generals of his father’s army who wrested from him his inheritance;
in that of the young Ptolemy it was the foreign powers, the kings
of Macedonia and Syria, who sought to do so. But the Romans proved
the instruments of the boy’s salvation, though not for his sake, and
conquered in battle and made tributary the men who were his enemies,
while the two ministers who had taken his affairs in charge guarded him
well at home.
There are also some who maintain that the guardianship of the boy’s
rights was offered to the Romans, though the weight of evidence seems
against this idea. Certain it is, however, that Ptolemy Epiphanes, or
those who acted for him, sent very submissive embassies to this great
and growing power, destined eventually to swallow up his country, or
rather to become possessed of its sovereignty.
We cannot trace the course of foreign wars or native rebellions, but
must return to the more domestic aspect of the history. The little
king lived in Alexandria and very early in his life there seems to
have been some suggestion of his marriage with the daughter of the
king of Syria, and in the seventh year of his reign, when he must have
been about twelve, it is said that the betrothal took place. It was of
course a political alliance, to cement a good understanding between the
two nations. How much greater the privileges and the independence, at
least on the question of marriage, of the private individual over the
sometimes envied king or queen.
At thirteen or fourteen years of age Ptolemy V was crowned at Memphis
and the decree of the Rosetta Stone was issued. It begins “In the reign
of the young,” and then goes on to enumerate the king’s ancestors,
to name priests and priestesses, and to give a detailed list of the
benefits his Majesty had bestowed upon the kingdom, “in requittal of
which the gods have given him health, victory, power and all other
good things, his sovereignty remaining to him and his children for all
time. With propitious fortune. It seemed good to the priests of all
the temples in the land to increase greatly the existing honors of the
king, Ptolemy, his parents, grand-parents, etc.” As Ptolemy was but
in early childhood when he is said to have bestowed so many benefits
upon the kingdom it was to his ministers rather than to himself that
any such praise was due. Possibly it was a mutual agreement between
them and the priests to strengthen his power, since there seemed more
chance of dispute in the case of a child than when a full-grown man had
ascended the throne.
The Rosetta Stone has been virtually the key which has, in part at
least, revealed the mysteries of the Hieroglyphics to Europeans. The
inscription was written in Hieroglyphic, the original form of Egyptian
writing, in the Demotic, the subsequent and common language of later
dynasties, and in Greek, which was of course largely introduced by
the Ptolemies. And as the three inscriptions are approximately alike,
Greek scholars were able to interpret the two former by the last. The
original Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum, but copies of it may
be seen in many of the collections abroad, and in the United States,
such as the University of Pennsylvania, etc.
Meanwhile the boy-king was growing to manhood and there is record of
his being trained to equestrianism and athletic sports. At a certain
banquet an ambassador, in speaking of the king, “said a great deal in
his praise, quoting anecdotes of his skill and boldness in hunting, as
well as his excellence in riding and the use of arms;” and ended by
averring in proof of this that “the king on horseback once transfixed a
bull with a javelin.”
When Ptolemy Epiphanes was but sixteen or seventeen his marriage took
place, the new queen being presumably near his age. With her we enter
on the puzzling list of Cleopatras, and she seems to have been a woman
of character and ability, and worthy of respect. Her father, Antiochus
of Syria, a country with which the inter-marriages of the kings of
this dynasty were very frequent, brought her to the bridegroom, with a
splendid retinue, and the nuptials were handsomely celebrated at the
border town of Raphia. It was here that the mother of the king had
ridden before the troops many years previously to encourage them on the
eve of the battle between Ptolemy IV. and Antiochus. The dowry of the
bride was the taxes of Coele, Syria and Palestine, but not, it is said,
the possession of the land.
The young queen loyally accepted the duties and obligations attaching
to her new position; “Thy people shall be my people” was the spirit
that distinguished her actions, and she stood to this even when her
husband’s interests were opposed to those of her native country. It
is said of her that she was a “vigorous and prudent woman, and she
certainly introduced new blood into a stock likely to degenerate from
the constant unions of close blood relations.” Nor do there seem to be
any special stories recorded of cruelty on her part, such as we have
in other instances of Ptolemy queens. We may presume also that she had
more or less claim to beauty and had attractions both of person and
mind.
