and cities were founded bearing the name of both ladies. Together the
king and queen seem to have governed and planned for the internal
improvement of the kingdom, studying its needs and necessities by
personal inspection. They made two visits to Pithon, and their foreign
officials brought back elephants and various curiosities, to pleasure
their majesties, or by special command. Part of the text of an ancient
inscription found in the mounds of the ruins of this very city reads:
“He brought all the things which are agreeable to the king, and to his
sister, his royal wife who loves him;” further, “and he built a great
city to the king with the illustrious name of the king, the lord of
Egypt, Ptolemais. And he took possession of it with the soldiers of his
majesty and all the workmen of Egypt and the land of Punt.” Also they
caught elephants and in another place it proceeds, “and in this place
(Kemuer-sea) the king had founded a large city to his sister, with
the illustrious name of King Ptolemy (Philotera).” The same beloved
sister, to whom, as well as to the queen herself, court poets, like
Callimachus, addressed poems. Sanctuaries were also built there to the
princess Adelphus.
The delicate and pleasure-loving king never commanded his armies in
person, but was quick to take advantage of anything in his own favor.
He sent ambassadors to treat with the great and growing power of Rome,
and made alliances wherever possible with any power strong enough to
do his harm. With Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, he was connected by the
marriage of a step-sister, Antigone; his mother, Berenike’s daughter,
by her first husband.
Always beside the king, Arsinoe II was a woman of affairs, busy and
capable, but not too much occupied to enjoy the amenities of life and
make it agreeable to her consort. In his foreign wars and alliances,
in the internal improvement of the kingdom, in his literary work, the
story of Alexander’s campaigns, in Manetho’s History of Egypt, in the
translation of the Septuagent, in the additions to the great library
in which at the time of his death Ptolemy Philadelphus is said to have
left 700,000 volumes, in the marriages of his children we cannot doubt
the queen’s active interest and sympathetic share, above all others she
was the Privy Councillor.
At Karnak and various points along the Nile as far as Philae, are
fragments of temples both to Egyptian and Greek gods, built or restored
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and both he and his wife were interested in
the Cabeiri mysteries, probably in their later years as some one has
well said, “to still the longings of the soul with spiritual food and
with dim revelations of the unseen,” here, too, perhaps, we may see the
queen’s influence, since they were celebrated with special solemnity at
Samothrace, the home of her widowhood. The king and queen lived in an
atmosphere of adulation, like that which surrounded Louis XIV. Writers
of the time drew flattering pictures of them and coarse caricatures
of the masses. As to-day newspapers, whatever the private convictions
of their editors, will bow and truckle to what they believe to be the
popular view of any subject, so in ancient times it was the king and
queen alone and those in high places who thus swayed the pen.
Some writers believe that Ptolemy and Arsinoe had one son who died
in youth, but the weight of testimony is against this. In regard to
the marriages of her step-children, whom she had brought up as her
own, we may well believe the queen’s influence was great. The eldest
daughter, Berenike, the child of Arsinoe I, was married to Antiochus
II, the sickly king of Syria, chiefly in the hope of establishing an
Egyptian claim to the throne of that monarchy. Sacrificed like so
many young princesses, both before and after, to political purposes.
Yet Ptolemy Philadelphus seems to have regarded this daughter with
especial tenderness, for he accompanied her to her husband’s kingdom,
was present at the marriage, and continued to send her the water
of the fertile, beloved and worshipped Nile for use in her distant
home. To accomplish this marriage Antiochus II had put away his first
wife, Laodike. But this last was not a woman to submit meekly to such
indignity, and stopped at nothing to recover her lost position. Who did
in those days—even the best of them—hesitate at any crime to secure
her object? The injured queen, burning to avenge her wrongs, caused
the king to be poisoned, he, perhaps weakly, having put himself in
her power by going to see her at Ephesus, even after the birth of a
son by the new queen. Nor was this enough, for the death of her rival
was also determined upon, Laodike having many adherents, and ere her
father could come to her rescue, poor Berenike and her babe were also
murdered, innocent victims of political intrigue. Ptolemy Philadelphus
perhaps lived long enough to hear of this tragic death, but not long
enough to avenge it—a task he left to the son who succeeded him.
