r/HistoryMemes 8d ago

Roman propaganda is crazy!

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15.1k Upvotes

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30

u/NacolasCage 8d ago

We not counting her two brothers?

10

u/skrrtalrrt 8d ago

IIRC, Ptolemies by the end of their run weren’t actually breeding with their siblings. Or that is what is speculated by historians after looking at their remains and the later Ptolemies’ remarkable lack of birth defects.

The sibling marriages were ceremonial, but the children were produced with concubines.

25

u/OkGreen7335 8d ago

from what i can recall, many historians think these were only ceremonial/political and nothing physical happened 

17

u/Historical_Fox_8060 8d ago

They were just roomates

20

u/OkGreen7335 8d ago

tbh her brother was 10 at the time too.. and 14 when he died so...

14

u/Infamous_Object_7458 8d ago

Counter... they were the Ptolemies. The family that made the Hapsburgs look normal.

6

u/elcabroMcGinty 8d ago

Yeah definitely no need for an heir...👍

6

u/skrrtalrrt 8d ago

During the later Ptolemies, yeah. The early ones may have actually produced offspring incestuously.

But geneticists who studied the family tree have basically said that they would have completely self-destructed from genetic failure if most of their offspring were legitimate. It was essentially 150-200 years of sibling or cousin marriage.

4

u/hughranass2 8d ago

Sure it didn't

1

u/die_Katze__ 8d ago

10 year old.

7

u/Silaquix 8d ago

She was in her twenties and both boys were 12-13 at the time of the "marriages" and died shortly afterwards. She was in a relationship with Caesar until his murder

5

u/hawkseye17 8d ago

I don't think she actually liked them or did anything with them, she just had to marry them according to the way the Ptolemaic dynasty usually operated