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Pothinus
Ptolemy is Cleopatra’s 10-year-old brother with whom she shares the royal throne. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are married, as is customary for ancient Egyptian royalty. At the play’s onset, Ptolemy and Cleopatra are feuding over who should have sole control of Egypt, and Ptolemy has driven Cleopatra out of Alexandria and removed her from the throne. The adults who mind Ptolemy, particularly his guardian, Pothinus, support Ptolemy’s right to the throne because they see it as an opportunity to rule Egypt through Ptolemy, who is too young, inept, and inexperienced to make political decisions on his own. Ptolemy and Cleopatra’s feud over who should rule Egypt is less a political conflict than it is a typical squabble between young siblings. In reality, neither Ptolemy nor his sister are experienced enough to rule the country; the play makes this abundantly clear in Act II, when Ptolemy must guide the struggling, nervous child-king through a rehearsed speech that the child most likely did not write on his own. Caesar recognizes Ptolemy’s childish innocence and treats him with kindness, which makes Cleopatra jealous. Ptolemy dies between the events of Act IV and Act V when he drowns after Caesar’s army attacks his ship. His death leaves Cleopatra the sole ruler of Egypt.
Ptolemy Quotes in Caesar and Cleopatra
The Caesar and Cleopatra quotes below are all either spoken by Ptolemy or refer to Ptolemy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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An Alternative to the Prologue Quotes
Cleopatra is not yet a woman: neither is she wise. But she already troubles men’s wisdom.
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Act 1 Quotes
Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
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Act 2 Quotes
Ptolemy: Yes—the gods would not suffer—not suffer—[He stops; then, crestfallen] I forgot what the gods would not suffer.
THEODOTUS: Let Pothinus, the King’s guardian, speak for the King.
POTHINUS [suppressing his impatience with difficulty] The King wishes to say that the gods would not suffer the impiety of his sister to go unpunished.
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CAESAR [recovering his self-possession] Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
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Act 4 Quotes
POTHINUS. From her own lips I have heard it. You are to be her catspaw: you are to tear the crown from her brother's head and set it on her own, delivering us all into her hand—delivering yourself also. And then Caesar can return to Rome, or depart through the gate of death, which is nearer and surer.
CAESAR (calmly). Well, my friend; and is not this very natural?
POTHINUS (astonished). Natural! Then you do not resent treachery?
CAESAR. Resent! O thou foolish Egyptian, what have I to do with resentment? Do I resent the wind when it chills me, or the night when it makes me stumble in the darkness? Shall I resent youth when it turns from age, and ambition when it turns from servitude? To tell me such a story as this is but to tell me that the sun will rise to-morrow.
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Ptolemy Character Timeline in Caesar and Cleopatra
The timeline below shows where the character Ptolemy appears in Caesar and Cleopatra. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
An Alternative to the Prologue
...happened a few days before. He and some of his men traveled to the boy-king Ptolemy to ask why the King sent Cleopatra to Syria. They also planned to strategize how...
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The Persian has a different plan: the Egyptians should sell Cleopatra to her brother, Ptolemy, with whom she is at war. Caesar loves women, but at 50 years old, no...
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Act 2
Ptolemy Dionysus, the temperamental 10-year-old king of Egypt, follows his guardian, Pothinus, into the loggia at...
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Ptolemy nervously sits on the throne. Pothinus tells the court that the Ptolemy has an announcement...
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...His secretary, Brittanus, walks beside him. Like Caesar, Brittanus is middle-aged and balding. Caesar approaches Ptolemy, pats him on the shoulder, and sympathetically remarks how boring kinghood must be for a...
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Caesar tells Cleopatra to act like a queen. She drags Ptolemy from the throne, sits down in his place, and mocks him when he cries. Caesar...
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Caesar suggests that Ptolemy and Cleopatra rule Egypt together. However, Pothinus isn’t happy with this arrangement. If the taxes...
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...heads. Caesar is shocked that Cleopatra would order him to behead her own brother, but Ptolemy stubbornly admits that he'd behead his sister if he had the chance, too. Cleopatra fights...
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...Rufio fumes at Caesar’s clemency. Determined to show Caesar that he is still indebted to Ptolemy, Pothinus summons forth Lucius Septimius, a clean-shaven, fit man dressed in a Roman officer’s uniform....
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Caesar turns around and realizes that Ptolemy is still in the hall. Rufio grabs Ptolemy’s hand to lead him away. Ptolemy asks...
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Act 4
...Cleopatra tells Pothinus that he is wrong to assume that he will rule Egypt through Ptolemy, should Ptolemy gain control of the throne. Caesar will eat him, Ptolemy, and Achillas “as...
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Act 5
...the market with the Egyptian priests, whose lives he has spared. He also reveals that Ptolemy drowned in the Nile when Caesar’s men sank his barge.
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...her apart from the joyous crowd. Caesar incorrectly assumes that Cleopatra is in mourning for Ptolemy. Cleopatra tells him he should talk to Rufio.
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