that scandalised Rome. The eunuch priest (Megabyzos) who had welcomed Arsinoë on her arrival at the temple as "queen" was only pardoned when an embassy from Ephesus made a petition to Cleopatra.

Year of birth

Arsinoë's year of birth is generally regarded as being between 68 and 63 BC: The Encyclopædia Britannica cites 63 BC, making her 15 at the time of her uprising and defeat against Julius Caesar and 22 at her death, while the researcher Alissa Lyon cites 68 BC making her 27 at her death. Joyce Tyldesley places her birth date as between 68 and 65 BC. An alternate hypothesis was in the docudrama "Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer", in which it was alleged a headless skeleton of a female child between the ages of 15 and 18 may be Arsinoë. Stacy Schiff, who places Arsinoë's age at around seventeen during the events of 48-47 BC, notes that Arsinoë "burned with ambition" and was "not the kind of girl who inspired complacency," writing that once Arsinoë escaped the royal palace she became more vocal against her half-sister and that she assumed her position as head of the army alongside anti-Caesar courtier Achillas.

Tomb at Ephesus

In 1904 an octagonal monument situated in the centre of Ephesus was discovered. Although no inscriptions remained on the tomb, it was dated to have been built between 50 and 20 BC and was considered a heroon immediately due to its prominent location and building style.

When the tomb was first accessed in 1929, a marble sarcophagus was found inside the burial chamber. The skeletal remains discovered inside it were left on site while the skull was removed by Austrian archaeologist Josef Keil, one of the archaeologists who had worked on the excavation of the tomb. He suggested that the remains belonged to a female about 20 years of age who had been a “very distinguished personality”, without providing sufficient data to support his claims.

In the 1990s the octagonal monument that had housed the remains was hypothesized by Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to be the tomb of Arsinoë IV.

A DNA test of the post-cranial skeleton was also attempted to determine the identity of the young individual. However, it was impossible to get an accurate reading since the bones had been handled too many times. The skull was not available for analysis at the time as it was thought to have been lost decades prior. Thür alleged that the skeleton displayed signs of African ancestry mixed with classical Grecian features and the measurements were jotted down in 1920 before modern forensic science took hold. Arsinoë and Cleopatra shared the same father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) but may have had different mothers, with Thür claiming the alleged African ancestry came from the individual's mother. The reconstructions were done with images and measurements from Weninger's 1953 publication only, as the scientist still did not have access to the skull itself seeing as it was long presumed lost. Age was estimated to be between 15 and 17 years and sex was concluded as female on examination of the post-cranial skeleton and interpretation of Weninger's notes on the skull. DNA analyses were carried out but did not yield conclusive results. and contacted the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna to request permission to photograph the skull for inclusion in their forthcoming publication. This occasion inspired the re-examination of the skull after it had remained untouched for almost 70 years.

In 2025 the study

During further analyses the team surrounding Gerhard Weber realized that earlier investigations of the skull's morphology had not been comprehensive. Many apparent anomalies of the cranium had never been described in earlier publications.), whereas it remained open on the right side. This craniosynostosis (a premature closure of a cranial suture) could partly explain the deformity/asymmetry of the skull. Most striking was the underdeveloped and abnormally vertically inclined maxilla. Both the obliteration of the suture and the strong inclination of the maxilla pointing downwards were not recognized earlier, though apparent macroscopically. as well as genetic disorders such as Treacher Collins Syndrome might have led to the developmental disturbances. Further DNA-analyses might be able to positively identify them.

Why an unknown boy with severe developmental defects was buried inside such an elaborate monument amidst Ephesus remains unclear – just like the whereabouts of Arsinoë IV's remains.

References

Bibliography

  • livius.org: Arsinoe IV
  • Pockley.S: Video of a bust of Arsinoë IV being copied Nov 2012 Arsinoe IV