Like his predecessors, Ptolemy V. worked upon the temples, notably that
of Philæ. The temple of Asklepias was especially credited to this king,
and we cannot but suppose that the queen, too, had a great interest. An
inscription, the duplicate of the Rosetta Stone, was placed on one of
the walls at Philæ by Epiphanes, but afterwards carved out by another
ruler.
Cleopatra I, like some others of the Ptolemy women, was the superior
of the man to whom she was united, yet, as far as we can judge at
this distance of time, the marriage was on the whole a harmonious
and satisfactory one. At least no special quarrels are recorded and
the husband did not make way with his wife in the all too common
fashion. She seems to have been joined with her husband in public
acts, as were Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II, even when these
were directed against her father and her native land. Mahaffy says
that it is noteworthy that Livy speaks of the king and queen as of
equal importance, but perhaps this may have referred to Cleopatra I.
and her son when she was regent, rather than to her husband. Livy says
“Ambassadors were sent from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, sovereigns of Egypt,
with congratulations that Manius Acilius, the consul, had driven King
Antiochus from Greece, and advising the Romans to send their army
over to Asia, that all Syria as well as Asia was in a panic, that the
sovereigns of Egypt were prepared to do whatever the senate desired.” A
proof that Egypt was now continually bending before the power of Rome.
Ptolemy wished to secure some of the Syrian provinces and of the queen
it is said “she was always striving to spread her influence towards the
North.”
Disputes had arisen between the priests and the crown as to the dowries
of the late deified queens, which had become part of the temple
revenues, and were again absorbed by the throne. This with other causes
resulted in a revolution led by the last native prince whose claim
preceded that of the Ptolemies, which was put down with much cruelty
and broken faith by the king. It is these insurrections, occurring
frequently in the reigns of the later Ptolemies, that are believed to
be one cause of Egypt’s submissive attitude towards Rome.
Ptolemy Epiphanes seems less odious than his predecessor, but as he
grew to manhood, he, too, was accused of cruel murders, among them
that of his tutor Aristomenes, to whose care it seems as if he must
have owed much. The cartouch of Ptolemy V. is said to be the most
rarely found on Ptolemic buildings. He also worked at Edfu and Philæ,
the “so-called chapel of Aesculapius,” at the latter place having
an inscription declaring it to be founded by “Ptolemy Epiphanes and
Cleopatra and their son, to Imhotep, the son of Ptah.” In modern times
a temple said to be built by them, at Antæpolis, was undermined and
destroyed by the Nile.
The king died, murdered by poison by some of his courtiers, while still
a young man, in his twenty-ninth year and twenty-fifth of his reign,
and was succeeded by his son under the guardianship of his mother.
Whether the queen deeply mourned her husband or whether his increasing
vices had alienated her from him we cannot say. She was doubtless an
ambitious woman and not averse to holding the reins of power. There are
coins of hers issued during her regency. She is there called queen,
which is not the case with all the wives of the different kings, and
appears as Isis (though with a less conventional face than some),
wearing a corn wreath, above which are a globe and horns. A copper
coin gives her as Isis with long curls and a band with corn. She seems
to have been an able ruler and survived her husband some eight years,
dying in 174 B. C. before she had fairly entered on middle life. There
were several children of this marriage, and, as if for the bewilderment
of students, the sons are called Ptolemy and the daughter Cleopatra.
During the queen’s regency Egypt seems to have remained peaceful and we
have no revolting tales of murder or general bloodshed.
The matter of succession now became somewhat involved, so often was it
disputed and so frequently divided between rival claimants. Mahaffy
says, “From henceforth we have almost constantly rival brothers
asserting themselves in turn, queen mothers controlling their king
sons—intestine feuds and bloodshed in the royal house, till the stormy
end of the dynasty with the daring Cleopatra VI.”
