033: Ptolemaic Egypt - Ptolemy I: Son of Lagus, Son of Ra

Hi there. You're listening to The Hellenistic Age Podcast, Episode 33, Ptolemaic Egypt, Ptolemy I, Son of Lagus, Son of Ra. In 1799, a French lieutenant by the name of Pierre-François Bouchard was stationed in Egypt as part of the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte's Armée de l'Orient. While observing the re-fortification of an old crusader stronghold, he saw an unusually large and beautiful piece of pink granite stone settled among the sands and rubble. Halting construction, he took a closer inspection and realized that something was special, something that would prove to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time. Written upon the stone were three languages, Demotic Egyptian, the commoner script of ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs, the more famous of the Egyptian writings, and Koine Greek. This piece of granite, more famously known as the Rosetta Stone, would be the key to deciphering the long-forgotten hieroglyphic script, and ultimately help giving birth to the field of Egyptology as we know it today. The Rosetta Stone is one of the many cultural depths that are now owed to the 31st and last ruling dynasty of Egypt, the Ptolemies. The founding dynast, Ptolemy I, would be born in Macedon in the northern part of the Greek peninsula, and after fighting in the campaigns with Alexander the Great, he effectively declared himself King of all of Egypt during the 310s BC, incorporating the title of Pharaoh into his moniker. The Ptolemaic Kingdom, out of all of the successor states carved from Alexander's empire, would be the longest to last, ultimately ending in 30 BC with the death of its most famous ruler Cleopatra VII, and its absorption into the Roman Empire. The Rosetta Stone is an appropriate relic to represent the Ptolemies, who ruled as Macedonian-style warlords and monarchs, evoking the reigns of Alexander and Philip II, while simultaneously stressing the notion of continuity with the Egyptian dynasties who ruled for well over two millennia. From their capital Alexandria, perhaps the greatest city in the Mediterranean world, they would be fervent patrons of the arts and sciences, ordering the construction of learned institutions and monuments, like the Library of Alexandria, or the great lighthouse known as the Pharos. Yet, they would also be subject to some of the most lurid politicking in the ancient world that has ever been known, with a family tree filled with enough royal incest that would make the Habsburgs take pause. Like with the Seleucids, we ought to begin our look at the Ptolemies by understanding their geographic scope. Over the centuries, they expanded and contracted, but there is a general outline that we can create. Starting from their westernmost holdings, the area known as Cyrene, a holdover Greek colony from the 7th century BC, located in the northeasternmost tip of modern Libya, it would be primarily a center of independence movements seeking to be rid of Ptolemaic control, before being completely incorporated during the 3rd century BC. Traveling east, we pass through the several hundred kilometers of inhospitable deserts, marked only by a few sources of life, including the famous Siwa Oasis, where Alexander met the local oracle and was declared a god. Past the Siwa Oasis, we have finally reached the heartland of the Ptolemaic Empire, Egypt. Cutting through Egypt would be the mighty Nile River, stretching some 4,000 miles from the Mediterranean shores and heading south into modern Sudan. Almost all of the commercial and political settlements and cities, many of them hundreds or thousands of years old, would hug along the fertile landscape of the Nile River, which provides the soil with nutrients thanks to its consistent yearly flooding. Ancient Egypt traditionally was divided into two parts, Upper and Lower Egypt, though scholars in the 19th century added Middle Egypt for our convenience as well. Lower Egypt, which is actually the northern part of the land, begins in the Nile Delta, where the Nile branches off into multiple segments before dumping its contents into the Mediterranean. This is the heartland of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, rich in agriculture and is home to a number of major cities, such as Naukratis, but above all else was Alexandria, located on its easternmost branches. Alexandria would be the center of all Ptolemaic power and splendor, attracting visitors and traders from across the world, and acted as a seat of royal power, carrying its prosperity well into the 6th century AD. Traveling south, we enter into the more historical centers of Egyptian power, including that of Memphis. Though no longer holding its prestige as it once did under the Old Kingdom, Memphis was an extremely important cultural center during the early Ptolemaic period, but in time would be eclipsed by the relocation of political and cultural importance to Alexandria. In Middle and Southern Egypt, the region known as the Thebaid, would contain a number of important Egyptian cities of the Middle and New Kingdom, like Karnak and Thebes. Alongside would be many settlements founded by the Ptolemaic kings, such as Ptolemaes. At the very southernmost point of Upper Egypt, we have reached the Tropic of Cancer, with the south belonging to the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush in central Sudan. Turning eastwards, we travel along the coastline of the Red Sea, known to the Greeks and Romans as the Erythraean Sea, whose port towns like Ptolemaesteron would assist in the transportation of African goods to Egypt, including elephants, which would be the main supply for the army until roughly the end of the 2nd century. It also could be the jumping off point for ships bound to the shores of India for trade and diplomatic missions. Returning back north along the Red Sea, we reach the Sinai Peninsula, largely comprised of treacherous landscapes and is a major buffer to any invaders into Egypt. Travelling up to the Levant, we reach areas like Palestine, Venetia, and coalesced Syria, though these regions would be hotly contested with their great imperial neighbours and rivals, the Seleucid Empire, based in northern Syria. Circling around to the Mediterranean, we have a number of island nations, such as Cyprus, which was under full Ptolemaic control, and Rhodes, which had a special relationship with the Ptolemies, which granted it independence, yet they did have a strong connection. These could provide the supplies for timber for shipbuilding, and act as ports for the Ptolemaic fleet as it sailed up and down the Aegean Sea, with surpluses of grain and for military maritime activities. So ends our grand tour of Egypt, and