Of the personality and general characteristics of no queen in the long
Ptolemy line can we gather a clearer idea from the records that remain
to us. There is a statue of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II in the
Vatican, with, Mahaffy thinks, the dear sister Philactera beside them.
Not only on coins, but among the effigies at the entrance of the Odeum
at Athens, where the statues of the Egyptian kings were set up, she had
her place. Pausanius also saw at Helicon a statue of her “riding upon
an ostrich in bronze.” A position elevated, but lacking in dignity,
perhaps, like a grey-haired lady on the modern bicycle. “It is very
likely,” continues Mahaffy, “that this statue or a replica was present
to the mind of Callicachus when he spake in the ‘Coma Berinices,’
of ‘the winged horse, brother of the Aethiopian Memnon, who is the
messenger of Queen Arsinoe, she is also in that poem called Venus and
Zaphyrion.”
From the coins we learn of Arsinoe II that there were octadrams in
all metals with her image, and those with portraits of Ptolemy I
and Berenike I, and those of Ptolemy II and herself; and in silver
of Ptolemy I, and also of her alone, struck in the reign of Ptolemy
Philadelphus; also gold coins with Arsinoe II alone. The coins of
Arsinoe II were mainly octadrams in gold and decadrams in silver. On
these and also on those of her step-daughter, Berenike II, both queens
are diademed and veiled, with regular features, indisputably handsome
but conventionalized. Arsinoe II appears with the horn of Zeus Amon,
diadem, stephane or crown, veil and sceptre. She is beautiful in youth
and still handsome, though more portly as depicted in later years. Most
of the Ptolemy queens grew comfortably plump with time; the murder of
a rival or even the death of their nearest relatives appears to have
interfered little with their digestion.
But death came at last to put an end to these ceaseless activities,
whether by slow decay or sudden illness, we know not. Ptolemy
Philadelphia died 247 B. C., Arsinoe II, some say 270 B. C., but we
have no precise date. The king was in no sense a faithful lover, since
he had a succession of feminine favorites, alternating in the company
of philosophers and mistresses. Yet he seems to have mourned Arsinoe
with a passionate grief, and indulged in what may be called wild
schemes to do her honor. One of these was the building of a temple
with a loadstone in the roof which should hold, suspended in mid-air,
an iron statue of the queen. In everything he had leaned upon her, and
she had made life agreeable to him, his sorrow for her loss was sincere
and deep. Her popularity with the people was also widespread, more
inscriptions in her honor have been found all over Egypt than of those
of any of the succeeding queens.
Ptolemy Philadelphus reigned more than thirty-six years and left his
kingdom peacefully to his son Euergetes, whose name had long been
associated with his in public acts.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
PTOLEMY QUEENS (CONTINUED).
Ptolemy Euergetes, the Benefactor, son of Ptolemy Philadelphus and
Arsinoe II, was the third of his race to become king of Egypt. He
ascended the throne when past his early youth, and appears to have
remained unmarried until this time. We know little of his early life,
and one writer suggests that the all-pervading power and influence of
his stepmother, Arsinoe II, may have caused him to absent himself from
his native land, but this is merely hypothesis.
He chose for himself, or his father chose for him, Berenike, daughter
and heiress of Magas, King of Cyrene, who at the time of their marriage
was reigning queen in her father’s stead, the Egyptian prince having
been declared Lord of Cyrene, and on this marriage King Consort, while
she now became Berenike II of Egypt. Magas was the son of Berenike
I, the grandmother of Euergetes by a marriage previous to that with
Ptolemy Sotor, hence there was a sort of cousinship between Euergetes
and his bride. Personal acquaintance there may have been also, and
real affection, of which it is pleasant to read, appears between them.
It is said too that no breath of scandal touched Ptolemy Euergetes’
name, which is indeed an unique record in his family. Like many other
princes, and others of a later day, Euergetes may have been sent abroad
to complete his education and see some thing of the world. If these
travels led him to Cyrene, as appears likely, since he was proclaimed
Lord of the same on the death of Magas, he may have become familiar
with the lady of his choice and seen or heard tales of her prowess.
A brave and valiant figure, this same Berenike II, warm-hearted,
affectionate and courageous to a degree. Stories are told of her valor
in rescuing her father, when in the midst of enemies, by riding in
among and putting them to flight. Like the late Empress of Austria
she was a splendid horsewoman, was accustomed to break horses for the
Olympian games and performed other equestrian feats.
