CHAPTER VIII.CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE PTOLEMIES, EXTRACTED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS.
i.EXTRACT fromPorphyry,an author of the age of Diocletian, as quoted in Scaliger’sEusebius,and probably thence in the Armenian translation.
Alexander, the Macedonian, died in the CXIVth Olympiad, after a reign of 12 years in the whole: and was succeeded in his kingdom by Aridaeus, whose name was changed to Philip, being brother to Alexander, by another mother; for he was the son of Philip by Philinna of Larissa: and after a reign of seven years, he was killed in Macedonia, by Polysperchon the son of Antipater.
Now Ptolemy the son of Arsinoe and of Lagus, after one year of this reign, by an appointment derived from Philip, was sent as a Satrap into Egypt; which he governed in this capacity for 17 years, and afterwards, with Royal authority, for 23; so that the number of all the years of his government, to the time of his death, became 40; but since he retired from the government two years before, in favour of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, and considered himself as a subject of his son, who had been crowned in his place, the years of this first Ptolemy, called Soter, are reckoned not 40, but 38 only.
He was succeeded by his son, surnamed, asalready mentioned, Philadelphus, who reigned two years during his fathers’ life, and thirty [six] afterwards, so that his whole reign occupied, like his father’s, 38 years.
In the third place, the throne was ascended by Ptolemy surnamed Evergetes, who reigned 25 years.
In the fourth by Ptolemy called Philopator, whose reign was in the whole 17 years.
After him, the fifth Ptolemy was surnamed Epiphanes, and reigned 24 years.
Epiphanes had two sons, both named Ptolemy, who reigned after him; the elder was surnamed Philometor, and the younger Evergetes the second; their reigns together occupy a period of 64 years. We have placed this as a single number, because, as they were at variance with each other, and reigned alternately, the dates were necessarily confounded. For Philometor first reigned eleven years alone; but when Antiochus made war upon Egypt, and deprived him of his crown, the Alexandrians committed the government to the charge of his younger brother; and, having driven back Antiochus, set Philometor at liberty. They then numbered the year the [twelfth] of Philometor and the first of Evergetes; and this system was continued till the seventeenth: but from the eighteenth forwards, the years are attributed to Philometor alone.
For the elder, having been expelled from his kingdom by the younger, was restored by theRomans; and he retained the crown of Egypt, leaving his brother the dominion of Libya, and continued to reign alone for 18 years. He died in Syria, having conquered that country: Evergetes being then recalled from Cyrene, and proclaimed King, continued to number the years of his reign from his first accession to the crown; so that having reigned [29] years after the death of his brother, he extended his dates to 54: for the 36th year of Philometor, which should have been called his 1st, he determined to make the 25th. In the whole therefore we have 64: first 35 of Philometor, and the remainder of Evergetes: but the subdivision may lead to confusion.
Now Ptolemy Evergetes the second had two sons, called Ptolemy, by Cleopatra; the elder Soter, and the younger [Alexander]. The elder was proclaimed king by his mother: and appearing to be obsequious to her wishes, he was beloved for a certain time: but when, in the tenth year of his reign, he put to death the friends of his parents, he was deposed by his mother for his cruelty, and driven as a fugitive into Cyprus.
The mother then sent for her younger son from Pelusium, and proclaimed him sovereign together with herself; so that they reigned in common, the dates of public acts being referred to both: and the year was called the eleventh of Cleopatra, and the eighth of Ptolemy Alexander: comprehending the time as a part of his reign, which began with the fourth year of his brother; duringwhich he reigned in Cyprus: and this custom continued during the whole of the life of Cleopatra: but after her death the epoch of Alexander alone was employed; and, though he actually held the sceptre for eighteen years only, from the time of his return to Alexandria, he appears, in his public records, as having reigned twenty six. In his nineteenth year, having quarrelled with his troops, he went out into the country in order to raise a force to control them; but they pursuing him, under the command of Tyrrhus, a relation of the royal family, engaged him by sea, and compelled him to fly, with his wife and daughter, to Myrae, a city of Lycia: whence crossing over to Cyprus, and being attacked by Chaereas, who had the command of the hostile fleet, he was killed in battle.
The Alexandrians, after his flight, sent an embassy to the elder Ptolemy, Soter [or Lathurus], inviting him back from Cyprus, to take possession of the kingdom. During the seven years and six months that he survived, after his return, the whole time that had elapsed since the death of his father was attributed to his reign: so that the number of years became 35, and six months, of which, however, only 17 and six months properly belonged to him, in the two separate portions of his reign: while the second brother, Alexander, had reigned 18 in the intermediate time: and although these could not be effaced from the annals, they suppressed them as far as it was in their power;since he had offended them by some alliance with the Jews. They do not therefore reckon these years separately, but attribute the whole 36 to the elder brother, omitting again to assign to Cleopatra, the daughter of the elder, and wife of the younger brother, who took possession of the government after her father’s death, the six months that she reigned, which were a part of the 36th year. Nor did they distinguish by the name of the Alexander, that succeeded her, the nineteen days that he retained the crown.