we will continue to discuss these regions in more detail as the episodes progress, but for now, I just wanted to give a general idea of what we are dealing with. Our story on the origin of the Ptolemaic Kingdom begins all the way back to the time of King Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. Our protagonist, soon to be known as Ptolemy I Soter, was born roughly in 367 or 366 BC at either Pella or Eordea in Macedon. His father was named Lagos, a man of relatively mean origin, but was able to marry above his rank to a woman named Arsinoe, who may have been a distant relative of King Philip. Like the other successor kings, Ptolemy's birth was subject to propagandistic stories. Both Pausanias and Quintus Curtius Rufus are certain that Ptolemy was a bastard of Philip's, and Lagos, not wanting to be reminded of his humiliation at the king's hands, chose to have Arsinoe abandon the baby to die in the wilderness. However, the god Zeus, in the form of an eagle, chose to rescue the poor child and lifted him to safety. In one fell swoop, Ptolemy manages to claim legitimacy to the Argeat house and receive a mandate from heaven, but in all likelihood, Lagos was Ptolemy's biological father. One interesting thing to note is that the name Lagos is technically the dynastic name rather than Ptolemaic, and they should thus be considered the Lagodai kingdom of Egypt, but that's just being picky and we're just going to continue to use Ptolemaic, so just consider this a fun fact. Ptolemy was one of the boyhood friends of Alexander the Great, despite being some ten years older than the prince-to-be. His involvement in court affairs as part of the retinue of Alexander must have been something like an advisor or close confidant, though his counsel temporarily backfired when he helped arrange a marriage proposal of Alexander to a minor neighboring kingdom behind the back of Philip II, and for that transgression, Philip banished Ptolemy along with a few others, but in time, Ptolemy would return under Alexander's auspices. We have great evidence of Ptolemy's participation during Alexander's conquest of the Persian Empire, primarily because our most trusted source on Alexander, the 2nd century Roman historian Arian of Nicomedia, relied extensively on the account written by Ptolemy to complete his A Novicis of Alexander. Though Arian's claim that Ptolemy should be trusted based upon the notion that a king doesn't lie is quite silly in a modern context, we have no reason to doubt that many of his claims are quite accurate, though we should cast a wary eye on wherever Ptolemy inserts himself into the narrative. For the majority of the Asian campaigns, Ptolemy was never granted a particularly high-ranking position, only appearing in a few instances here and there as an infantry commander, though subordinate to senior officials like army favorites Craterus and Parmenion. He did accompany Alexander in his visit to the Oracle of Siwa while in Egypt, but Ptolemy's position is only really solidified during the campaigns in Factria, Sogdiana, and India, perhaps because a number of the old guard of Macedonian commanders had either been killed or fell out of favor from Alexander's inner circle. He became part of the king's personal bodyguard, the somatophilax, and was given greater emphasis in Ptolemy's own history, such as fighting one-on-one with an Indian warrior. When they returned back to Babylon in 324, Ptolemy was one of the trusted men of Alexander to be given a bride of noble Persian origin named Artakhama, though Ptolemy, like almost all of the rest, would soon dispose of her. With the death of Alexander the Great in Babylon during June of 323, Ptolemy was at the heart of the discussions regarding what to do with Alexander's empire. While the bulk of the meetings rested upon which candidate of the argued household to place upon the throne, Ptolemy had taken quite a different perspective. Whether out of immediate self-interest or perhaps with a keen understanding of the future conduct and rules of this new political backdrop, Ptolemy had instead undermined the strength of the argued house. In the account of Justin, he attacks Arridaeus for being a feeble mind and incapable of ruling, while according to Quintus Curtius, he points out that the unborn child of Alexander would and thus would bring discontent among the Macedonian peoples. Ptolemy then proposed a plan whereby the satraps would all act as individual governors of semi-autonomous provinces, picked from the most distinguished of the Macedonian commanders most trusted by Alexander, and this would collude himself, naturally, but for the benefit of the larger empire and the king, whomever it may be. Underneath the surface, Ptolemy was simply pushing for the dissolution of a single empire under the argued throne. Though this plan was officially rejected by the standing regent Perticus, in my opinion, if the argued dynasty was a house of cards after Alexander's death, then Ptolemy was one of the main culprits behind its collapse. He was clearly aware of the opportunity to attach himself to the highest circles of elites, and probably had a pragmatic understanding that the other generals may well have thought the same way he did. Thus, in a moment of calculated Machiavellianism, he already made up his mind about carving his piece of the Macedonian prize. The arrangement under Perticus, the so-called partition of Babylon, reinforced the notion that the empire was still united. Philip Aridaeus and the newly born Alexander IV would rule as joint kings when the latter became of age, and Perticus would be the one to protect the king's position. This doesn't mean Ptolemy didn't ultimately get what he wanted, because he, along with a number of soon-to-be-famous generals like Antigonus Monophthalmos, Lysimachus, and Eumenes of Cardia, were all given major posts as satraps across the heartland of the empire. Ptolemy must have had one location in mind, because in 322, he departed from Babylon to his ultimate destination, where he would assume his governorship and eventually his kingdom, the satrapy of Egypt. If any territory under the domain of the Macedonian Empire were to be chosen where a general could set up shop and declare independence, it's hard to do anything better than the lands of Egypt. Technically, Ptolemy's position included all of Upper and Lower Egypt, the outskirts of Arabia, and the lands of Libya as well, but the real prize lay in the territory stretching along the famed Nile River. But why exactly? In terms of its geography, the lands of Ancient Egypt were remarkably blessed by natural features which allowed for an incredible amount of protection and for a thriving agricultural economy. The most obvious is the Nile