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109-454: In 275 or 274 BC, Ptolemy II (r. 283–246 BC) sent an army to Nubia , and defeated the Kingdom of Kush . The expedition pursued several objectives: on the one hand, it curbed Kushite power, which had been steadily expanding for the past century, and helped secure Ptolemaic rule against the native Egyptians of Upper Egypt , who might be tempted to seek Kushite aid in their revolts. In addition,

218-413: A stela in the temple of Mandulis at Philae, it appears that the native, non-Egyptian population ("Aethiopians", i.e., Nubians) was placed under the authority of a native governor, and was obliged to provide the temple (and by extension probably all temples in the region) with provisions. The lack of Ptolemaic inscriptions or other evidence of Ptolemaic control has led modern scholars to conclude that by

327-543: A crowd. While not regarded as a dynasty, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes were nevertheless of such power and influence that they were effectively the rulers of Egypt from 1080 to c. 943 BC. By the time Herihor was proclaimed as the first ruling High Priest of Amun in 1080 BC—in the 19th Year of Ramesses XI —the Amun priesthood exercised an effective hold on Egypt's economy. The Amun priests owned two-thirds of all

436-519: A long list of Nubian districts at the Temple of Isis at Philae, near Syene. The conquered territory included the rich gold mines at Wadi Allaqi , where Ptolemy founded a city called Berenice Panchrysus and instituted a large-scale mining programme. The region's gold production was a key contributor to the prosperity and power of the Ptolemaic empire in the third century BC. Probably in response to

545-652: A military force numbering 57,600 infantry and 23,200 cavalry. Over 2,000 talents were distributed to attendees as largesse. Although this ruler cult was centred on Alexandria, it was propagated throughout the Ptolemaic empire. The Nesiotic League , which contained the Aegean islands under Ptolemaic control, held its own Ptolemaia festival at Delos from the early 270s BC. Priests and festivals are also attested on Cyprus at Lapethos , at Methymna on Lesbos , on Thera , and possibly at Limyra in Lycia . Ptolemy II followed

654-464: A model which was followed by most subsequent Ptolemaic monarchs. The three children of Arsinoe I, who included the future Ptolemy III , seem to have been removed from the succession after their mother's fall. Ptolemy II seems to have adopted Arsinoe II's son by Lysimachus, also named Ptolemy , as his heir, eventually promoting him to co-regent in 267 BC, the year after Arsinoe II's death. He retained that position until his rebellion in 259 BC. Around

763-467: A moment; none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy ... May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen again. Subsequently, when Egypt conquered Kush , they identified the chief deity of the Kushites as Amun. This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns. Amun thus became associated with the ram arising from the aged appearance of

872-403: A procession of lions, leopards, panthers, camels, antelopes, wild asses, ostriches, a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros. Most of the animals were in pairs - as many as eight pairs of ostriches - and although the ordinary chariots were likely led by a single elephant, others which carried a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) golden statue may have been led by four. At the end of the whole procession marched

981-453: A series of Ptolemaic bronze coins known as the 'Galatian shield without Sigma' minted between 271 and 265 BC, have been shown to have been minted in Sicily itself, on the basis of their style, flan shape, die axes, weight and find spots. The first set seem to have been minted by a Ptolemaic mint, perhaps left there in 276 BC after Pyrrhus of Epirus ' withdrawal from Sicily. They are succeeded by

1090-799: A series that seems to have been minted by the regular Syracusan mint, perhaps on the outbreak of the First Punic War in 265 BC. Amun B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad . Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet . His oracle in Siwa Oasis , located in Western Egypt near

1199-534: A serous threat to Antigonid power in mainland Greece. Also in the late 250s BC, Ptolemy renewed his efforts to reach a settlement with his brother Magas. It was agreed that Ptolemy II's heir, Ptolemy III, would marry Magas' sole child, Berenice . On Magas' death in 250 BC, however, Berenice's mother Apame refused to honour the agreement and invited an Antigonid prince, Demetrius the Fair , to Cyrene to marry Berenice instead. With Apame's help, Demetrius seized control of

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1308-529: A state cult of the Ptolemaic dynasty. At the start of his sole reign, Ptolemy II deified his father. He deified his mother Berenice I as well after her death in the 270s. The couple were worshipped as a pair, the Theoi Soteres (Saviour Gods). Around 272 BC, Ptolemy II promoted himself and his sister-wife Arsinoe II to divine status as the Theoi Adelphoi (Sibling Gods). The eponymous priest of

1417-430: A symbol of virility, Amun also became thought of as a fertility deity, and so started to absorb the identity of Min , becoming Amun-Min. This association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef , meaning "Bull of his mother", in which form he was found depicted on the walls of Karnak , ithyphallic , and with a "flail" , as Min was. As the cult of Amun grew in importance, Amun became identified with

1526-533: Is normal in being merciful. The Lord of Thebes does not spend an entire day angry. As for his anger – in the completion of a moment there is no remnant ... As thy Ka endures! thou wilt be merciful! In the Leiden hymns, Amun, Ptah , and Re are regarded as a trinity who are distinct gods but with unity in plurality. "The three gods are one yet the Egyptian elsewhere insists on the separate identity of each of

