Ptolemy I was the son ofArsinoe of Macedon by either her husbandLagus orPhilip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander. However, the latter is unlikely and may be a myth fabricated to glorify thePtolemaic Dynasty.[4] Ptolemy was one of Alexander's most trusted companions and military officers. After thedeath of Alexander in 323 BC, Ptolemy retrieved his body as it was en route to be buried in Macedon, placing it inMemphis instead, where it was later moved to Alexandria in a newtomb. Afterwards he joined a coalition againstPerdiccas, the royal regent overPhilip III of Macedon. The latter invaded Egypt but was assassinated by his own officers in 320 BC, allowing Ptolemy I to consolidate his control over the country. After aseries of wars between Alexander's successors, Ptolemy gained a claim toJudea in southernSyria, which was disputed with the Seleucid kingSeleucus I. He also took control ofCyprus andCyrenaica, the latter of which was placed under the control of Ptolemy's stepsonMagas. Ptolemy also commanded the construction of theLibrary of Alexandria and of theLighthouse of Alexandria, one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Ptolemy I may have marriedThaïs, his mistress during the life of Alexander; he is known to have married the Persian noblewomanArtakama on Alexander's orders. He later marriedEurydice, daughter of the Macedonian regentAntipater; their sonsPtolemy Keraunos andMeleager ruled in turn as kings of Macedon. Ptolemy's final marriage was to Eurydice's cousin and lady-in-waiting,Berenice I. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his son with Berenice,Ptolemy II.
Ptolemaic coin showingAlexander the Great wearing an elephant scalp, a symbol of his conquest in India
Ptolemy was born in 367 BC[5] in the ancient kingdom ofMacedon.[2] His mother wasArsinoe. According toSatyrus the Peripatetic, Arsinoe was a descendant ofAlexander I of Macedon and thus a member of theArgead dynasty, claiming ultimate descent fromHeracles. Ostensibly, Ptolemy's father wasLagus, a Macedonian nobleman fromEordaea, but many ancient sources claim that he was actually an illegitimate son ofPhilip II of Macedon. If true, this would have made Ptolemy the half-brother ofAlexander the Great. It is probable that this is a later myth fabricated to glorify the Ptolemaic dynasty.[6] However, through his mother Ptolemy may have been a great-grandson ofAmyntas I of Macedon, making him a member of the Argead royal house and a distant relative of Alexander, who was a great-great-grandson of Amyntas.[7][8]
Ptolemy served with Alexander from his first campaigns, and was among the sevensomatophylakes (bodyguards) of Alexander. He played a principal part in the later campaigns inAfghanistan andIndia.[9] He participated in theBattle of Issus, commanding troops on the left wing under the authority of Parmenion. Later he accompanied Alexander during his journey to theOracle in theSiwa Oasis where he was proclaimed a son ofZeus.[10] Ptolemy had his first independent command during the campaign against the rebelBessus whom his own guards captured and handed over to Ptolemy, who then handed him over to Alexander for execution.[11]
When Alexander died in 323 BC, Ptolemy is said to have instigated the settlement of the empire made atBabylon. Through thePartition of Babylon, he was appointedsatrap ofEgypt, under the nominal kingsPhilip III and the infantAlexander IV; the former satrap, the GreekCleomenes, stayed on as his deputy. Ptolemy quickly moved, without authorization, to subjugateCyrenaica.[9]
By custom, kings in Macedonia asserted their right to the throne by burying their predecessor. Probably because he wanted to pre-emptPerdiccas, the imperial regent, from staking his claim in this way, Ptolemy took great pains in acquiring the body of Alexander the Great.On his deathbed, Alexander wished to be buried at the Temple ofZeus Ammon in theSiwa Oasis ofancient Libya instead of the royal tombs ofAigai in Macedon.[12] However, his successors including Perdiccas attempted to bury his body in Macedon instead. In late 322 or early 321 BC, Alexander's body was in Syria, on its way to Macedon, when it was captured by Ptolemy I. He brought Alexander's remains back to Egypt, interring them atMemphis, but they were later moved to Alexandria where atomb was constructed for them.[13] Shortly after this event, Ptolemy openly joined the coalition against Perdiccas. Perdiccas appears to have suspected Ptolemy of aiming for the throne himself, and may have 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.[14]
