Ptolemy VI Philometor King of Egypt 170BC Ancient Greek Coin Two Eagles i36839

Item: i36839

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek – Ptolemy VI Philometor – Ptolemaic King of Egypt:

Bronze 18mm (6.34 grams) Struck 170-164 B.C.

 Reference: Sear 7901; Svoronos 1426; B.M.C. 6.106,32-4

 Head of Zeus-Ammon right

 ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, Two eagles standing left on thunderbolt, side by

side;
in field to left, cornucopia.

The two eagles on the reverse may be symbolic of the joint
rule of Ptolemy VI and his younger brother, 170-164 B.C.

The elder of the two sons of Ptolemy V

and Cleopatra I, Ptolemy VI was only about five years of age at the time of his

father’s death. Cleopatra acted as regent until her death, in 176 B.C., after

which the government was in the hands of two incompetent palace officials,

Eulaios and Lenaios, who provoked a conflict with Antiochus IV of Syria. Later,

Ptolemy VI was forced to share the throne with his younger brother, but after

Roman diplomatic intervention the latter withdrew to rule Kyrenaica. Ptolemy VI

married his own sister, Cleopatra II, by whom he had a son and two daughters. He

died in 145 B.C. of wounds received in battle against Alexander Balas of Syria.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of
plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large
horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or
wealth in some form. Originating in
classical antiquity
, it has continued as a
symbol in
Western art
, and it is particularly associated
with the
Thanksgiving
holiday in
North America
.

Allegorical
depiction of the Roman
goddess
Abundantia
with a cornucopia, by
Rubens
(ca. 1630)

In Mythology

Mythology
offers multiple
explanations of the origin
of the cornucopia.
One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant

Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father
Cronus
. In a cave on
Mount Ida
on the island of
Crete
, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by
a number of divine attendants, including the goat
Amalthea
(“Nourishing Goddess”), who fed him
with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and
strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her
horns
, which then had the divine power to
provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.

In another myth, the cornucopia was created when
Heracles
(Roman
Hercules
) wrestled with the river god
Achelous
and wrenched off one of his horns;
river gods were sometimes depicted as horned. This version is represented in the

Achelous and Hercules

mural painting
by the
American Regionalist
artist
Thomas Hart Benton
.

The cornucopia became the attribute of several
Greek
and
Roman deities
, particularly those associated
with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications
of Earth (Gaia
or
Terra
); the child
Plutus
, god of riches and son of the grain
goddess Demeter
; the
nymph

Maia
; and
Fortuna
, the goddess of luck, who had the power
to grant prosperity. In
Roman Imperial cult
, abstract Roman deities who
fostered peace (pax
Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia,
including Abundantia
, “Abundance” personified, and
Annona
, goddess of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
.
Pluto
, the classical ruler of the underworld in
the
mystery religions
, was a giver of agricultural,
mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish
him from the gloomier Hades
, who holds a
drinking horn
instead.

Modern depictions

In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped
wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive
fruit
and
vegetables
. In North America, the cornucopia
has come to be associated with
Thanksgiving
and the harvest. Cornucopia is
also the name of the annual November Wine and Food celebration in
Whistler
, British Columbia, Canada. Two
cornucopias are seen in the
flag
and
state seal
of
Idaho
. The Great
Seal
of
North Carolina
depicts Liberty standing and
Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coat of arms of
Colombia
,
Panama
,

Peru and
Venezuela
, and the Coat of Arms of the State of
Victoria, Australia
, also feature the
cornucopia, symbolising prosperity.

The horn of plenty is used on body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of
fertility, fortune and abundance.

• 
  

  Base of a statue of
  Louis XV of France

Ptolemy VI Philometor was a king of Egypt from the

Ptolemaic period

. He reigned from 180 to 145 BC.

Ptolemy succeeded in 180 at the age of about 6 and ruled

jointly with his mother,

Cleopatra I

, until her death in 176 BC. The following year he married his

sister,

Cleopatra II

.

In 170 BC,

Antiochus IV

began the

sixth Syrian War

and invaded Egypt twice. He was crowned as its king in 168,

but abandoned his claim on the orders of the Roman Senate.

From 169–164, Egypt was ruled by a triumvirate consisting of

Ptolemy, his sister-queen and his younger brother known as

Ptolemy VIII Physcon

. In 164 he was driven out by his brother and went to

Rome

to seek support, which he received from

Cato

. He was restored the following year by the intervention of the

Alexandrians and ruled uneasily, cruelly suppressing frequent rebellions.

In 152 BC, he briefly ruled jointly with one of his sons,

known as

Ptolemy Eupator

, but it is thought that Ptolemy Eupator died that same year.

In the
ancient Greek

religion
, Zeus


zews



zooss
;
Ancient Greek
: Ζεύς;
Modern
Greek
: Δίας, Dias) was the “Father of Gods and men” (πατὴρ
ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount
Olympus
as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky

and
thunder
in
Greek mythology
. His
Roman
counterpart is
Jupiter
and
Etruscan
counterpart is
Tinia
.

Zeus was the child of
Cronus
and
Rhea
, and the youngest of his siblings. In most
traditions he was married to

Hera, although, at the oracle of
Dodona
, his consort was
Dione
: according to the
Iliad
, he is the father of
Aphrodite
by Dione.
He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic
offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo
and
Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone
(by
Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
, and the

Muses (by
Mnemosyne
); by Hera, he is usually said to have
fathered Ares
,
Hebe
and
Hephaestus
.