1635-518: Is now submerged under Lake Nasser ). The region may have been used by the Nubians as a base for raids on southern Egypt. Around 275 BC, Ptolemaic forces invaded Nubia and annexed the northern twelve miles of this territory, subsequently known as the Dodekaschoinos ('twelve-mile land'). The conquest was publicly celebrated in the panegyric court poetry of Theocritus and by the erection of

1744-562: Is substantial evidence for the exchange of goods and ideas between Syracuse and Alexandria. Hiero seems to have modelled various aspects of his royal self-representation and perhaps his tax system, the Lex Hieronica on Ptolemaic models. Two of the luminaries of Ptolemy II's court, the poet Theocritus and the mathematician and engineer Archimedes came from and eventually returned to Syracuse. Numismatic evidence seems to indicate that Ptolemy II funded Hiero II's original rise to power –

1853-635: The Bitter Lakes – had been dug by Darius I in the sixth century BC. However, by Ptolemy's time it had silted up. He had it cleared and restored to operation in 270/269 BC – an act which is commemorated in the Pithom Stele. The city of Arsinoe was established at the mouth of the canal on the Gulf of Suez. From there, two exploratory missions were sent down the east and west coasts of the Red Sea all

1962-660: The Black Sea , waging a campaign in support of the free city of Byzantion . Ptolemy was able to pursue this interventionist policy without any challenge because a long-running civil war in Macedon had left a power vacuum in the northern Aegean. This vacuum was threatened after Antigonus II firmly established himself as king of Macedon in 272 BC. As Antigonus expanded his power through mainland Greece, Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II positioned themselves as defenders of 'Greek freedom' from Macedonian aggression. Ptolemy forged alliances with

2071-510: The Eleutherus river , while Seleucus established control over the territory north of that point. As long as the two kings lived, this dispute did not lead to war, but with the death of Ptolemy I in 282 and of Seleucus I in 281 BC that changed. Seleucus I's son Antiochus I spent several years fighting to re-establish control over his father's empire. Ptolemy II took advantage of this to expand his realm at Seleucid expense. The acquisitions of

2180-552: The Hymn to the Aten : When thou crossest the sky, all faces behold thee, but when thou departest, thou are hidden from their faces ... When thou settest in the western mountain, then they sleep in the manner of death ... The fashioner of that which the soil produces, ... a mother of profit to gods and men; a patient craftsman, greatly wearying himself as their maker ... valiant herdsman, driving his cattle, their refuge and

2289-568: The Kingdom of Kush . The Victory Stele of Piye at Gebel Barkal (8th century BC) now distinguishes between an "Amun of Napata " and an "Amun of Thebes". Tantamani (died 653 BC), the last pharaoh of the Nubian dynasty, still bore a theophoric name referring to Amun in the Nubian form Amani . In areas outside Egypt where the Egyptians had previously brought the cult of Amun his worship continued into classical antiquity . In Nubia, where his name

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2398-653: The Libyan Desert , remained the only oracle of Amun throughout. With the 11th Dynasty ( c.  21st century BC), Amun rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Montu . Initially possibly one of eight deities in the Hermapolite creation myth, his worship expanded. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I (16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance , expressed in his fusion with

2507-671: The Luxor Temple . This Great Inscription (which has now lost about a third of its content) shows the king's campaigns and eventual return with items of potential value and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela , which is largely a copy of the more famous Merneptah Stele found in the funerary complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptah's son Seti II added two small obelisks in front of

2616-876: The Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the Great who founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom after the death of Alexander , and Queen Berenice I , originally from Macedon . During Ptolemy II's reign, the material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height. He promoted the Museum and Library of Alexandria . In addition to Egypt, Ptolemy's empire encompassed much of the Aegean and Levant . He pursued an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy with mixed success. From 275 to 271 BC, he led

2725-626: The Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts . The name Amun (written imn ) meant something like "the hidden one" or "invisible", which is also attested by epithets found in the Pyramid Texts "O You, the great god whose name is unknown". Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period , under the 11th Dynasty . As the patron of Thebes, his spouse

2834-662: The Septuagint . This account contains several anachronisms and is unlikely to be true. The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is likely to have taken place among the Jews of Alexandria, but the role of Ptolemy II is unclear and only the Pentateuch is likely to have been translated during his reign. Ptolemy II and King Hiero II of Syracuse are regularly referred to as having enjoyed particularly close relations. There

2943-607: The Sun god , Ra , as Amun-Ra (alternatively spelled Amon-Ra or Amun-Re ). On his own, he was also thought to be the king of the gods . Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the " Atenist heresy " under Akhenaten ). Amun-Ra in this period (16th–11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental , self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he

3052-627: The temple lands in Egypt and 90 percent of her ships and many other resources. Consequently, the Amun priests were as powerful as the pharaoh, if not more so. One of the sons of the High Priest Pinedjem would eventually assume the throne and rule Egypt for almost half a century as pharaoh Psusennes I , while the Theban High Priest Psusennes III would take the throne as king Psusennes II —the final ruler of