Some call Philometer the VI and some the VII. If the latter there was
probably an elder brother, Ptolemy Eupator, thus called the VI, who
survived his father but for a brief period, being nominally king,
and then died. Certain it is that the Syrian Cleopatra I was regent
and that one of her sons, Philometor, succeeded to the actual power,
173 B. C. He reverted to the earlier customs and married his sister
Cleopatra, who then became the second queen of the name. This union is
believed to have taken place a year after the death of his mother in
173 B. C. Perhaps had she lived she might have arranged for a different
connection.
The peaceful period of the regency of Cleopatra I. now came to an end
and Egypt prepared to seize the lands which had furnished the dowry of
the late queen, the three powers, Egypt, Syria and Rome being involved,
the two first in active warfare. This resulted in the capture and
imprisonment of the Egyptian king by the Syrian monarch, Antiochus
IV at a battle which occurred on the borders of Egypt. The people of
Alexandria, who it is said spoke more completely the voice of Egypt
than Paris does of France, made a counter move by raising to the throne
the younger brother, a lad of fifteen or sixteen, who took the name of
Euergetes II, later called Physcon, the “pot bellied” or “the fat,”
Ptolemy VI, and who in his proportions accentuated the usual liberal
outline of the Ptolemy race. The youth proved strong and ambitious
enough to hold on to the power thus secured and never willingly relaxed
his grasp.
Antiochus then attacked Alexandria with the nominal purpose of
restoring Philometer. Through their mother the young kings were of
course related to the invader, but the relationship seems to have had
little effect in preventing a contest. Different authorities give
different names and numbers to the various Ptolemy kings and we have
taken Mahaffy, who has devoted much time to the study of this period,
as our special guide.
Antiochus IV finally left Philometer at Memphis and returned home.
The latter, apparently seeing the folly of a divided sovereignty and
realizing that he would no longer be recognized as sole king, made
overtures to his brother and, owing, it is said, to the mediation of
their sister Cleopatra, they came to terms in 170 B. C. This compact
roused Antiochus IV. to a renewed attack. The beseeching embassies
of the Ptolemies to Rome, however, finally produced an effect and
Antiochus was ordered to withdraw and the powerful Romans virtually
held a sort of protectorate over Egypt till they finally and absolutely
absorbed it. The embassies of Philometer and Cleopatra II professed
that they were more indebted to the Senate and people of Rome, than to
their own parents, more than to the immortal gods since by their help
they had been relieved from Antiochus, and Rome seemed disposed to keep
up the agreeable sentiment, as their embassy is recorded as having
brought a purple gown and vest and an ivory chair to King Philometer,
and an embroidered gown and a purple robe for Queen Cleopatra II.
The king and queen are spoken of in all solemn datings as “gods
Philopatores.” On the walls of the temple at Der el Medineh there are
pictures of Ptolemy VII and IX and Cleopatra II, and a Syrian coin
of Philometer gives a strong head and face. There are inscriptions
relating to Ptolemy Philometer, wife and children, in Nubia. It was
after the Romans restored Philometer to Egypt that he and his queen
made their solemn progress to Memphis.
Some of the so-called “friends of the king” tried to make trouble
between the brothers and to induce the younger to slay the elder,
implying that Philometer had designs upon him. But in this instance
Euergetes, usually regarded with abhorrence, showed himself at his
best and dismissed suspicions and to prove their harmony went with
his brother in royal apparel to show themselves to the people. A
quarrel, however, eventually broke out between them, Philometer was
expelled and threw himself on the protection of the Romans, who were
thus continually able to interfere in the affairs of Egypt. The Romans
decreed that the kingdom should be divided between the two, which of
course gave satisfaction to neither, and Euergetes II went to Rome to
protest against the division. An interesting and almost an amusing
episode is connected with this visit when, it is said, Euergetes asked
Cornelia, the mother of the Gracci, to marry him. The lady, however,
declined, “probably,” says one writer, “she held him in such esteem
as an English noblewoman now would hold an Indian Rajah proposing
marriage.”
The quarrels and fighting between the two brothers continued, but
finally Euergetes attacked Cyprus which had been adjudged by the Romans
to Philometer, and was forced to surrender. Philometer now showed
himself the generous one, for he forgave Euergetes, restored him to
Cyrene and for the last eight or nine years of his reign remained at
peace with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.
PTOLEMY QUEENS (CONTINUED).
