Ptolemaic Kingdom

Ptolemaic Kingdom

The Ptolemaic period was a period of Egyptian history in which Egypt was ruled as the Ptolemaic Kingdom. It was an Ancient Greek state based in Egypt. The Kingdom was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and lasted until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC.

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, invaded Egypt, which at that time was a satrapy (equivalent to a province) of the Achaemenid Empire. His army was welcomed by the Egyptians as liberator to the oppressive control of the Persians. Alexander placated the Egyptians by the respect he showed for their religion. He also claimed Egyptian parentage by linking his mother to a former king of Egypt. However, he appointed Macedonians to virtually all the senior posts in the country. Instead of ruling from the existing capital, he founded a new Greek city, Alexandria, to be the new capital (Alexandria is on the Mediterranean coast and currently the second largest city in Egypt).

Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, a succession crisis erupted among his generals. One of the generals, Ptolemy, was initially appointed as the satrap (i.e., governor) of Egypt. As Alexander the Great's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as the ruler of Egypt in his own right. Ptolemy successfully defended his territories against other Greek generals. In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of king as Ptolemy I Soter ("Saviour"). By this action, he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for 300 years. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy, while princesses and queens preferred the names Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice. Below is a bust of Ptolemy I Soter, believed to be made in 3rd century BCE:

Ptolemy I founded the Library of Alexandria, a research center located in the royal sector of the city. Its scholars were housed in the same sector and funded by Ptolemaic rulers. The chief librarian served also as the crown prince's tutor. For the first hundred and fifty years of its existence, the library drew the top Greek scholars from all over the Hellenistic world. It was a key academic, literary and scientific center. Below is a 19th century artistic rendering of the Library:

Ptolemy I died in 283 BCE. His son, Ptolemy II, was an eager patron of scholarship, funding the expansion of the Library of Alexandria and patronizing scientific research. Poets were provided with stipends and produced masterpieces of Hellenistic poetry. Other scholars operating under Ptolemy's aegis included the mathematician Euclid and the astronomer Aristarchus. Ptolemy II is thought to have commissioned Manetho to compose his Aegyptiaca, an account of Egyptian history, so as to make Egyptian culture intelligible to its new rulers. The academies and libraries of Alexandria proved vital in preserving much Greek literary heritage.

Ptolemy II initially married Arsinoe I, the daughter of King Lysimachus of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon. Later, Arsinoe I was convicted of conspiracy to assassinate Ptolemy II. She was repudiated and exiled. Ptolemy II then married his sister, Arsinoe II. This practice of consanguineous marriage was followed by most of his successors. Arsinoe II was one of the most powerful women at that time. Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II became co-rulers of the Kingdom. Arsinoe II played a prominent role in the formation of royal policy, and her image was displayed on official coinage.

Ptolemy II died in 246 BCE. He was succeeded by Ptolemy III, his son with his first wife Arsinoe I. Ptolemy III continued his predecessor's sponsorship of scholarship and literature. He built a second library in Serapeum. He was said to have had every book unloaded in the Alexandria docks seized and copied, returning the copies to their owners and keeping the originals for the Library. It is said that he borrowed the official manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides from Athens and forfeited the considerable deposit he paid for them in order to keep them for the Library rather than returning them. The most distinguished scholar at Ptolemy III's court was the polymath and geographer Eratosthenes, most noted for his remarkably accurate calculation of the circumference of earth. Other prominent scholars include the mathematicians Conon of Samos and Apollonius of Perge. For more details of how Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of earth and other achievements of the Greeks, please see the page titled Ancient Greek Astronomy and Astronomers.

The Kingdom started to decline after the death of Ptolemy III in 222 BCE. In 205 BCE, a priest named Hugronaphor proclaimed himself Pharaoh and ruled upper Egypt until his death in 199 BC. He was succeeded by his son Ankhmakis, whose forces nearly drove the Ptolemies out of the country. The revolutionary dynasty was finally defeated in 185 BCE. A council of priests issued a decree celebrating this event. The decree was recorded on a stele, which achieved historic significant as the famous Rosetta Stone (see the page on Egyptian writing to learn more about the Rosetta Stone and how the ancient hieroglyphic script was deciphered). Below is a map of Egypt around 235 BCE (the green areas were lost to the Seleucid Empire of Iran around 200 BCE):

Ptolemaic Egypt was highly stratified in terms of both class and language. Greeks held virtually all the political and economic power, while native Egyptians generally occupied only the lower posts. To placate the populace, the Ptolemies retained or co-opted many aspects of the Egyptian social order, religion, traditions, and political structures, including adopting the title and outward display of the traditional Egyptian ruler “Pharaoh.” They built magnificent new temples for the Egyptian gods. Priests and other religious officials remained overwhelmingly Egyptian, and continued to enjoy royal patronage and social prestige, as the Ptolemies' partly relied on the Egyptian faith to legitimize their rule.

In In 52 BCE, Cleopatra VII was put on the throne of the Kingdom. At that time, the Romans were already powerful. The reign of Cleopatra was that of a vigorous and exceptionally able queen who was ambitious, among other things, to revive the prestige of the Ptolemaic Kingdom by cultivating influence with powerful Roman commanders. She befriended Julius Caesar and married Mark Antony. Unfortunately, Caesar was assassinated and Antony was defeated by another Roman general, Octavian. As a result, her ambition was dashed and she died in 30 BCE at the age of 39. This marked the end of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Below is a bust of Cleopatra believed to be made around 46-44 BCE: