Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.

Pharaoh was a title of the monarch of ancient Egypt. The earliest confirmed instance of the title used contemporaneously for a ruler is a letter to Akhenaten, possibly preceded by an inscription referring to Thutmose III. Although the title only came into use in the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom, scholars today use it for all the rulers of Egypt from the First Dynasty until the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Republic in 30 BCE.

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh. A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language, among several others. After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean, which had begun during the reign of Alexander.

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west; the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural center, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and an important hub of industry and tourism. With over 107 million inhabitants, Egypt is the third-most populous country in Africa and 15th-most populated in the world.

Ptolemy XV Caesar, nicknamed Caesarion, was the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, reigning with his mother Cleopatra VII from 44 BC to 30 BC. He nominally reigned as sole pharaoh for a few days after his mother's death, although Alexandria had already fallen and Caesarion remained in hiding until his execution by Octavian, who would become the first Roman emperor as "Augustus".