Berenice IV

I am Berenice IV, daughter of Ptolemy XII and older sister of Cleopatra, my name was erased, but my act was marked in history. In 58 B.C., when my father fled Egypt to ask Rome for help, I was the one who took the throne. Not out of pure ambition, but because the kingdom was deserted. Someone had to catch up.

I proclaimed myself pharaoh in a land tired of taxes, corruption and foreign domination, I knew that being a woman wouldn't protect me, and that my royal blood wouldn't either. I ruled in fear and uncertainty, while Rome decided my fate from afar, as if Egypt already belonged to her.

When my father returned in 55 B.C., he did not return alone: he returned with the Roman armies, there was no room for judgment or forgiveness, I was condemned to die so that power would return to the one who had sold the kingdom for his throne. My death was the cost of following Rome's orders.

Today almost no one pronounces my name, but without me there would be Cleopatra. I was the warning, the sacrifice, the first fall. Before Egypt died as a free kingdom, I was their last cry of rebellion.