In 321 BC, Perdiccas attempted to invade Egypt, only to fall at the hands of his own men.[15] Ptolemy's decision to defend theNile against Perdiccas ended in fiasco for Perdiccas, with the loss of 2,000 men. This failure 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.[16] Ptolemy was consistent in his policy of securing a power base, while never succumbing to the temptation of risking all to succeed Alexander.[17]
In the long wars that followed between the differentDiadochi, Ptolemy's first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica andCyprus, as well asSyria, including the province ofJudea. His first occupation of Syria was in 318, and he established at the same time a protectorate over the petty kings of Cyprus. WhenAntigonus I, master of Asia in 315, showed expansionist 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 inCyrene was crushed the same year.[9]
In 312, Ptolemy andSeleucus, the fugitive satrap of Babylonia, both invaded Syria, and defeatedDemetrius I, the son of Antigonus, in theBattle of Gaza. Again he occupied Syria, and again—after only a few months, when Demetrius had won a battle over his general, and Antigonus enteredSyria 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 on the orders of Cassander, leaving the satrap of Egypt absolutely his own master.[9]
The peace did not last long, early in 310 he was informed that his allyNicocles of Paphos was planning to defect to Antigonus; he sent some agents, who together with his brotherMenelaus, who was still on Cyprus with an army, dealt with the situation, they surrounded Nicocles palace and forced him to commit suicide.[18] In 309 Ptolemy personally commanded a fleet which detached the coastal towns ofPhaselis,Xanthos,Kaunos,Iasos andMyndus inLycia andCaria from Antigonus, then crossed into Greece, where he took possession ofCorinth,Sicyon andMegara (308 BC). In 306, a great fleet under Demetrius attacked Cyprus, and Ptolemy's brotherMenelaus was defeated and captured in another decisiveBattle of Salamis. Ptolemy's complete loss of Cyprus followed.[9]
The satraps Antigonus and Demetrius now each assumed the title of king; Ptolemy, as well asCassander,Lysimachus andSeleucus 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.[19] However, he did send great assistance toRhodes when it wasbesieged by Demetrius (305/304). The Rhodians granted divine honors to Ptolemy as a result of the lifting of the siege.[20]
When the coalition against Antigonus was renewed in 302, Ptolemy joined it, and invaded Syria a third time, while Antigonus was engaged with Lysimachus inAsia 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 theBattle of Ipsus in 301, he occupied Syria a fourth time.[19]
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 (i.e., Judea) produced recurring warfare between theSeleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties. Henceforth, Ptolemy seems to have involved himself as little as possible in the rivalries betweenAsia Minor andGreece; he lost what he held in Greece, but reconquered Cyprus in 295/294.Cyrenaica, after a series of rebellions, was finally subjugated in about 300 and placed under his stepsonMagas.[19]
While Alexander was alive, Ptolemy had three children with his mistressThaïs, who may also have been his wife: Lagus; Leontiscus; and Eirene, who was given in marriage to Eunostos of Soloi in Cyprus. During theSusa weddings, Ptolemy married Persian noblewomanArtakama, as ordered by Alexander the Great.[21] Around322 BC, he marriedEurydice, daughter ofAntipater, regent of Macedonia. They had five children before she was repudiated: three sons–Ptolemy Ceraunus, king ofMacedon from281 BC to279 BC; his brother and successorMeleager, who ruled for two months in 279 BC; and a 'rebel in Cyprus' who was put to death by his half-brotherPtolemy II–as well as the daughters Ptolemais, who marriedDemetrius I of Macedon, andLysandra, first married toAlexander V of Macedon and after to Lysimachus' sonAgathocles.[21][22][23][24][25][26] Ptolemy married once more toBerenice, Eurydice's cousin, who had come to Egypt as Eurydice's lady-in-waiting with the children from her first marriage toPhilip. Their children wereArsinoe II,Philotera, and Ptolemy II. Their eldest child Arsinoe married Lysimachus, then her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos, and finally her full brother Ptolemy II.[22][27]
