Ptolemy XI Alexander II (ca. 105–80 bc). Son of Ptolemy X Alexander and an uncertain mother; the last legitimate male heir of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

Ptolemy XI spent his childhood on the island of Cos, away from his father’s military conflicts. Mithridates, king of Pontus (the northeastern region of modern-day Turkey), took him hostage in 88 bc. Ptolemy escaped and lived under the protection of the Roman general Sulla until the death of his uncle—Ptolemy IX Soter II, the ruling king of Egypt—in 81 bc.

By that time, Sulla was dictator of Rome, and he seized the opportunity to put a Roman sympathizer on the Egyptian throne. Sulla forced Ptolemy XI back to Egypt to marry his stepmother, Cleopatra Berenice, and rule jointly with her, an arrangement that displeased her. Weeks after their marriage, Ptolemy XI murdered Cleopatra, infuriating the residents of Alexandria, who then murdered him.