cleopatra, though long desiring to preserve her kingdom, decided in her last moments to send caesarion away to upper egypt perhaps with plans to flee to nubia, ethiopia or india. caesarion, now ptolemy xv, reigned for a mere eighteen days until he was executed on the orders of octavian on 29 august 30 bc. he had been returning to alexandria under the false pretense that octavian would allow him to be king. octavian hesitated to have him killed at first, but the advice of philosopher and friend arius didymus convinced him there was room for only one caesar in the world. with the fall of the ptolemaic kingdom, egypt was made into a roman province. this marked the end of hellenistic egypt and the entire hellenistic age that had begun with the reign of alexander the great (336–323 bc) of macedon. in january 27 bc octavian was renamed augustus ('the revered') and amassed constitutional powers that established him as the first roman emperor, inaugurating the principate era of the roman empire. roman emperors were thereafter considered pharaohs of egypt, but unlike the ptolemaic rulers they did not reside in egypt. octavian, now augustus, distanced himself from egyptian royal rituals, such as coronation in the egyptian style or worshiping the apis bull. he was, however, depicted in egyptian temples as a typical pharaoh making sacrifices to the gods. unlike regular roman provinces, octavian established egypt as territory under his personal control. he barred the roman senate from intervening in any of its affairs and appointed his own equestrian governors of egypt, the first of whom was cornelius gallus.