Caesar has withstood the Siege of Alexandria between 48 and 47 BCE, a series of skirmishes and battles occurring between the forces of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII.

Utilizing soldiers he had brought with him and a minor Italian militia left over from previous issues in 55 BCE, Caesar had managed a defense of the city until relief came in the form of Mithridates of Pergamon, who had raised an army and marched overland from Asia Minor to assist Caesar, and Antipater the Idumaean.

Caesar, pressed hard by the native forces under Arsinoe and Ganymedes, negotiates an exchange of Ptolemy for Arsinoe.

The King immediately takes command of the Egyptians, but Caesar, reinforced by the Pergamene army, outmaneuvers the Ptolemaic forces and the fifteen-year-old King of Egypt is killed in a final pitched battle fought at the west side of the Nile, probably by drowning as he attempts to flee.

The victorious Caesar victorious installs Cleopatra as ruler.

Caesar and Cleopatra celebrate their victory in the spring of 47 BCE with a triumphant procession on the Nile.

The royal barge is accompanied by four hundred additional ships, and Caesar is introduced to the luxurious lifestyle of the Egyptian pharaohs.

Having won his victory on March 27, 47, Caesar leaves Egypt after a fortnight's amorous, if uncharacteristic, respite.

Arsinoe is sent to Rome to be led in Caesar's triumph.

Caesar and Cleopatra will never marry, as Roman law recognized marriages only between two Roman citizens.

Caesar throughout his last marriage is to continue his relationship with Cleopatra, which will last fourteen years—this does not constitute adultery in Roman eyes—and may have fathered a son called Caesarion (“Little Caesar”).

Whether Caesar is in fact the father of Cleopatra's son cannot now be known.

Cleopatra will visit Rome on more than one occasion, residing in Caesar's villa just outside Rome across the Tiber.

Arsinoe IV is the fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, sister of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII.

Their late father had left Ptolemy and Cleopatra as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy had soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee Alexandria.

When Julius Caesar in 48 BCE arrived in Alexandria and sided with Cleopatra's faction, Arsinoe had 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 had Achillas executed and placed Ganymedes in command of the army.

Ganymedes had 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 had been transported to Rome and forced to appear in Caesar's triumph.

Despite usual traditions of prisoners in triumphs being strangled when the festivities were at an end, Caesar had spared Arsinoe and granted her sanctuary at Ephesus.

Arsinoe has lived in the temple for many years, always keeping a watchful eye for her sister Cleopatra, who sees her as a threat to her power.

Her fears prove well-founded; in 41 BCE, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony orders the twenty-six-year-old Arsinoe executed on the steps of the temple, a gross violation of the temple sanctuary and an act that scandalized Rome.

The priest Megabyzus, who had welcomed Arsinoë on her arrival at the temple as Queen, was only pardoned when an embassy from Ephesus made a petition to Cleopatra.

Arsinoe reportedly was given an honorable funeral and a modest tomb, but no conclusive remains of such a burial have been found.

However, an octagonal monument situated in the center of Ephesus will be proposed in the 1990s by Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to be the tomb of Arsinoë.

A writer from The Times described the identification of the skeleton as "a triumph of conjecture over certainty".

Although no inscription remains on the tomb, it can be dated to between 50 to 20 BCE.

The body of a woman estimated at fifteen to twenty years old will be found in 1926 in the burial chamber.

Thür's identification of the skeleton is based on the shape of the tomb (octagonal, like the Lighthouse of Alexandria), the carbon dating of the bones (between 200 – 20 BCE), the gender of the skeleton, and the age of the young woman at death.

It is also claimed that the tomb contains Egyptian motifs, such as "papyri-bundle" columns.

Arsinoë, if the monument is indeed her tomb, would be the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty whose remains have been recovered.

Forensic/archaeological analysis of the origins of the skeleton and tomb is ongoing.