Arsinoe IV, the lesser-known sister of Cleopatra, has long been treated as a shadow beside one of history’s most iconic queens; yet her life was far more complex, courageous, and threatening to the powers around her than the surviving records suggest.

In the pilot episode of They Tried to Erase Her, we uncover the truth behind a young woman who stood against Rome, challenged her sister’s alliances, and became a symbol of resistance during the Alexandrian War.

From the palace intrigues that shaped her childhood to the brutal politics that led to her death at Ephesus, Arsinoe’s story reveals what can happen when a woman refuses to disappear, even when the world insists she should.

CITATIONS:

• World History Encyclopedia – Arsinoe IV, https://www.worldhistory.org/Arsinoe_IV/
• UNRV – Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and the Alexandrian War, https://www.unrv.com/julius-caesar/cleopatra-alexandrian-war.php
• Caesar, Alexandrian War (primary text, English translation), https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Caesar/Alexandrian_War/A*.htm
• The Analytical Scientist, https://theanalyticalscientist.com/issues/2025/articles/jan/the-search-for-cleopatra-s-sister-continues
• Austrian Academy of Sciences, https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeai/media/press-releases/cleopatras-sister