ptolemy3

204 – 180 Ptolemaios V Epiphanēs Eucharistos ("The Grateful Manifestation"), Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

Co-ruler from his birth in 210, he came to the throne at age six and was initially dominated by Agathoklēs, who became his Regent by murdering his mother. He was attacked in Caria by the Seleukids in 203, and countered with an expedition which re-conquered Judaea. The Regent was overthrown by the mob in 203 and replaced by Tlepolemos, who was himself later replaced by Aristomenēs. While thus troubled internally, Egypt was attacked by the Seleukids and Macedon, the Fifth Syrian War (202 – 195), losing Coele-Syria, Phoenicia and their Anatolian possessions to the former, and Thrace to the latter. Ptolemaios officially took personal control of his government in 197, though in reality he was still a minor and now under the control of the general Polykratēs. He was rather negligent in his duties even when he did reach adulthood; he was more interested in athletics, hunting and fencing. In 186 he finally crushed the native Egyptian kingdom at Thebes, which had been established in 206, and reunited Egypt. He defeated the last of the native rebels in the Delta in 185. To prevent future rebellions, Greek veterans were henceforth settled in Egyptian communities rather than in separate ones. He was poisoned in 180, supposedly by aristocrats who feared he intended to confiscate their estates to pay for a war with the Seleukids. He was deified as Theos Epiphanēs Eucharistos (The Grateful Manifest God) and with his wife as the Theoi Epiphanēis (The Manifest Gods).

In 194 he married Kleopatra I Syra, daughter of Antiochos III Megas, Sixth Seleukid King (see SELEUKID); who was Regent for her son from 180 until her death in 176. 

• 1) Ptolemaios VI Philomētōr, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (see below).

• 2) Ptolemaios VIII Euergetes Psychōn, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (see below).

• 1) Kleopatra II Epiphanēs Adelphē, Pharaoh & Queen of Egypt (see below).

180 – 169, 169 – 164, 163 – 145 Ptolemaios VI Philomētōr ("the Mother-lover"), Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

Born in 186, he came to the throne as a child and was initially controlled by a succession of Regents: his mother until 176 and then the eunuch Eulaios and the Syrian freedman Lenaios, who made his brother Ptolemaios VIII co-ruler in 170. The Regents took Egypt to war with the Seleukids to regain Coele-Syria, the Sixth Syrian War (170 – 168), which went very badly (the Seleukids invaded Egypt). When Ptolemaios VI concluded an embarrassing peace with the Seleukids in 169, he was deposed and fled to the Aegean island of Samothrace. He returned not long after. The Seleukids invaded again in 168 but the Romans mediated the conflict. The external threat resolved he found himself facing several native rebellions and embroiled in conflict with his co-ruler, who colluded with the Romans to establish himself as sole king. He fled the kingdom in 164 and was only restored with Roman aid. He then relegated his brother to rule over Cyrenaica and spent many years fighting with him over Cyprus. He supported the Jewish Revolt against the Seleukids in the 160s and accepted large numbers of Jewish refegees. He interfered in a Seleukid civil war to recapture Coele-Syria in 145 and briefly flirted with the idea of taking the Seleukid throne before installing a sympathetic puppet king instead. The Temple of Isis at Philae was completed at this time; he is also responsible for the Dual-Temple of Sobek and Horus at Kom Ombo, as well as the Temple of Menthu at Medamud. He was exceptionally fat, and his “perceptual abilities” were limited, apparently because of this obesity. 

In 176, he married his sister, Kleopatra II, subsequently wife of Ptolemaios VIII and then reigning Queen of Egypt from 116 until 88. All three siblings were deified as the Theoi Philomētōres (The Mother-loving Gods). He was injured in battle with the deposed Seleukid king in 145 and died as a result. Coele-Syria was immediately lost to the Seleukids again.

• 1) Ptolemaios (VII) Eupatōr ("the Well-fathered") (son of Kleopatra). He was born in 166, Priest of Alexander in 158 and co-ruler and Governor of Cyprus with his father from 152 until his death later that year. He was deified as Theos Eupatōr (The Well-fathered God).

• 2) Ptolemaios (VII) Neos Philopator ("the New Father-lover") (son of Kleopatra). May have briefly succeeded his fater in 145, but Ptolemaios VIII had him murdered in his mother’s arms shortly afterwards. The numbering of the Ptolemies is a modern innovation and modern works frequently disagree as to which of these two figurehead princelets counts as the Seventh.

• 3) A claimed son of Kleopatra, was figurehead of the revolt of Galaestēs in 139. He was probably spurious.

• 1) Kleopatra Thea Euetēria (daughter of Kleopatra), born around 165, she was a wily woman who was queen to three different Seleukid Kings and mother to three more. She married (first) Alexandros I Balas, Eleventh Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). She married (second) Dēmētrios II Nikatōr, Twelfth Seleukid King, (divorced in 140 after he was captured by the Parthians and remarried on his return in 129) whom she killed out of jealousy at his new wife (see SELEUKID). She married (third) Antiochos VII Sidētēs, Fifteenth Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). In 125 she was forced to drink poison by her son Antiochus VIII, who feared that she intended to kill him, as she had his elder brother.

• 2) Kleopatra III Philomētor Sōteira Dikaiosynē Nikēphoros Kokkē, Pharaoh & Queen of Egypt (see below)

170 – 163, 145 – 116 Ptolemaios VIII Euergetēs Tryphōn ("the Beneficent and Sumptuous")  Pharaoh & King of Egypt.