3161-601: The 21st Dynasty. In the 10th century BC, the overwhelming dominance of Amun over all of Egypt gradually began to decline. In Thebes, however, his worship continued unabated, especially under the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt , as Amun was by now seen as a national god in Nubia. The Temple of Amun, Jebel Barkal , founded during the New Kingdom, came to be the center of the religious ideology of

3270-473: The Aten ceased for the most part and worship of Amun-Ra was restored. During the reign of Horemheb, Akhenaten's name was struck from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its patron deity was accomplished so swiftly that it seemed this monolatrist cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. The god of wind Amun came to be identified with

3379-538: The Battle of Kos, whose chronology is much disputed by modern scholars. Almost nothing is known about the events of the battle, except that Antigonus II, although outnumbered, led his fleet to defeat Ptolemy's unnamed commanders. Some scholars, such as Hans Hauben, argue that Kos belongs to the Chremonidean War and was fought around 262/1 BC, with Patroclus in command of the Ptolemaic fleet. Others, however, place

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3488-451: The Great, while Arsinoe was shown carrying a pair of cornucopiae with a small ram's horn behind her ear. Ptolemy also instituted cults for a number of relatives. Following her death around 269 BC, Arsinoe II was honoured with a separate cult in her own right, with every temple in Egypt required to include a statue of her as a 'temple-sharing deity' alongside the sanctuary's main god. Her cult would prove extremely popular in Egypt throughout

3597-591: The Kush ram deity, and depictions related to Amun sometimes had small ram's horns, known as the Horns of Ammon . A solar deity in the form of a ram can be traced to the pre-literate Kerma culture in Nubia, contemporary to the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The later ( Meroitic period ) name of Nubian Amun was Amani , attested in numerous personal names such as Tanwetamani , Arkamani , and Amanitore . Since rams were considered

3706-655: The Precinct of Amun-Ra took place during the 18th Dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have also begun during the 18th Dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II . Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route to

3815-570: The Ptolemaic Kingdom against the rival Seleucid Empire in the First Syrian War and extended Ptolemaic power into Cilicia and Caria , but lost control of Cyrenaica after the defection of his half-brother Magas . In the Chremonidean War ( c.  267 –261 BC), Ptolemy confronted Antigonid Macedonia for control of the Aegean and suffered serious setbacks. This was followed by a Second Syrian War (260–253 BC) against

3924-468: The Ptolemaic empire. One of the Ptolemaia festivals from the 270s BC was described by the historian Callixenus of Rhodes and part of his account survives, giving a sense of the enormous scale of the event. The festival included a feast for 130 people in a vast royal pavilion and athletic competitions. The highlight was a Grand Procession, composed on a number of individual processions in honour of each of

4033-658: The Ptolemaic kingdom at this time can be traced in epigraphic sources and seem to include Samos , Miletus , Caria , Lycia , Pamphylia , and perhaps Cilicia . Antiochus I acquiesced to these losses in 279 BC, but began to build up his forces for a rematch. Antiochus did this by pursuing ties with Ptolemy II's maternal half-brother, Magas, who had been governor of Cyrenaica since around 300 BC and had declared himself king of Cyrene sometime after Ptolemy I's death. Around 275 BC Antiochus entered into an alliance with Magas by marrying his daughter Apama to him. Shortly thereafter, Magas invaded Egypt, marching on Alexandria, but he

4142-524: The Ptolemaic period. Ptolemy's other sister Philotera also received a cult. Even Ptolemy's mistress Bilistiche received sanctuaries in which she was identified with the goddess Aphrodite . A festival, called the Ptolemaia , was held in Ptolemy I's honour at Alexandria every four years from 279/278 BC. The festival provided an opportunity for Ptolemy II to showcase the splendour, wealth, and reach of

4251-531: The Ptolemaic presence in the Aegean. On the contrary, the naval bases established during the war at Keos and Methana endured until the end of the third century BC, while those at Thera , and Itanos in Crete remained bulwarks of Ptolemaic sea power until 145 BC. Around 260 BC, war broke out once more between Ptolemy II and the Seleucid realm, now ruled by Antiochus II . The cause of this war seems to have been

4360-585: The Ptolemies access to the western end of the caravan routes of the incense trade, run by the Nabataeans , who became close allies of the Ptolemaic empire. Throughout the early period of Ptolemy II's reign, Egypt was the preeminent naval power in the eastern Mediterranean. The Ptolemaic sphere of power extended over the Cyclades to Samothrace in the northern Aegean. Ptolemaic naval forces even entered

4469-474: The Ptolemies also granted special privileges and exemptions to the Egyptians of Philae and Elephantine . Ptolemaic control over Lower Nubia collapsed c.  205 BC , as a result of the revolt of Hugronaphor , which led to the secession of Upper Egypt. Lower Nubia was apparently reoccupied by the Kushites, to whom Hugronaphor turned for aid. Despite Kushite aid, in August 186 BC, the Ptolemaic army defeated