As
Walter Burkert
points out in his book, Greek
Religion, “Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as
Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.”
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
, who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias
observed, “That Zeus is king in
heaven is a saying common to all men”.
In Hesiod’s Theogony
Zeus assigns the various gods
their roles. In the
Homeric Hymns
he is referred to as the
chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
, and

oak.
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer”
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
, such as the
scepter
. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek
artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt
leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom  was a
Hellenistic
kingdom in
Egypt
. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty
that
Ptolemy I Soter
founded after the death of
Alexander the Great
in 323 BC—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
Syria
to
Cyrene
and south to
Nubia
.
Alexandria
became the capital city and a center
of Macedonian 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
annexation
by
Rome
. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive
in Egypt throughout the
Roman
and
Byzantine
periods until the
Muslim conquest
.

History

The era of Ptolemaic reign in Egypt is one of the most well documented time
periods of the Hellenistic Era; a wealth of papyri written by Macedonian, Greeks
and Egyptians of the time have been discovered in Egypt.

Background

In 332 BC,
Alexander the Great
, King of
Macedon
invaded the Achaemenid satrapy of
Egypt. He visited
Memphis
, and traveled to the oracle of

Amun at the
Oasis of Siwa
. The oracle declared him to be
the son of Amun. He conciliated the Egyptians by the respect he showed for
their religion
, but he appointed Macedonians to
virtually all the senior posts in the country, and founded a new Macedonian
city, Alexandria
, to be the new capital. The wealth
of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander’s conquest of the rest of the
Persian Empire
. Early in 331 BC he was ready to
depart, and led his forces away to
Phoenicia
. He left
Cleomenes
as the ruling
nomarch
to control Egypt in his absence.
Alexander never returned to Egypt.

Establishment

Following Alexander’s death in
Babylon
in 323 BC, a
succession crisis
erupted among his generals.
Initially, Perdiccas
ruled the empire as regent for
Alexander’s half-brother Arrhidaeus, who became
Philip III of Macedon
, and then as regent for
both Philip III and Alexander’s infant son
Alexander IV of Macedon
, who had not been born
at the time of his father’s death. Perdiccas appointed
Ptolemy
, one of Alexander’s closest companions,
to be satrap
of Egypt. Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323
BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV.
However, as Alexander the Great’s empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established
himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against
an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and
the surrounding areas during the
Wars of the Diadochi
(322–301 BC). In 305 BC,
Ptolemy took the title of King. As
Ptolemy I Soter
(“Saviour”), he founded the
Ptolemaic dynasty
that was to rule Egypt for
nearly 300 years.

All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name “Ptolemy”, while princesses
and queens preferred the names
Cleopatra
, Arsinoe and Berenice. Because the
Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of
the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were also of the royal house.
This custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, and the later
Ptolemies were increasingly feeble. The only Ptolemaic Queens to officially rule
on their own were
Berenice III
and
Berenice IV
.
Cleopatra V
did co-rule, but it was with
another female, Berenice IV.
Cleopatra VII
officially co-ruled with
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator
,
Ptolemy XIV
, and
Ptolemy XV
, but effectively, she ruled Egypt
alone.

The early Ptolemies did not disturb the religion or the customs of the
Egyptians
, and indeed built magnificent new
temples for the Egyptian gods and soon adopted the outward display of the
Pharaohs of old. During the reign of Ptolemies II and III thousands of
Macedonian veterans were rewarded with grants of farm lands, and Maceodnian were
planted in colonies and garrisons or settled themselves in the villages
throughout the country.
Upper Egypt
, farthest from the centre of
government, was less immediately affected, even though Ptolemy I established the
Greek colony of
Ptolemais Hermiou
to be its capital. But within
a century Greek
influence had spread through the country
and intermarriage had produced a large Greco-Egyptian educated class.
Nevertheless, the Greeks always remained a privileged minority in Ptolemaic
Egypt. They lived under Greek law, received a Greek education, were tried in
Greek courts, and were citizens of Greek cities.

Ptolemy I

Corinthian
pillar of the Ptolemaic
period, Egypt.

The first part of
Ptolemy I
‘s reign was dominated by the
Wars of the Diadochi
between the various
successor states
to the empire of Alexander.
His first object was to hold his position in Egypt securely, and secondly to
increase his domain. Within a few years he had gained control of
Libya
,
Coele-Syria
(including
Judea
), and
Cyprus
. When
Antigonus
, ruler of
Syria
, tried to reunite Alexander’s empire,
Ptolemy joined the coalition against him. In 312 BC, allied with
Seleucus
, the ruler of
Babylonia
, he defeated
Demetrius
, the son of Antigonus, in the battle
of Gaza
.

In 311 BC, a peace was concluded between the combatants, but in 309 BC war
broke out again, and Ptolemy occupied
Corinth
and other parts of Greece, although he
lost Cyprus after a sea-battle in 306 BC. Antigonus then tried to invade Egypt
but Ptolemy held the frontier against him. When the coalition was renewed
against Antigonus in 302 BC, Ptolemy joined it, but neither he nor his army were
present when Antigonus was defeated and killed at
Ipsus
. He had instead taken the opportunity to
secure Coele-Syria and Palestine, in breach of the agreement assigning it to
Seleucus, thereby setting the scene for the future
Syrian Wars
. Thereafter Ptolemy tried to stay
out of land wars, but he retook Cyprus in 295 BC.