An individual figure was she, like her predecessor on the throne of
Egypt, Arsinoe II, but a very different one, save in the fact that the
husband of both seemed devoted to them. With these experiences behind
her Berenike could not have been very young when she became queen of
Egypt. Such as she was, doubtless handsome, intrepid and fascinating,
she won the heart of a prince to whom she seems to have given her own
unreservedly; even so the course of true love did not run quite smooth.
Her mother, Berenike, also opposed the match, for reasons not given,
but did not succeed in breaking it off. One line by a poet of the time
gives an attractive touch to the picture of the new queen.
“He who seated facing thee sees and hears thy laughter sweet.”
Of her, too, we have portraits on the coins, beautiful,
regular-featured and conventional. These were gold octadrams and
others. In some she appears with the king, in some alone, with diadem,
veil and necklace. Others are remarkable for the absence of the veil,
there is a cornucopia and it is accompanied by a single star. Berenike
II was the first Egyptian queen who bore her title on the coins.
Shortly before the accession of Ptolemy III and his marriage, which
occurred 247 B. C., had come the tragic news of the murder of his
sister Berenike, the young queen of Syria, of which it is uncertain
whether his father was aware. Euergetes, apparently the most personally
valiant and warlike of the three first Ptolemies, set out to avenge her
death.
Queen Berenike II implored the gods to restore her beloved husband, and
vowed to Venus the tresses of her hair, bright, beautiful and abundant,
in case of his safe return. Fragments of papyri, found by Professor
Petrie, confirm the fact that the king was successful in his war, and
came again in triumph. With what rejoicing he was received by his
wife we can well imagine, who faithfully carried out her vow and this
“woman’s crown” was placed in the sanctuary. The king, while highly
appreciating this token of affection, must have felt some regret at
the sacrifice. It recalls a story of later date where the Duchess of
Marlborough, of the time of William III, cut off her beautiful hair,
not to dedicate it to the gods, but to throw it indignantly at her
husband’s feet, as revenge for some act of his of which she did not
approve. She had not even the satisfaction of rousing him, for he took
no notice, but after his death she found locked up in a drawer her
heavy curls, which he had always admired.
Berenike’s hair, however, was stolen from the temple, to the grief and
indignation of the king. To account for it courtiers and poets devised
legends and the mathematician Conon said it had been raised to the
heavens to become a constellation, the “Coma Berenice,” a small group
of stars still to be seen. Of this miracle Catullus wrote:
“Behold we stream along the liquid air,
A radiant lock of Berenice’s hair,
Which the fond queen with hands uplifted vow’d
A welcome offering to each favoring god.”
And speaking of the king it continues:
“Speed his return, with triumph crown his stay,
And subject Asian realms to Egypt’s sway;
This once attained, among the gods I shine,
Absolving all thy oaths a new made sign.”
“That the yellow tresses of my fair
Sacred to love might gild the illumed air.”
And the hair, impersonated by the poet, laments its separation from its
mistress’s head. These flights of fancy were no doubt very pleasing to
the king.
Like her mother-in-law, if to a less degree, Berenike II seems to have
taken an active interest in the affairs of the kingdom. At Canopus,
an old trading post, a temple was erected to the king and queen, who
were there deified as “Benefactor Gods,” referring probably to the
active measures which they took to avert a threatened famine. From the
Canopus decree which bears some resemblance to the celebrated Rosetta
stone, and from a gold plaque found in the ruins of tombs we obtain
this information. In the sanctuary at Philae is still a pedestal placed
here by Euergetes and his wife, on which stood the sacred boat with the
image of Isis, and on a wall in the same temple is his father Ptolemy
Philadelphus offering incense and pouring water on the altar.
To the Princess Berenike, probably the first child of this marriage,
who had died, a statue was set up, beside the gods. The head-dress of
young Berenike differs in that it has two ears of corn, in the midst
of which is the asp-shaped diadem, behind is a papyrus-shaped sceptre,
about which the tail of the diadem’s serpent is wound.
The year after the Canopus decree, the tenth of his reign, Ptolemy
Euergetes went with great pomp to the refounding of the temple of Edfu,
in Upper Egypt, one of the most splendid with which the Ptolemy name is
connected, and where a great feast was held for six days.
