On 8/7/2019 5:42 AM, ChrisB wrote:
Sounds like you've hedged your bets, Moose ;-)
The whole thread of ancestry than Lauren worked up seems possibly too good to be true. Boudica is not the first, but the
last, interesting character in it.
Most of us assume "Cleopatra" is the name of only one important historical figure. Going back, it all starts with a
fellow named Ptolemy, a boyhood friend, and possible cousin, of Alexander in Macedonia. He became one of Alexander's top
generals.
When Alexander died, his generals got together to decide what to do. They decided what he had conquered didn't make a
governable empire, and split it up among themselves. Ptolemy got Egypt. When he arrived, combining his share of the army
of conquest with the standing army left to secure Egypt, he appointed himself Pharaoh. I imagine him standing in front
of a great temple, surrounded by his army, and announcing "I am now Pharaoh! Any objections?"
He established a 300 year dynasty that was obsessed with maintaining their blood line. The eldest daughter of a Pharaoh
was married to her father. When he died, his eldest son took the name/title Ptolemy, his eldest daughter married this
brother and took the name/title Cleopatra.
Near the end of the dynasty, one of the Pharaoh's daughters was named Selene. Events in the family and country during
her life involved splits and some civil war. At one point, she was in charge, and thus became Cleopatra. Historians, to
avoid confusion with her niece, the Cleo we know of, called her Cleopatra Selene.
Anyway, Lauren's research found a line back to her, my 80-somethingh aunt. Her granddaughter was born in Alexandria,
married a Maccabee, and lived and died in Jerusalem. Her granddaughter (or perhaps GGD, I forget.) is born ins Jerusalem
and dies in Ely, England. Her daughter, or GD, leads the revolt against Rome.
There are no details about the line from Ptolemy for 300 years. Given their reproductive practices (Cleo was no
beauty!), is seems that, if all the subsequent links are good, I am a direct descendant of Ptolemy the Savior. That
takes it back to 367 BCE, with a few more years before that, as his mother is known, and his father conjectured.
After all that, the miracle is that everyone in the line of decent is minor nobility or at least a land owner, so their
details are recorded, down through my father's mother. Who knew Maud, that nice old lady, was carrying such a load of
history? ;-)
Moose's Believe it or Not
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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