Feeling the kingdom was now secure, Ptolemy shared rule with his son Ptolemy
II by Queen
Berenice
in 285 BC. He then may have devoted
his retirement to writing a history of the campaigns of Alexander—which
unfortunately was lost but was a principal source for the later work of
Arrian
. Ptolemy I died in 283 BC at the age of
84. He left a stable and well-governed kingdom to his son.

Ptolemy II

Ptolemy II Philadelphus
, who succeeded his
father as King of Egypt in 283 BC, was a peaceable and cultured king, and no
great warrior. He did not need to be, because his father had left Egypt strong
and prosperous. Three years of campaigning at the start of his reign (called the
First Syrian War
) left Ptolemy the master of
the eastern Mediterranean, controlling the
Aegean
islands and the coastal districts of
Cilicia
,
Pamphylia
,
Lycia
and
Caria
. However, some of these territories were
lost near the end of his reign as a result of the
Second Syrian War
.

Ptolemy’s first wife,
Arsinoe I
, daughter of
Lysimachus
, was the mother of his legitimate
children. After her repudiation he followed Egyptian custom and married his
sister,
Arsinoë II
, beginning a practice that, while
pleasing to the Egyptian population, had serious consequences in later reigns.
The material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height
under Ptolemy II.
Callimachus
, keeper of the
Library of Alexandria
,
Theocritus
and a host of other poets, glorified
the Ptolemaic family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to
patronise scientific research. He spent lavishly on making Alexandria the
economic, artistic and intellectual capital of the Macedonian and Hellenistic
world. It is to the academies and libraries of Alexandria that we owe the
preservation of so much Greek literary heritage.

Ptolemy III

Statue of
Ptolemy III
in the guise of
Hermes
wearing the
chlamys
cloak. Ptolemaic Egypt.

Ptolemy III Euergetes
(“the benefactor”)
succeeded his father in 246 BC. He abandoned his predecessors’ policy of keeping
out of the wars of the other Macedonian kingdoms, and plunged into the
Third Syrian War
with the
Seleucids
of
Syria
, when his sister,
Queen Berenice
, and her son were murdered in a
dynastic dispute. Ptolemy marched triumphantly into the heart of the Seleucid
realm, as far as
Babylonia
, while his fleets in the Aegean made
fresh conquests as far north as
Thrace
.

This victory marked the zenith of the Ptolemaic power.
Seleucus II Callinicus
kept his throne, but
Egyptian fleets controlled most of the coasts of
Asia Minor
and Greece. After this triumph
Ptolemy no longer engaged actively in war, although he supported the enemies of
Macedon
in Greek politics. His domestic policy
differed from his father’s in that he patronised the native Egyptian religion
more liberally: he has left larger traces among the Egyptian monuments. In this
his reign marks the gradual “Egyptianisation” of the Ptolemies.

The decline of
the Ptolemies

Ptolemaic Empire in 200 BC. Also showing neighboring powers.

In 221 BC, Ptolemy III died and was succeeded by his son
Ptolemy IV Philopator
, a weak and corrupt king
under whom the decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom began. His reign was inaugurated
by the murder of his mother, and he was always under the influence of favourites,
male and female, who controlled the government. Nevertheless his ministers were
able to make serious preparations to meet the attacks of
Antiochus III the Great
on Coele-Syria, and the
great Egyptian victory of
Raphia
in 217 BC secured the kingdom. A sign of
the domestic weakness of his reign was the rebellions by native Egyptians that
took away over half the country for over 20 years. Philopator was devoted to
orgiastic religions and to literature. He married his sister
Arsinoë
, but was ruled by his mistress
Agathoclea.

Ptolemy V Epiphanes
, son of Philopator and
Arsinoë, was a child when he came to the throne, and a series of regents ran the
kingdom.
Antiochus III
of The
Seleucid Empire
and
Philip V of Macedon
made a compact to seize the
Ptolemaic possessions. Philip seized several islands and places in
Caria
and
Thrace
, while the
battle of Panium
in 198 BC transferred Coele-Syria
from Ptolemeic to Seleucid control. After this defeat Egypt formed an alliance
with the rising power in the Mediterranean, Rome. Once he reached adulthood
Epiphanes became a tyrant, before his early death in 180 BC. He was succeeded by
his infant son
Ptolemy VI Philometor
.

In 170 BC,
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
invaded Egypt and
deposed Philometor, and his younger brother (later
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II
) was installed as a
puppet king. When Antiochus withdrew, the brothers agreed to reign jointly with
their sister
Cleopatra II
. They soon fell out, however, and
quarrels between the two brothers allowed Rome to interfere and to steadily
increase its influence in Egypt. Eventually Philometor regained the throne. In
145 BC he was killed in the
Battle of Antioch
.

The later Ptolemies

Philometor was succeeded by yet another infant, his son
Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator
. But Euergetes soon
returned, killed his young nephew, seized the throne and as Ptolemy VIII soon
proved himself a cruel tyrant. On his death in 116 BC he left the kingdom to his
wife
Cleopatra III
and her son
Ptolemy IX Philometor Soter II
. The young king
was driven out by his mother in 107 BC, who reigned jointly with Euergetes’s
youngest son
Ptolemy X Alexander I
. In 88 BC Ptolemy IX
again returned to the throne, and retained it until his death in 80 BC. He was
succeeded by
Ptolemy XI Alexander II
, the son of Ptolemy X.
He was lynched by the Alexandrian mob after murdering his stepmother, who was
also his cousin, aunt and wife. These sordid dynastic quarrels left Egypt so
weakened that the country became a de facto protectorate of Rome, which
had by now absorbed most of the Greek world.