In 285, Ptolemy made his son Ptolemy II his co-regent. His eldest legitimate son, Ptolemy Keraunos, fled to the court of Lysimachus. Ptolemy I died in January 282 aged 84 or 85.[5] Shrewd and cautious, he had a compact and well-ordered realm to show at the end of forty years of war. His reputation for good nature and liberality attached the floating soldier-class of Macedonians and other 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 GreatLibrary of Alexandria.[28] ThePtolemaic dynasty which he founded ruled Egypt for nearly three hundred years. It was aHellenistic kingdom known for its capital Alexandria, which became a center ofGreek culture. Ptolemaic rule ended with thedeath ofCleopatra VII in 30 BC.[29]
Ptolemy himself wrote an eyewitness history of Alexander's campaigns (now lost).[30] In the second century AD, Ptolemy's history was used byArrian of Nicomedia as one of his two main primary sources (alongside the history ofAristobulus of Cassandreia) for his own extantAnabasis of Alexander, and hence large parts of Ptolemy's history can be assumed to survive in paraphrase or précis in Arrian's work.[31] Arrian cites Ptolemy by name on only a few occasions, but it is likely that large stretches of Arrian'sAnabasis reflect Ptolemy's version of events. Arrian once names Ptolemy as the author "whom I chiefly follow",[32] and in his Preface writes that Ptolemy seemed to him to be a particularly trustworthy source, "not only because he was present with Alexander on campaign, but also because he was himself a king, and hence lying would be more dishonourable for him than for anyone else".[33]
Ptolemy's lost history was long considered an objective work, distinguished by its straightforward honesty and sobriety,[19] but more recent work has called this assessment into question. R. M. Errington argued that Ptolemy's history was characterised by persistent bias and self-aggrandisement, and by systematic blackening of the reputation ofPerdiccas, one of Ptolemy's chief dynastic rivals after Alexander's death.[34] For example, Arrian's account of the fall ofThebes in 335 BC (Anabasis1.8.1–1.8.8, a rare section of narrative explicitly attributed to Ptolemy by Arrian) shows several significant variations from the parallel account preserved inDiodorus Siculus (17.11–12), most notably in attributing a distinctly unheroic role in proceedings to Perdiccas. More recently, J. Roisman has argued that the case for Ptolemy's blackening of Perdiccas and others has been much exaggerated.[35]
Ptolemy personally sponsored the greatmathematicianEuclid. He found Euclid's seminal work, theElements, too difficult to study, so he asked if there were an easier way to master it. According toProclus, Euclid famously quipped: "Sire, there is noRoyal Road togeometry."[36]
^abJones, Prudence J. (2006).Cleopatra: A Sourcebook. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 14.ISBN9780806137414.They were members of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Macedonian Greeks, who ruled Egypt after the death of its conqueror, Alexander the Great.
^Hölbl, Günther (2013).A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Routledge. p. 21.ISBN9781135119836.
^Carney, Elizabeth (2010).Philip II and Alexander The Great: Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-973815-1.
^Alexander The Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality by Daniel Ogden 2011 P. 81 note 8
^Green, Peter (1990).Alexander to Actium. University of California Press. pp 13–14.ISBN9780520083493.
^Anson, Edward M (Summer 1986). "Diodorus and the Date of Triparadeisus".The American Journal of Philology (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 107 (2): 208–217.doi:10.2307/294603.JSTOR294603.
^Jacoby, Felix (1926).Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Teil 2, Zeitgeschichte. – B. Spezialgeschichten, Autobiographien und Memoiren, Zeittafeln [Nr. 106-261]. Berlin: Weidmann. pp. 752–769, no. 138, "Ptolemaios Lagu".OCLC769308142.
^Bosworth, A. B. (1988).From Arrian to Alexander: Studies in Historical Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 13–14.ISBN978-0198148630.
McKechnie, Paul R.; Cromwell, Jennifer (2018).Ptolemy I and the Transformation of Egypt, 404-282 BCE. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-90-04-36696-1.
Waterfield, Robin (2011).Dividing the Spoils – The War for Alexander the Great's Empire (hardback). New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-957392-9.
Billows, Richard A. (1990).Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.ISBN0-520-20880-3.