We know but little definitely about the private life of the king and
queen, but one or two incidents connected with her are preserved.
Other wives or mistresses, claimants on her husband’s affection, made
no figure, if they existed, so we may believe Berenike’s marriage
relations to have been more than usually peaceful and happy. One
pleasant anecdote is told of her which Mahaffy gives in a footnote.
While the king was one day playing at dice, an officer came to him to
read out a list of criminals to be condemned, but the queen gently
took it away and would not allow him to decide so important a matter
so hastily, and at such a time, and it further states that the king
yielded to her wishes. That the queen thus dared to interfere and
the king so readily accepted her action seems to give proof of the
peculiarly amiable relations existing between them.
The queen is also spoken of as a patroness of various aromatic oils,
toilette articles, etc., which leads us to suppose she was particular
about and careful of her personal appearance. Ptolemy Euergetes was,
like his predecessor, fat and handsome, with a full, voluptuous face.
The early Ptolemies all had full, voluptuous faces, but handsome, while
in the cases of their successors the features were less regular, the
nose sharper, and the chin more prominent.
The royal pair had several children, of whom the oldest succeeded his
father, the king dying in the twenty-fifth year of his reign. The three
first Ptolemies were men of mark, their descendants were decadents,
profligate, perfidious and cruel, unfaithful in every way to moral
obligations and their task of governing.
Ptolemy Philopator was a young man when he ascended the throne, 222 B.
C., his name is said to signify “the son designated for the throne by
his father,” with whom, as was so frequently the case, he had probably
already been associated in the government. Some authors even suggest
that he was not even innocent of the death of this parent, as that of
the other was certainly laid at his door, and that he selected the
name Philopater to disarm suspicion. But possibly, like Cambyses, as
he proved himself a man of evil, nothing was too bad to believe of
him. Immediately on his accession he murdered his younger brother
Magas, of this there seems no doubt. Berenike II was much attached
to this younger son and perhaps wished him to succeed his father, as
Philadelphus had done, in preference to Keraunos, which may have been
the cause of the new king’s unnatural hatred against her, she was given
in charge of Sosibios, an official and favorite of the king’s, and is
said either to have been murdered or committed suicide by poison, so
unendurable to the high-spirited princess was her imprisonment. She who
had been reigning queen and so beloved. It was a melancholy close to
her life’s story.
A number of other murders are laid to the king’s charge, through the
influence of the same Sosibios. Polybius, who is deemed a reliable
authority on this period, says the king “would attend to no business
and would hardly grant an interview to the officials about the court,”
but was “absorbed in unworthy intrigues and senseless and continual
drunkenness,” and “treated the several branches of the government
with equal indifference;” all was managed by the officials, or any
who might seize the power. His generals fought his battles and gained
his victories, with little thanks due to the wisdom or judgment of
the king. Agathocles and Sosibios were his leading ministers. But
occasionally, at least, he seems to have roused himself and appeared in
person on the field, as we read of his setting out from Alexandria with
70,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 73 elephants. At Raphia was fought a
great battle, between Antiochus of Syria and Ptolemy, which was opened
by a charge of elephants in which the Egyptians came off victorious.
And here we catch a glimpse of the next queen of Egypt (subsequently
deified with her husband as gods Philapatores) Arsinoe III, daughter
of Euergetes I and Berenike II. She accompanied her brother and rode
with him, a fearless horsewoman, like her mother, perhaps, in front of
the troops, before the battle, exhorting the soldiers to courage and
conquest. Like her mother also she is said to have dedicated a lock of
her hair in the temple, but the story is not so well authenticated.
Besides this little glimpse of her personality at the battle, which
shows vigor and bravery, we learn little of her, probably she was fair,
perhaps virtuous. She was a late child of her parents’ marriage, it may
be the youngest, and it seems to be implied that she was early left
an orphan and had a sad youth. It was some years after this battle
about 213 B. C. that she was married to Ptolemy Philopator, and became
Arsinoe III of Egypt. Her husband, given to debauchery, amusing himself
with literary work, a taste he shared with the earlier Ptolemies, and
not, we may imagine, of a very high character, and under the influence
of his minister, Sosibios, as well as Agathocles and Agathoclea, sister
of the latter, could not have been a very love inspiring companion. The
queen bore a son in 210 or 209 B. C., who succeeded his father at five
years of age, under the title of Ptolemy V, Epiphanes.