Ptolemy XI was succeeded by a son of Ptolemy IX,
Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos
, nicknamed Auletes,
the flute-player. By now Rome was the arbiter of Egyptian affairs, and annexed
both Libya
and
Cyprus
. In 58 BC Auletes was driven out by the
Alexandrian mob, but the Romans restored him to power three years later. He died
in 51 BC, leaving the kingdom to his ten-year-old son,
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator
, who reigned
jointly with his 17-year-old sister and wife,
Cleopatra VII
.

Cleopatra

Coin of Cleopatra VII, with her effigy.

When
Cleopatra VII
ascended the Egyptian throne, she
was only eighteen. She reigned as Queen “Philopator” and
Pharaoh
between 51 and 30 BC, and died at the
age of 39.

The demise of the Ptolemies’ power coincided with the rise of the
Roman Empire
. Having little choice, and seeing
one city after another falling to Macedon and the Seleucid Empire, the Ptolemies
decided to ally with the Romans, a pact that lasted over 150 years. During the
rule of the later Ptolemies, Rome gained more and more power over Egypt, and was
even declared guardian of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy
XII, had to pay tribute to the Romans to keep them away from his Kingdom. Upon
his death, the fall of the Dynasty seemed even closer.

As children,
Cleopatra
and her siblings witnessed the defeat
of their guardian, Pompey
, by
Julius Caesar
through
civil war
. Meanwhile, Cleopatra and her
brother/husband Ptolemy XIII were both attempting to gain control of Egypt’s
throne.

In the middle of all this turmoil, Julius Caesar left Rome for Alexandria in
48 BC. During his stay in the Palace, he received 22 year old Cleopatra,
allegedly wrapped in rug. She counted on Caesar’s support to alienate Ptolemy
XIII. With the arrival of Roman reinforcements, and after a few
battles in Alexandria
, Ptolemy XIII was
defeated at the
Battle of the Nile
. He later drowned in the
river, although the circumstances of his death are unclear.

In the summer of 47 BC, having married her younger brother
Ptolemy XIV
, Cleopatra and Caesar embarked for
a two-month trip along the Nile. Together, they visited
Dendara
, where Cleopatra was being worshiped as
Pharaoh
, an honor beyond Caesar’s reach. They
became lovers, and she bore him a son,
Caesarion
, who was later proclaimed with many
titles like
king of kings
. In 45 BC, Cleopatra and
Caesarion left Alexandria for Rome, where they stayed in a palace built by
Caesar in their honor.

In 44 BC, Caesar was murdered in Rome by several
Senators
. With his death, Rome split between
supporters of
Mark Antony
and
Octavian
. Cleopatra was watching in silence,
and when Mark Antony seemed to prevail, she supported him and, shortly after,
they too became lovers.

Mark Antony’s alliance with Cleopatra angered Rome even more. The senators
called her a sorceress, and accused her of all sorts of evil. The Romans became
even more furious as Antony was giving away parts of their Empire – at the
donations of Alexandria
ceremony in autumn 34
BC –
Tarsus
,
Cyrene
,
Crete
,
Cyprus
, and
Israel
– one after the other to Cleopatra and
her children. Octavian was able to somehow gain possession of Mark Antony’s
will
, which expressed his desire to be buried
in Alexandria, rather than taken to Rome in the event of his death.

It was the boiling point when
Octavian
declared war on the “Foreign Queen”,
and off the coast of Greece in the Adriatic Sea they met in at
Actium
, where the forces of
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
defeated the Navy of
Cleopatra and Antony.

Octavian waited for a year before he claimed Egypt as a Roman province. He
arrived in Alexandria and easily defeated Mark Antony outside the city, near
present day Camp César. Following this defeat, and facing certain death at the
hands of
Octavian
, Antony committed suicide by falling
on his own sword.

Octavian entered Alexandria in 30 BC. Cleopatra was captured and taken to
him, but Octavian had no interest in any relation, reconciliation, or even
negotiation with the Egyptian Queen. Realizing that her end was close, she
decided to put an end to her life. It is not known for sure how she killed
herself, but many believe she used a
poisonous snake
as her death instrument.

With the death of Cleopatra, the dynasty of Ptolemies came to an end.
Alexandria remained capital of Egypt, but Egypt became a Roman province.

Roman rule

In 30 BC, following the death of
Cleopatra VII
, the
Roman Empire
declared that Egypt was a province
(Aegyptus),
and that it was to be governed by a prefect selected by the Emperor from the
Equestrian
and not a governor from the
Senatorial order, to prevent interference by the
Roman Senate
. The main Roman interest in Egypt
was always the reliable delivery of grain to the city of Rome. To this end the
Roman administration made no change to the Ptolemaic system of government,
although Romans replaced Greeks in the highest offices. But Greeks continued to
staff most of the administrative offices and Greek remained the language of
government except at the highest levels. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans did not
settle in Egypt in large numbers. Culture, education and civic life largely
remained Greek throughout the Roman period. The Romans, like the Ptolemies,
respected and protected Egyptian religion and customs, although the cult of the
Roman state and of the Emperor was gradually introduced.^{[citation
needed]}

Culture

Ptolemy I, perhaps with advice from
Demetrius of Phalerum
, founded the Museum and
Library of Alexandria
The Museum was a research
centre supported by the king. It was located in the royal sector of the city.
The scholars were housed in the same sector and funded by the Ptolemaic rulers.
They had access to the Library. The chief librarian served also as the crown
prince’s tutor. For the first hundred and fifty years of its existence this
library and research centre drew the top Greek scholars.^[11]
This was a key academic, literary and scientific centre.

