Ptolemy I Soter - Revision history

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'''Ptolemy I Soter''' ([[367 BC]]–[[283 BC]],[[Greek]]:'''Πτολεμαίος Σωτήρ''') was a [[Macedon]]ian general who became the ruler of Egypt ([[323 BC]] - [[283 BC]]) and founder of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]]. In [[305 BC]] he took the title of King.

He was the son of [[Arsinoe of Macedonia]] -- either by her husband [[Lagus]], a Macedonian nobleman, or by her lover, [[Philip II of Macedon]]. Ptolemy was one of [[Alexander the Great]]'s most trusted generals, and among the seven "body-guards" attached to his person. He was a few years older than Alexander, and his intimate friend since childhood. He may even have been in the group of noble teenagers tutored by [[Aristotle]]. He was with Alexander from his first campaigns, and played a principal part in the later campaigns in Afghanistan and India. At the Susa marriage festival in [[324 BC|324]], Alexander had him marry the Persian princess Artacama, but we find no further mention of her. Later, after Alexander's death, Ptolemy married [[Thais|Thaïs ]], the famous Athenian ''hetaera'' and one of Alexander's companions in his conquest of the ancient world. Thaïs became his queen in Egypt, and even after he divorced her, she reportedly remained his friend, and kept the title of queen while in Memphis.

==Successor of Alexander==
When Alexander died in [[323 BC|323]], Ptolemy is said to have instigated the resettlement of the empire made at Babylon. He was now appointed satrap of Egypt, under the nominal kings [[Philip III of Macedon|Philip Arrhidaeus]] and the infant [[Alexander IV of Macedon|Alexander IV]]; the former satrap, the Greek [[Cleomenes of Naucratis|Cleomenes]], stayed on as his deputy. Ptolemy quickly moved, without authorization, to subjugate Cyrenaica.

By custom, kings in Macedonia asserted their right to the throne by burying their predecessor. Probably because he wanted to pre-empt [[Perdiccas]], the imperial regent, from staking his claim in this way, Ptolemy took great pains in getting his hands on the body of Alexander the Great, placing it temporarily in Memphis. Ptolemy then openly joined the coalition against Perdiccas. Perdiccas appears to have suspected Ptolemy of aiming for the throne himself, and maybe decided that Ptolemy was his most dangerous rival. Ptolemy executed Cleomenes for spying on behalf of Perdiccas — this removed the chief check on his authority, and allowed Ptolemy to obtain the huge sum that Cleomenes had accumulated.[1]

In [[321 BC|321]], Perdiccas invaded Egypt. Ptolemy decided to defend the Nile, and Perdiccas's attempt to force it ended in fiasco, with the loss of 2000 men. This was a fatal blow to Perdiccas' reputation, and he was murdered in his tent by two of his subordinates. Ptolemy immediately crossed the Nile, to provide supplies to what had the day before been an enemy army. Ptolemy was offered the regency in place of Perdiccas; but he declined[2]. Ptolemy was consistent in his policy of securing a power base, while never succumbing to the temptation of risking all to succeed Alexander[3].

In the long wars that followed between the different [[Diadochi]], Ptolemy's first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica and [[Cyprus]], as well as Syria, including the province of Judea. His first occupation of Syria was in [[318 BC|318]], and he established at the same time a protectorate over the petty kings of Cyprus. When [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus One-Eye]], master of Asia in [[315 BC|315]], showed dangerous ambitions, Ptolemy joined the coalition against him, and on the outbreak of war, evacuated Syria. In Cyprus, he fought the partisans of Antigonus, and re-conquered the island ([[313 BC|313]]). A revolt in Cyrene was crushed the same year.

In [[312 BC|312]], Ptolemy and [[Seleucus]], the fugitive satrap of Babylonia, both invaded Syria, and defeated [[Demetrius I of Macedon|Demetrius]] Poliorcetes ("sieger of cities"), the son of Antigonus, in the [[Battle of Gaza (312 BC)|Battle of Gaza]]. Again he occupied Syria, and again—after only a few months, when Demetrius had won a battle over his general, and Antigonus entered Syria in force—he evacuated it. In [[311 BC|311]], a peace was concluded between the combatants. Soon after this, the surviving 13-year-old king, Alexander IV, was murdered in Macedonia, leaving the satrap of Egypt absolutely his own master. The peace did not last long, and in [[309 BC|309]] Ptolemy personally commanded a fleet that detached the coastal towns of Lycia and Caria from Antigonus, then crossed into Greece, where he took possession of [[Corinth]], [[Sicyon]] and [[Megara]] ([[308 BC]]). In [[306 BC|306]], a great fleet under Demetrius attacked Cyprus, and Ptolemy's brother [[Menelaus (general)|Menelaus]] was defeated and captured in another decisive [[Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC)|Battle of Salamis]]. Ptolemy's complete loss of Cyprus followed.