River, which tended to have a reliable and consistent flooding that would allow for the replenishing of the soil with nutrients and water, which was well exploited through complex irrigation systems set up by the numerous dynasties over the millennia. This system was so fruitful that Egyptians could harvest enough grain to support densely populated cities lining the Nile, in addition to massive surpluses which they could sell to the outside world, including Greece, to massive profits. Based upon calculations by Herodotus, Egypt was easily the most wealthy satrap under the Persian dominion, contributing roughly 1,400 talents of silver per year, and the same would be true under the Macedonian yoke, and at the time of Alexander's death, there was an extremely large reserve of 8,000 talents stowed away there, plenty of cash to pay any mercenaries or officials to make sure that the area was stable from internal or external threats. In conjunction with these financial resources, the landscape of Egypt is well suited for a defensive position. Despite the lush vegetation that sprouted around the Nile, over 90% of the region is nearly inhospitable desert, meaning that it was extremely difficult to actually invade Egypt. The remaining corridors, such as Coalese Syria and the Sinai Desert, were often heavily fortified, and it was Egyptian policy to try and secure these regions, which continued well into the Hellenistic period as a point of contention between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids over Syria. Beyond the tangible, I would like to posit that Egypt also has an intangible benefit that would aid Ptolemy both in the immediate and the future regarding his legitimacy, the connection of Egypt to Alexander the Great. As a province, Egypt was special to Alexander, having welcomed him as sort of a hero in 332, and it was in the Siwa Oasis at the Temple of Amun-Ra where Alexander had his godhood confirmed by the oracle there. Alexander had been declared pharaoh, and it was Egypt where he chose to lay the foundations of the greatest out of all of his cities, Alexandria, and allegedly his final request was to be buried in Siwa, though this last part was rather complicated, as we soon shall see. If Ptolemy was to ever become king, a basileus, he certainly had three of the major requirements, money, military capabilities brought on by both money and territory, and a sense of legitimacy vis-a-vis his connection to Alexander, whether by the symbolic importance of Egypt or his alleged relation to the Argeid house. This is all jumping the gun a bit, mind you, but it is important to understand the context in which Ptolemy's policies lined up with his later accession to the throne. But in 322, Ptolemy was still merely the satrap of Egypt, and headed to the city of Memphis in Lower Egypt to assume his post. Technically, he was still a subordinate to the standing regent Perticus, who stayed in Babylon, but Ptolemy did not seem to care at all about even pretending to follow Perticus's orders, and seemed to be bent on establishing his independence. To begin with, Ptolemy was already expanding the borders of his administrative domain by ordering the conquest of Cyrene to the west by his general Thebron of Sparta, but his more threatening challenge to Perticus's authority would be through two incidents. The first would be the murder of Cleomenes, a man who was installed by Alexander to oversee Egypt while the latter continued his campaign, and apparently was some sort of co-satrap with Ptolemy under the partition of Babylon. According to Pausanias, Cleomenes was friendly to Perticus, and more than likely would have tried to prevent Ptolemy from muscling his way out of the empire. But in addition to this, Cleomenes had apparently incurred ill will by the Egyptian peoples thanks to his heavy and extremely thorough taxation of the province, which included stiffing soldiers of their pay and closing down temples to divert tribute to him. Killing Cleomenes would thus have served his own interests and garnered the respect, if not the loyalty, of the Egyptian population as well. The second and most outrageous of his offenses was the kidnapping of the body of Alexander the Great, which had been carefully preserved in Babylon shortly after his death and was en route with a magnificent funeral carriage and escort back to the royal tombs of Agii in Macedon. This was a slap in the face and an effective declaration of war against Perticus, since the atonement of the king's body by his successor was an extremely important ritual of Macedonian rulership, and with Ptolemy taking the corpse back to Memphis, he was effectively marking himself as a legitimate heir to Alexander. The outbreak of the First War of the Diodehoi, though almost inevitable, was directly instigated by Ptolemy. In summer of 321, Perticus decided to split up his campaign efforts, allowing Eumenes of Cardia to handle affairs in Asia Minor, while he himself would deal with Egypt with the bulk of the royal army. As I discussed earlier, invading Egypt would prove to be a challenging affair, and Ptolemy was more than capable of handling the forces of Perticus. The standing regent would face numerous logistical challenges, such as the extreme climate, fortified holdouts peppering the landscape, and a particularly horrifying incident when one of the banks of the river eroded underneath the weight of the Pertican troops, sending the unfortunate soul straight into the mouths of hungry crocodiles. In contrast to the failures of Perticus, Ptolemy was demonstrating that he had keen military mind and a strong understanding of his own territory, making sure he doubled the garrisons of the key passes ahead of time, clearly aware of the inevitable response once he had taken Alexander's body. Rather than attacking head-on, Ptolemy preferred to whittle down the army of his opponent through attrition, and while the morale of Perticus's forces crumbled, Ptolemy's grew to appreciate their commander's intelligence and charisma, bolstered by his generosity and his willingness to throw himself in the thick of battle, as what would happen during the siege of the Fort of the Camels, when Ptolemy personally fought off a war elephant and its rider with only a spear. This clearly had made an impression on the men serving underneath Perticus as well, and they started to defect and drove to Ptolemy's side. With things going as bad as they were, it was unsurprising that Perticus would find himself dead only a short while into his Egyptian campaign. Death would not come by way of any open engagement with the enemy, instead it would come from intrigue within his own camp, as his personal bodyguards, most prominently the future King Seleucus, would instead