Art

A detail of the
Nile mosaic of Palestrina
, showing
Ptolemaic Egypt circa 100 BC.

Hellenistic art
is richly diverse in subject
matter and in stylistic development. It was created during an age characterized
by a strong sense of history. For the first time, there were museums and great
libraries, such as those at Alexandria and Pergamon. Hellenistic artists copied
and adapted earlier styles, and also made great innovations. Representations of
Greek gods
took on new forms. The popular image
of a nude Aphrodite, for example, reflects the increased secularization of
traditional religion. Also prominent in Hellenistic art are representations of
Dionysos
, the god of wine and legendary
conqueror of the East, as well as those of Hermes, the god of commerce. In
strikingly tender depictions,
Eros
, the Greek personification of love, is
portrayed as a young child.

Greek culture
had a long but minor presence in
Egypt long before Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria. It began
when Greek colonists, encouraged by the many Pharaohs, set up the trading post
of Naucratis
, which became an important link
between the Greek world and Egypt’s grain. As Egypt came under foreign
domination and decline, the Pharaohs depended on the Greeks as mercenaries and
even advisors. When the Persians took over Egypt, Naucratis remained an
important Greek port and the colonist population were used as
mercenaries
by both the rebel Egyptian princes
and the Persian kings, who later gave them land grants, spreading the Greek
culture into the valley of the Nile. When Alexander the Great arrived, he
established Alexandria on the site of the Persian fort of Rhakortis. Following
Alexander’s death, control passed into the hands of the Lagid (Ptolemaic)
dynasty; they built Macedonian cities across their empire and gave land grants
across Egypt to the veterans of their many military conflicts.
Hellenistic civilization
continued to thrive
even after Rome annexed Egypt after the
battle of Actium
and did not decline until the
Islamic conquests
.

Bronze allegorical group of a Ptolemy (identifiable by his
diadem
) overcoming an adversary, in
Hellenistic style
, ca early
2nd century BC (Walters
Art Museum)

Social situation

The Greeks
now formed the new upper classes in
Egypt
, replacing the old native aristocracy. In
general, the Ptolemies undertook changes that went far beyond any other measures
that earlier foreign rulers had imposed. They used the religion and traditions
to increase their own power and wealth. Although they established a prosperous
kingdom, enhanced with fine buildings, the native population enjoyed few
benefits, and there were frequent uprisings. These expressions of nationalism
reached a peak in the reign of
Ptolemy IV Philopator
(221–205 BC) when others
gained control over one district and ruled as a line of native “pharaohs.” This
was only curtailed nineteen years later when
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
(205–181 BC) succeeded in
subduing them, but the underlying grievances continued and there were riots
again later in the dynasty.

Family conflicts affected the later years of the dynasty when
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II
fought his brother
Ptolemy VI Philometor
and briefly seized the
throne. The struggle was continued by his sister and niece (who both became his
wives) until they finally issued an Amnesty Decree in 118 BC.

Coinage

Ptolemaic Egypt was noted for its extensive series of coinage in gold, silver
and bronze. It was especially noted for its issues of large coins in all three
metals, most notably gold pentadrachm
and octadrachm, and silver
tetradrachm
, decadrachm and
pentakaidecadrachm. This was especially noteworthy as it would not be until
the introduction of the
Guldengroschen
in 1486 that coins of
substantial size (particularly in silver) would be minted in significant
quantities.

Military

Hellenistic soldiers in
tunic
, 100 BC, detail of the Nile
mosaic of Palestrina.

Ptolemaic Egypt, along with the other
Hellenistic
states outside of the Greek
mainland after
Alexander the Great
, had its armies based on
the
Macedonian phalanx
and featured
Macedonian
and native troops fighting side by
side.

The Ptolemaic military was filled with diverse peoples from across their
territories. At first most of the military was made up of a pool of
Greek
settlers who, in exchange for military
service, were given land grants. These made up the majority of the army.

With the many wars the Ptolemies were involved in, their pool of Macedonian
troops dwindled and there was little Macedonian or Greek immigration from the
mainland so they were kept in the royal bodyguard and as generals and officers.
Native troops were looked down upon and distrusted due to their disloyalty and
frequent tendency to aid local revolts. However, with the decline of royal
power, they gained influence and became common in the military.

The Ptolemies used the great wealth of Egypt to their advantage by hiring
vast amounts of mercenaries from across the known world. Black Ethiopians are
also known to have served in the military along with the Galatians, Mysians and
others. Jews were particularly imported as military settlers and made up as much
as twenty percent of the military.

With their vast amount of territory spread along the Eastern Mediterranean
such as Cyprus
,
Crete
, the islands of the
Aegean
and even
Thrace
, the Ptolemies required a large navy to
defend these far-flung strongholds from enemies like the
Seleucids
and Macedonians.

Cities

Whiling ruling Egypt
, the
Ptolemaic
Dynasty built many
Greek
settlements throughout their Empire,
either
Hellenize
new conquered peoples or reinforce
the area. Egypt had only three main Greek cities—Alexandria,
Naucratis
, and
Ptolemais
.