The satraps Antigonus and Demetrius now each assumed the title of king; Ptolemy, as well as [[Cassander]], [[Lysimachus]] and [[Seleucus I Nicator]], responded by doing the same. In the winter of 306 BC, Antigonus tried to follow up his victory in Cyprus by invading Egypt; but Ptolemy was strongest there, and successfully held the frontier against him. Ptolemy led no further overseas expeditions against Antigonus. However, he did send great assistance to [[Rhodes]] when it was besieged by Demetrius ([[305 BC|305]]/[[304 BC|304]]),. Once rescued, the Rhodians instituted a festival to worship Ptolemy as ''Soter'' ("saviour").

When the coalition against Antigonus was renewed in [[302 BC|302]], Ptolemy joined it, and invaded Syria a third time, while Antigonus was engaged with Lysimachus in Asia Minor. On hearing a report that Antigonus had won a decisive victory there, he once again evacuated Syria. But when the news came that Antigonus had been defeated and slain by Lysimachus and Seleucus at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in [[301 BC|301]], he occupied Syria a fourth time.

The other members of the coalition had assigned all Syria to Seleucus, after what they regarded as Ptolemy's desertion, and for the next hundred years, the question of the ownership of southern Syria (ie, Judea) produced recurring warfare between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties. Henceforth, Ptolemy seems to have mingled as little as possible in the rivalries between [[Asia Minor]] and [[Greece]]; he lost what he held in Greece, but reconquered Cyprus in [[295 BC|295]]/[[294 BC|294]]. Cyrene, after a series of rebellions, was finally subjugated about [[300 BC|300]] and placed under his stepson [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]].

In [[285 BC|285]], Ptolemy abdicated in favour of one of his younger sons by [[Berenice I of Egypt|Berenice]] -- [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], who had been co-regent for three years. His eldest (legitimate) son, [[Ptolemy Ceraunus]], whose mother, Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, had been repudiated, fled to the court of Lysimachus. Ptolemy I Soter died in [[283 BC|283]] at the age of 84. Shrewd and cautious, he had a compact and well-ordered realm to show at the end of forty years of war. His reputation for bonhomie and liberality attached the floating soldier-class of Macedonians and Greeks to his service, and was not insignificant; nor did he wholly neglect conciliation of the natives. He was a ready patron of letters, founding the Great [[Library of Alexandria]]. He himself wrote a history of Alexander's campaigns that has not survived. This used to be considered an objective work, distinguished by its straightforward honesty and sobriety. However, Ptolemy is considered to have exaggerated his own role, and to have had propagandist aims in writing his History. Although now lost, it was a principal source for the surviving account by [[Arrian]] of Nicomedia.

==See also==

*[[Ptolemaic period]] - period of Egyptian history during the Ptolemaic dynasty.
*[[Ptolemais]] - towns and cities named after members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

==Notes==
# [1] Alexander to Actium: Peter Green pp 13-14
# [2] Peter Green p14
# [3] Peter Green pp 119

==External links==
*[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Africa/Egypt/_Texts/BEVHOP/2*.html Ptolemy Soter I at LacusCurtius] — (Chapter II of E. R Bevan's ''House of Ptolemy'', 1923)
*[http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/ptolemy_i.htm Ptolemy I] (at Egyptian Royal Genealogy, with genealogical table)
*[http://www.livius.org Livius], [http://www.livius.org/ps-pz/ptolemies/ptolemy_i_soter.htm Ptolemy I Soter] by Jona Lendering
*[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/s040/f000034.htm A genealogical tree of Ptolemy, though not necessarily reliable]
*[http://www.jerryfielden.com/essays/ptolemy.htm Ptolemy I Soter’s self-promotion in his history of Alexander the Great]

{{start box}}
{{succession box |
title=[[Pharaoh]] |
before=[[Alexander IV of Macedon]] |
after=[[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] |
years=[[305 BC]] – [[283 BC]]}}
{{end box}}

