Sulla sent Ptolemy XI to marry Queen Berenice III, he had her killed within three weeks, the Alexandrians killed him, and Rome produced a will leaving Egypt to Rome

When Ptolemy IX died in 80 BC, his daughter Berenice III ruled alone. From 101 BC she had ruled with Ptolemy X, who in 89 BC took the gold coffin of Alexander the Great to pay his troops and was killed at sea in 88 BC. A son of Ptolemy X, also named Alexander, had been raised at the court of Mithridates of Pontus and had escaped to Sulla. Appian says Sulla made him king because the royal house had no male heir and because Sulla expected a large reward from a rich kingdom. He married Berenice and within about three weeks had her killed. On the nineteenth day of his reign, Appian writes, the Alexandrians dragged him from the palace to the gymnasium and killed him. A document then appeared in Rome said to be his will, leaving Egypt to the Roman people. Its authenticity was questioned at the time. Cicero said in 63 BC that one man assured him the will was real, and that the Senate had sent envoys to Tyre to recover money the king had deposited there. Rome refused to recognise the new king, Ptolemy XII, a son of Ptolemy IX by a concubine, known as "the Bastard." In 65 BC Crassus proposed annexing Egypt. In 59 BC Ptolemy XII paid 6,000 talents for Julius Caesar's support, and a law recognised him as friend and ally of the Roman people.