Cleopatra II of Egypt

Born around 185 BC into the Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra II became queen consort in 175 BC when she married her older brother Ptolemy VI Philometor. By 170 BC she had graduated to co-ruler, sharing power with Ptolemy VI and her younger brother Ptolemy VIII in a three-way arrangement that lasted until 164 BC. After Ptolemy VI's death in 145 BC, she married the younger brother - Ptolemy VIII - and ruled with him and her own daughter Cleopatra III. Between 131 and 127 BC she held Egypt alone, the first Ptolemaic woman known for certain to rule in her own right and the first confirmed female pharaoh since Tausret centuries earlier. Her final years, from 124 BC until her death in 116 or 115 BC, returned her to coregency with Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III - a half-century career navigating the dynasty's tangled marriages and power struggles.