The Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt for several centuries, wanted to keep the
throne in the family, and hence practiced a system of intermating which
has long been the classical evidence that consanguineous marriage is
not necessarily followed by immediate evil effects. The following
fragment of the genealogy of Cleopatra VII (mistress of Julius Caesar and
Marc Antony) is condensed from Weigall's _Life and Times of Cleopatra_
(1914) and
Ptolemy I
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Ptolemy II
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Ptolemy III m. Berenice II, his half-cousin.
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Ptolemy IV m. Arsinoe III, his full sister.
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Ptolemy V.
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Ptolemy VII m. Cleopatra II, his full sister.
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Cleopatra III m. Ptolemy IX (brother of VII), her uncle.
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Ptolemy X. m. Cleopatra IV, his full sister.
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| Berenice II m. Ptolemy XI (brother of X), her uncle.
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| Ptolemy XII, d. without issue, succeeded by his uncle.
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---Ptolemy XIII.
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Cleopatra VII.
shows an amount of continued inbreeding that has never been surpassed in
recorded history, and yet did not produce any striking evil results.
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