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PTOLEMY V

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 618 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PTOLEMY V . Epiphanes reigned 204-181), son of Philopator and See also:Arsinoe, was not more than. five years old when he came to the See also:throne, and under a See also:series of regents the See also:kingdom was paralysed. See also:Antiochus III. and See also:Philip V. of See also:Macedonia made a compact to See also:divide the Ptolemaic possessions overseas. Philip seized several islands and places in See also:Caria and See also:Thrace, whilst the See also:battle of Panium (198) definitely transferred See also:Palestine from the See also:Ptolemies to the Seleucids. Antiochus after this concluded See also:peace, giving his own daughter See also:Cleopatra to Epiphanes to wife (193-192). Nevertheless, when See also:war See also:broke out between Antiochus and See also:Rome See also:Egypt ranged itself with the latter See also:power. Epiphanes in manhood was chiefly remarkable as a passionate sportsman; he excelled in athletic exercises and the See also:chase. See also:Great See also:cruelty and perfidy were displayed in the suppression of the native See also:rebellion, and some accounts represent him as personally tyrannical. The See also:elder of his two sons, PTOLEMY VI. Philometor (181-145), succeeded as an See also:infant under the regency of his See also:mother Cleopatra. Her See also:death was followed by a rupture between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid courts, on the old question of Palestine. Antiochus IV.

Epiphanes invaded Egypt (170) and captured Philometor. The Alexandrians then put his younger See also:

brother PTOLEMY VII. Euergetes II. (afterwards nicknamed Physkon, on See also:account of his bloated See also:appearance) upon the throne. Antiochus professed to support Philometor, but, when he withdrew, the See also:brothers agreed to be See also:joint-See also:kings with their See also:sister Cleopatra as See also:queen and wife of Philometor. Antiochus again invaded Egypt (168), but was compelled by the See also:Roman intervention to retire. . The See also:double kingship led to quarrels between the two brothers in which fresh appeals were continually made to Rome. In 163 the See also:Cyrenaica was assigned under Roman See also:arbitration to Euergetes as a See also:separate kingdom. As he coveted See also:Cyprus as well, the See also:feud still went on, Rome. continuing to interfere diplomatically but not effectively. In 154 Euergetes invaded Cyprus but was defeated and captured by Philometor. He found his brother, however, willing to See also:pardon and was allowed to return as See also:king to See also:Cyrene. In 152 Philometor joined the See also:coalition against the Seleucid king See also:Demetrius I. and was the See also:main See also:agent in his destruction.

The protege of the coalition, See also:

Alexander Balas, married Philometor's daughter Cleopatra (Thea), and reigned in See also:Syria in See also:practical subservience to him. But in 147 Philometor broke with him and transferred his support, together with the See also:person of Cleopatra, to Demetrius II., the See also:young son of Demetrius I. He himself at See also:Antioch was entreated by the See also:people to assume the Seleucid diadem, but he declined and installed Demetrius as king. In 145 in the battle on the Oenoparas near Antioch, in which Alexander Balas was finally defeated, Philometor received a mortal See also:wound. Philometor was perhaps the best of the Ptolemies. Kindly and reasonable, his See also:good nature seems sometimes to have verged on indolence, but he at any See also:rate took See also:personal See also:part, and that bravely and successfully, in war. Philometor's infant son, Ptolemy Philopator Neos (?)1, was proclaimed king in See also:Alexandria under the regency of his mother Cleopatra. Euergetes however, swooping from Cyrene, seized the throne and married Cleopatra, making away with his See also:nephew. He has See also:left an odious picture of himself in the historians—a See also:man untouched by benefits or natural See also:affection, delighting in deeds of See also:blood, his See also:body as loathsome in its blown See also:corpulence as his soul. Something must be allowed for ?he rhetorical See also:habit of our authorities, but that Euergetes was ready enough to See also:shed blood when policy required seems true. He soon found a more agreeable wife than Cleopatra in her daughter Cleopatra, and thenceforth antagonism between the two queens, the " sister " and the " wife," was chronic. In 130-1 Cleopatra succeeded in See also:driving Euergetes for a See also:time to Cyprus, when he revenged himself by murdering the son whom she had See also:borne him (surnamed Memphites).

Massacres inflicted upon the Alexandrians and the See also:

expulsion of the representatives of Hellenic culture are laid to his See also:charge. On the other See also:hand, the See also:monument and papyri show him a liberal See also:patron of, the native See also:religion and a considerable See also:administrator. In fact, while hated by the Greeks, he seems to have had the steady support of the native See also:population. But there are also records which show him, not as an enemy, but a friend, like his ancestors, to See also:Greek culture. He himself published the See also:fruit of his studies and travels in a voluminous collection of notebooks, in which he showed a lively See also:eye for the oddities of his See also:fellow kings. The old Ptolemaic See also:realm was never again a unity after the death of Euergetes II. By his will he left the Cyrenaica as a separate kingdom to his illegitimate son Ptolemy See also:Apion (116-96), whilst Egypt and Cyprus were bequeathed to Cleopatra (Kokke) and whichever of his two sons by her, PTOLEMY VIII. Soler II. (nicknamed Lathyros) and PTOLEMY IX. Alexander I., she might choose as her See also:associate. The result was, of course, a See also:long See also:period of domestic strife. From 116 to 1o8 See also:Soter reigned with his mother, and at enmity with her, in Egypt, whilst her favourite son, Alexander, ruled Cyprus.