Naucratis

Of the three Greek cities,
Naucratis
, although its commercial importance
was reduced with the founding of Alexandria, continued in a quiet way its life
as a Greek city-state. During the interval between the death of Alexander and
Ptolemy’s assumption of the style of king, it even issued an autonomous coinage.
And the number of Greek men of letters during the Ptolemaic and Roman period,
who were citizens of Naucratis, proves that in the sphere of Hellenic culture
Naucratis held to its traditions. Ptolemy II bestowed his care upon Naucratis.
He built a large structure of limestone, about 330 feet (100 m) long and 60 feet
(18 m) wide, to fill up the broken entrance to the great
Temenos
; he strengthened the great block of
chambers in the Temenos, and re-established them. At the time when Sir Flinders
Petrie wrote the words just quoted the great Temenos was identified with p91the
Hellenion. But Mr. Edgar has recently pointed out that the building connected
with it was an Egyptian temple, not a Greek building. Naucratis, therefore, in
spite of its general Hellenic character, had an Egyptian element. That the city
flourished in Ptolemaic times “we may see by the quantity of imported amphorae,
of which the handles stamped at Rhodes and elsewhere are found so abundantly.
“The Zeno papyri show that it was the chief port of call on the inland voyage
from Memphis to Alexandria, as well as a stopping-place on the land-route from
Pelusium to the capital. It was attached, in the administrative system, to the
Saïte nome.

Alexandria

A major Mediterranean port of Egypt, in ancient times and still today,
Alexandria
was founded in 331 BC by
Alexander the Great
, one of the many Eastern
Macedonian
cities that he established. Located
20 miles (32 km) west of the Nile’s westernmost mouth, the city was immune to
the silt deposits that persistently choked harbors along the river. Alexandria
became the capital of the Hellenized Egypt of King Ptolemy (1) I (reigned
323—283 BC). Under the wealthy Ptolemy dynasty, the city soon surpassed Athens
as the cultural center of the
Greek world
.

Laid out on a grid pattern, Alexandria occupied a stretch of land between the
sea to the north and Lake Mareotis to the south; a man-made causeway, over
three-quarters of a mile long, extended north to the sheltering island of
Pharos
, thus forming a double harbor, east and
west. On the east was the main harbor, called the Great Harbor; it faced the
city’s chief buildings, including the royal palace and the famous Library and
Museum. At the Great Harbor’s mouth, on an outcropping of Pharos, stood the
lighthouse
, built ca. 280 BC. Now vanished, the
lighthouse was reckoned as one of the
Seven Wonders of the World
for its unsurpassed
height (perhaps 460 feet); it was a square, fenestrated tower, topped with a
metal fire basket and a statue of Zeus the Savior.

The Library
, at that time the largest in the world,
contained several hundred thousand volumes and housed and employed scholars and
poets. A similar scholarly complex was the Museum (Mouseion, “hall of the
Muses”). During Alexandria’s brief literary golden period, ca. 280–240 BC, the
Library subsidized three poets—Callimachus, Apollonius, and Theocritus—whose
work now represents the best of Hellenistic literature. Among other thinkers
associated with the Library or other Alexandrian patronage were the
mathematician Euclid
(ca. 300 BC), the inventor
Archimedes
(287 BC – c. 212 BC), and the
polymath
Eratosthenes
(ca. 225 BC).^[13]

Cosmopolitan and flourishing, Alexandria possessed a varied population of
Macedonians,Greeks and Orientals, including a sizable minority of Jews, who had
their own city quarter. Periodic conflicts occurred between Jews and ethnic
Greeks
.

The city enjoyed a calm political history under the
Ptolemies
. It passed, with the rest of Egypt,
into Roman hands in 30 BC, and became the second city of the Roman Empire.

Ptolemais

The second Greek city founded after the conquest in Egypt was
Ptolemais
, 400 miles (640 km) up the

Nile, where there was a native village called Psoï, in the nome
called after the ancient Egyptian city of
Thinis
. If Alexandria perpetuated the name and
cult of the great Alexander, Ptolemais was to perpetuate the name and cult of
the founder of the Ptolemaic time. Framed in by the barren hills of the
Nile Valley
and the Egyptian sky, here a Greek
city arose, with its public buildings and temples and theatre, no doubt
exhibiting the regular architectural forms associated with
Greek culture
, with a citizen-body Greek in
blood, and the institutions of a Greek city. If there is some doubt whether
Alexandria possessed a council and assembly, there is none in regard to
Ptolemais. It was more possible for the kings to allow a measure of
self-government to a people removed at that distance from the ordinary residence
of the court. We have still, inscribed on stone, decrees passed in the assembly
of the people of Ptolemais, couched in the regular forms of
Greek
political tradition: It seemed good to
the boule and to the demos: Hermas son of Doreon, of the deme Megisteus, was the
proposer: Whereas the prytaneis who were colleagues with Dionysius the son of
Musaeus in the 8th year, etc.

