Item: i102721

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt
Ptolemy III Euergetes – King: 246-222 B.C.
Bronze Dichalkon 17mm (3.6 grams) Telmessos, struck circa 230-222 B.C.
Reference: CPE B437. SNG Copenhagen -. Svoronos 793. Rare.
Diademed head of Zeus Ammon to right, with ram’s horn in his hair and over the diadem.
 BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠTOΛEMAIOY, Eagle with closed wings standing left on thunderbolt; to left, tripod.

Son of Ptolemy II by his first wife, Euergetes was an energetic ruler under whom the Ptolemaic kingdom reached its apogee as an international power. Early in his reign he invaded the Seleucid empire to avenge the murder of his sister Berenike, widow of Antiochos II. After penetrating as far as Media he was obliged to withdraw because of trouble in Egypt, where his wife Berenike II was ruling in his absence. He was also active in the Aegean area and on his death, in 221 B.C., he bequeathed to his successor a strong, secure and peaceful realm which had now prospered for more than a century under the wise rule of three generations of the Ptolemaic family.

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Zeus Ammon. Ammon was a surname of Zeus or Jupiter. The Greeks of the lower Nile Delta and Cyrenaica combined features of supreme god Zeus with features of the Egyptian god Ammon-Ra. Alexander the Great styled himself the son of Zeus-Ammon; his successors, the kings of the Seleukid Kingdom and those of Cyrenaica have, on coins, their heads adorned with the horns of a ram, or of Ammon, the symbol of their dominion over Libya. This deity appears on a great number of coins and engraved marbles. The Egyptians, for whom he was a popular divinity, regarded him as the author of fecundity and generation. The same belief was later introduced to the Romans who worshipped Ammon as the preserver of nature.

Ptolemy III Euergetes, (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs, reigned 246 BC – 222 BC) was the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

Euergetes (“Benefactor”) was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife, Arsinoe I, and came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father. He married Berenice of Cyrene in the year corresponding to 244/243 BC; and their children were:

• Arsinoe III, born in ca 246/245 BC. She later married her brother Ptolemy IV
• Ptolemy IV Philopator, born ca 244 BC
• Possibly Lysimachus. The name of the son is not known, but he is said to have been born in ca 243 BC.
• Alexander, born in c. 242 BC
• Magas, probably born in ca 241 BC. Scalded to death in his bath by Theogos or Theodotus, at the orders of Ptolemy IV.
• Berenice, probably born in ca 239 BC and died a year later.

 Leadership

Ptolemy III Euergetes was responsible for the first known example of a series of decrees published as bilingual inscriptions on massive stone blocks in three writing systems. Ptolemy III’s stone stela is the Canopus Stone of 238 BC. Other well-known examples are the Memphis Stele (Memphis Stone), bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 BC, passed by his son, Ptolemy IV, and the famous Rosetta Stone erected by Ptolemy Epiphanes, his grandson, in 196 BC.

Ptolemy III’s stone contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals.

He is also credited with the foundation of the Serapeum.

 War with Seleucids

Due to a falling out at the Seleucid court, his eldest sister Berenice Phernophorus was murdered along with her infant son. In response Ptolemy III invaded the Seleukid Kingdom. During this war, the Third the Seleukid Kingdomn War, he occupied Antioch and even reached Babylon. In exchange for a peace in 241 BC, Ptolemy was awarded new territories on the northern coast of the Seleukid Kingdom, including Seleucia Pieria, the port of Antioch. The Ptolemaic kingdom reached the height of its power.

This war is cryptically alluded to in Daniel XI 7-9.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty which started with Ptolemy I Soter’s accession after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC- and which ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, who declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful Hellenistic dynasty that ruled an area stretching from southern Seleukid Kingdom to Cyrene and south to Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a major center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest.