Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes. He inherited the throne at the age of five, under a series of regents, the kingdom was paralyzed; the Rosetta Stone was produced during his reign as an adult. Ptolemy Epiphanes was only a small boy when Ptolemy Philopator, died. Philopator's two leading favorites and Sosibius, fearing that Arsinoe would secure the regency, had her murdered before she heard of her husband's death, thereby securing the regency for themselves. However, in 202 BC, the general in charge of Pelusium, put himself at the head of a revolt. Once Epiphanes was in the hands of Tlepolemus he was persuaded to give a sign that his mother's killers should be killed; the child king gave his consent, it is thought more from fear than anything else, Agathocles along with several of his supporters were killed by the Alexandrian mob. Antiochus III the Great and Philip V of Macedon made a pact to divide the Ptolemaic possessions overseas. Philip seized several islands and populated places in Caria and Thrace, whilst the Battle of Panium definitively transferred Coele-Syria, including Judea, from the Ptolemies to the Seleucids.
Antiochus concluded peace, giving his own daughter Cleopatra I to Epiphanes in marriage. When war broke out between Antiochus and Rome, Egypt ranged itself with the latter power. Epiphanes came of age in 196 or 197 BC with a ceremony known as an anacleteria, described in Polybius' Histories. Polybius writes that Ptolemy's courtiers "thought that the kingdom would gain a certain degree of firmness and a fresh impulse towards prosperity, if it were known that the king had assumed the independent direction of the government." In manhood, Epiphanes was a passionate sportsman. Great cruelty and treachery were shown in the suppression of the native rebellion, some accounts represent Epiphanes as tyrannical. In 197 BC, Lycopolis was held by the forces of Ankhmakis, the secessionist pharaoh of Upper Egypt, but he was forced to withdraw to Thebes; the war between Upper and Lower Egypt continued until 185 BC with the arrest of Ankhmakis by Ptolemaic general Conanus. This victory re-established Ptolemaic rule in Upper Egypt, as well as the Triakontaschoinos.
In 183 BC/184 BC, the rebels in Lower Egypt surrendered on the basis of terms that Epiphanes had promised to honor. However, showing himself treacherous and vindictive, he had them put to death in a cruel manner; the Memphis Decree, published in three languages on the Rosetta Stone and other stelae, announced the rule and ascension to godhood of Ptolemy V, contained concessions to the priesthood, has been termed a reward for the priests' support. The elder of Ptolemy V's two sons, Ptolemy VI Philometor, succeeded as an infant under the regency of his mother Cleopatra the Syrian, her death was followed by a rupture between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid courts, on the old question of Coele-Syria. Ptolemy V's reign was marked by trade with other contemporaneous polities. In the 1930s, excavations by Mattingly at a fortress close to Port Dunford in present-day southern Somalia yielded a number of Ptolemaic coins. Among these pieces were 17 copper mints from the Ptolemy III to Ptolemy V dynasties, as well as late Imperial Rome and Mamluk Sultanate coins.
Bevan, Edwyn Robert. A History of Egypt Under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Methuen. OCLC 876137911. Clayton, Peter A.. Chronicles of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28628-0. Ptolemy V Epiphanes entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
Ptolemy VIII Physcon
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, nicknamed Physcon, was a king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Ptolemy VIII's complicated political career started in 170 BC; this is when Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire invaded and captured King Ptolemy VI Philometor and all of Egypt, with the exception of the city of Alexandria. Antiochus allowed Ptolemy VI to continue as a puppet monarch. Meanwhile, the people of Alexandria chose his younger brother, as king. Euergetes was popularly known as "Physkōn", Latinized as Physcon, meaning potbelly, due to his obesity. Instead of taking up arms against one another, the brothers decided to co-rule Egypt. After Antiochus withdrew from the area in 168 BC due to threats from Rome, Physcon agreed to jointly rule Egypt in a triumvirate with Philometor and Cleopatra II of Egypt; this arrangement led to continuous intrigues, lasting until October 164 BC, when Philometor traveled to Rome to appear before the Senate, who were somewhat agreeable with the arrangement.
However, areas under Physcon's sole rule were not satisfied with the arrangement, in May 163 BC the two brothers agreed to an altering of the original partition. This left Physcon in charge of Cyrenaica. Although the arrangement lasted until Philometor's death in 145 BC, it did not end the power struggles. Physcon convinced the Roman Senate to back his claims on Cyprus. Physcon's attempt to conquer the island failed and the Senate sent Philometor's ambassadors home. In 156 or 155 BC, Philometor failed. Physcon went to Rome. Despite opposition from Cato the Elder, he received the Senate's support and further resources for another attempt on Cyprus. During his time in Rome he met Cornelia Africana, asked for her hand in marriage, which she refused; the second attempt on Cyprus failed. Philometor spared him; when Philometor died on a campaign in 145 BC, Cleopatra II had her son Ptolemy VII proclaimed King. Physcon, returned from battle and proposed joint rule and marriage with Cleopatra II, both of which she accepted.
