Ptolemaic Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Ptolemaic Egypt)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template
message)
Ptolemaic Kingdom
?t??ea??? as??e?a
Ptolemak? basilea
305 BC30 BC
Eagle of Zeus[1]
Eagle of Zeus[1]

The Ptolemaic Kingdom in 300 BC (in blue)

Capital Alexandria
Languages Greek (official)
Egyptian (common)
Religion Cult of Serapis,[2] Cult of Alexander the Great
Government Hellenistic monarchy
Pharaoh
305283 BC Ptolemy I Soter (first)
5130 BC Cleopatra VII (last)
Historical era Classical antiquity
Established 305 BC
Disestablished 30 BC
Currency Greek Drachma
Preceded by Succeeded by
Macedonian Empire
Late Period of ancient Egypt
Egypt (Roman province)
Today part of Cyprus
Egypt
Greece
Libya
Turkey
Israel
Palestine
Lebanon
Syria
Jordan
Sudan
Part of a series on the
History of Egypt
All Gizah Pyramids.jpg
Prehistoric Egypt pre3100 BC
Ancient Egypt
Early Dynastic Period 31002686 BC
Old Kingdom 26862181 BC
1st Intermediate Period 21812055 BC
Middle Kingdom 20551650 BC
2nd Intermediate Period 16501550 BC
New Kingdom 15501069 BC
3rd Intermediate Period 1069664 BC
Late Period 664332 BC
Classical antiquity
Macedonian and Ptolemaic Egypt 33230 BC
Roman and Byzantine Egypt 30 BC641 AD
Sasanian Egypt 619629
Middle Ages
Islamic Egypt 641969
Fatimid Egypt 9691171
Ayyubid Egypt 11711250
Mamluk Egypt 12501517
Early modern
Ottoman Egypt 15171867
French occupation 17981801
Egypt under Muhammad Ali 18051882
Khedivate of Egypt 18671914
Modern Egypt
British occupation 18821922
Sultanate of Egypt 19141922
Kingdom of Egypt 19221953
Republic 1953present
Flag of Egypt.svg Egypt portal
v t e
The Ptolemaic Kingdom (?t?l?'me?.?k; Ancient Greek ?t??ea??? as??e?a, Ptolemak?
basilea)[3] 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 Syria 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.

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Background
1.2 Establishment
1.3 Rise
1.3.1 Ptolemy I
1.3.2 Ptolemy II
1.3.3 Ptolemy III
1.4 Decline
1.4.1 Ptolemy IV
1.4.2 Ptolemy V&VI
1.5 Later Ptolemies
1.6 Final years of the empire
1.6.1 Cleopatra
1.6.2 Roman rule
2 Culture
2.1 Art
2.2 Religion
2.3 Social situation
2.4 Coinage
2.5 Military
3 Cities
3.1 Naucratis
3.2 Alexandria
3.3 Ptolemais
4 Demographics
4.1 Arabs under the Ptolemies
4.2 Jews under the Ptolemies
5 Agriculture
6 List of Ptolemaic rulers
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
History[edit]
The era of Ptolemaic reign in Egypt is one of the best-documented time periods of
the Hellenistic Era; a wealth of papyri written in Greek and Egyptian of the time
have been discovered in Egypt.[4]

Background[edit]

Bust of Ptolemy I Soter, king of Egypt (305 BC282 BC) and founder of the Ptolemaic
dynasty

A bust depicting King Ptolemy II Philadelphus 309246 BC

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon invaded the Achaemenid satrapy of
Egypt.[5] 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 Greek 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[edit]
Following Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC,[6] 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 (322301 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
Macedonians 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.

Rise[edit]
Ptolemy I[edit]
Main articlePtolemy I

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
objective 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.[7]
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 Alexanderwhich 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.