Demographics

The Ptolemaic kingdom was diverse in the people who settled and made Egypt
their home on this time. During this period, Macedonian troops under
Ptolemy I Soter
were given land grants and
brought their families encouraging tens of thousands of
Greeks
to settle the country making themselves
the new ruling class. Native
Egyptians
continued having a role, yet a small
one in the Ptolemaic government mostly in lower posts and outnumbered the
foreigners. During the reign of the Ptolemaic Pharaohs, many

Jews were imported from neighboring Palestine by the hundred
thousands for being renowned fighters and established an important presence
there. Other foreign groups settled during this time and even
Galatian
mercenaries were invited. Of the
aliens who had come to settle in Egypt, the ruling race, Macedonians and Greeks,
were the most important element. They were partly spread as allotment-holders
over the country, forming social groups, in the country towns and villages, side
by side with the native population, partly gathered in the three Greek cities —
the old Naucratis, founded before 600 BC (in the interval of Egyptian
independence after the expulsion of the Assyrians and before the coming of the
Persians), and the two new cities, Alexandria by the sea, and Ptolemais in Upper
Egypt. Alexander and his Seleucid successors were great as the founders of Greek
cities all over their dominions.

Macedonian and Greek culture was so much bound up with the life of the
city-state that any king who wanted to present himself to the world as a genuine
champion of Hellenism had to do something in this direction, but the king of
Egypt, whilst as ambitious as any to shine as a Hellene, would find Greek
cities, with their republican tradition and aspirations to independence,
inconvenient elements in a country that lent itself, as no other did, to
bureaucratic centralization. The Ptolemies therefore limited the number of Greek
city-states in Egypt to Alexandria, Ptolemais, and Naucratis.

Outside Egypt, they had Greek cities under their dominion—including the old
Greek cities in the Cyrenaica, in Cyprus, on the coasts and islands of the
Aegean—but in Egypt no more than the three. There were indeed country towns with
names such as Ptolemais, Arsinoe, and Berenice, in which Greek communities
existed with a certain social life; there were similar groups of Greeks in many
of the old Egyptian towns, but they were not communities with the political
forms of a city-state. Yet if they had no place of political assembly, they
would have their gymnasium, the essential sign of Hellenism, serving something
of the purpose of a university for the young men. Far up the Nile at Ombi was
found in 136–135 B.C. a gymnasium of the local Greeks, which passes resolutions
and corresponds with the king. And in 123 B.C., when there is trouble in Upper
Egypt between the towns of Crocodilopolis and Hermonthis, the negotiators sent
from Crocodilopolis are the young men attached to the gymnasium, who, according
to the Greek tradition, eat bread and salt with the negotiators from the other
town. All Greek dialects of the Greek world gradually became assimilated in the
Koine Greek dialect that was the common language of the Hellenistic world.
Generally the Greeks of the Ptolemaic Egypt felt like a representative of a
higher civilization yet were curious about the native culture of Egypt.

Arabs under the
Ptolemies

Arab nomads of the eastern desert penetrated in small bodies into the
cultivated land of the Nile, as they do today. The Greeks called all the land on
the eastern side of the Nile “Arabia”, and villages were to be found here and
there with a population of Arabs who had exchanged the life of tent-dwellers for
that of settled agriculturists. Apollonius tells of one such village, Poïs, in
the Memphite nome, two of whose inhabitants send a letter on September 20, 152
B.C. The letter is in Greek; it had to be written for the two Arabs by the young
Macedonian Apollonius, the Arabs being unable apparently to write. Apollonius
writes their names as Myrullas and Chalbas, the first probably, and the second
certainly, Semitic. A century earlier Arabs farther west, in the Fayûm,
organized under a leader of their own, and working mainly as herdsmen on the
dorea of Apollonius the dioiketes; but these Arabs bear Greek and Egyptian
names.

In 1990, more than 2,000 papyri written by
Zeno of Caunus
from the time of
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
were discovered, which
contained at least 19 references to Arabs in the area between the

Nile and the
Red Sea
, and mentioned their jobs as police
officers in charge of “ten person units”, while some others were mentioned as
shepherds.

Arabs
in Ptolemaic kingdom had provided camel
convoys to the armies of some Ptolemaic leaders during their invasions, but they
didn’t have allegiance towards any of the kingdoms of Egypt or Syria, and also
managed to raid and attack both sides of the conflict between Ptolemaic Kingdom
and its enemies.

Jews under the
Ptolemies

The Jews who lived in Egypt had originally immigrated from Israel. The Jews
absorbed Greek, the dominant language of Egypt at the time, while heavily mixing
it with Hebrew It was during this period that the
Septuagint
, the Greek translation of the Jewish
scriptures, appeared. Jewish legend has it that the Septuagint was written by
Seventy Jewish Translators under royal compulsion during Ptolemy II’s reign.
However, the translation of the
Old Testament
was more probably written over
time in Egypt during the last three centuries before the
Christian era
.

Agriculture

The early Ptolemies increased cultivatable land through irrigation and
introduced crops such as cotton and better wine-producing grapes. They also
increased the availability of luxury goods through foreign trade. They enriched
themselves and absorbed Egyptian culture. Ptolemy and his descendants adopted
Egyptian royal trappings and added Egypt’s religion to their own, worshiping
Egyptian gods and building temples to them, and even being mummified and buried
in sarcophagi covered with hieroglyphs.

In his lifetime Strabo
made extensive travels to among others
Egypt
and
Ethiopia
.

Ptolemaic rulers

Ptolemy I Soter
of
Macedon
founded the Ptolemaic
Kingdom.

The Ptolemaic dynasty, (Ancient Greek:
Πτολεμαῖοι, sometimes also known as the
Lagids or Lagides,
Ancient Greek
:
Λαγίδαι, from the name of Ptolemy I’s father,
Lagus
) were the
Macedonian Greek
descendants of
Ptolemy I Soter
, one of the six
somatophylakes
(bodyguards) who served as
Alexander the Great
‘s generals and deputies and
was appointed satrap
of
Egypt
after Alexander’s death in 323 BC. In 305
BC, he declared himself King Ptolemy I, later known as “Soter” (saviour). The
Egyptians
soon accepted the Ptolemies as the
successors to the pharaohs
of independent Egypt. Ptolemy’s family
ruled Egypt until the Roman
conquest of 30 BC.

