Arsinoe IV was executed in Ephesus after Mark Antony ordered her death in 41 BC. She had taken refuge at the Temple of Artemis after Julius Caesar brought her to Rome as a prisoner and later granted her sanctuary.
Arsinoe was Cleopatra VII’s younger sister and had opposed her during the Alexandrian conflict of 48–47 BC. Cleopatra regarded the exiled princess as a continuing threat, and Antony’s order was issued at Cleopatra’s urging. The killing inside a sacred sanctuary caused outrage because it violated the temple’s protection.
Ephesus was an important Greek city in Roman Anatolia, located near modern Selçuk in Turkey. A later octagonal tomb there was proposed as Arsinoe’s burial place, but genetic testing published in 2025 showed that the remains belonged to a male individual, not Cleopatra’s sister.
A common mix-up is confusing the execution site with Alexandria, where Cleopatra’s court was based, or with Rome, where Arsinoe had earlier appeared in Caesar’s triumph. The reported execution took place at Ephesus.