surround and murder the standing region in the night. Conveniently, Ptolemy was at the Pertican camp the very next morning, offering total amnesty and supplies to the beleaguered and starving men, while simultaneously affirming that while he could simply take the position of Perticus, as by right of conquest, he was a far more gracious host and would allow King Philip Arridaeus to rule totally and independently without any scheming figure like Perticus bending the King's will. In one of his many strokes of political genius, Ptolemy manages to shift the blame of a civil war onto a dead man, partially broadening his way with much needed grain supplies and his ability to achieve victory on the field of battle, but also tries to convince the audience that he himself was protecting the integrity of the Macedonian throne by eliminating a usurper, while at the same time making sure that his main threat wouldn't challenge his independence because said threat is headed by an incompetent ruler who was in Ptolemy's debt. It is also very possible that he was able to orchestrate Perticus's assassination, whether by a simple payment in the form of silver or gold, or perhaps something more complex, as conveniently Seleucus, as sort of a gift for eliminating Perticus, would be granted the prestigious position of Satrap of Babylon shortly afterwards, probably with Ptolemy's blessing or personal recommendation. This remains speculative, but in the end, Perticus was dead, and after the Treaty of Tri-Paradisus in 320, the empire would be fragmented once again into a number of quasi-independent satrapies. Ptolemy, despite all of his self-aggrandizement about being the savior of the kings, merely requested that he still retain Egypt and Libya, and anything, quote, taken by the spear in the lands of the beyond. This last part was both intentionally vague and very obvious. Ptolemy did not claim additional territory beyond what was originally entailed to him in his role as satrap of Egypt, but his reference to spear-won land meant volumes in how he viewed his soon-to-be kingdom. Conflict and victory in battle defined that those regions would become his by-right through might, and he was certainly keen on expanding his sphere of influence, whether in wars of defense or intentional campaigning into new lands. He would not view himself as part of a larger system, but instead an island unto himself, with Egypt and anything he conquered as personal property. The conclusion of the Treaty of Tri-Paradisus meant that the war against the remaining pro-Pertican forces, largely under the control of Eumenes of Cardia, would be led by the satrap of Pharygia, Antigonus Monophthalmos. Antipater, the unofficial head of the council, and the former standing regent in Macedon while Alexander was out campaigning in the east, had been given the position once again. In addition, Antipater granted Ptolemy the hand of his daughter Eurydice in marriage. This arrangement was likely at the behest of Ptolemy, given that Antipater's position and popularity with the Macedonian peoples made him a prime candidate of being one of the most powerful men in the entire empire, though death would soon visit the octogenarian only a few years later and create a whole mess of trouble in Macedon. Eurydice had the position of being the first primary wife of Ptolemy, and would give birth to a number of children, including the later renegade Ptolemy Karinus, whom we will discuss in later episodes. But like almost all of the Macedonian kings, Ptolemy was certainly a polygamist. His first love, the hetaira known as Thais, was his camp mistress during the campaigns of Alexander, and she had given him at least three children. We don't know the exact date of her death, but we have no indication that she was ever considered an official wife of Ptolemy in the capacity of a royal figure. One wonders if Ptolemy did not wish to have to shoulder the negative reputation of Thais' alleged responsibility for convincing Alexander to burn down Persepolis in a drunken rage. Ptolemy was also briefly married to the Persian noblewoman Artakhama in 324 at the mass weddings of Susa, but he had long rid her of her by Eurydice's time. Though Eurydice was technically wife number one, Ptolemy would slowly relegate her to a backseat position, upon meeting his true love, and ultimately his queen, a woman known as Berenike, soon to be Berenike I. Berenike was a Macedonian woman who served as a companion to Eurydice, and journeyed along with her to Egypt. She was formerly the wife of a Macedonian named Philip, who had died and left her with three children, including her son named Magas. And upon her arrival to the Egyptian court, Ptolemy seemed to have taken quite the fancy to her. She quickly became his mistress, and by the year 316 the two would be married, and she would replace Eurydice as primary wife, and ultimately would become the Queen of Egypt. She too would provide a number of offspring for Ptolemy, most notably a daughter named Arsinoe, and a son also named Ptolemy, soon to be known as Queen Arsinoe II and Ptolemy II Philadelphos respectively. The fecundity of Ptolemy I is pretty legendary. We have no less than ten separate named children that he directly fathered, and three stepchildren by the way of Berenike's previous marriage. Like the European royal house of the Habsburgs in the early modern era, the Ptolemies would be experts at playing politics through marriage alliances, and Ptolemy I had his fingers in many pots, so to speak, and would dish out several of his children to powers in the Mediterranean and Hellenistic world as a whole. With all of these names and offspring flying around, don't feel upset if you're confused, we will definitely be referring back to several of the most important children, and I strongly encourage you to check out my website for the family tree I will be putting up for the Ptolemaic dynasty. In the midst of Ptolemy's amorous endeavors, he continued to seize the opportunity to expand his domain as was granted by the stipulations of the Treaty of Triperidesis. In the year 318, he attempted to barter his way into controlling Syria with a cash offer to Laomedon the Satrap, and when that offer was rejected, Ptolemy had Laomedon seized and dragged away by one of his generals. The city of Jerusalem and the surrounding area of Judea, along with the region of Phoenicia, were also captured. Taking the southern Levant, roughly analogous to modern Palestine, Israel, and Jordan, was a major strategic goal in strengthening Ptolemy's position. Phoenicia could provide the timber necessary to strengthen the Egyptian fleets, and taking Syria and the Gaza Strip was instrumental in trying to prevent enemy access to one of the major invasion