Ancient Egyptian history: The Graeco-Roman Period - The Hellenists ( Mirror Page ) ![]() Printout For best results save the whole webpage (pictures included) onto your hard disk, open the page with Word 97 or higher, edit if necessary and print. Printing using the browser's print function is not recommended. |
The Graeco-Roman Period:
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![]() Ptolemy II |
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, (reigned 284-246 BCE), married to his full sister, Asinoe II, and sharing power with her, continued the reorganisation of Egypt, basing his decisions on facts gathered during extensive censuses. A unified administration over the whole country was introduced, with special importance given to financial and economic matters. The bureaucracy was hierarchical down to village level, but the various branches of administration were not strictly separate. Both Greeks and Egyptians were employed, but the top posts were regularly given to Greeks or Hellenized Egyptians.
Philadelphus invested great efforts in the improvement of agriculture by introducing new crops, most importantly a new kind of naked wheat, and advancing irrigation in previously marginal areas such as the Fayum around Lake Moeris. He re-excavated the canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea, which was to enhance the status of Egypt in East Africa and Arabia and added to the country's prosperity. He held on to most of the territories conquered by his father, though his control was tenuous at times. Nubia came under his partial domination and the Arabian peninsula was part of his sphere of influence. He sought diplomatic relations with Rome. His was succeeded by his son, Ptolemy III Euergetes. |
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Ptolemy III, (280-221 BCE, reigned 246-221) acquired Cyrene by marriage and campaigned successfully against the Seleucids, following the murder of his sister Berenice, who had been married to Antiochus II [2]. Some of the territories conquered during this campaign were later lost. He captured statues of Egyptian deities taken by the Persians and returned them to Egypt.
He was a strong supporter of the temples, rebuilding the Horus temple at Edfu and bestowing benefices on the temples in his Canopus decree (238 BCE). He reformed the calendar adding a leap day every fourth year. After a prosperous reign he was succeeded by his son Ptolemy IV. |
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![]() The Rosetta Stone [1] |
Ptolemy IV Philopater, (c.244-205 BCE, reigned 221-205), fought against the Seleucids and won a major victory over them at Rafiah near Gaza. His army consisted both of Greeks and Macedonians and native Egyptian soldiers.
Philopater's reign was a period of unrest: the Egyptians revolted occasionally and the Greeks intrigued continually. Weak, corrupt and easily influenced, Ptolemy had his mother and relatives killed at the urging of his Alexandrian Greek courtiers. The events leading to his own death and his successor's rise to power are unclear, but the courtiers seem to have played a major role. Ptolemy V Epiphanes, c.210-180 BCE was only a child when he succeeded (205 BCE) his father, Ptolemy IV. His reign was threatened by revolts in the southern part of the kingdom, with native Egyptians becoming aware of their own power after the defeat of the Ptolemies at Rafiah. These uprisings seriously undermined his power and by 196, the year of his crowning at Memphis, most of the Ptolemaic possessions outside Egypt had been lost. The Rosetta Stone records the attempts of Epiphanes to pacify his subjects by according the temples many new privileges.
During the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor (reigned 180-145) the Seleucid Antiochus IV conquered Egypt in 170, was crowned at Memphis two years later and left the country in the hands of a Syrian governor. But a Roman ambassador, Popillus Laenas, arrived at Antioch and ordered the Seleucid to withdraw from Egypt. Rome also intervened when Philometor was challenged by his brother Euergetes, who was made king of Cyrene (163 BCE), thus practically banishing him from Egypt, until his brother's death. |
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Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Physcon, (c.182-116 BC reigned 145-116) had his nephew Ptolemy VII assassinated (145) and shared power with his sister Cleopatra II and her daughter Cleopatra III. He continued the traditional Ptolemaic policy towards the priesthood by showering the temples with gifts. The Greeks saw him as a tyrant and much of his reign was marked by a strife for power, against Cleopatra II from 131 to 130 BCE and against the Greek Alexandrians and others until 118 BCE. This did not prevent him from pursuing an interventionist policy in Syria and holding on to Cyprus and Cyrene with the blessing of Rome. Apology of the PotterRome's influence was felt everywhere in the Mediterranean region and the dependence of the Ptolemies on Rome grew ever stronger. Ptolemy IX Apion was the son of Ptolemy VII. He sacked Thebes during the revolt of 88 to 85 BCE and bequeathed Cyrene to Rome. |
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![]() Julius Caesar ![]() Cleopatra VII |
Ptolemy XII Auletes, (c.112-51 BCE, r.80-51) was the illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX (r. 107-88 BC). He was recognized by Rome in 59 BCE, possibly thanks to the bribes paid to Roman politicians over the years. In 58 he fled to Rome and was restored to power three years later by an army led by Gabinius bought with further bribes. | |
Cleopatra VII, daughter of Ptolemy XII (r.51-30) ruled jointly with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII for three years, when they had a falling out which developed into a civil war. The Roman general Pompey, pursued by Julius Caesar, came to Egypt in 48 BCE and was murdered by Ptolemy's courtiers. Caesar sided with Cleopatra, whose lover he became and defeated Ptolemy. He left Egypt for Rome, where Cleopatra followed him with their son Caesarion. After Caesar's murder in 44 she returned to Egypt, had her husband Ptolemy XIV murdered and tried to keep neutral in the Roman civil war.
In the end she had to take sides. In 41 BCE she met Mark Antony at Tarsus and became his mistress. He followed her to Egypt and married her, divorcing Octavian's sister in the process. In 34 Caesarion became co-ruler in an attempt to gain popularity, while Octavian's propaganda described them as rowdy and decadent pleasure seekers. At the sea battle of Actium the Egyptian navy was decisively defeated and Antony and Cleopatra fled to Alexandria. Almost a year later, Octavian conquered Alexandria, Mark Antony committed suicide and Cleopatra, when she failed to come to an agreement with the Romans, did likewise (30 BCE). Her son, Caesarion (Ptolemy XV), was murdered, and Egypt became an exploited, though mostly prosperous Roman province. | ||
This is a mirror of a page by André Dollinger on the reshafim.org.il website