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4578-471: The Second Pylon, and a triple bark-shrine to the north of the processional avenue in the same area. This was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu . The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Ra's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surrounded the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I . When

4687-493: The Second Syrian War, Ptolemy refocused his attention on the Aegean and mainland Greece. Some time around 250 BC, his forces defeated Antigonus in a naval battle at an uncertain location. In Delos , Ptolemy established a festival, called the Ptolemaia in 249 BC, which advertised continued Ptolemaic investment and involvement in the Cyclades , even though political control seems to have been lost by this time. Around

4796-474: The Seleucid empire, in which many of the gains from the first war were lost. Ptolemy II was the son of Ptolemy I and his third wife, Berenice I . He was born on the island of Kos in 309/308 BC, during his father's invasion of the Aegean in the Fourth Diadoch War . He had two full sisters, Arsinoe II and Philotera . Ptolemy was educated by a number of the most distinguished intellectuals of

4905-620: The Seleucids as the dowry connected to this wedding. After the war was over, in July 253 BC Ptolemy travelled to Memphis . There he rewarded his soldiers by distributing large plots of land that had been reclaimed from Lake Moeris in the Fayyum to them as estates ( kleroi ). The area was established as a new nome, named the Arsinoite nome, in honour of the long-dead Arsinoe II. After

5014-660: The Spartan army and then use their combined forces to isolate and expel the Antigonid garrisons at Sounion and Piraeus which held the Athenians in check. However, the Spartan army was unable to break through to Attica and the plan failed. In 265/4 BC, the Spartan king Areus I once again tried to cross the Isthmus of Corinth and aid the beleaguered Athenians, but Antigonus II concentrated his forces against him and defeated

5123-536: The Spartans, with Areus himself among the dead. After a prolonged siege, the Athenians were forced to surrender to Antigonus in early 261 BC. Chremonides and his brother Glaucon, who were responsible for the Athenian participation in the war, fled to Alexandria, where Ptolemy welcomed them into his court. Despite the presence of Patroclus and his fleet, it appears that Ptolemy II hesitated to fully commit himself to

5232-521: The adoption of elaborate titularies. The same period also saw the increased Egyptianization of the Nubian pantheon under the influence of the priests of Philae, and the adoption of Greek artistic motifs, including nude figures, and of the Greco-Egyptian metric system alongside the traditional Nubian one. Ptolemy V personally travelled to Philae in 185 BC, with Queen Cleopatra I and the infant Ptolemy VI. Both rulers paid attention to and patronized

5341-444: The age, including Philitas of Cos and Strato of Lampsacus . Ptolemy II had numerous half-siblings. Two of his father's sons by his previous marriage to Eurydice , Ptolemy Keraunos and Meleager , became kings of Macedonia . The children by his mother Berenice's first marriage to Philip included Magas of Cyrene and Antigone , the wife of Pyrrhus of Epirus . At Ptolemy II's birth, his older half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos

5450-518: The alliance with Magas, Ptolemy declared war on Antiochus I in 274 BC by invading Seleucid Syria. After some initial success, Ptolemy's forces were defeated in battle by Antiochus and forced to retreat back to Egypt. Invasion was imminent and Ptolemy and Arsinoe spent the winter of 274/3 BC reinforcing the defences in the eastern Nile Delta . However, the expected Seleucid invasion never took place. The Seleucid forces were afflicted by economic problems and an outbreak of plague. In 271 BC, Antiochus abandoned

5559-517: The amount of arable land in Egypt, particularly by reclaiming large amounts of land from Lake Moeris in the Fayyum . Ptolemy distributed this land to the Ptolemaic soldiers as agricultural estates in 253 BC. The Zenon papyri also record experiments by the dioiketes Apollonius to establish cash crop regimes, particularly growing castor oil, with mixed success. In addition to these measures focused on agriculture, Ptolemy II also established extensive gold mining operations, in Nubia at Wadi Allaqi and in

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5668-490: The army of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, the victor's city of origin, Thebes , became the most important city in Egypt, the capital of a new dynasty. The local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important . The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all of their successes to Amun, and they lavished much of their wealth and captured spoil on

5777-490: The artisans' village at Deir el-Medina record: [Amun] who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched ... You are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor; when I call to you in my distress You come and rescue me ... Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive. The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in

5886-592: The battle around 255 BC, at the time of the Second Syrian War . The Chremonidean War and the Battle of Kos marked the end of absolute Ptolemaic thalassocracy in the Aegean. The League of the Islanders , which had been controlled by the Ptolemies and used by them to manage the Cycladic islands seems to have dissolved in the aftermath of the war. However, the conflict did not mean the complete end of

5995-409: The chief deity who was worshipped in other areas during that period, namely the sun god Ra . This identification led to another merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn to Amun-Ra he is described as Lord of truth, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of all animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life. During the latter part of the Eighteenth dynasty ,

6104-444: The city, but he was assassinated by Berenice. A republican government led by two Cyrenaeans named Ecdelus and Demophanes controlled Cyrene until Berenice married Ptolemy III in 246 BC after his accession to the throne. Ptolemy died on 28 January 246 BC and was succeeded by Ptolemy III without incident. Ptolemy II was responsible for the transformation of the cult of Alexander the Great which had been established by Ptolemy I into