corridors into Egypt. In the opinion of historian Ethan Warrington, this growth of Ptolemaic power was also indicative that Ptolemy was not merely content with sitting upon Egypt like a frog in a lily pad and playing the defensive game, as is so often argued. He was just as much of an expansionist and imperialist as the other ambitious successors, like Antigonus and Seleucus, taking multiple chances in his career to further claim land and subjects for his own. It also appears that ambition would once again drag Ptolemy back into conflict, as the rise of the Antigonid threat in the east would cast its shadow over Egypt. The conflicts of the Diodohoi would not end with the death of Eumenes of Cardi in the year 316. The general Antigonus had successfully managed to capture and execute the Greek secretary. But perhaps in the midst of his victories, Antigonus' ambition grew, and his willingness to bully other less powerful satraps in the eastern territories became alarmingly apparent. He had the largest military force in the entire empire, and the clear and present danger of such a gathering would reach Ptolemy's court in the form of the exiled satrap of Babylonia, Seleucus, along with his family. Seleucus and Ptolemy had remained on relatively good terms since Perticus' assassination, and when Antigonus' presence in the city of Babylon caused a political incident, Seleucus' life was seriously in peril, and so he had fled to his ally in Egypt in 315, with word of Antigonus' intent. Ptolemy's choice to grant sanctuary to a political enemy of the most powerful man in the empire was surprisingly easy. He was never one to forgo loyalty to an ally, but he was always more interested in backing a coalition to prevent anyone from unifying the empire under one banner, the main threat to his nearly uncontested independent rule. Ptolemy then formed a coalition between himself, Seleucus, acting as a subordinate lieutenant, the governor of Thrace, Lysimachus, and Cassander, a son of Antipater who took Macedon in a civil war during the Second War of the Diadohoi. In 314, they sent a demand to Antigonus and his young, hot-headed son, Demetrius, to back down completely, probably knowing full well that this would never be accepted by the prideful Antigonids, and the Third War of the Diadohoi broke out. Antigonus would prove himself to be far more of a competent foe than Perticus ever was, quickly moving into operations both military and propagandistic. To justify their grounds for war, the Antigonids declared their interest in the freedom of the Greeks, that, often cited Balochri, with often an intentionally ambiguous meaning, and Ptolemy quickly jumped on the bandwagon as well, not wanting to be outdone by his rival, especially in regards to the loyalty of the Greeks in Cyprus and Rhodes. These two island nations were particularly the subject of Antigonid attack, since they were nominally allied with Ptolemy and provided an excellent base to build ships and act as a port for the Egyptian navy. Antigonus managed to threaten Rhodes with military action, while in Cyprus several kings were bought off thanks to the massive surplus of Antigonid treasure. Rather than simply remaining at home and letting the Antigonids penetrate Egypt, Ptolemy took action by suppressing a revolt in Cyrene, and eventually crossed over to Cyprus in order to capture the pro-Antigonid kings, in addition to letting his soldiers plunder the Cypriot country to bolster the morale and punish the would-be betrayers. While campaigning in Syria in 312, Ptolemy would finally meet the Antigonid invasion force that was bent upon taking Egypt, not led by the elder Antigonus, but rather by the young Demetrius, who was stationed near the city of Gaza. Demetrius, eager to prove his mettle in holding absolute power, had been delegated by his father to handle the Egyptian front and sought to crush the force of Ptolemy in a single open battle. His generals, staffed by men who were veterans of Alexander's campaign, were fully aware of Ptolemy's military capabilities and experience, and he was also supported by Seleucus in the field, another talented commander. Demetrius rejected their advice and sought to engage the Egyptian satrap as soon as possible. Ptolemy had about 18,000 infantry comprised of Macedonian mercenaries and native Egyptian levies, showing that he was not taking the Antigonid threat lightly given the reluctance to arm the native Egyptian populace in the early Ptolemaic period. Along with an additional 4,000 cavalry. The Antigonid army was staffed by 12,500 mercenaries, 4,500 cavalry, and 43 war elephants, which put the Antigonids at a numerical disadvantage, which did nothing to deter Demetrius. The Antigonid commanders proved to have a good reason to fear Ptolemy's experience, as his leadership in India demonstrated that he had quickly learned to deal with elephants. He sent caltrops and chains across the battlefield to render their use ineffectual, and when the infantry of either side came to blows, the numbers on Ptolemy's side proved to be the decisive advantage. Demetrius, in the tried-and-true technique of leading the cavalry wing in a decisive blow, had failed to grasp that Ptolemy had served with the master of such a tactic, Alexander the Great himself, and used his own cavalry as a riposte to Demetrius. Eventually, the Antigonid army gave way, and Ptolemy managed to capture Demetrius' baggage train and camp, along with half his army. Humiliatingly, Ptolemy granted a degree of clemency to the young general, handing back his personal property and close associates, along with a message, quote, We are not engaged in the struggle for life or death, but only for honor and power. With the defeat of the Antigonid invasion, all immediate threats to Ptolemy's kingdom had been eliminated once again. In 311, Antigonus and Demetrius signed a peace treaty with Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus, in order to deal with a takeover within their own eastern front in Babylonia, orchestrated by Seleucus, who was sent with Ptolemy's blessing to reclaim his position as satrap. From 311 to about 309-308, father and son would be embroiled with Seleucus in the Babylonian war, and Ptolemy, never one to miss an opportunity to expand his own power, decided that he was safe enough to start picking away Antigonid holdings. He sailed up and down the southern coast of Asia Minor, gobbling up cities in Cilicia and totally conquering Cyprus. His reasoning to the Greek peoples whose freedom he had promised to fight for was that it was actually the Antigonids who imprisoned the cities of these regions and violated their oaths to the freedom of the Greeks, and it wasn't so much conquest as much as it was overthrowing the