He had the younger Ptolemy assassinated during the wedding feast and claimed the throne himself, as "Ptolemy Euergetes", had himself proclaimed pharaoh in 144 BC. In 145 BC, Physcon took his revenge on the intellectuals of Alexandria who had opposed him, including Aristarchus of Samothrace and Apollodorus of Athens, he engaged in mass expulsions, leaving Alexandria a changed city. "He expelled all intellectuals: philologists, professors of geometry, painters, schoolteachers and others, with the result that these brought'education to Greeks and barbarians elsewhere,' as mentioned by an author who may have been one of the king's victims" —Menecles of Barca. Physcon married Cleopatra III without divorcing Cleopatra II, who became infuriated. Many speculate that Physcon only married Cleopatra II because he was plotting to marry Cleopatra III when she became of marrying age. By 132 or 131 BC, the people of Alexandria had set fire to the royal palace. Physcon, Cleopatra III, their children escaped to Cyprus.
Physcon was able to get hold of the boy, killed him, sent the dismembered pieces back to Cleopatra. The ensuing civil war pitted Cleopatra's city of Alexandria against the rest of the country, who supported Physcon. Growing desperate, Cleopatra offered the throne of Egypt to the Seleucid king Demetrius II Nicator, but his forces could get no further than Pelusium. By 127 BC, Cleopatra fled to Syria. Alexandria held out for another year. After further political maneuvering, Cleopatra II did end up back in Egypt in 124 BC. A formal amnesty decree followed in 118 BC, but it was insufficient to improve the government's relationship with the whole country; the Romans were forced to intervene in Egypt 116 BC. About 124 BC, Physcon sent his second daughter by Cleopatra III, Tryphaena, to marry Antiochus VIII Philometor. Physcon died in 116 BC, he left the throne to one of her sons, whichever she preferred. She wished to have her younger son, reign with her, she reluctantly complied, with Philometer Soter taking the name "Ptolemy IX" and ruling for a time at her side.
In the 1983 TV mini-series The Cleopatras, Ptolemy VIII is portrayed by Richard Griffiths. Peter Green, Alexander to Actium ISBN 0-520-05611-6 Peter Nadig, Zwischen König und Karikatur: Das Bild Ptolemaios’ VIII. im Spannungsfeld der Überlieferung ISBN 978-3-406-55949-5 Ptolemy Euergetes II at LacusCurtius — Ptolemy VIII Physcon entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith The Will of Ptolemy VIII Faik Ismail, Ptolemy VIII, dissertation
Hellenistic art
Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period taken to begin with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and end with the conquest of the Greek world by the Romans, a process well underway by 146 BCE, when the Greek mainland was taken, ending in 31 BCE with the conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt following the Battle of Actium. A number of the best-known works of Greek sculpture belong to this period, including Laocoön and His Sons, Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, it follows the period of Classical Greek art, while the succeeding Greco-Roman art was largely a continuation of Hellenistic trends. The term Hellenistic refers to the expansion of Greek influence and dissemination of its ideas following the death of Alexander – the "Hellenizing" of the world, with Koine Greek as a common language; the term is a modern invention. In artistic terms this means that there is huge variety, put under the heading of "Hellenistic Art" for convenience. One of the defining characteristics of the Hellenistic period was the division of Alexander's empire into smaller dynastic empires founded by the diadochi: the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Mesopotamia and Syria, the Attalids in Pergamon, etc.
Each of these dynasties practiced a royal patronage. In Alexander's entourage were three artists: Lysippus the sculptor, Apelles the painter, Pyrgoteles the gem cutter and engraver; the period after his death was one of great prosperity and considerable extravagance for much of the Greek world, at least for the wealthy. Royalty became important patrons of art. Sculpture and architecture thrived, but vase-painting ceased to be of great significance. Metalwork and a wide variety of luxury arts produced much fine art; some types of popular art were sophisticated. There has been a trend in writing history to depict Hellenistic art as a decadent style, following the Golden Age of Classical Greece; the 18th century terms Baroque and Rococo have sometimes been applied to the art of this complex and individual period. A renewed interest in historiography as well as some recent discoveries, such as the tombs of Vergina, may allow a better appreciation of the period. In the architectural field, the dynasties following Hector resulted in vast urban plans and large complexes which had disappeared from city-states by the 5th century BC.
