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| | Background |
 | | In 80 BCE, Sulla, then dictator of the Roman Republic, intervened diplomatically to force the then queen of Egypt, Cleopatra-Berenice, to marry her nephew, Ptolemy XI. |
 | | During Caesar's consulship in 59 BCE, the king had guaranteed his shaky hold on Egypt by paying an outrageous price of 6,000 talents (in today's funds, it would be tens of millions of dollars) to confirm him as 'friend and ally' of Rome. |
 | | In the end, the New Dionysus died in the early summer of 51 BCE within four years of his restoration at the age of about fifty five. |
| cornellia.fws1.com /Ancientworlds/Background.htm (726 words) |
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