All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens,
some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra,
Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member of the line was the last queen,
Cleopatra VII
, known for her role in the Roman
political battles between
Julius Caesar
and
Pompey
, and later between
Octavian
and
Mark Antony
. Her apparent suicide at the
conquest by Rome marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt.

List

Dates in brackets represent the regnal dates of the Ptolemaic pharaohs. They
frequently ruled jointly with their wives, who were often also their sisters.
Several queens exercised regal authority, but the most famous and successful was
Cleopatra VII
(51 BC-30 BC), with her two
brothers and her son as successive nominal
co-rulers
. Several systems exist for numbering
the later rulers; the one used here is the one most widely used by modern
scholars. Dates are years of reign.

• Ptolemy I Soter
  (303 BC-285 BC) married
  first (probably) Thaïs
  , secondly
  Artakama
  , thirdly
  Eurydice
  and finally
  Berenice I
• Ptolemy II Philadelphus
  (285 BC-246 BC)
  married
  Arsinoe I
  , then
  Arsinoe II
  Philadelphus; ruled jointly with
  Ptolemy I Epigone
  (267 BC-259 BC)
• Ptolemy III Euergetes
  (246 BC-221 BC)
  married
  Berenice II
• Ptolemy IV Philopator
  (221 BC-203 BC)
  married
  Arsinoe III
• Ptolemy V Epiphanes
  (203 BC-181 BC) married
  Cleopatra I
• Ptolemy VI Philometor
  (181 BC-164 BC, 163
  BC-145 BC) married
  Cleopatra II
  , briefly ruled jointly with
  Ptolemy Eupator
  in 152 BC
• Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator
  (never reigned)
• Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (Physcon)
  (170
  BC-163 BC, 145 BC-116 BC) married
  Cleopatra II
  then
  Cleopatra III
  ; temporarily expelled from
  Alexandria by
  Cleopatra II
  between 131 BC and 127 BC,
  reconciled with her in 124 BC.
• Cleopatra II Philometora Soteira
  (131
  BC-127 BC), in opposition to
  Ptolemy VIII
• Cleopatra III Philometor Soteira Dikaiosyne Nikephoros
  (Kokke)
  (116 BC-101 BC) ruled jointly with
  Ptolemy IX
  (116 BC-107 BC) and
  Ptolemy X
  (107 BC-101 BC)
• Ptolemy IX Soter II (Lathyros)
  (116 BC-107
  BC, 88 BC-81 BC as Soter II) married
  Cleopatra IV
  then
  Cleopatra Selene
  ; ruled jointly with
  Cleopatra III
  in his first reign
• Ptolemy X
  Alexander I (107 BC-88 BC)
  married
  Cleopatra Selene
  then
  Berenice III
  ; ruled jointly with
  Cleopatra III
  till 101 BC
• Berenice III Philopator
  (81 BC-80 BC)
• Ptolemy XI
  Alexander II (80 BC) married and
  ruled jointly with
  Berenice III
  before murdering her; ruled
  alone for 19 days after that.
• Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos (Auletes)
  (80
  BC-58 BC, 55 BC-51 BC) married
  Cleopatra V Tryphaena
• Cleopatra V Tryphaena
  (58 BC-57 BC) ruled
  jointly with
  Berenice IV Epiphaneia
  (58 BC-55 BC) and
  Cleopatra VI Tryphaena
  (58 BC)
• Cleopatra VII Philopator
  (51 BC-30 BC)
  ruled jointly with
  Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator
  (51 BC-47
  BC),
  Ptolemy XIV
  (47 BC-44 BC) and
  Ptolemy XV Caesarion
  (44 BC-30 BC).
• Arsinoe IV
  (48 BC-47 BC) in opposition to
  Cleopatra VII

Simplified
Ptolemaic family tree

Many of the relationships shown in this tree are controversial. The issues
are fully discussed in the external links.

Other
members of the Ptolemaic dynasty

• Ptolemy Keraunos
  (died 279 BC) – eldest son
  of Ptolemy I Soter. Eventually became king of Macedon.
• Ptolemy Apion
  (died 96 BC) – son of Ptolemy
  VIII Physcon. Made king of Cyrenaica. Bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome.
• Ptolemy Philadelphus
  (born 36 BC) – son of
  Mark Antony
  and Cleopatra VII.
• Ptolemy of Mauretania
  (died AD 40) – son of
  Juba II
  of Mauretania and
  Cleopatra Selene II
  , daughter of
  Cleopatra VII
  and
  Mark Antony
  . King of
  Mauretania
  .

Medical analysis

Contemporaries describe a number of the Ptolemaic dynasty as extremely
obese
, whilst
sculptures
and

coins reveal prominent eyes and swollen necks. Familial
Graves’ disease
could explain the swollen necks
and eye prominence (exophthalmos),
although this is unlikely to occur in the presence of morbid obesity.

In view of the familial nature of these findings, members of this dynasty
likely suffered from a multi-organ fibrotic condition such as
Erdheim–Chester disease
or a familial
multifocal fibrosclerosis where thyroiditis, obesity and ocular proptosis may
have all occurred concurrently.