Ptolemy I: The Founders of Egypt's Final Dynasty

this video is brought to you by Squarespace the all-in-one website platform more about them later in this video Welcome Back to biographics I'm your host Eric Malachite and today we're diving back into everyone's favorite subject ancient history specifically ancient Greek history today's protagonist is none other than pamy the the founder of Egypt's final Dynasty written by Ru Alexander if randu has provided socials to us they'll be right alongside links to my storytelling Deep dive Channel story rant and more with that said let's go ahead and get started shall we in June 323 BC Alexander the Great was in Babylon at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar when he suddenly fell ill and just like that the greatest conqueror the ancient world had ever seen was on his deathbed Alexander did not have an heir his son Alexander IV was born after his death so since no nobody knew if the child would be a boy or a girl the question immediately arose of who would succeed as the new ruler of the Macedonian Empire Alexander's closest advisers and Generals gathered around the dying King and asked him whom his kingdom should go to but with his last gasp of Life Alexander simply replied to the strongest at least that's how diodorus told the tale and sure he might have taken a few dramatic Liberties but the core of the issue was the same Alexander the Great died without an heir if he truly wanted his Empire to be fought over with the Victor gaining the spoils he got his wish because that was pretty much what happened all of his most powerful generals engaged in a series of prolonged conflicts that became known as the wars of the doodi or Wars of the successors ultimately none of them proved to be strong enough to take over all of the conquered lands so after Decades of fighting the Empire of Alexander the Great was partitioned into several smaller kingdoms the one we are interested in today is Egypt it was ruled by bamy the Soder or pamy the Savior who founded the pic Dynasty it became one of Egypt's most powerful dynasties ruling for almost 300 years but at the same time it also served as the last Dynasty of ancient Egypt before the kingdom was incorporated into the Roman Republic bamy was born in 367 BC somewhere in Macedonia his mother was arino a Macedonian Noble woman who claimed some distant relation to the ruling arged Dynasty his father ostensibly was logus although there was a rumor floating around that before she married logus Aro was a concubine of Philip II king of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great it gets even juicier because Aro was supposedly already pregnant with patal when she married logus which would mean that pamy and Alexander were half Brothers it could be true or it could be something made up by the pames later on to strengthen their lineage there was no Jerry Springer Show back then or the Jeremy Kyle show for you Brits so this one remains completely unanswered there's not much to say about the first half of Pam's life however it happened he became a close friend to Alexander from an early age while Philip II was still king of maedon on Alexander trusted and followed Pam's advice even when this did not work out in his favor there is a tale that Philip II once trying to secure an alliance between Macedon and the satrapy of Kara by marrying one of his sons aridus to the daughter of the caran srop pixus however on Pam's advice Alexander intervened in trying to assur the marriage for himself ultimately both authors fell through and so did the alliance and as punishment Philip exiled bamy from Macedonia and he did not return until Alexander took the throne in 336 BC it seems that Alexander did not bear a grudge for the mistake and when he was the new king of Macedon pamy became not only a close confident but one of the king somophilic AKA personal bodyguards Alexander had seven of these somophilic later adding an eighth and they were all highly trusted high ranking noblemen who acted not only as companions but also as advisers in generals so yeah it was a pretty big deal for pamy who got to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Alexander for most of his conquests he mainly distinguished himself as a general during Alexander's campaigns in Persia since that is when pami was awarded his own independent commands during the Indian campaign pamy was almost killed by a poison arrow but his life was supposedly saved by Alexander who knew the counter poison again this might be simple propaganda to show the rest of the world just how buddy buddy the two of them were one day after Alexander had passed away his advisers got together to discuss the issue of succession and it became pretty clear right off the bat that there was no Universal solution that everyone would agree with some believe that the affir menion aridus half brother of Alexander was the most obvious candidate others however saw him unfit to rule because he was illegitimate and supposedly had some kind of mental illness there was also the matter of Al Al ander's unboard Child by his Persian Queen Roxanna what if he was a boy then surely he would have a stronger claim to the throne ultimately after some rabble rabble it was decided aridus was crowned King Philip III with the understanding that if roxanna's baby was a boy which he was he would jointly rule as Alexander IV however since one of the two kings was an infant and the other was mentally unstable the actual power went to the new Regent a guy named name paricus he was one of Alexander's generals and ostensibly the guy that the King awarded his signant ring on his death P so it made sense for him to become the new supreme commander to keep the other generals happy they were all