The cruelties to the Jews practiced or allowed by Ptolemy IV were
in contrast to the policy of his predecessors, and though some
inscriptions remain (the temple of Edfu has mention of this) which
do him honor, the weight of testimony seems to be that he was an
oppressive and cruel king and hated by his subjects. Yet these few
inscriptions, as is frequently the case, for in any important matter
the testimony is often conflicting, give a different and better view
of his character. The chief cause of, or accessory to many murders he
undoubtedly was.
A temple in Nubia gives pictures of Ptolemy Philopater and his wife,
Arsinoe III, receiving offerings, as well as those of his father and
mother, grandfather and grandmother. It is thought that the Prince of
Nubia may have assisted in putting down a revolt of his subjects.
The murder of Arsinoe III was due to the influence of the king’s
shameless mistress, Agathoclea and her brother Agathocles, but what
had made the unfortunate queen especially obnoxious to them we do not
know. Perhaps she was merely an obstacle in the path of their ambition,
and they thought that if they could get the child absolutely in their
power they could regulate things better to their own liking; perhaps
some stories, true or false, were raised against the queen to justify
their proceedings. She seems to have had a sad life and to have been
friendless in the midst of enemies.
There is something very pathetic in the story of the early life of
Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, who became king, at five years of age, his
father dead, his mother murdered, so soon that he could scarcely have
remembered her, and he left in the hands of her murderers. Polybius
gives a picture of these events in the following words: “The next step
of Agathocles was to summon a meeting of the Macedonian guards. He
entered the assembly accompanied by the young king and his own sister,
Agathoclea. At first he feigned not to be able to say what he wished
for tears, but after again and again wiping his eyes with his chlamys,
he at length mastered his emotion, and, taking the young king in his
arms, he spoke as follows: Take this boy, whom his father on his death
bed placed in this lady’s care (pointing to his sister) and confided to
your loyalty, men of Macedonia. Her affection has but little influence
in securing the child’s safety; it is on you that safety now depends,
‘his fortunes are in your hands.’” He then proceeded to inveigh against
Tlepolemus, governor of Pelusium, and a general in the army, who was
evidently popular with the soldiers and in so doing overshot his mark.
The murder of the queen, and even of the man into whose hands the
letter ordering the same had fallen, seems gradually to have been
traced (though at first kept secret) to its true authors, and this
added to other acts of cruelty and unlawful seizure of power, raised
a storm of feeling among the soldiers and the populace generally,
against Agathocles and his associates, and his words were received with
“hootings and loud murmurs,” so that he began to fear the worst for
himself and made haste to escape. The fury of a mob, of any nationality
and at any period of the world’s history, once raised, is not easy
to allay, and seldom have such uprisings been known, unattended by
bloodshed. In this, as in other cases, there were some leaders ready
to fan rather than to extinguish the flame of popular wrath, and they
determined to overthrow the obnoxious ministers.
The whole city was in a ferment and the next morning the Macedonian
guard broke open the palace, seized the person of the little king,
placed him on horseback and led him among the people, who shouted and
clapped their hands. They then put him on the royal seat and extracted
from the, doubtless frightened, child permission to surrender to the
populace “those who had injured him or his mother.” Pitiful it must
have been to see a mere baby placed in such circumstances. Whether he
really understood anything of what was going on, or had any affection
for those in question we cannot tell. It of course resulted in the
murder of Agathocles and all his kinsfolk. A fate well deserved perhaps
by most of them, but horrible to contemplate. But the dreadful thirst
for blood was awakened in the angry crowd, and there were bound to be
victims, more or less numerous.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH.
PTOLEMY QUEENS (CONTINUED).
Thus tragically was ushered in the reign of the boy-king, Ptolemy V,
Epiphanes, the Illustrious, whose dates are 205-182 B. C., and whose
pre-nomen or throne name, found on his cartouch, means “heir of the
(two) father loving gods, chosen of Ptah, strength of the Ka of Ra,
living image of Amen.” Too young to take matters into his own hands,
the power seems to have been divided between Tlepolemus as military,
and Aristomenes, called the king’s tutor, as civil administrator of
affairs. The reign of a minor is apt to be distracted by conflicts of
one sort and another, and this proved no exception.