He was co-ruler of Egypt with his brother from 170, and sole ruler for a year after his brother had fled the country in 169 during a Seleukid invasion. He colluded with the Romans to make himself sole King of the Egypt again in 164. This was a success, and both his siblings were exiled. The Romans changed their minds and assisted his brother in returning in 163, and Ptolemaios VIII was sent off to rule Cyrenaica. He was unhappy with just Cyrenaica and continued to scheme against his brother, to little avail. Eventually his brother died and he became king of Egypt again in 145, stubbornly maintaining that he had been legitimate king all along and carrying out a massive brutal purge of any who denied it, for which he was nicknamed Kakergetēs (giver of evil). Additionally, he cultivated a lavish court to demonstrate his wealth and prosperity and many were impressed; those who were not called him Physkōn (fatty); apparently he had a distended belly, very short limbs, a “misshapen face” and could barely walk. Some suspect that these were congenital defects resulting from generations of inbreeding. He abandoned the last toe-holds in the Aegean: Methana, Thera and Itanos, but also defeated pretender rebels in 140. Civil war broke out between him and his sister-wife Kleopatra II in 132 and fled to Cyprus in 131 after his palace was burnt down. He retained control of the Egyptian countryside and the loyalty of the native Egyptians and, with their help regained control over Egypt by 127. He faced an invasion from the Seleukids in 127, claiming the Egyptian throne, which fizzled out before doing any damage, but so enraged him that he began sponsoring a Seleukid pretender. A passionate scholar, he personally authored an analysis of Homer, and a 24 book Hypomnemata (encyclopaedia). He built several temples, including: an Opet Temple at Karnak, a Temple of Thoth at Qasr el-‘Aguz and the Temple of Repyt at Athribis in Sohag. At the very end of his reign he sent an envoy to India, the beginnings of direct sea trade with West India, which would bloom over the next century.

He took as a concubine Eirēnē, also called Ithaka. He married (first) his sister and sister-in-law Kleopatra II in 145, who rebelled against him in 127, proclaiming herself Queen. He married (second) his niece, Kleopatra III Philomētor Sōteira Dikaiosynē Nikēphoros Kokkē, daughter of Ptolemaios VI Philometor (see above), later to rule Egypt (see below). All three were deified as the Theoi Euergetai (The Beneficent Gods). She succeeded him when he died in 116.

• 1) Ptolemaios Apiōn "the Skinny" (son of Eirēnē). He was left the Kingdom of Cyrenaica in his father’s will, but only became King around 102. He died in 96, leaving Cyrenaica to the Roman Republic.

• 2) Ptolemaios Memphitēs "of Memphis" (son of Kleopatra II), Born 144. He was sent to rule Cyrenaica until 131 when his father and mother, Kleopatra II, quarrelled. He took his father’s side and joined him in Cyprus, where his father had him executed, cut to pieces and sent to Kleopatra II in a chest as a birthday ‘gift.’ He was probably the one who was posthumously made King of Egypt and deified as Theos Neos Philopatōr (Ironically: "The New Father-loving God") in 118.

• 3) Ptolemaios IX Philomētor Sōtēr Lathyros,  Pharaoh & King of Egypt (son of Kleopatra III) (see below)

• 4) Ptolemaios X Alexandros, Pharaoh & King of Egypt (son of Kleopatra III) (see below)

• 1) Tryphaina (daughter of Kleopatra III), who married Antiochos VIII Grypos, Eighteenth Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). She was killed by Antiochos IX Kyzikēnos after he took power in 113.

• 2) Kleopatra IV (daughter of Kleopatra III). She married (first) her brother Ptolemaios IX Sotēr, King of Egypt, but was forced to divorce him when he took the throne in 116 (see below). She went to Syria with a Cypriot army and married (second) Antiochos IX Kyzikēnos, Nineteenth Seleukid King and induced him to rebel against Antiochos VIII Grypos (see SELEUKID). Grypos’ wife, her sister, had her killed for this in 113.

• 3) Kleopatra V Selēnē (daughter of Kleopatra III). She married (first) her brother Ptolemaios IX Sotēr, King of Egypt, in 116 (see below). In 106, she married (second) Antiochos VIII, Grypos, Eigteenth Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). In 96, she married (third) Antiochos IX Kyzikēnos, Nineteenth Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). After his death in 95, she married (fourth) Antiochos X Eusebēs, Twenty-First Seleukid King (see SELEUKID). She was widowed again around 92 and died in 69 during Armenian King Tigranēs II’s invasion of Syria.

• 4) Berenikē, she married Psherenptah II, High Priest of Memphis and a native Egyptian. They had issue:

  • a) Petobastis III, High Priest of Memphis.

170 – 116 Kleopatra II Epiphanēs Adelphē ("The Manifest Sibling"), Pharaoh & Queen of Egypt.

She married (first) in 175, her brother Ptolemaios VI Philomētōr, King of Egypt. She married (second) her other brother Ptolemaios VIII Euergetēs, King of Egypt and reigned alongside both of these brother-husbands. She rebelled against Ptolemaios VIII in 132, but was unable to assert control outside Alexandria and eventually came to terms. She continued to be a co-regent. After his death she put her step-son Ptolemaios IX on the throne. She was deified as one of the Theoi Philomētores (The Mother-loving Gods), then as one of the Theoi Eurgetai (The Beneficient Gods), then alone as Thea Philomētor Sōteira (The Saviour Mother-loving Goddess), then again as one of the Theoi Eurgetai (The Beneficient Gods). She died in 116.