awarded satrapies in what is known as the partition of Babylon tmy that lucky guy got one of the richest prizes of all Egypt plus Libya and parts of Arabia he certainly had no reason to complain but he foresaw that pius's situation would only be makeshift and that way before King Alexander IV came of age the other generals would Rebel therefore as soon as he was named satrup pomy got to work to ensure an independent and prosperous Egypt under his rule if you're like pomy the first you're probably going to need a website so people can make heads or tails of your family tree and the sponsor for today's video Squarespace has you covered Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform perfect for entrepreneurs with wees to sell bloggers with message to spread and artists looking to reach the masses with their work whether you're just starting out or you're looking for a way to better manage your brand Squarespace makes it easy for you to create beautiful professional websites engage with your audience and make sure the right people are getting your message squarespace's fluid engine makes it easier than ever for pretty much anyone to dive in and make a beautiful website even if you're an outof time Roman conqueror answer a few questions about the goals you'd like to accomplish with your site choose a template and get dragging and dropping elements onto your templ template drag and drop technology is also included in every Squarespace site need SEO and AI tools with squarespace's guided design system Squarespace blueprint your website will be fully tailored to your brand or business and you'll be able to make sure your website hits all those SEO sweet spots ensuring you reach the right people to grow your audience the way you want and with flexible payments you can make checkout easier than ever before with simple but powerful payment options your customers will be able to use credit cards PayPal Apple pay and an ible countries you'll even be able to buy now and pay later with afterpay and clear pay are you a skilled warlord looking to teach your skills to a new generation of Roman soldiers well you're in luck because Squarespace also offers the tools you need to design and sell online courses start with a layout that fits your brand upload your videos and customize everything using squarespace's Next Generation editing technology ready to get started check out squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com biographics and use promo code biographics to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and now back to your favorite topic Rome Pam's intuition was proven correct because it didn't take long at all before some of the other deod key Allied themselves against pricus they noticed that the Regent was trying to legitimize his power grab by marrying Alexander's full sister Cleopatra thus giving him a genuine claim to the throne they saw the writing on the wall and knew that if pius's power kept growing unchecked it was only a matter of time until he revoked their satrapies and tried to take the entire Kingdom three of Alexander's former generals formed a coalition antigonus antipa and crateros bamy not only joined their Alliance but further provoked pricus by stealing Alexander's body and burying it in Egypt instead of M on the Regent was left with no choice but to respond by invading Egypt and thus in 321 BC the first detic War Began while prus himself marched to face bolamy he sent another satra named yenis against the armies of craterus and antipa this was where the first shocking moment of the war occurred because nobody in their right mind would have placed money on yenis winning most of his experience comprised of being Alexander's personal secretary rather than Battlefield Commander while his opponent craterus was one of the most decorated Macedonian generals of all time and yet not only did yenes come out on top but craterus was killed in battle not a very auspicious start for the Coalition but the tide soon turned in their favor thanks to pamy he decided to use Egypt's geography in his favor and engage predicas at the Nile preventing him from crossing the river the Regent lost around 2,000 soldiers to the currents and the wild an animals and his men were not happy about it they saw the war as already lost so instead of sacrificing themselves to the Nile they decided it was more prudent to get together and simply stab pigas a bunch of times which they did and just like that the first deic war was over and the guy who wanted to assume command after Alexander was dead the following day after pius's murder bamy showed up in the Macedonian Camp extending a handshake and offering much needed carts full of food and supplies he knew how to get on the enemy's good side and during peace negotiations the opposing commanders even offered pamy the Regency he didn't want it though bomy knew that being Regent was just asking for trouble he was happy with Egypt and instead supported two of pius's former officers Python and aridus to become the new Regents not everyone was happy with this arrangement though specifically we are talking about balam's two remaining Coalition members antipa and antigonous with pus and craterus both dead antip was now the most experienced military leader having served his General since the time of Philip II he wanted to be Regent and he got his Wish by following the treaty at trpis where the srpes were once again redistributed as expected bamy kept what he already had so it didn't bother him too much but he knew that a new conflict would not be far behind with a matter of the Regency settled antipa retired to Macedonia looking forward to some peace and quiet and then he died in 319 BC for some reason he didn't name his son cassander as Heir