Archagathus (Ancient Greek:Ἀρχάγαθος) was aSyracusan fromMagna Graecia prince andPtolemaic official who lived around the late second half of the 4th century BC and first half of the 3rd century BC.[1]
Archagathus was a man ofSicilian origin and his name was a well-attested local Greek name in Sicily.[2] He was the son born toAgathocles and his third wifeTheoxena[3][4] and had a sister calledTheoxena.[5][6]
His father Agathocles was a Greek Tyrant ofSyracuse who later became King of Sicily.[7][8] Archagathus had two paternal-half posthumous brothers:Archagathus and Agathocles;[9] one paternal half-sisterLanassa who was the second wife of KingPyrrhus of Epirus and a posthumous paternal half-nephewArchagathus.[10] He was the namesake of his posthumous brother, nephew and possibly his paternal grandfather.
His mother Theoxena was aGreekMacedonian noblewoman. She was the second daughter and third child born to the noblewomanBerenice I and her first husband obscure noblemanPhilip.[11] Archagathus’ biological maternal grandfather Philip, served as a military officer in the service of the Greek KingAlexander the Great and was known in commanding one division of thePhalanx in Alexander’s wars.[12] Archagathus’ maternal grandmother Berenice I, was the great-niece of the powerfulRegentAntipater[13] and she was a distant collateral relative to theArgead dynasty.[14] His full blooded maternal uncle wasMagas of Cyrene and his full-blooded maternal aunt wasAntigone.[15]
His biological maternal grandfather Philip died about 318 BC. After his death, Berenice I travelled with her children to live inEgypt, where she eventually marriedPtolemy I Soter the first Greek Pharaoh and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Through his grandmother’s second marriage to Ptolemy I, Berenice I was an Egyptian Queen and the Queen mother of the Ptolemaic dynasty,[16] thus his mother was a stepdaughter to Ptolemy I and became an Egyptian Princess. His maternal grandmother had with Ptolemy I three children; two daughters,Arsinoe II,Philotera and the future PharaohPtolemy II Philadelphus.[17] Arsinoe II, Philotera were his maternal half-aunts, while Ptolemy II was his maternal half-uncle.
Archagathus was born between 301 BC and 298 BC.[18] Along with his sister they were born and raised in Sicily. When his father Agathocles felt his death was approaching, he had Theoxena and their children sent away to Egypt.[19] Agathocles died in 289 BC and declared his kingdom to be a democracy on his death.[20][21] Archagathus, his sister with their mother, spent their remaining youth in Egypt, possibly in the court living with Ptolemy I and Berenice I inAlexandria.
Archagathus served in the Ptolemaic administration as an official as anEpistates inCyrenaica.[22][23] He served under Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 305 BC-283 BC), Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 283 BC-246 BC)[24] and even possibly under Magas when the latter served as Ptolemaic Governor and later as King of Cyrene (reigned 276 BC–250 BC).[25]
According to surviving evidence, Archagathus was a person of high standing[26] who appeared to be a totally unknown private person[27] and was loyal to his family, in particular to his uncle Magas.[28] We also learn from surviving evidence that Archagathus had a wife, a noblewoman of very high status calledStratonice.[29][30] There is no record of any children born to him.
Archagathus and Stratonice on a marble piece, made a dedication of a temenos to Isis and Serapis at Alexandria on behalf of his uncle Ptolemy II and his grandmother Berenice I. The record is dated from ca. 283 BC to 278 BC and is on display in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria.[31] The inscription below translated in Greek and English reads: