It should be noted in advance that since the birth of the ancient Egyptian civilization, the Egyptian pharaonic royal family has been marrying and marrying with close relatives. Lun and famous.

As early as the early Egyptian Old Kingdom, pharaohs often married their sisters in order to maintain the "purity" of the blood of the heir to the throne. After that, it was strictly institutionalized and clearly stipulated: every pharaoh should marry his own biological sister!

In modern literature, the forbidden consanguineous marriage within the ancient Egyptian royal family has always been a topic that people talk about. For example, in the long comic "Daughter of the Nile", this aspect is described - Queen Esis and Pharaoh Memphis, who were engaged by their father since they were children and ruled Upper and Lower Egypt respectively, are actually a pair of biological brothers and sisters who are related by blood!

In real history, the marriage of the ancient Egyptian royal family is even more unbelievable, and the love between sisters and brothers is already pediatric - the first pharaoh of the third dynasty of Egypt was born of a father-daughter union; And Ramses the Great of the Nineteenth Dynasty also married his own daughter.

As for Pharaoh Amenofi IV of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he was even more extreme in the incest of his close relatives: his first queen was his biological mother Didi, who gave birth to two daughters. The second queen was his cousin Niffrey. The fifth queen was actually the daughter of him and his mother Didi, and also bore two daughters for Pharaoh...... Disorderly. Ransom has reached such an extent that the seniority within the royal family no longer knows how to arrange it......

- Although a pharaoh could have many foreign concubines, only princesses with Egyptian royal blood, i.e., pharaoh's own sisters, could become queens. Furthermore. Only children born to pharaohs and their sisters' close relatives could have the right to inherit the throne.

Even the Ptolemaic dynasty at the end of ancient Egyptian civilization, a foreign colonial regime established by Macedonian conquerors. Also will this close relatives mess up. Lun's royal customs were maintained – beginning with Ptolemy II, who married his own sister Asinoa, the Macedonian pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty began to marry their own sisters and rule together in every generation, just like the Egyptian pharaohs who preceded them. Ptolemy VIII, who did the best, actually married the biological mother and daughter of Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III at the same time, which can no longer be described as absurdity.

The reason why the Egyptian pharaohs violated human ethics for thousands of years and insisted on marriage between close relatives. Naturally, there is a special reason behind this - according to the public statement of the ancient Egyptian royal family, because the Egyptian pharaohs were descendants of the gods, there must be a sacred royal marriage. In order to maintain the purity and nobility of the bloodline...... In fact, it is because the ancient Egyptian civilization was a precocious civilization, when the Egyptians were still in a state of transition from a matrilineal clan society to a patrilineal clan society, and the concept of male superiority and female inferiority had not yet been fully formed. It has already entered the stage of civilized nation. So. Compared with other civilizations in the future, the "women's rights" of the ancient Egyptian civilization were relatively high, for example, women in ancient Egypt could also hold official positions, inherit property, and even be the masters of the house. Due to the general social perception of the time, it was difficult for the pharaoh to completely deprive the princesses (in fact, sons-in-law) of their inheritance.

In order to prevent the son-in-law from competing with his son for the throne, leading to the division and turmoil of the country, the pharaohs of ancient Egypt would simply let their sons and daughters marry themselves. so as not to create a decentralization of power in the future. And the Ptolemaic dynasty founded by the Macedonians, after realizing the benefits of this practice. also learned to follow the traditional custom of marriage between close relatives - but this practice not only avoided the drawbacks of power loss, but also limited the ugliest power struggle in the world to its own descendants, so that the Ptolemaic royal family became a terrible family that loved and killed each other, and even the mother and daughter, mother and son were constantly fighting, even female royal family members, could not avoid death under the poison of power.

For example, Ptolemy IV hanged his brother and sister, and Ptolemy XI poisoned his mother, Belenician III. Behind every Ptolemaic pharaoh who died suddenly was a vicious conspiracy, and the culprit could be one of his relatives.