jailers and installing garrisons to prevent the treacherous Antigonids from threatening freedom once again. I sincerely doubt that they bought this line, but the revenues and resources captured from these wealthy areas were priming for Ptolemy to launch a fleet of his own to the mainland of Greece. As I mentioned earlier, many traditional histories portray Ptolemy as someone mainly interested in holding whatever he had in Egypt. But this little side venture once again demonstrates that Ptolemy had his own interests in acquiring the prestige and territory outside of the immediate Egyptian area. The extent to which Ptolemy would campaign in Greece and whether he would strike Cassander or Macedon proper remains a mystery, but we have strong evidence that he was looking to unite the mainland Greeks under his banner. While he conquered Corinth with little to no resistance in 308, the most telling of his actions which suggested that he wanted to seize the throne of Macedon was his wedding proposal to Cleopatra, the only sister of Alexander the Great that was fully blood related by their parents, Olympias and Philip II. Cassander himself was married to an Argeat princess, but she was only a half-sister to Alexander, and combined with Ptolemy's alleged fathering by Philip II, his possession of Alexander's corpse, and the convenient circulation of a resurfaced will of Alexander that allegedly designated Cleopatra should marry Ptolemy, he would have the strongest claim to the Argeat throne. Unfortunately for Ptolemy, Antigonus the One-Eyed was not so blind as to be unaware of the political situation back in the Eastern Mediterranean, and he eventually had Cleopatra assassinated before she ever reached the Egyptian court, with the momentum of the Ptolemaic expedition collapsing soon after her death. Ptolemy had to contend himself with returning to Egypt, rather than to try to foolishly throw himself into campaigning without Greek or Macedonian support. Understandably annoyed by the antagonism of Ptolemy at the Western Front, Antigonus and Demetrius had decided to cut their losses in Eastern territories by making a peace treaty with Seleucus, who would busy himself for the next four years consolidating his own burgeoning kingdom. In 307-306, the Antigonids would once again attempt to unify the Empire of Alexander, launching the Fourth War of the Diodohoi, with renewed fury. They successfully managed to conquer most of the Greek mainland, having themselves declared kings in 306 after the Argeat line was now extinct thanks to the efforts of Cassander, and not one to be left out of the loop, the other Diodohoi did so as well, including Ptolemy. That same year, the Antigonids struck at one of the key Ptolemaic strongholds at Cyprus, knowing full well of the significance of its timber supply and location. Avenging his earlier defeat at Gaza, Demetrius proved himself to be a competent naval commander, and bested Ptolemy in enormous naval engagement off the city of Salamis on the Cypriot coast, causing a setback to much of Ptolemy's gains in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. The defeat was so bad that he was forced to retreat back to Egypt, where Antigonus and Demetrius planned to invade once again with an enormous force. Unfortunately for the Antigonids, nature once again took its toll on the army by sending a storm to scatter their fleet, and Ptolemy, probably more cautious at taking on both Antigonus and Demetrius in the field rather than just the latter, attempted to whittle the remaining Antigonid forces down with a combination of garrisons along the major invasion routes and the opportunity to be paid handsomely for their defection. Like in 312, the second attempted invasion of Egypt resulted in a bust for the Antigonids, so looking to strike at Ptolemaic interest as best as they could, they turned instead to the Aegean Sea. Between 305 and 304, Demetrius would besiege the city of Rhodes, the other great naval ally of Ptolemy. The siege itself is quite legendary, its defenders resisting for about a year against some of the most incredible siege weaponry ever constructed, including the gigantic Heliopolis. Part of the success of the defenders was thanks to the help given by the anti-Antigonid rulers, especially that of Ptolemy in the form of provisions like grain. The siege ended in a loss on Demetrius' part, ironically giving him the name Polyarchetes meaning taker of cities, and Ptolemy in particular received a huge propaganda boost from the Rhodian peoples who granted him a number of honors including the title of Soter meaning saviour. Luckily for Ptolemy, the remaining years of the war were spent far away from Egyptian soil. The Antigonids managed to turn their attention to the Greek mainland and whittle away at the kingdoms of Cassander and Lysimachus in Macedon and Thrace. Though normally Ptolemy would be content with leaving others to deal with the fighting, he was very likely concerned that had Antigonus successfully declared himself king of Macedon and acquired the training grounds of the Macedonian mercenaries, then there may be no stopping him a third time from invading Egypt. Ptolemy might have also been reassured on attacking Antigonus directly, because by 302 or 301 BC, Seleucus, the satrap of Babylon, had recently returned to Asia Minor having campaigned across most of the Asian provinces and founded a kingdom for himself under the name Seleucus I Nicator. So the four anti-Antigonid kings met up and decided that they should pool their resources for a final showdown in central Anatolia near Ipsus in 301 BC. Ipsus would prove to be decisive, one of the largest battles in all of antiquity, and ended in a victory for the anti-Antigonid coalition, with Antigonus dying in battle and Demetrius and his forces scattered across the Aegean, ending the fourth war of the Diadochi. Of the kings who were present at the battle, only Lysimachus and Seleucus were actually commanding the armies. The carving up of Antigonus' empire resulted in consequences that would reverberate in the immediate and distant future of the Hellenistic period. Seleucus, content with submitting to Lysimachus' claims over the prosperous and eastern Asia Minor, protested extensively at Ptolemy's actions, as the latter had quickly taken advantage of Antigonus' defeat and captured much of Koli, Syria and Palestine. This was a significant strategic region for both the Ptolemaic kingdom and the Seleucid empire, as would be demonstrated in the many Syrian wars that would be fought between the two powers, and Seleucus argued that Ptolemy should not have received the spoils of a fight he was not present for. Ptolemy simply responded with tough luck, and the once amicable relationship would quickly