6213-431: The civilian province ( nomos ) of Peri Elephantinen . The first civilian governor was the former phrourarchos Herodes, son of Demophon , whose career also exemplifies the close links of the local administration with the temples, which lasted into the Roman period: alongside his public offices, this Greek official was also a priest of Amun , and keeper of the sacred vestments at Elephantine, Bigeh , and Philae. Based on

6322-461: The collection of the taxes (though the actual collection was carried out by royal officials). The tax farmers received any excess from the collected taxes as profit. This decree was followed in 258 BC by a 'General Inventory' in which the whole of Egypt was surveyed to determine the quantity of different types of land, irrigation, canals, and forests within the kingdom and the amount of income that could be levied from it. Efforts were made to increase

6431-509: The conflict in mainland Greece. The reasons for this reluctance are unclear, but it appears that, especially in the last years of the war, Ptolemaic involvement was limited to financial support for the Greek city-states and naval assistance. Gunther Hölbl argues that the Ptolemaic focus was on the eastern Aegean, where naval forces under the command of Ptolemy II's nephew and co-regent Ptolemy took control of Ephesus and perhaps Lesbos in 262 BC. The end of Ptolemaic involvement may be related to

6540-507: The construction of temples dedicated to Amun. The victory against the "foreign rulers" achieved by pharaohs who worshipped Amun caused him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate , upholding the rights of justice for the poor. By aiding those who traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road . Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and goodness), those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy, by confessing their sins. Votive stelae from

6649-436: The construction of temples to Thoth at Pselkis ( Dakka ) and the local Nubian deity Mandulis at Talmis (Kalabsha), as well as the enlargement, or wholesale reconstruction, of a temple dedicated to Arensnuphis at Philae. These buildings were not only statements of royal power, but, in their effort to assimilate local Nubian deities into the Egyptian pantheon, also served to consolidate Ptolemaic rule. As part of this policy,

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6758-564: The court of Lysimachus , who ruled Thrace and western Asia Minor following his expulsion from Egypt. Lysimachus' court was divided on the question of supporting Keraunos. On the one hand, Lysimachus himself had been married to Ptolemy II's full sister, Arsinoe II, since 300 BC. On the other hand, Lysimachus' heir, Agathocles , was married to Keraunos' full sister Lysandra . Lysimachus chose to support Ptolemy II and sealed that decision at some point between 284 and 281 BC by marrying his daughter Arsinoe I to Ptolemy II. Continued conflict over

6867-422: The deified Alexander, who served annually and whose name was used to date all official documents, became the 'Priest of Alexander and the Theoi Adelphoi'. Each subsequent royal couple would be added to the priest's title until the late second century BC. In artistic depictions, Ptolemy II was often depicted with divine attributes, namely the club of Heracles and the elephant-scalp headdress associated with Alexander

6976-444: The eastern desert at Abu Zawal . Ptolemy II was an eager patron of scholarship, funding the expansion of the Library of Alexandria and patronising scientific research. Poets like Callimachus , Theocritus , Apollonius of Rhodes , and Posidippus were provided with stipends and produced masterpieces of Hellenistic poetry, including panegyrics in honour of the Ptolemaic family. Other scholars operating under Ptolemy's aegis included

7085-404: The example of his father in making an effort to present himself in the guise of a traditional Egyptian pharaoh and to support the Egyptian priestly elite. Two hieroglyphic stelae commemorate Ptolemy's activities in this context. The Mendes stele celebrates Ptolemy's performance of rituals in honour of the ram god Banebdjedet at Mendes , shortly after his accession. The Pithom stele records

7194-416: The expedition secured the Ptolemies' control of the supply route for African elephants , which played a crucial role as war elephants in their conflicts with the rival Seleucid Empire , that monopolized access to the larger Indian elephants . As a result of this campaign, the area between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile , which also included the valuable gold mines of the Eastern Desert ,

7303-399: The fall of the kingdom of Meroe and the upcoming of Nobatia , the terms Triakontaschoinos and Dodekaschoinos are no longer in use. Ptolemy II Ptolemy II Philadelphus ( Ancient Greek : Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος , Ptolemaîos Philádelphos , "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I ,

7412-400: The forces of Hugronaphor's successor Chaonnophris and his Kushite allies, and Ptolemaic rule was re-established over Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia. Like the Ptolemies, during this period, the Kushite kings Arqamani and Adikhalamani completed the building projects begun by Ptolemy IV, and celebrated their restoration of Kushite rule by inscriptions, the foundation of the Temple of Debod , and

7521-547: The gods, beginning with the Morning Star , followed by the Theoi Soteres , and culminating with the Evening Star. The procession for Dionysus alone contained dozens of festival floats , each pulled by hundreds of people, including a four-metre high statue of Dionysus himself, several vast wine-sacks and wine krateres , a range of tableaux of mythological or allegorical scenes, many with automata , and hundreds of people dressed in costume as satyrs , sileni , and maenads . Twenty-four chariots drawn by elephants were followed by