During the more than two centuries of the Ptolemaic dynasty, fourteen Ptolemaic pharaohs succeeded to the throne, but all of them were held hostage or persecuted by their loved ones. The court of Alexandria was always infested with poison and daggers - the elder brother killed his sister, the prince killed his father, and the queen killed the king...... All these catastrophes were caused by power, and in order to compete for power and profit, in order to enjoy a more indulgent life, the members of the Ptolemaic family never hesitated to kill each other. Everyone who comes from the Ptolemaic family is in danger of being in a different position at any time if he does not learn to strike first.

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To sum up, the peerless enchantress Cleopatra VII was almost born and had a group of the worst family members in the whole Shijie.

- In this era, all the glory of the Ptolemaic dynasty has long been a thing of the past, and only an absurd and decadent ruling family remains.

Cleopatra VII's father, Ptolemy XII, nicknamed "The Piper", was an artist who loved music, but at the same time was weak, indulgent, and fond of alcoholism, and did not look like a proper ruler by any means. He always played the flute in the streets with the musicians, and asked his slaves to dance to the sound of his flute. Every child in Alexandria knew that King Bixia was a piper. And every powerful Ptolemaic magnate had seen the king walk down the streets drunk, and how many women had been groped by him in a drunken madness......

During the reign of Ptolemy XII, Egypt not only lost its overseas colony of Cyprus, but also paid a huge tribute to the Romans who took Cyprus. For this reason, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII had to extort from his people in order to satisfy the greedy appetites of the Romans.

As a result, the humiliation of losing one's land and the elaborate taxation, combined with the rapidly soaring prices of goods, like candles thrown into powder kegs, soon aroused the resentment of the citizens of Alexandria, who had led to an Egyptian version of the "national revolt" ten years earlier, in 58 BC, the revolt of the citizens of Alexandria. The dynastic army mutinied, and Ptolemy XII had to board a warship and flee across the sea to Rome for help.

After a vent-like destruction of the uprising. The illegitimate daughter of Ptolemy XII and a black slave girl, Bereniki IV ascended the throne as the new female pharaoh and continued to rule Egypt. The orthodox princess Cleopatra VII, who had no time to escape, was thrown into prison - fortunately she was still a child at the time, and Berenici IV also saw the love of sisters and did not let Cleopatra VII suffer much in prison.

This prison sentence lasted for three years. It has to be admitted that the ability of Belenicio IV to govern the country. Sure enough, it was far better than her father. During her brief reign, she reduced taxes and won the hearts and minds of the people. And through various military and political means, he repeatedly defeated the invading rebels of Upper Egypt and recovered some lost territory. What's more, she also skillfully balances the balance of interests in the imperial court. It was unanimously supported by the nobility and the people.

Meanwhile. Ptolemy XII borrowed money from Rome everywhere, and was willing to accept any exaggerated terms, and Zuihou scraped together 10,000 tarrants (ancient Roman units of precious metal) of silver, hired a powerful Roman legion, and accompanied him to Egypt to quell the rebellion......

After a fierce battle, Ptolemy XII the Pied Pied finally recaptured Alexandria, reascended the throne, and ordered the brutal execution of his rebellious daughter, Belenici IV. He even put her head on a silver platter and displayed it on the table of the celebration feast.

Young Cleopatra VII as he escapes from prison. For the first time, I also witnessed the horror of blood cannibalism.

Although Ptolemy XII was able to kill his daughter, he lost the hearts of his subjects even more completely, and the state of Egypt became stormy again.

Then, in 51 BCE, Ptolemy XII died, leaving his eldest son, Ptolemy XIII, who was only ten years old at the time, and his eldest daughter, Cleopatra VII, who was seventeen years old, married and ruled Egypt together. But the siblings had a bad relationship almost from the start, never having sex at all after the wedding – which is understandable given the pharaoh's age – and two years later, to the point of fighting each other.

Like the origin of the breakdown of most couples in this world, the direct cause of the falling out between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII was also the insertion of a third person - this "little three" was Cleopatra VII's sister, Princess Arsino, who was two years younger than her.