deteriorate between the two kings, setting the stage for the conflicts to be fought by both of their successors. Even though Demetrius Polyarchates was still running around and there was almost two decades of fighting left in the wars of the successors, the death of Antigonus would leave Ptolemy's kingdom in a state of stability that would allow him to focus on consolidating his hard-won prize. Never again under his reign would Egypt be directly as threatened as it was under the first four wars of the Diadohoi, and as a military campaigner, besides one or two brief affairs such as the recapture of Cyprus and the ending of a revolt in Cyrene, Ptolemy would no longer be the adventurer he once was. It is here that we will turn our narrative towards the interior of this new Macedonian Egyptian kingdom, and see what foundations Ptolemy I would lay out that would dictate his successor's policy for almost 250 years afterwards. Though Ptolemy was thoroughly a Macedonian warlord, and claimed Egypt as a personal kingdom taken by the spear, he had inherited a land and peoples with a thoroughly ancient tradition, stretching back thousands of years into the earliest origins of human civilization. I plan to cover the inner workings of the Ptolemaic kingdom in much more detail a little further down the line, but like with my episode on Seleucus I, I feel that it is extremely important to observe the initial steps and policies that would be carried out by these empire builders in consolidating and overseeing the integration of their rule over a body of mostly non-Greco-Macedonian peoples. When we look at the role of kingship in Ptolemy, though he was only officially declaring himself as one in 306, he had effectively operated as ruler over Egypt since his arrival around 322. We can see as early as his reign that the Ptolemies were going to have to come to terms with the traditions and practices of the Egyptian people, whose notion of rulers and what it means to be a pharaoh were proudly held onto, even after several centuries of foreign rule under the Persians and later Macedonians. Alexander had grasped the significance when he arrived in Egypt and paid homage to the gods of the land, but Ptolemy was going to have to take it further if he was to ensure his line was to continue to maintain that claim, and yet he was very much a king rooted to his own Greco-Macedonian culture. Some early pieces of evidence of Ptolemy utilizing or applying Egyptian tradition can be found in his donation of a large amount of money to the burial of one of the famous Apis Bulls in approximately 316, a practice done by the rulers of Egypt, time immemorial, and which was allegedly the root cause of Egyptian hatred for Cambyses and the great kings of Persia, at least according to Herodotus. In much more detail is the Lagedai Seytrap Stelae, a large stone monument dating to around 312 BC. While technically it is based upon the notion that Alexander IV was still the king, it is entirely centered on the actions of Ptolemy, erected after Ptolemy restored the rights of a temple of the goddess Buto or Wadjet. In it, Ptolemy is lauded for his victory over Demetrius Polyarchetes at the Battle of Gaza in unmistakably Egyptian terms. There was a great viceroy in Egypt, Ptolemaeus was he called. A person of youthful energy was he, strong in both arms, prudent of mind, powerful amidst men, of firm courage, steady foot, repelling the raging, not turning his back, striking the face of his foes amidst their combat. When he had seized the bow, not a shot is from the opponent, a flourish of his sword in the fight no one could stand his ground, of a mighty hand, nor was his hand repulsed, nor repented he of what his mouth utters, none is like him in the stranger's world. He who had restored the sculptures of the gods found in Asia, and all the furniture and books of the temples of northern and southern Egypt, he had restored them to their place. It continues further down. Then answered this great viceroy, let a decree be made in the writing at the seat of the king's scribe of the audit to this effect, Ptolemaeus, satrap of the land of Buto, I give it to Horus, the avenger of his father, lord of Pei, and to Buto, lady of Petep, from this day and forever, with all its villages, all its cities, all its inhabitants, all its meads, all its waters, all its oxen, all its birds, all its cattle herds, and all the things produced therein, what was formerly, and in its editions, and with the donation given by king, lord of both lands, Kabash, everliving. Besides his attempt to reach the native Egyptians, Ptolemy was taking major steps to make sure that his reign was founded on the notion of what we would term Hellenistic society. To him, it would have been the same culture that he had seen in Greece and Macedon, but as we will eventually see, it too would change and adapt to conditions in Egypt. To stay in touch with his roots on the Greek mainland, Ptolemy made sure to patronize the cities in and around the Aegean. At the 69th Pythian Games in 314, he raced a chariot team and won a prize for his victories, and horse racing at religious festivals and games was a practice that would be continued down by his successors, including Ptolemaic princesses and royal women. The crown jewel of all of Ptolemy's efforts in establishing his own mark on the land of Egypt would be through the city of Alexandria, centered on the northwest coast of the Nile Delta. Begun by Alexander the Great, Ptolemy would oversee the construction of arguably the most beautiful city in all of the Mediterranean and Hellenistic world, which continued to astonish visitors like the geographer Strabo some 300 years after its foundation. The name of the city in Greek, known as Alexandria at Egypt, rather than Alexandria in or of Egypt, explains how the Ptolemies would view Alexandria as an island unto itself separate from Egypt, and the traditional capital of Memphis was thus moved to Alexandria during Ptolemy's reign. The city was characteristically Greek in its design and layout, with the various amenities that would attract settlers from the Greek-speaking world and beyond, numbering somewhere between 300,000 to 400,000 at its peak. According to the historian Josephus, Ptolemy had also resettled thousands of Jews in Alexandria, taken from his captured Jerusalem, and the city itself would become one of the largest concentrations of Jewish peoples outside of the region of Jerusalem. In addition to making sure it was organized and well-ordered, Ptolemy clearly sought to make it a bastion of Greek intellectual tradition, starting with the initial construction of the famous Library of Alexandria, and his patronage of the arts and sciences attracted many thinkers to his