instead awarding his Regency to an officer called piperon as you might expect the son was not happy with this development so he sought aid from his father's former Ally antigonus to challenge poon's leadership and thus began the second diotic war the wrath of Cass ER pamy also joined the alliance of cassander and antigonus although truth be told he didn't have much to do during this conflict since most of the fighting took place further north he did take advantage of the chaos and attack the coast of Syria and Phoenicia to claim some more territory for himself but that's about it meanwhile Pon managed to secure two allies the first was yenis the General who scored an upset victory over crateros during the first war the second was the Queen Mother olympius who unsurprisingly wanted her nephew Alexander IV to eventually rule over her son's former Kingdom she arranged for the assassination of her nephew's Joint King Philip III but met her own end when she was captured and executed by cassander when he did this cassander also captured and imprisoned Alexander's wife Roxanna and their son King Alexander IV but more on that when we get to the third war while all of this was going on antigonus handled the Lion Share of the fighting against yenes he emerged triumphant and yenes was captured and executed in 315 BC while ppra tucked his tail between his legs and fled to Southern Greece where he still had friends and so the second detic war had ended with a significant redistribution of power bamy might have managed to gain some lands and by this point was ruling Egypt as Pharaoh in all but name but his power paled in comparison to that of antigonus who was Now by far the strongest of Alexander's former generals you know what that means let's get a third war going this time the other major doodi including pamy cassander and two other guys named ccus and lysimachus banded together and demanded that antigonus seed some of his territories to each of them to prevent him from getting too big for his britches this request went over about as well as you might expect and thus began the third detic war just like the second one pamy tried not to get too implicated mainly sending reinforcements to his allies and letting them deal with the Enemy however he had no choice but to get involved at the outset of the war because antigonus is first move was to invade Syria and Phoenicia and take over the lands that pomy himself had conquered during the second Conflict at the same time pamy was dealing with revolts in Cyprus and sirene so he couldn't focus his attention and his resources on antigonus at the moment his opponent took advantage of this opportunity antigonus left his son Demetrius to fight off pamy should he try to gain back his lands and he traveled East to battle ccus over control over Babylon and the Eastern satrapies of Alexander's former Empire antigonus also Allied himself with his former enemy Pon and sent his trusted General aristodemus to help Pon in Greece against cassander it's also worth mentioning here that at some point cassander had his prisoners Roxanna and Alexander 4 executed in secret which meant The End Of The Bloodline of Alexander the Great and the argad dynasty that had ruled over the kingdom of Macedon ever since its founding for centuries earlier back to pamy though once he put down the rebellions he gathered his forces in 312 BC defeated Demetrius and regained his lost territories however daddy came to the rescue and antigonous showed up in Syria with the full might of his army bomy decided that discretion was the better part of valor and he abandoned Syria and returned to Egypt to prepare for a possible Invasion however that Invasion never came because antigonus wasn't after Egypt what his little heart truly desired was Babylon but he realized that he didn't have the muscle to take all of the other doodi at once therefore in 311 BC the third deic war ended with a less definitive result antigonus made peace with pamy cassander and lmus leaving only ccus to deal [Music] with the next few years afforded pamy some breathing room as antigonus fought with ccus in the east he took advantage of this by making gains in Cyprus and the agan sea in a somewhat surprising result ccus triumphed against antigonus but the ladder was hardly down for the count he just took a few years off to rebuild his strength and antigonus was once again in the mood for a little dust up he no longer wanted Babylon though this time he sent his eyes on another Rich prize Cyprus which was under Pam's control in 306 BC antigonous sent his son Demetrius lead a naval Army against Cyprus which was being defended by balam's Brother menus Demetrius defeated menaus in battle forcing him to retreat to the city of Salam where he laid Siege menus managed to hold out until pamy arrived with reinforcements at that point the brother had the numbers advantaged but Demetrius took a gamble which paid off big time for him as soon as Pam's fleet was in SC he immediately charged at it headon so it wouldn't have time to link up with his brother's troops Demetrius scored a shocking victory over pamy who once again retreated to the relative safety of Egypt to lick his wounds leaving menaus with no other option than to surrender with Cyprus under their Dominion it became clear that antigonus and Demetrius were the dominant force in the region by this point word had also gotten out that cassander had Roxanna and Alexander IV executed with the young King dead and Alexander the Great's lineage wiped out there was no more need for a regent and no more need for the doodi to pretend that they were trying to save Alexander's Kingdom or do anything other than gain power for themselves thus antigonus and Demetrius held a ceremony and officially declared