Caesarion - Depictions in Popular Media

Depictions in Popular Media

• Caesarion appears in the 1963 film Cleopatra. He is portrayed as a sweet child, and a loyal co-ruler with his mother. However, history is altered when he appears to be about 12-years-old, instead of 17, when he died.
• In the Asterix comic book Asterix and Son, at the end of the book Caesarion is revealed as being the baby boy that Asterix had found on his doorstep and had been looking after. (The original French title of the graphic novel is Le fils d'Asterix .)
• The 2005-07 BBC/HBO television historical fiction miniseries Rome features a version of Caesarion as a minor character. The part is played by two young actors, the older of the two being Max Baldry, and the younger, Nicolo Brecci. In the show, it is strongly implied that he is actually the son of the soldier Titus Pullo by Cleopatra, who seduces Pullo in an attempt to become pregnant at about the same time she begins her affair with Caesar. When Antony and Cleopatra die, Pullo and his comrade Lucius Vorenus slip through Octavian's border guards with the child, though Vorenus is severely wounded. In a departure from history, Pullo reports to Octavian that Caesarion is dead, when in fact he has been brought to Rome under an assumed name to live with Pullo. Though there is no direct dialogue about his age, the character is visibly far younger than seventeen years.
• The novel Cleopatra's Heir by Gillian Bradshaw, portrays Caesarion as an epileptic (like his father Julius Caesar), who, after being wounded during an attack by Roman soldiers, is left for dead. Escaping his funeral pyre, he flees, but has a seizure. He is discovered by an Egyptian merchant, who cares for him. Over time, Caesarion turns from a haughty prince to a decent young man, and ultimately, he must decide whether or not to give up his old life in exchange for a new one in peace.
• In the novel Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough, Caesarion is portrayed as a precociously wise young man who deplores many of his mother’s and Antony’s actions. He does, however, remain loyal to them until death.
• In the Doctor Who spin-off novel State of Change, the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown meet and befriend an alternate version of Ptolmey in a timeline where Cleopatra and Anthony survived thanks to them acquiring a copy of the Doctor's TARDIS console, using the information in its databanks to develop modern technology and weapons centuries ahead of schedule. When the novel begins, Ptolmey is part of a triumvirate with his half-siblings, Alexander and Cleopatra Selene, but during the events of the novel Alexander is killed thanks to the manipulations of the Doctor's enemy the Rani, allowing Ptolmey to assume a more benevolent role as a single ruler.
• Caesarion appears as the main character in a novel called "La stanza sull'acqua" written by Roberto Pazzi and published in 1991 by Garzanti in Italy. The book has been translated in many countries.