His paternal grandparents were Egyptian Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes and Egyptian Greek Queen who was a Greek princess of the Seleucid Empire Cleopatra I of Egypt.
Cyrenaica became part of the Ptolemaic empire controlled from Alexandria, and became Roman territory in 96 BC when Ptolemy Apion bequeathed Cirenaica to Rome.
Ptolemy | Ptolemy I Soter | Ptolemy III Euergetes | Ptolemy IV Philopator | Ptolemy II Philadelphus | Ptolemy XII Auletes | Ptolemy V Epiphanes | Ptolemy of Mauretania | Ptolemy of Cyprus | Ptolemy II of Tusculum | Ptolemy Apion | Geography (Ptolemy) | Ptolemy X Alexander I | Ptolemy (name) | Ptolemy Keraunos | Ptolemy I of Tusculum | Ptolemy-el-Garib | Ptolemy Dean | Barry Ptolemy |
In 96 BC Rome peacefully obtained Cyrenaica (left as inheritance by the king Ptolemy Apion) with the so-called sovereign Pentapolis, formed by the cities of Cyrene (near the modern village of Shahat), its port of Apollonia, Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (near modern Benghazi) and Barce (Marj), that will be transformed into a Roman province a couple of decades later in 74 BC.