Cleopatra II appears with her husband Philometor, Ptolemy VII, in
statutes excavated at Cyprus, which were set up “at a temple to the
Paphian Aphrodite,” yet we know little of her. There is also an appeal
spoken of by Josephus in which a certain Jew begs the king and queen’s
permission to build a temple to the God of Israel and reports their
majesties’ favorable reply, but the story is not altogether credited.
We hear also of the king and queen receiving other petitions, usually a
popular action. Polybius, whose testimony seems so generally full and
reliable was in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy Philometer.
Of course there was a daughter of Philometor and Cleopatra II, also
called Cleopatra, whom Philometor gave in marriage to an aspirant to
the throne of Syria (though apparently not the rightful heir) called
Alexander Bala, and accompanied the princess to Ptolemais in Palestine,
where the ceremony took place, probably about 150 B. C. After this
Ptolemy VII discovered a real or pretended conspiracy against his life,
in which his new son-in-law was implicated. He then went over to the
side of the other claimant to the Syrian throne, Demetrius Nicator, and
regardless of the marriage contract previously concluded, transferred
his daughter to him. She seems to have been still in the power of her
father, rather than that of her husband, and neither she nor her mother
appear to have had any voice in the matter. It is possible she may not
have really lived with Bala at all.
Ptolemy Philometor himself was crowned king at Antioch, and it is on
this account, probably, we have the Syrian coin with his head, but he
evidently did not care to retain the position, for he finally persuaded
the people to accept Demetrius in his stead.
Philometor, Ptolemy VII., died, as had few of his race, in, or rather
as the result of, a battle, he was thrown from an elephant, or some
say a horse, like Keraunos, and wounded by his enemies with fatal
results following, first having learned of the death of Bala, with
whom he had been fighting. In contrast with his brother Euergetes II.
he is spoken well of by many writers, and his gentleness and humanity
are dwelt upon, which recalls the familiar axiom that “all things go
by comparison.” So some speak highly of and some judge him harshly.
In youth he is said to have been handsome, with a countenance full of
sweet expression. His death occurred 146 B. C.
There were now again rival claimants for the throne, Euergetes II,
Physcon, the brother of the late king, with whom the kingdom had
been divided, and Ptolemy Philometor’s son, Ptolemy Neos, Philopator
II, Ptolemy VIII, whose cause his mother Cleopatra II. espoused.
But Physcon proved to be the more powerful and either directly or
indirectly murdered his young nephew, feeling that while the boy
lived his own claim to the throne would not be secure. It is said the
unfortunate heir had been recognized as the crown prince over the whole
empire, not only at Cyprus, but at Philæ, for Professor Cayce found on
the island of Huseh a granite slab, which had supported figures of the
king and queen with this youth standing between them.
The list of queens, a puzzling one, as all must admit, is as follows:
Ptolemy I, Sotor, married Eurydike, and Berenike I, Ptolemy II,
Philadelphus, married Arsinoe I and Arsinoe II; Ptolemy III, Euergetes
I, married Berenike II; Ptolemy IV, Philopator, married Arsinoe III;
Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, married Cleopatra I; Ptolemy VI, Eupator, died in
childhood. Ptolemy VII, Philometor, married Cleopatra II; Ptolemy VIII,
Philopator II, Neos, was murdered in youth. Ptolemy IX, Euergetes II,
Physcon, married Cleopatra I, widow of his brother, and Cleopatra III,
his niece. Ptolemy X, Lathyrus, married Cleopatra IV, and subsequently
Selene, his sisters. Ptolemy XI, Alexander, married Berenike III, whose
parentage seems in doubt. Ptolemy XII, Alexander II, married this same
Berenike, his stepmother. Ptolemy XIII, Auletes married Cleopatra V,
surnamed Tryphæna. Ptolemy XIV and Ptolemy XV reigned in conjunction
with their sister, Cleopatra VI, to whom they were successively
married, and died young, as did Ptolemy XVI, her son Cæsarion, who died
unmarried.