This Alexander was the son of the younger brother, Ptolemy Alexander, and the step son of Cleopatra; he was residing at Rome, and the Egyptian dynasty failing of male heirs, he came by invitation to Alexandria, and married this same Cleopatra [his step mother]; and having deprived her by force of her authority, he put her to death after 19 days, and was himself killed in the Gymnasium, by the guards, whom his barbarity had disgusted.
Alexander the second was succeeded by Ptolemy, who was called Neus Dionysus, or the young Bacchus, the son of Ptolemy Soter, and the brother of the Cleopatra last mentioned: his reign continued for 29 years.
His daughter Cleopatra was the last of the family of the Lagidae, and the years assigned to her reign are 22.
Neither did these different reigns fill up the whole series of years from beginning to end in aregular order, but several of them were intermixed with the others. For, in the time of Dionysus, three years are attributed to his two daughters, Cleopatra Tryphaena, and Berenice; a year conjointly, and two years, after the death of Cleopatra Tryphaena, to Berenice alone; because in this interval Ptolemy was gone to Rome, and was spending his time there, while his daughters, as if he were not about to return, took possession of the government for themselves; Berenice having also called in to a share of her dominion some men who were her relations: until Ptolemy, returning from Rome, and forgetting the indulgence due to a daughter, took offence at her conduct, and deprived her of life.
The first years of the reign of his successor Cleopatra were also referred to her in common with her elder brother Ptolemy; and the following to other persons, for this reason: Ptolemy Neus Dionysus, [or Auletes], left at his death four children, two Ptolemies, and Cleopatra, and Arsinoe; appointing as his successors his two elder children, Ptolemy and Cleopatra; they were considered as joint sovereigns for four years, and would have remained so; but that Ptolemy, having departed from his father’s commands, and resolved to keep the whole power in his own hands, it was his fate to be slain in a sea fight near the coasts of Egypt, by Julius Caesar, who took part with Cleopatra.
After the destruction of this Ptolemy, Cleopatra’syounger brother, also named Ptolemy, was placed on the throne with his sister, by Caesar’s decree, and the year was called the fifth of Cleopatra, and the first of Ptolemy: and this custom continued till his death, for two more years. But when he had been destroyed by the arts of Cleopatra, in his fourth year and in the eighth of his sister, the subsequent years were distinguished by the name of Cleopatra alone, as far as fifteen. The sixteenth was named also the first, since, after the death of Lysimachus, king of Chalcis in Syria, the “Autocrator” Marc Antony gave Chalcis and all the neighbouring country to Cleopatra; and from this time the remaining years of her reign, as far as the 22nd, which was the last, were reckoned in the same manner, with an additional number, the 22nd having been called also the 7th, [as the Armenian has very properly read, for the 27th].
From Cleopatra the government devolved to Octavius Caesar, called also Augustus, who overcame the power of Egypt in the battle of Actium, the second year of the CLXXXIVth Olympiad. And from the first year of the CXIth Olympiad, when Aridaeus Philippus [or rather Alexander], the son of Philip, took possession of the government, to the second of the CLXXXIVth, there are 73 Olympiads and a year, or 293 years. And so many are the years of the sovereigns that reigned in Alexandria, to the time of the death of Cleopatra.
ii.Blair’s Chronology of the Ptolemies.
iii.Chronology of the Ptolemies, according to Champollion Figeac.Annales des Lagides, 2 v. 8. Par. 1819.
iv.Mr. St. Martin’s Chronology of the Ptolemies.Recherches sur la Mort d’Alexandre, 8 Par. 1820.
Mr. St. Martin being the latest chronologist, that has examined these dates, I have thought it right to insert his table, which I suppose to be correct in the principal part of its foundation, although I cannot readily believe that he is right in attributing to the Ptolemies the observance of the Macedonian year rather than of the Egyptian. He says that in Egypt, as all the world knows, the years of the sovereigns were reckoned from the first day of the year, in which they took the reins of government: meaning by this the first day of the Macedonian year: it appears, however, unquestionable from almost every inscription and manuscript found in Egypt, which exhibits a date, that the Egyptian months and years were employed almost exclusively in that country. It happens, however, that about the time in question, the beginning of these years did not vary very exorbitantly from each other: the Egyptian year having begun in September, October, November or December: and the Macedonian, according to Mr. St. Martin, in October or November.
v.Genealogy of the Ptolemies, from Champollion Figeac I, p. 231.
vi.Approximate dates of the various Reigns; according to Porphyry and to the Medals.