Greek - Ptolemy I Soter - 305-283 B.C. -
Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt - Bronze 23mm
Struck in Alexandria in Egypt 305-283 B.C.
Reference: Sear 7765; B.M.C. 6.21,66
Head of Alexander the great right, wearing elephant's skin and aegis.
ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, eagle standing left on thunderbolt.
A close boyhood friend of Alexander, Ptolemy, son of the
Macedonian Lagus, became one of the conqueror's most trusted generals and
distinguished himself in the destruction of the Persian Empire. After
Alexander's death he received Egypt as his share of the inheritance and over the
following four decades he created a stable and prosperous kingdom. For the first
eighteen years of his rule he was officially only 'satra' of Egypt, but in 305
B.C. he took the title of 'king' along with sever other 'successors' of
Alexander. Twenty years later he associated his son, Ptolemy II, with him as
co-ruler, and in 283 B.C. he died peacefully in his bed, the only one of the
Diadochi to do so. Most of our knowledge of the life of Alexander is derived
from a history written by Ptolemy. The work itself is now lost, but it was the
main source for the Roman historian Arrian's History of Alexander and the Indike,
an account of India.
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Ptolemy I
Soter I (Greek:
Πτολεμαῖος Σωτήρ, Ptolemaĩos Sōtḗr,
i.e. Ptolemy (pronounced /'tɒləmi) the Savior, ca.367 BC—ca.283 BC) was a
Macedonian
Greek general under
Alexander the Great who became ruler of
Egypt (323 BC—283
BC) and founder of both the
Ptolemaic Kingdom and the
Ptolemaic Dynasty. In 305/4 BC he took the title of
pharaoh.
He was the son of
Arsinoe of Macedon, and, while his father is unknown, he was described in
ancient times as either the son of
Lagus, a
Macedonian nobleman, or that he was an illegitimate son of
Philip II of Macedon (which would make him the half-brother of Alexander the
Great if true). Ptolemy was one of
Alexander the Great's most trusted generals, and among the seven
somatophylakes, or bodyguards, attached to his person. He was a few
years older than Alexander, and his intimate friend since childhood. He may even
have been in the group of noble teenagers tutored by
Aristotle.
He was with Alexander from his first campaigns, and played a principal part in
the later campaigns in
Afghanistan and
India. At the Susa
marriage festival in 324, Alexander had him marry the Persian princess
Artakama.
Ptolemy also had a consort in
Thaïs, the
Athenian
hetaera and one of Alexander's companions in his conquest of the ancient
world.
Successor
of Alexander
When Alexander died in 323 BC, Ptolemy is said to have
instigated the resettlement of the empire made at
Babylon.
Through the
Partition of Babylon, he was now appointed
satrap of
Egypt, under the
nominal kings
Philip Arrhidaeus and the infant
Alexander IV; the former satrap, the Greek
Cleomenes, stayed on as his deputy. Ptolemy quickly moved, without
authorization, to subjugate
Cyrenaica.
By custom, kings in Macedonia asserted their right to the
throne by burying their predecessor. Probably because he wanted to pre-empt
Perdiccas,
the imperial regent, from staking his claim in this way, Ptolemy took great
pains in acquiring the body of Alexander the Great, placing it temporarily in
Memphis. Ptolemy then openly joined the coalition against Perdiccas.
Perdiccas appears to have suspected Ptolemy of aiming for the throne himself,
and maybe decided that Ptolemy was his most dangerous rival. Ptolemy executed
Cleomenes for spying on behalf of Perdiccas — this removed the chief check on
his authority, and allowed Ptolemy to obtain the huge sum that Cleomenes had
accumulated.[1]
In 321, Perdiccas invaded Egypt. Ptolemy decided to defend
the Nile, and
Perdiccas's attempt to force it ended in fiasco, with the loss of 2000 men. This
was a fatal blow to Perdiccas' reputation, and he was murdered in his tent by
two of his subordinates. Ptolemy immediately crossed the Nile, to provide
supplies to what had the day before been an enemy army. Ptolemy was offered the
regency in place of Perdiccas; but he declined.[2]
Ptolemy was consistent in his policy of securing a power base, while never
succumbing to the temptation of risking all to succeed Alexander.[3]
In the long wars that followed between the different
Diadochi,
Ptolemy's first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure
control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica and
Cyprus, as well
as Syria,
including the province of
Judea. His first
occupation of Syria was in 318, and he established at the same time a
protectorate over the petty kings of Cyprus. When
Antigonus One-Eye, master of Asia in 315, showed dangerous ambitions,
Ptolemy joined the coalition against him, and on the outbreak of war, evacuated
Syria. In Cyprus, he fought the partisans of Antigonus, and re-conquered the
island (313). A revolt in Cyrene was crushed the same year.