themselves Kings over their domain antigonus even started building his own city which I think is pronounced antigonia on the banks of the orestes much like Alexander had done before him when the other diodi heard of this they too declared themselves Kings well in bom's case he became a pharaoh some something which you know he already was UN officially bomy had the job for years but it was nice to finally get the fancy title too I guess at this point Alexander's Empire was no more having split into five different kingdoms pomy had Egypt cassander had Greece antigonus had Asia Minor ccus had Babylon and lysimachus had thce it could have ended peacefully right then and there but pamy knew that eventually someone's greed and lust for power would get the better of them and surprise surprise it was antigonus again after all he was the strongest of them all why should he have to settle for less why not try to take it all in one final war between the doodi antigonus was feeling extra cocky at the moment and decided to attempt a conquest of Egypt itself this made sense bamy was almost defenseless at the moment after losing most of his Fleet at salamy if there was ever a time to defeat pamy it was now but mother nature had other plans antigonus decided to march with a giant land Army to Egypt while Demetrius accompanied him by sea to set up a two-pronged attack however violent storms prevented the fleet from getting close to Egypt and there was more bad news for antigonus in order to make the marching easier and faster most of the supplies were aboard the ships once he lost contact with Demetrius antigonus was no longer able to feed his soldiers to prevent his army from perishing in the desert a red-faced antigonus was forced to turn back for the second time pomy had repelled an invasion of his kingdom without any actual fighting and it was Egypt itself that did the heavy lifting Once Bitten Twice Shy antigonus decided maybe skip Egypt for now and instead focused his attention on the agian specifically he wanted to capture the Citadel of rhs since it was loyal to pamy and could to help him rebuild his Fleet he sent Demetrius to lay siege for a whole year but he could not get the job done since pomy and other doodi kept sending reinforcements eventually Demetrius lifted The Siege and moved on to Greece to Duke it out with cassander as per his regular strategy pamy tried to get involved as little as possible The Ultimate Showdown occurred at the Battle of isus in 301 BC in Anatolia everyone who was anyone was there antigonous and Demitrius on one side cassander lysimachus and salcius on the other hence why the skirm m is sometimes referred to as the battle of the kings that is everyone except bomy who thought his best course of action was to cause a distraction for antigonus by attacking Syria we can't really pretend this was one of Pam's Finest Hours sure he probably would have conquered Syria but word got back to him that his allies had been defeated and that antagonist was on his way to him thinking that an open battle would surely end in defeat bamy abandoned his campaign and fled back to Egypt hoping that the Waters of the Nile would protect him once more but the word that had reached him was false the Coalition had won the day not only that but antigonus was killed in the Battle of isus and Demetrius fled to Greece where he still had some supporters the fourth diotic War had ended and while his allies were busy dividing antigonus is Kingdom between them pamy was on the outside looking in since he was the guy who tucked his tail and ran whatever though pamy in the end all he wanted was Egypt and now he had it the others kept bickering over the next few decades specifically over who would rule Macedon after Cassandra's death but this was of little consequence to pomy who was busy building the foundations of his own Dynasty at the beginning of his rule pomy moved the Egyptian capital from Memphis to Alexandria although he was involved with the economic and administrative issues of all of Egypt Alexandria was his pride and joy turning it into one of the new intellectual scientific and cultural centers of the world he began construction of the Great Library of Alexandria as well as the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World bomy also remained devoted to his former mentor and Commander Alexander the Great by instituting a cult of Alexander throughout Egypt and writing his Memoirs of the military campaigns the Macedonian conqueror bomy did one puzzling thing in his final years when it was time to name an heir he skipped over his eldest son bamy Caris and in instead named his second son pamy philadelphus as his successor we're not really sure why he did this although we should point out that after being snub for kingship pamy coronus fled to the kingdom of lysimachus where he betrayed the king and took part in a conspiracy against him to Garner favor with ccas but afterward betrayed ccus as well and assassinated him not exactly the most trustworthy guy in the world so maybe the Elder pamy knew what he was doing pomy died in his mid 80s in January 282 BC he tried his best to establish Egypt as a regional power once again and hearkened back to its Glory Days little did he know back then that his dynasty would become one of the most enduring in the history of this ancient civilization ruling for almost 300 years until the death of his most famous descendant Cleopatra well I certainly hope you found this video to be both educational and entertaining and if you did be sure to do all that algorithmic jazz and check the links in the description either to follow myself follow Ru or to educate yourself by reading redo's sources I'm Eric malachit and I'll see you next time space cowboy [Music]