7630-403: The idea being that each would act as a check on the others and thus prevent officials from developing regional power bases that might threaten the power of the king. Each village had a komarch (village-leader) and a komogrammateus (village-secretary), who reported to the nomarch and the basilikos grammateus respectively. Through this system, a chain of command was created which ran from

7739-461: The inauguration of a temple at Pithom by Ptolemy, in 279 BC on his royal jubilee. Both stelae record his achievements in terms of traditional Pharaonic virtues. Particularly stressed is the recovery of religious statuary from the Seleucids through military action in 274 BC – a rhetorical claim which cast the Seleucids in the role of earlier national enemies like the Hyksos , Assyrians , and Persians. As part of his patronage of Egyptian religion and

7848-505: The issue within his kingdom led to the execution of Agathocles and the collapse of Lysimachus' kingdom in 281 BC. Around 279 BC, Arsinoe II returned to Egypt, where she clashed with her sister-in-law Arsinoe I. Some time after 275 BC, Arsinoe I was charged with conspiracy and exiled to Coptos . Probably in 273/2 BC, Ptolemy married his older sister, Arsinoe II. As a result, both were given the epithet "Philadelphoi" ( Koinē Greek : Φιλάδελφοι "Sibling-lovers"). While sibling-marriage conformed to

7957-520: The king all the way down to each of the three thousand villages of Egypt. Each nome also had its own strategos (general), who was in charge of the troops settled in the nome and answered directly to the king. A key goal of this administrative system was to extract as much wealth as possible from the land, so that it could be deployed for royal purposes, particularly war. It achieved this goal with greatest efficiency under Ptolemy II. Particular measures to increase efficiency and income are attested from

8066-554: The latter's death in April–June 282 BC. One ancient account claims that Ptolemy II murdered his father, but other sources say that he died of old age, which is more likely given that he was in his mid-eighties. The fall-out from the succession conflict between Ptolemy II and Ptolemy Keraunos continued even after Ptolemy II's accession. The conflict was probably the reason why Ptolemy executed two of his brothers, probably full brothers of Keraunos, in 281 BC. Keraunos himself had gone to

8175-547: The local cults as a means of preventing a new rebellion. In 157 BC, Ptolemy VI renewed the donation of the incomes of the entire Dodekaschoinos to the Temple of Isis. Administratively, Ptolemaic Lower Nubia was part of the province of the strategos of the Thebaid , whose most important local representative was the phrourarchos (garrison commander) at Syene until c.  143 BC (or perhaps 135 BC), when it became part of

8284-433: The making of their living ... The sole Lord, who reaches the end of the lands every day, as one who sees them that tread thereon ... Every land chatters at his rising every day, in order to praise him. When Akhenaten died, Akhenaten's successor, Smenkhkare , became pharaoh and Atenism remained established during his brief 2-year reign. When Smenkhkare died, an enigmatic female pharaoh known as Neferneferuaten took

8393-477: The mathematician Euclid and the astronomer Aristarchus . Ptolemy is thought to have commissioned Manetho to compose his Aegyptiaca , an account of Egyptian history, perhaps intended to make Egyptian culture intelligible to its new rulers. A tradition preserved in the pseudepigraphical Letter of Aristeas presents Ptolemy as the driving force behind the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek as

8502-413: The most important in Egypt. In addition, Ptolemy initiated work at a number of other sites, including (from north to south): Ptolemaic Egypt was administered by a complicated bureaucratic structure. It is possible that much of the structure had already been developed in the reign of Ptolemy I, but evidence for it – chiefly in the form of documentary papyri – only exists from the reign of Ptolemy II. At

8611-426: The next three centuries. Even further south was Ptolemais Theron (possibly located near the modern Port Sudan ), which was used as a base for capturing elephants. The adults were killed for their ivory , the children were captured to be trained as war elephants . On the east coast of the sea, the key settlements were Berenice (modern Aqaba / Eilat ) and Ampelone (near modern Jeddah ). These settlements allowed

8720-527: The pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) advanced the worship of the Aten , a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbols of many of the old deities, and based his religious practices upon the deity, the Aten . He moved his capital away from Thebes, but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt

8829-404: The prayer, who comes at the cry of the poor and distressed...Beware of him! Repeat him to son and daughter, to great and small; relate him to generations of generations who have not yet come into being; relate him to fishes in the deep, to birds in heaven; repeat him to him who does not know him and to him who knows him ... Though it may be that the servant is normal in doing wrong, yet the Lord

8938-406: The priestly elite, Ptolemy II financed large-scale building works at temples throughout Egypt. Ptolemy ordered the erection of the core of the Temple of Isis at Philae was erected in his reign and assigned the tax income from the newly conquered Dodekaschoinos region to the temple. Although the temple had existed since the sixth century BC, it was Ptolemy's sponsorship that converted it into one of

9047-544: The reign of Ptolemy IX Lathyros (r. 116–109 and 88–81 BC), if not already around the middle of the 2nd century BC, most of the Triakontaschoinos, south of Debod, had been lost to the Ptolemies. Under Roman rule emperor Augustus reorganized the Dodekaschoinos but maintained the Ptolemaic donation of its incomes to the temple of Isis at Philae . In the third century, the Roman Dodekaschoinos