And the reason why Ptolemy XIII hated Cleopatra VII and liked Princess Arsinoe even more is really embarrassing.

- Ptolemy XIII, Arsino, and Cleopatra VII had the same father, but their mothers were different: Cleopatra VII's mother came from the Mithridates family in Asia Minor, while Ptolemy XIII and Arsino's parents were both members of the Ptolemaic family, half-siblings. According to the traditional Egyptian beliefs, Arsino's blood was purer than that of Cleopatra.

However, given Arsino's very bad character and stupid mind, Ptolemy XII ended up choosing Cleopatra.

But the problem is that Princess Arsinoe, who unfortunately lost the election, and the new pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, did not think so. They all thought that Cleopatra's blood was very muddy, far less pure than that of his eight or nine consecutive generations of inbred marriages, and he was not qualified to touch the throne.

Therefore, after Ptolemy XIII initially secured the throne, he decided to kill his eldest half-sister Cleopatra and marry his second half-sister Arsino, so as to make it easier for the Ptolemaic family to close relatives. Adultery, love and killing. The Tren tradition stays the course.

And Princess Arsino, who was already resentful of not becoming a queen, is naturally happy to see this.

Then, the trouble came out.

If it is in a traditional Eastern country where men are superior to women, and a powerful king wants to divorce and abolish it, sometimes it is just a matter of one sentence.

But in Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra was not only a queen, but also a queen – theoretically, she and Ptolemy XIII ruled Egypt together and had the same power.

Because Ptolemy XIII was still young when he ascended the throne, while Cleopatra VII was already an adult, the queen wielded far more power than Pharaoh. Once the two sides tear their skins, the risk of Ptolemy XIII being deposed is even greater.

Fortunately. Cleopatra VII's attempts to "indigenize" the reforms in Egypt after her reign attracted a large number of opponents. It also shook the foundation of her power, so that Ptolemy XIII's deposed queen Jihua finally had the possibility of success.

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- When Cleopatra VII became the pharaoh of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty had ruled Egypt for two and a half centuries, but for the most part, it was still very alienated from this ancient land.

Neither she nor her ancestors knew much about the country in the lower reaches of the Nile. The Nile was also a strange river to her that she had never seen before – because Alexandria was located by the sea, not on the banks of the Nile.

Truly. The Ptolemaic monarchs used the title of "pharaoh" and some of the Egyptian court rituals, and built many Egyptian temples to appease the people, but its rule was still based on the influx of Greek immigrants from overseas. The main part of the army of this dynasty was Greek mercenaries. Government offices were generally open only to Greeks, but Egyptians were completely excluded from the core of power. The capital, Alexandria, is also a typical Greek city, with a predominantly Macedonian, Greek and Asian settler, and a relatively small number of Egyptians.

Obviously. This is a typical colonial regime. Between the Macedonians, the Greeks, as the ruling class, and the Egyptians, as the ruled class. It's like oil and water. When the dynasty was strong, it was able to suppress the resentment of the native Egyptians. But as soon as the Ptolemaic dynasty showed a slight decline, the natives of Egypt, under the leadership of the temple priests, launched wave after wave of counterattacks against the colonists.

Cleopatra VII saw this very well and believed that at a time when the Ptolemaic dynasty had lost all its overseas possessions, if the local ruling order in Egypt could not be stabilized, it would really be a disaster of national ruin.

To this end, she is ready to implement local reforms. Recruit a portion of Egypt's traditional knowledge – mainly the priests of the various temples – to the imperial court and expand the power base of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Strengthen dynastic rule over the localities. But the queen's enlightened move, in addition to winning the support of many Egyptian temples, also greatly angered the Macedonian and Greek nobles, who had monopolized power for more than 200 years.

To make matters worse, in the capital, Alexandria, these opposition shili, who are resistant to indigenization reforms, clearly have an absolute advantage.