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:367 BC births]]
[[Category:283 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty]]
[[Category:Ancient Greeks]]
[[Category:Alexander the Great]]

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 In the long wars that followed between the different [[Diadochi]], Ptolemy's first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica and [[Cyprus]], as well as Syria, including the province of Judea. His first occupation of Syria was in [[318 BC|318]], and he established at the same time a protectorate over the petty kings of Cyprus. When [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus One-Eye]], master of Asia in [[315 BC|315]], showed dangerous ambitions, Ptolemy joined the coalition against him, and on the outbreak of war, evacuated Syria. In Cyprus, he fought the partisans of Antigonus, and re-conquered the island ([[313 BC|313]]). A revolt in Cyrene was crushed the same year.
-In [[312 BC|312]], Ptolemy and [[Seleucus]], the fugitive satrap of Babylonia, both invaded Syria, and defeated [[Demetrius I of Macedon|Demetrius]] Poliorcetes ("sieger of cities"), the son of Antigonus, in the [[Battle of Gaza (312 BC)|Battle of Gaza]]. Again he occupied Syria, and again&mdash;after only a few months, when Demetrius had won a battle over his general, and Antigonus entered Syria in force&mdash;he evacuated it. In [[311 BC|311]], a peace was concluded between the combatants. Soon after this, the surviving 13-year-old king, Alexander IV, was murdered in Macedonia, leaving the satrap of Egypt absolutely his own master. The peace did not last long, and in [[309 BC|309]] Ptolemy personally commanded a fleet that detached the coastal towns of Lycia and Caria from Antigonus, then crossed into Greece, where he took possession of [[Corinth]], [[Sicyon]] and [[Megara]] ([[308 BC]]). In [[306 BC|306]], a great fleet under Demetrius attacked Cyprus, and Ptolemy's brother [[Menelaus (general)|Menelaus]] was defeated and captured in another decisive [[Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC)|Battle of Salamis]]. Ptolemy's complete loss of Cyprus followed.
+In [[312 BC|312]], Ptolemy and [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]], the fugitive satrap of Babylonia, both invaded Syria, and defeated [[Demetrius I of Macedon|Demetrius]] Poliorcetes ("sieger of cities"), the son of Antigonus, in the [[Battle of Gaza (312 BC)|Battle of Gaza]]. Again he occupied Syria, and again&mdash;after only a few months, when Demetrius had won a battle over his general, and Antigonus entered Syria in force&mdash;he evacuated it. In [[311 BC|311]], a peace was concluded between the combatants. Soon after this, the surviving 13-year-old king, Alexander IV, was murdered in Macedonia, leaving the satrap of Egypt absolutely his own master. The peace did not last long, and in [[309 BC|309]] Ptolemy personally commanded a fleet that detached the coastal towns of Lycia and Caria from Antigonus, then crossed into Greece, where he took possession of [[Corinth]], [[Sicyon]] and [[Megara]] ([[308 BC]]). In [[306 BC|306]], a great fleet under Demetrius attacked Cyprus, and Ptolemy's brother [[Menelaus (general)|Menelaus]] was defeated and captured in another decisive [[Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC)|Battle of Salamis]]. Ptolemy's complete loss of Cyprus followed.
 The satraps Antigonus and Demetrius now each assumed the title of king; Ptolemy, as well as [[Cassander]], [[Lysimachus]] and [[Seleucus I Nicator]], responded by doing the same.  In the winter of 306 BC, Antigonus tried to follow up his victory in Cyprus by invading Egypt; but Ptolemy was strongest there, and successfully held the frontier against him. Ptolemy led no further overseas expeditions against Antigonus. However, he did send great assistance to [[Rhodes]] when it was besieged by Demetrius ([[305 BC|305]]/[[304 BC|304]]),. Once rescued, the Rhodians instituted a festival to worship Ptolemy as ''Soter'' ("saviour").

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 {{start box}}
 {{succession box |
-  title=[[Pharaoh]] |
+  title=[[Ptolemaic dynasty|Pharaoh]] |
   before=[[Alexander IV of Macedon]] |
   after=[[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] |

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 [[Category:367 BC births]]
 [[Category:283 BC deaths]]
-[[Category:Pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty]]
+[[Category:Ptolemaic dynasty]]
 [[Category:Ancient Greeks]]
 [[Category:Alexander the Great]]