Within the year (and some say the murder of her son occurred during
the nuptial ceremonial) Physcon married the widow of his brother,
Cleopatra II. Evidently no love was lost between them; how could it
be under the circumstances? If this marriage, perhaps, insisted on
by the Alexandrian party of Cleopatra II, she having a claim to the
crown, jointly with her brothers, there seems to have been one son,
Memphites, who soon died, or was murdered, it is even reported, by his
own unnatural father, who feared a rival.
Cleopatra II. had two daughters of the same name. The elder was married
first to Alexander Bala and then to Demetrius Nicator of Syria. She
seems to have been an embodiment of Ptolemaic cruelty and vice. When
her second husband was taken prisoner, she accepted his brother,
Antiochus Sidetes, in his stead, and placed him upon the throne. But
nine years afterwards, on the return of Demetrius, murdered Sidetes and
her son Seleukos, who had attempted to assume the crown. She had also,
it is said, prepared poison for her second son, Antiochus Grippus, but
he discovered her intent and forced her to swallow the fatal draught
herself. Her younger sister Cleopatra, only a year or two after
Physcon’s marriage with her mother Cleopatra II, he also took to wife,
thus establishing one of the most revolting connections entered into
by any member of this atrocious family, yet, strange to say, both were
recognized in public acts as queens of Egypt, the younger bearing the
title of Cleopatra III. Incomprehensible and repellant as this seems,
it appears well authenticated. There is a relief of Philometer, clad in
a white mantle, and accompanied by one of the Cleopatras. At Kom Ombos
there is on the wall of the temple a picture of Ptolemy VII, and also
of Ptolemy IX, between the goddesses and again of Horus bestowing gifts
on Ptolemy IX. and the two Cleopatras. We read of an inscription from
Kos, too, where the children of both were perhaps educated, in which
“the king and his two queens honor with a golden crown and gilded image
the tutor of their children.”
In 146 B. C. Physcon apparently married Cleopatra II. and two or three
years later her daughter. In 130 or 129 B. C. he was exiled and obliged
to flee the country, Cleopatra II reigning alone for about two years,
at the expiration of which time the absent king returned and again
took the power into his own hands. In his private life Ptolemy Physcon
appears as a monster, in his public career he has been esteemed by
some writers as a good, or at least a great king. That is, his sway
was widely extended, and he built or added to innumerable temples to
the gods. At Edfu, begun by Ptolemy III, Euergetes, in 237 B. C., he
completed the great hypostile hall, in 122 B. C. At Der-el-Medineh he
finished the graceful temple begun by Ptolemy IV. and dedicated to
Hathor. At El Kab he built a rock temple, while at Karnak and many
other places he added his portion to the great whole. “At Thebes we
find no reign so marked.” He seems to have showed special favor to the
native Egyptian population, but is credited with many cruelties to
others. With Rome he kept up friendly, if subservient, relations.
At what precise time the elder Cleopatra passed away from the scene
we do not know, but she died before Physcon, leaving her successor
to a certain extent to re-enact her story. Physcon gave his daughter
Tryphena to Grippus, the Syrian prince who had poisoned his mother, and
her aunt, Cleopatra. Ptolemy IX, Physcon, died in 117 B. C., having
reigned twenty-nine years since the death of his brother, Philometor.
His widow, Cleopatra III, Cocce, succeeded to the power and is
sometimes called queen, sometimes regent. She appears to have held the
position for a while alone, and then her son, Ptolemy X, Philometor,
or Sotor II (Lathyrus), was associated with her. She was, it is said,
a “strong and remarkable woman,” considerably younger than her husband
and having great influence with him. She succeeded in having the elder
son, and natural successor, sent away, as governor to Cyprus, and thus
deprived him of the power of claiming his inheritance. She preferred
her younger son Alexander, whom she had made independent king of
Cyprus, but the people would not accept him, and Ptolemy X (Lathyrus),
as has been said, succeeded. He apparently was already married to his
sister, another Cleopatra, called the IV, but his mother obliged him,
from motives not clear to us, though it has been suggested that it was
because only such children as were born to the purple, could reign;
to put her away and marry a younger sister Selene. This queen’s name
does not appear in some of the inscriptions which read “in the name of
Queen Cleopatra and King Ptolemy, gods Philometores, Sotores and his
children.”