ptolemy2

285 – 246 Ptolemaios II Philadelphos ("Beloved Brother"), Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

He was born in 309 on the Aegean island of Kos, while his father was campaigning against Antigonos Monophthalamos in the Fourth Diadoch War. He became co-ruler with his father in 285 and succeeded him as sole-ruler in 283. In 283 he raised the Jews to citizen status, above that of the native population and on par with the Greeks; Alexandria would become a centre of Jewish culture rivalling or even exceeding Jerusalem. With the fall of Lysimachos’ Kingdom of Thrace in 282, he acquired Samos, Chios, Pamphylia and several cities in southern Asia Minor. With the assassination of Seleukos a year later, Ptolemaios was able to obtain Miletos as well. He invaded Seleukid Syria in 276, the First Syrian War, but was unable to press his initial advantage because he was invaded by his brother, the King of Cyrenaica and by the Nubian Kingdom of Meroe. He made peace with the Seleukids in 271, and shortly after he allied with Athens and Sparta and went to war with Macedon, the Chermonidean War (267–261), gaining Methana in the Saronic Gulf, Thera, Itanos in Eastern Crete and Ephesos, but losing the war. For his aid in this war, the Byzantines honoured him as a god. Immediately hostilities opened with the Seleukids, the Second Syrian War (260-253), which led to the loss of the Island League. He inherited the Kingdom of Cyrenaica from his sonless half-brother King Magas around 250, but had to fight off a Macedonian invasion and a republican rebellion before his rule was secure. Relations were opened with the Roman Republic, as well as Carthage during his reign; remaining on friendly terms with both of these famous rivals proved difficult. He slowly established a bureaucracy to help him extract tax income from his kingdom. A canal was constructed from the Nile Delta to the Red Sea, and trade carried out as far south as Ethiopia. He built the Temple of Isis on Philae in the far south and the Anubeion at Saqqara.

He married (first) in 285 or 283 Arsinoē I, daughter of Lysimachos, King of Thrace, she was banished to Coptus in Southern Egypt in 279, where she exercised authority as Chief Royal Wife. In 279 he married (second) his sister, Arsinoē II, previously Queen of Thrace and Macedon, from 272, she was Priestess of the Ram of Mendēs; she was worshipped alone as Thea Philadelphē and with her husband as the Theoi Adelphoi (The Sibling Gods); she died in 270 and was commemorated in verse by the pre-eminent poet and scholar, Kallimachos. He took as a concubine (first) Didymē, an Egyptian. He took as a concubine (second) Belistichē, who was Priestess of Arsinoē II (251-250) and deified by her husband as an aspect of Aphroditē. He took as a concubine (third) Agathokleia. He took as a concubine (fourth) Stratonikē, commemorated by a big memorial at on the seaside near Eleusis. He took as a concubine (fifth) Myrtion He took as a concubine (sixth) Kleinoi, his cupbearer, commemorated by risqué statues scattered throughout Alexandria. He took as a concubine (seventh) Mnēsis. He took as a concubine (eighth) Potheinē. He took as a concubine (ninth) Aglais. He took as a concubine (tenth) Glaukē. He took as a concubine (eleventh) Hippē. He died in 246.

• 1) Ptolemaios ho Pais "the Child". He was a co-regent with his father from 267, and served as a General in Western Anatolia during the Chermonidean War (267-261), revolting briefly in 259 only to be killed by his own mercenaries. He took as a concubine Eirēnē, who died with him.

• 2) Ptolemaios III Euergetēs, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (son of Arsinoē I) (see below).

• 3) Lysimachos (son of Arsinoē I). He was killed by the Regent Sosibios in 220 early in the reign of his grandnephew Ptolemaios IV.

• 4) Ptolemaios Andromachos (son of Belistichē). Priest of the Egyptian cult of Alexander the Great (251-250). An Egyptian general, he was responsible for the conquest of Pamphylia, Ephesos, the Hellaspont and Southern Thrace in the Third Syrian War (246-241). He lost a major naval battle against the King of Macedon at Andros and was killed by his Thracian mercenaries shortly afterwards.

• 1) Berenikē Phernophoros "the Dowry-bearer" (daughter of Arsinoē I), who married Antiochos II Theos, Third Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). She was killed in 246 by Laodikē, Antiochos II’s first wife.