9156-414: The same since early Pharaonic times. Within each nome, there were three officials: the nomarch (nome-leader) who was in charge of agricultural production, the oikonomos (household steward) who was in charge of finances, and the basilikos grammateus (royal secretary), who was in charge of land surveying and record-keeping. All three of these officials answered to the dioiketes and held equal rank,

9265-582: The same time, Ptolemy was convinced to pay large subsidies to the Achaean League by their envoy Aratus of Sicyon . The Achaean League was a relatively small collection of minor city-states in the northwestern Peloponnese at this date, but with the help of Ptolemy's money, over the next forty years Aratus would expand the League to encompass nearly the whole of the Peloponnese and transform it into

9374-428: The solar god Ra and the god of fertility and creation Min , so that Amun-Ra had the main characteristic of a solar god , creator god and fertility god . He also adopted the aspect of the ram from the Nubian solar god, besides numerous other titles and aspects. As Amun-Ra, he was petitioned for mercy by those who believed suffering had come about as a result of their own or others' wrongdoing. Amun-Ra "who hears

9483-429: The sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going." A Leiden hymn to Amun describes how he calms stormy seas for the troubled sailor: The tempest moves aside for the sailor who remembers the name of Amon. The storm becomes a sweet breeze for he who invokes His name ... Amon is more effective than millions for he who places Him in his heart. Thanks to Him the single man becomes stronger than

9592-471: The start of the Second Syrian War. A decree, known as the Revenue Laws Papyrus was issued in 259 BC to increase tax yields. It is one of our key pieces of evidence for the intended operation of the Ptolemaic tax system. The papyrus establishes a regime of tax farming ( telonia ) for wine, fruit, and castor oil . Private individuals paid the king a lump sum up front for the right to oversee

9701-700: The testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia . As Zeus Ammon and Jupiter Ammon , he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece and Jupiter in Rome. In 1910 René Basset suggested that the cult of Amun first developed in ancient Libya before spreading to ancient Egypt. But this is just an unproven hypothesis since Amun was "[f]irst attested in the tomb of Pharaoh Unas " (ca. 2350 BCE) in Egypt, and not in Libya. Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in

9810-513: The three." This unity in plurality is expressed in one text: All gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, whom none equals. He who hides his name as Amun, he appears to the face as Re, his body is Ptah. Henri Frankfort suggested that Amun was originally a wind god and speculating pointed out that the implicit connection between the winds and mysteriousness was paralleled in a passage from the Gospel of John : "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear

9919-411: The throne for a brief period but it is unclear what happened during her reign. After Neferneferuaten's death, Akhenaten's 9-year-old son Tutankhaten succeeded her. At the beginning of his reign, the young pharaoh reversed Atenism, re-establishing the old polytheistic religion and renaming himself Tutankhamun . His sister-wife, then named Ankhesenpaaten, followed him and was renamed Ankhesenamun. Worship of

10028-479: The time of the rebellion, Ptolemy II legitimised the children of Arsinoe I by having them posthumously adopted by Arsinoe II. Ptolemy I had originally supported the establishment of his friend Seleucus I as ruler of Mesopotamia , but relations had cooled after the Battle of Ipsos in 301 BC, when both kings claimed Syria . At that time, Ptolemy I had occupied the southern portion of the region, Coele Syria , up to

10137-487: The top of the hierarchy, in Alexandria, there were a small group of officials, drawn from the king's philoi (friends). These included the epistolographos ('letter-writer', responsible for diplomacy), the hypomnematographos ('memo-writer' or the chief secretary), the epi ton prostagmaton ('in charge of commands', who produced the drafts of royal edicts), the key generals, and the dioiketes ('household manager', who

10246-468: The traditional practice of the Egyptian pharaohs , it was shocking to the Greeks, who considered it incestuous . Sotades , a poet who mocked the marriage, was exiled and assassinated. The marriage may not have been consummated, since it produced no children. Another poet Theocritus defended the marriage by comparing it to the marriage of the gods Zeus and his older sister Hera . The marriage provided

10355-451: The two kings' competing claims to the cities of western Asia Minor, particularly Miletus and Ephesus. Its outbreak seems to be connected to the revolt of Ptolemy II's co-regent Ptolemy, who had been leading the Ptolemaic naval forces against Antigonus II. The younger Ptolemy and an associate took control of the Ptolemaic territories in western Asia Minor and the Aegean. Antiochus II took advantage of this upset to declare war on Ptolemy II and he

10464-422: The two most powerful Greek cities, Athens and Sparta . The Athenian politician Chremonides forged a further alliance with Sparta in 269 BC. In late 268 BC, Chremonides declared war on Antigonus II. The Ptolemaic admiral Patroclus sailed into the Aegean in 267 BC and established a base on the island of Keos . From there, he sailed to Attica in 266 BC. The plan seems to have been for him to rendezvous with