In 49 B.C., the previous year, taking advantage of the discontent caused by crop failures and soaring prices, and with the acquiescence and instruction of Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, conservative ministers incited the people of the capital to riot and besiege the palace of Cleopatra, a "blasphemous witch". Fortunately, Cleopatra had a lot of eyeliners in the city and received a warning in advance, so she was able to pack up and escape from the capital and go east to Syria.

When the horror was settled, she used her charm to maneuver between the many powerful people in Syria in an attempt to obtain strong foreign support, and at the same time used the treasure she carried with her to try to recruit troops and horses, and pulled up thousands of mercenaries, preparing to turn around and attack Egypt to regain the throne.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible to capture Egypt with just a few thousand rabble. But Cleopatra VII was no ordinary foreign invader – as queen of Egypt, she always had a large number of supporters and retines in Egypt.

So, after learning of the queen's death, the temple priests of Memphis, the traditional religious center of Egypt, soon sent messengers to Syria, and after several journeys found Cleopatra, first crying about Ptolemy XIII's suppression of them, and then swearing allegiance to the queen - according to these Egyptian priests, they were not only preparing to organize an armed uprising in Memphis to welcome Queen Cleopatra, but also persuaded the garrison of the eastern border town of Egypt to mutiny, At that time, he will defect and join Queen Cleopatra.

At that time, the army supporting Cleopatra will be able to launch a flanking attack from Memphis in the south and Pelusim in the east, while simultaneously attacking Alexandria, which is undefendable. In this way, Queen Bixia will be able to successfully recapture the capital and set things right.

However, when Cleopatra excitedly marched through Palestine with more than 2,000 troops a few days earlier to the city of Pelusim, the easternmost point of the Nile Delta, she was shocked to find that she seemed to have been fooled by the Egyptian gods of Memphis—everything was as usual in the city of Pelusim, and although the defenders did not have the courage to take the initiative, they did not have the intention of bowing to the queen.

Moreover, as the land gateway to Egypt, the city was built very tall and strong, and although the number of defenders in the city was estimated to be very limited, it was still impossible to gnaw down just by relying on these ragtag armies under the queen's command that lacked siege equipment.

As a result, Cleopatra could only camp on the other side of the Nile, facing off against the defenders of the city of Pelusim, and was in a dilemma for a while.

And Memphis has not moved for a long time, except for using the fleet on the Nile to send some money and food to the queen, it has never officially started to fight...... On the contrary, Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII of Alexandria, after the initial panic, had already begun to gather troops and march eastward one after another, preparing to fight Cleopatra to the death in the city of Pelusim!

According to Cleopatra's calculations, Alexandria would be able to muster about 25,000 troops with all its mobile forces. Although the combat effectiveness of these troops is not very good, it is definitely not something that the two thousand shrimp soldiers and crabs under his command will be able to deal with.

But if she retreats with her tail between her legs, then when the treasures around her are exhausted, she won't be able to make up even two thousand people next time.

At that time, as a powerless and powerless exile, Ptolemy XIII could easily take his own life by sending a few assassins.

Thinking of this, Cleopatra finally realized why the goddess of Cleopatra in history would rather sacrifice herself to feed the tiger without restraint than hook up with Caesar, a bad old man—there is really no other way to live!

“…… Calculating the time, Caesar should have won the battle of Pharsalus, and in a month at most, he will chase Pompey's ass and run to Egypt in a battleship! At that time, should you pack yourself up and send it over? Alas, it's really tangled, on the one hand, I really don't want to engage in aid communication with a bad old man, and on the other hand, I can't do it without aid communication......"

Cleopatra got up from the banks of the Nile with a frown, walked back to her bed full of melancholy, and then froze in astonishment.

- She saw a deep black hole suspended in mid-air, and a pink cell phone that was carried by a stick and poked out of the black hole.

What's even more amazing is that the headshot decorated on this mobile phone is actually a photo of someone and his "past life"......

As a result, Cleopatra finally showed a relieved smile, and the haze that had accumulated on her face before was swept away in an instant.

“…… Phew—there's finally a little bit of a turnaround. It seems that at least for the time being, I don't have to pack myself up and sell it! (To be continued.) )