246 – 221 Ptolemaios III Euergetēs ("the Beneficient"), Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

He went to war with the Seleukids in 246 in support of his sister, the Seleukid queen, who was attempting to raise her son to the throne (Third Syrian War / Laodicean War (246-241)). This invasion was highly successful, quickly conquering Babylon, where he discovered that his sister and her son had been murdered. Simultaneously his forces in the Aegean took control of Pampylia, parts of Ionia, the Hellespont and Southern Thrace. He continued to campaign in Babylonia until 245, when he was forced to turn back by a revolt in Egypt. In the peace at the end of the Third Syrian War, in 241, he retained the conquests in the Aegean, but acknowledged the loss of all those in Babylonia and northern Syria, except for Seleukia-Piera, the main port of the Seleukid Empire, which he retained. He was hostile also to the Macedonians, and as a result very friendly with the Mainland Greeks. He was honorary Hegemon of the Achaean League from 243 (until 226) and supported them and the Aetolians in the Demetrian War (238-234) against Macedon. He faced a rebellion from the native Egyptians at Canopus in 238, and responded by beginning construction of the famous Temple of Horus at Edfu. The Temple of Isis at Aswan, the small Temple of Khnum at Esna, the Temple of Osiris at Canopus and the Serapeum at Alexandria were also built in this reign. He unsuccessfully aided the Aetolians in a second war in 229. He supported the Spartans, Aetolians and Athenians against the Achaeans, who had switched to the side of the Macedonians, in 226. For this the Athenians named one of their Twelve Tribes after him, instituted a festival in his honour and built a temple where he was worshipped as a god. This intervention ultimately proved too costly, and he cut the Spartans off, with disastrous results for them, in 222.

He married Berenikē II, daughter of his half-uncle Magas, King of Cyrenaica (300-250); she helped her husband regain control over Cyrenaica and the two were worshipped as the Theoi Euergetai (The Beneficient Gods); she was killed by the Regent Sosibios early in the reign of her grandson Ptolemaios IV. Ptolemaios III was killed, supposedly by his son, in 221. He had issue:

• 1) Ptolemaios IV Philopatōr, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (son of Berenike) (see below).

• 2) Magas. He was sent to Pergamon in 222 to assist them in their war with the Seleukids, but was unsuccessful. He was killed by the Regent Sosibios in 220 early in the reign of Ptolemaios IV.

• 3) Alexandros.

• 4) Another son.

• 1) Berenikē, she bore the title of queen from birth and died in 238, while pregnant. She was deified as the Basilissa Parthenou (Queen of the Virgins), a fertility goddess.

• 2) Arsinoē III. She married her brother Ptolemaios IV Philopator. She accompanied him and his army during his war against the Seleukids. She was killed by the Regent Sosibios in 205 early in the reign of her infant son Ptolemaios V, to prevent her from claiming the Regency.

221 – 204 Ptolemaios IV Philopatōr ("the Father-lover"), Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

He was born around 240 and was tutored by the famous geographer and philosopher Eratosthenēs. He achieved the throne in 222, supposedly after killing his parents and immediately fell under the control of the minister Sōsibios. He was attacked by the Seleukids, beginning the Fourth Syrian War (219 – 217), which went against the Egyptians until their victory at Raphia, under the personal command of Ptolemaios IV. He lost only the city of Seleukia Piera. He arbitrated a peace to the War of the Allies (220 – 217) in Greece, between the Macedonians and the Aetolian League and attempted to negotiate a peace between Macedonians and Romans during the First Macedonian War (215 – 205). According to III Maccabees and no other extant source, he attempted to kill all the Jews of Jerusalem, but was prevented by God. Regardless, he lost Judaea to the Seleukids in 211. He thereafter sunk into debauchery, building a vast pleasure ship and composing a tragedy. He built several temples: a Temple of Thoth at Dakke, the Temple of Horus-Anhur at Philae and a Temple of Hathor at Qusae. The expense of all these wars and luxury led to an uprising of the native Egyptians and guerrilla warfare in the Delta, which he was unable to deal with. By 206 a group of revolutionaries had established an independent kingdom in southern Egypt, with its capital at Thebes. Ptolemaios IV died in 204, and was buried in a new pyramidal mausoleum in Alexandria, in which the earlier Ptolemies and Alexander were re-interred.

He married Eurydikē, whom he subsequently had killed. He married his sister Arsinoē III (see above), and they were deified as the Theoi Philopatōres (The Father-loving Gods). He took as a concubine (first) the prostitute Agathoklēia, who with her mother, Oinanthē, and brother, Agathoklēs, dominated the government and was entrusted with the care of the boy-king Ptolemy V; her brother was to be his Regent; she was killed by the mob in 202. He took as a concubine (second) Aristonika. He took as a concubine (third) Oinanthē, mother of Agathoklēia.

• 1) Possibly a son by Agathoklēia.

• 2) Ptolemaios V Epiphanēs, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (son of Arsinoē) (see below)