Cleopatra compelled Soter to See also:

divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra and marry another sister, Selene. Cleopatra plunged into the broils of 1 Or, according to another view, Eupator. On the obscure questions raised by these two surnames, see L. Pareti, Ricerche sui Tolemei Eupatore e Neo Filopatore (See also:Turin, I9o8).the Seleucid See also:house in Syria and perished. In ro8 Cleopatra Kokke called Alexander to Egypt, and Soter flying to Cyprus took his brother's See also:place and held the See also:island against his mother's forces. The attempts which Soter and Cleopatra respectively made in 104-3 to obtain a predominance in Palestine came to nothing. Alexander now shook off his mother's, yoke and married Soter's daughter See also:Berenice. Cleopatra Kokke died in for and from then till 89 Alexander reigned alone in Egypt. In 89 he was expelled by a popular uprising and perished the following See also:year in a See also:sea-fight with the Alexandrian See also:ships off Cyprus. Soter was recalled (88) and reigned over Egypt and Cyprus, now reunited, in association with his daughter Berenice. This, his second, reign in Egypt (88-8o), was marked by, a native rebellion which issued in the destruction of See also:Thebes. On his death Berenice assumed the See also:government, but the son of Alexander I., PTOLEMY X.

Alexander II., entering Alexandria under Roman patronage, married, and within twenty days assassinated, his elderly See also:

cousin and stepmother. He was at once killed by the enraged people and with him the Ptolemaic See also:family in the legitimate male See also:line became See also:extinct. Ptolemy Apion meanwhile, dying in 96, had bequeathed the Cyrenaica to Rome. The Alexandrian people now See also:chose an illegitimate son of Soter II. to be their king, PTOLEMY XI. Philopator Philadelphus Neos See also:Dionysus, nicknamed Auletes, the See also:flute-player (8o-51), setting his brother as king in Cyprus. The rights of these kings were doubtful, not only because of their illegitimate See also:birth, but because it was claimed in Rome that Alexander II. had bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people. Two Seleucid princes, See also:children of Soter's sister Selene, appeared in Rome in 73 to urge their claim to the Ptolemaic throne. Ptolemy Auletes was thus obliged to spend his reign in buying the support of the men in power in Rome. Cyprus was annexed by Rome in 58, its king committing See also:suicide. From 58 to 55 Auletes was in See also:exile, driven out by popular hatred, and worked by See also:bribery and See also:murder in Rome to get himself restored to Roman power. His daughter Berenice meanwhile reigned in Alexandria, a See also:husband being found for her in the Pontic See also:prince See also:Archelaus. In 55 Auletes was restored by the proconsul of Syria, Aulus See also:Gabinius.

He killed Berenice and, dying in 51, bequeathed the kingdom to his eldest son, aged ten years, who was to take as wife his sister Cleopatra, aged seventeen. In the reign of PTOLEMY XII. Philopator (51-47) and Cleopatra Philopator, See also:

Egyptian See also:history coalesces with the See also:general history of the Roman See also:world, owing to the murder of See also:Pompey off See also:Pelusium in 48 and the Alexandrine War of See also:Julius See also:Caesar (48-47). In that war the young king perished and a still younger brother, PTOLEMY XIII. Philopator, was associated with Cleopatra till 44, when he died, probably by Cleopatra's contriving. From then till her death in 3o, her son, See also:born in 47, and asserted by Cleopatra to be the See also:child of Julius Caesar, was associated officially with her as PTOLEMY XIV. Philopator Philometor Caesar; he was known popularly as Caesarion. (For the incidents of Cleopatra's reign see CLEOPATRA, ARSINOE.) After her death in 30 and Caesarion's murder Egypt was made a Roman See also:province. Cleopatra's daughter by Antony (Cleopatra Selene) was married in 25 to See also:Juba II. of See also:Mauretania. Their son Ptolemy, who succeeded his See also:father (A.D. 23-40), left no issue.2 See See also:Mahaffy, The See also:Empire of tke Ptolemies (1895) and Egypt under the Ptolemaic See also:Dynasty (1899); Strack, See also:Die Dynastie der Ptolemaer (1897); Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire See also:des Lagides (1904, 1907); See also:Meyer, Das Heerwesen der Ptolemaer and Romer (See also:Leipzig, 1900). (E.

R.

End of Article: PTOLEMY V

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