History of Arsinoe

Arsinoe IV (c. 68/ 67 - 41 BC), was the fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, sister of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII, and one of the last rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt. When their father died, he left Ptolemy and Cleopatra as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee Alexandria.

When Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BC and sided with Cleopatra's faction, Arsinoe escaped from the capital with her mentor Ganymedes and joined the Egyptian army under Achillas, assuming the title of pharaoh. When Achillas and Ganymedes clashed, Arsinoe had Achillas executed and placed Ganymedes in command of the army. Ganymedes initially enjoyed some success against the Romans, negotiating an exchange of Arsinoe for Ptolemy, but the Romans soon received reinforcements and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Egyptians.

Arsinoe was transported to Rome, where she was forced to appear in Caesar's triumph. Despite usual traditions of prisoners in triumphs being strangled when the festivities were at an end, Caesar spared Arsinoe and granted her sanctuary at Ephesus. Arsinoe lived in the temple for many years, always keeping a watchful eye for her sister Cleopatra, who saw her as a threat to her power. Her fears proved well-founded, for in 41 BC Mark Antony had Arsinoe executed at Cleopatra's instigation, on the steps of the temple.

Arsinoe reportedly was given an honorable funeral and a modest tomb. No remains of such a burial have been found.

This may or may not be the end of Arsinoe it seems that Hilka Thuer, one of the archaeologists at Ephesus, suggested in an article in the late 1990s that the octagonal tomb near the terrace houses was for Arsinoe and it was her bones that they found here. I suppose that either Encyclopedia Britannica did not know of the article OR that it chose not to put that information into the article because it was not 100% sure. Although the archaeologists that I talked to at Ephesus said that they could not prove that it is Arsinoe for certain, they were pretty sure and said that there was no reason to think it was not.

They have tried DNA testing on the bones to confirm for sure where the skeleton was from, but there was not enough DNA material left in the bones to give them a reading. The first time the tomb was open they took the skull and teeth out because at that time they didn’t care about the bones. In the meantime the skull and teeth have gone missing. It is unfortunate because there are some new tests for teeth that can show information that would be helpful. Who knows, maybe it will be found someday!

It used to be that bones were not considered to be important and archaeologists just threw them away! Now that there are scientific tests that can be done to tell us more information it is difficult to find bones that have been well preserved with information about the context where they were found.