court. Not just content with it being an intellectual center, Ptolemy strove to beautify the city with marvels such as the Pharos, the lighthouse that would greet all who entered the harbor. It also would be the cultural hearthstone for his Macedonian-born citizens, as it would be the resting place of Alexander the Great, whose corpse Ptolemy maintained as sort of a talisman and a shrine. Part of the logic of attracting settlers to his kingdom, mainly looking for Greeks and Macedonians, were thus two-fold. One was to ensure that he had an upper crust of Greek-speaking bureaucrats and officials who would oversee the management of Egypt, and two was to bolster his military resources. Mercenaries were generally expensive, and sometimes unreliable. Greco-Macedonians were the preferred source of military manpower, and since the Ptolemies ruled a population overwhelmingly comprised of native Egyptians, and were thus hesitant at arming them at all, minus extreme situations like the Battle of Gaza, it was important that you make sure that you had a resource of Macedonians ready at hand. Ptolemy had begun practicing what would be called the clerical system, whereby Greek and Macedonian soldiers would be offered a piece of land that would act as a permanent revenue source to entice them to live in Egypt. When the time was necessary, these landowners, who did not usually farm the land themselves, would be called for military service. Evidence of the earliest signs of this system can be seen when Ptolemy dispersed the Antigonid soldiers he had captured after the Battle of Gaza across Egypt to become future sources of military support. This clerical system had also had the double effect of strengthening the control of the Ptolemies, allowing them to tax the Egyptian population quite heavily, though this would eventually backfire in the late 2nd century. Amazingly, compared to the many other kings, generals, and ambitious political figures we have covered in the episodes on the Wars of the Diadohoi, the final years of Ptolemy I's career were remarkably quiet and calm. Most of his actions either involved the organization of political marriages and alliances, of which there are many. He married his daughters Arsinoe and Lysandra to Lysimachus and his son Agathocles, perhaps looking to him as a way to buffer against the increasingly sour relations with his neighbor Seleucus, and he also handed his stepdaughter Theoxenit over to the more famous Agathocles, the tyrant and king of Syracuse and Sicily. Interestingly, he sought to broker peace with Demetrius by offering another daughter Ptolemaeus as a bride. Despite Ptolemy handing out daughters as much as he did talents of silver, it seems likely that he had made sure to match his most ambitious and intelligent daughter Arsinoe with the most powerful of those rulers, and as we will see in the next episode, she would prove to be quite the formidable lady. One of the key cultivated relationships that the Ptolemies would foster would be none other than our good friend Prince Pyrrhus of Epirus, who came to the court of Alexandria as a political hostage following the marriage alliance with Demetrius. Queen Berenike took notice of the young warrior, no doubt she was probably the inspiration for her daughter Arsinoe with her keen political eye, and she suggested to Ptolemy that Pyrrhus should be married to another stepdaughter Antigone. This was convenient for Ptolemy, as it meant Pyrrhus could be supplied and sent with money to stir up trouble in Epirus and Macedonia, as we have extensively discussed in past episodes. In 285, Ptolemy would partially retire by granting his son and main heir, Ptolemy II, the position of joint king. It is likely during this period that he spent his last days settled at home in Alexandria, composing his personal memoirs about his time with Alexander the Great, which was relied upon by the historian Arian so much in the 2nd century AD in the writing of his Anabasis, which has become our most important source on the history of Alexander's campaigns. In the year 283, at the age of 84 years and after ruling Egypt for almost 40 of them, Ptolemy I would die, not in a hailstorm of arrows or spears, or by the knife of an assassin, but peaceful, of old age, in his bed. Only a few years later, he would be declared a god by a decree of Athenian citizens, and later venerated by his descendants ever afterwards. The career of Ptolemy I was remarkable in an age of remarkable careers. Though never achieving the same level of territorial extent or possessing the military genius of men like Antigonus I or Seleucus I, Ptolemy was perhaps the most crafty of them all. Wielding diplomacy and intrigue that could win battles without great cost to himself, Ptolemy managed to build up an empire that would prove the longest lasting of all the Hellenistic kingdoms. Much of the interpretations of Ptolemy as a ruler has been centered around his penchant for playing it safe, and never trying to conquer the majority of Alexander's former empire, but he was just as capable of trying to act upon his imperial ambitions as the rest of them. In my view, the difference between Ptolemy and the other Diadohoi was that he understood his own limitations, knowing when he was outclassed by the more tactically brilliant commanders and when he was about to overreach. In this way, he was able to centralize and build the foundations of his kingdom's administration and the idea of what it means to be a king, such as through his patronage of the arts and sciences and the construction of the city of Alexandria, policies which would be continued under the reign of his successor, Ptolemy II. With the death of Ptolemy I, his kingdom was now safely in the hands of his heir. However, the final years of the wars of the Diadohoi had yet to finish, and with the penchant for Ptolemy I to have children, the Hellenistic world would soon be subject to a whole collection of ambitious successors seeking to make their mark to often scandalous effect. Thank you all for listening to the show. If you haven't already, consider subscribing on the podcast platform of your choice such as Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and more. For this episode, I have a comprehensive set of episode notes which include the sources I used for research and a very extensive family tree of the Ptolemaic dynasty which you can find on my website which is at hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com and will be linked in the podcast description. The next episode will be covering the reign of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II, so be prepared for some good old fashioned incest discussion. Until next time, you've been listening to The Hellenistic Age Podcast.