In 58 BC , Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father Ptolemy XII during his exile to Rome after a revolt in Egypt , a Roman client state , allowed his daughter Berenice IV to claim the throne . Berenice was killed in 55 BC when the king returned to Egypt with Roman military assistance . When he died in 51 BC , the joint reign of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII began . A falling-out between them led to open civil war . After losing the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar ( a Roman dictator and consul ) in Caesar 's Civil War , the Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt where Ptolemy had him killed while Caesar occupied Alexandria . Caesar attempted to reconcile the siblings . Ptolemy 's chief adviser Potheinos viewed Caesar 's terms as favoring Cleopatra , so his forces besieged her and Caesar at the palace . Shortly after the siege was lifted by reinforcements , Ptolemy died in the 47 BC Battle of the Nile . His sister Arsinoe IV was eventually exiled to Ephesus for her role in carrying out the siege . Caesar declared Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIV as joint rulers , but maintained a private affair with her that produced Caesarion . Cleopatra traveled to Rome as a client queen in 46 and 44 BC . After the assassinations of Caesar and ( on her orders ) Ptolemy XIV in 44 BC , she named Caesarion as co-ruler
assassinations of Caesar
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Cleopatra