In 312, Ptolemy and
Seleucus, the fugitive satrap of Babylonia, both invaded Syria, and defeated
Demetrius Poliorcetes ("besieger of cities"), the son of Antigonus, in the
Battle of Gaza. Again he occupied Syria, and again—after only a few months,
when Demetrius had won a battle over his general, and Antigonus entered
Syria in force—he
evacuated it. In 311, a peace was concluded between the combatants. Soon after
this, the surviving 13-year-old king, Alexander IV, was murdered in Macedonia,
leaving the satrap of Egypt absolutely his own master. The peace did not last
long, and in 309 Ptolemy personally commanded a fleet that detached the coastal
towns of Lycia and Caria from Antigonus, then crossed into Greece, where he took
possession of
Corinth, Sicyon
and Megara (308
BC). In 306, a great fleet under Demetrius attacked Cyprus, and Ptolemy's
brother
Menelaus was defeated and captured in another decisive
Battle of Salamis. Ptolemy's complete loss of Cyprus followed.
The satraps Antigonus and Demetrius now each assumed the
title of king; Ptolemy, as well as
Cassander,
Lysimachus
and
Seleucus I Nicator, responded by doing the same. In the winter of 306 BC,
Antigonus tried to follow up his victory in Cyprus by invading Egypt; but
Ptolemy was strongest there, and successfully held the frontier against him.
Ptolemy led no further overseas expeditions against Antigonus. However, he did
send great assistance to
Rhodes when it
was besieged by Demetrius (305/304).
Pausanius reports that the grateful Rhodians bestowed the name Soter
("saviour") upon him as a result of lifting the siege. This account is generally
accepted by modern
scholars,
although the earliest datable mention of it is from coins issued by
Ptolemy II in 263 BC.
When the coalition against Antigonus was renewed in 302,
Ptolemy joined it, and invaded Syria a third time, while Antigonus was engaged
with Lysimachus in Asia Minor. On hearing a report that Antigonus had won a
decisive victory there, he once again evacuated Syria. But when the news came
that Antigonus had been defeated and slain by Lysimachus and Seleucus at the
Battle of Ipsus in 301, he occupied Syria a fourth time.
The other members of the coalition had assigned all Syria to
Seleucus, after what they regarded as Ptolemy's desertion, and for the next
hundred years, the question of the ownership of southern Syria (ie, Judea)
produced recurring warfare between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties.
Henceforth, Ptolemy seems to have mingled as little as possible in the rivalries
between
Asia Minor and
Greece; he lost what he held in Greece, but reconquered Cyprus in 295/294.
Cyrene, after a series of rebellions, was finally subjugated about 300 and
placed under his stepson
Magas.
In 289, Ptolemy made his son by
Berenice -
Ptolemy II Philadelphus his co-regent. His eldest (legitimate) son,
Ptolemy Keraunos, whose mother, Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, had
been repudiated, fled to the court of Lysimachus. Ptolemy I Soter died in 283 at
the age of 84. Shrewd and cautious, he had a compact and well-ordered realm to
show at the end of forty years of war. His reputation for bonhomie and
liberality attached the floating soldier-class of Macedonians and Greeks to his
service, and was not insignificant; nor did he wholly neglect conciliation of
the natives. He was a ready patron of letters, founding the Great
Library of Alexandria. He himself wrote a history of Alexander's campaigns
that has not survived. This used to be considered an objective work,
distinguished by its straightforward honesty and sobriety. However, Ptolemy may
have exaggerated his own role, and had propagandist aims in writing his History.
Although now lost, it was a principal source for the surviving account by
Arrian of
Nicomedia.
Trivia
Ptolemy personally sponsored the great mathematician
Euclidd, but
found Euclid's seminal work, the
Elements, too difficult to study, so he asked if there were an easier way to
master it. Euclid famously quipped: "Sire, there is no
Royal Road
to Geometry".[citation
needed]
See
also
Fiction
Portrayals
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