10573-607: The war and agreed to peace, with a return to the status quo ante bellum . This was celebrated in Egypt as a great victory, both in Greek poetry, such as Theocritus' Idyll 17 and by the Egyptian priesthood in the Pithom stele . Ptolemy revived earlier Egyptian programmes to access the Red Sea . A canal from the Nile near Bubastis to the Gulf of Suez – via Pithom , Lake Timsah and

10682-543: The way down to the Bab-el-Mandeb . The leaders of these missions established a chain of 270 harbour bases along the coasts, some of which grew to be important commercial centres. Along the Egyptian coast, Philotera , Myos Hormos , and Berenice Troglodytica would become important termini of caravan routes running through the Egyptian desert and key ports for the Indian Ocean trade which began to develop over

10791-535: Was Mut . In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother, and the Moon god Khonsu as their son formed the divine family or the " Theban Triad ". The history of Amun as the patron god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC, with the construction of the Precinct of Amun-Ra at Karnak under Senusret I . The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th Dynasty. Major construction work in

10900-695: Was also ostensibly considering some military action in Pre-Islamic Arabia , and so sent Ariston to reconnoiter the western coast of Arabia. Ptolemy clashed with the kingdom of Nubia , located to the south of Egypt, over the territory known as the Triakontaschoinos ('thirty-mile land'). This was the stretch of the Nile river between the First Cataract at Syene and the Second Cataract at Wadi Halfa (the whole area

11009-585: Was annexed to Egypt and became later known as Triakontaschoinos. Already under Ptolemy II, the northern portion of the new province, between the First Cataract and modern Maharraqa (Greek: Hiera Sykaminos ), was designated as the Dodekaschoinos, and all its incomes were dedicated to the temple of the goddess Isis at Philae . This gift was confirmed again by Ptolemy IV (r. 221–204 BC) and Ptolemy VI (r. 180–145 BC). Ptolemy IV also undertook

11118-644: Was dominated by local Nubian priestly dynasties such as the Wayekiye , who acted as conduits of increasing Kushite influence in the area. When its gold mines declined, the Romans abandoned the Dodekaschoinos in AD 298 under Diocletian . The Kushite king Yesebokheamani took control of the region and its defence against the Blemmyes , even visiting the temple at Philae as a pilgrim. By the fifth century AD, in line with

11227-703: Was forced to turn back when Libyan nomads launched an attack on Cyrene. At this same moment, Ptolemy's own forces were hamstrung. He had hired 4,000 Galatian mercenaries, but soon after their arrival the Gauls mutinied and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile where "they perished at one another's hands or by famine." This victory was celebrated on a grand scale. Several of Ptolemy's contemporary kings had fought serious wars against Gallic invasions in Greece and Asia Minor, and Ptolemy presented his own victory as equivalent to theirs. Around this time Ptolemy

11336-462: Was in charge of taxation and provincial administration). The dioiketes for most of Ptolemy II's reign was Apollonius (262–245 BC). The enormous archive of his personal secretary, Zenon of Kaunos , happens to have survived. As a result, it is the administration of the countryside that is best known to modern scholarship. The whole of Egypt was divided into thirty-nine districts, called nomes (portions), whose names and borders had remained roughly

11445-537: Was inexorably tied to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in the temple of the capital, and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country. The introduction of Atenism under Akhenaten constructed a monolatrist worship of Aten in direct competition with that of Amun. Praises of Amun on stelae are strikingly similar in language to those later used, in particular,

11554-596: Was joined by the Rhodians . The course of this war is very unclear, with the chronological and causal relationship of events attested at different times and in different theatres being open to debate. In 253 BC, Ptolemy negotiated a peace treaty, in which he conceded large amounts of territory in Asia Minor to Antiochus. The peace was sealed by Antiochus' marriage to Ptolemy's daughter Berenice , which took place in 252 BC. Ptolemy presented large indemnity payments to

11663-465: Was pronounced Amane or Amani (written in meroitic hieroglyphs as "𐦀𐦉𐦊𐦂" and in cursive as "𐦠𐦨𐦩𐦢"), he remained a national deity, with his priests, at Meroe and Nobatia , regulating the whole government of the country via an oracle , choosing the ruler, and directing military expeditions. According to Diodorus Siculus , these religious leaders were even able to compel kings to commit suicide, although this tradition stopped when Arkamane , in

11772-489: Was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety . With Osiris , Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods. Ra's name simply means "sun". Like most gods in Egyptian mythologies, gods had multiple names; his additional names were Re, Amun-Re, Khepri, Ra-Horakhty, and Atum. As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire , Amun-Ra also came to be worshiped outside Egypt, according to

11881-552: Was the heir presumptive. As Ptolemy II grew older a struggle for the succession developed between them, which culminated in Ptolemy Keraunos' departure from Egypt around 287 BC. On 28 March 284 BC, Ptolemy I had Ptolemy II declared king, formally elevating him to the status of co-regent. In contemporary documents, Ptolemy is usually referred to as "King Ptolemy son of Ptolemy" to distinguish him from his father. The co-regency between Ptolemy II and his father continued until

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