The Doric Temple was abandoned. This city planning was quite innovative for the Greek world. One notes the appearance of many places of amusement and leisure, notably the multiplication of theatres and parks; the Hellenistic monarchies were advantaged in this regard in that they had vast spaces where they could build large cities: such as Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris. It was the time of gigantism: thus it was for the second temple of Apollo at Didyma, situated twenty kilometers from Miletus in Ionia, it was designed by Daphnis of Miletus and Paionios of Ephesus at the end of the fourth century BC, but the construction, never completed, was carried out up until the 2nd century AD. The sanctuary is one of the largest constructed in the Mediterranean region: inside a vast court, the cella is surrounded by a double colonnade of 108 Ionic columns nearly 20 metres tall, with richly sculpted bases and capitals; the Corinthian order was used for the first time on a full-scale building at the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
The ancient city of Olynthus was one of the architectural and artistic keystones in establishing a connection between the Classical and Hellenistic worlds. Over 100 homes were found at the Olynthus city site. Interestingly, the homes and other architecture were well preserved; this allows us to better understand the activities that took place in the homes and how space inside the homes was organized and utilized. Homes in Olynthus were squarer in shape; the desired home was not large or extravagant, but rather comfortable and practical. This was a mark of civilization, prominent in Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and beyond. Living a civilized life involved maintaining a sturdy living space, thus many brick-like materials were used in the construction of the homes. Stone, wood and other materials were used to build these dwellings. Another element, popular during the Hellenistic period was the addition of a courtyard to the home. Courtyards served as a light source for the home as Greek houses were closed off from the outside to maintain a level of privacy.
There have been windows found at some home sites, but they are high off the ground and small. Because of the issue of privacy, many individuals were forced to compromise on light in the home. Well-lit spaces were used for entertaining or more public activity while the private sectors of the home were dark and closed off which complicated housework. Courtyards were the focus of the home as they provided a space for entertaining and a source of light from the interior of the home, they were paved with cobblestones or pebbles most but there have been discoveries of mosaicked courtyards. Mosaics were a wonderful way for the family to express their interests and beliefs as well as a way to add décor to the home and make it more visually appealing; this artistic touch to homes at Olynthus introduces another element of civilized
Library of Alexandria
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts; the idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library acquired a large number of papyrus scrolls, due to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts, it is unknown how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height. Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in part because of the Great Library. Many important and influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC, among many others: Zenodotus of Ephesus, who worked towards standardizing the texts of the Homeric poems.
During the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes, a daughter library was established in the Serapeum, a temple to the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis. Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library was "burned" once and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library declined over the course of several centuries, starting with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, which resulted in Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, resigning from his position and exiling himself to Cyprus. Many other scholars, including Dionysius Thrax and Apollodorus of Athens, fled to other cities, where they continued teaching and conducting scholarship; the Library, or part of its collection, was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in 48 BC, but it is unclear how much was destroyed and it seems to have either survived or been rebuilt shortly thereafter. The Library dwindled during the Roman Period, due to lack of support, its membership appears to have ceased by the 260s AD.
Between 270 and 275 AD, the city of Alexandria saw a rebellion and an imperial counterattack that destroyed whatever remained of the Library, if it still existed at that time. The daughter library of the Serapeum may have survived after the main Library's destruction; the Serapeum was vandalized and demolished in 391 AD under a decree issued by Coptic Christian Pope Theophilus of Alexandria, but it does not seem to have housed books at the time and was used as a gathering place for Neoplatonist philosophers following the teachings of Iamblichus. The Library of Alexandria was not the first library of its kind. A long tradition of libraries existed in the ancient Near East; the earliest recorded archive of written materials comes from the ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk in around 3400 BC, when writing had only just begun to develop. Scholarly curation of literary texts began in around 2500 BC; the kingdoms and empires of the ancient Near East had long traditions of book collecting. The ancient Hittites and Assyrians had massive archives containing records written in many different languages.
The most famous library of the ancient Near East was the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, founded in the seventh century BC by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. A large library existed in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. In Greece, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos was said to have founded the first major public library in the sixth century BC, it was out of this mixed heritage of both Greek and Near Eastern book collections that the idea for the Library of Alexandria was born. The Macedonian kings who succeeded Alexander the Great as rulers of the Near East wanted to promote Hellenistic culture and learning throughout the known world. Historian Roy MacLeod calls this "a programme of cultural imperialism"; these rulers therefore had a vested interest to collect and compile information from both the Greeks and from the far more ancient kingdoms of the Near East. Libraries enhanced a city's prestige, attracted scholars, provided practical assistance in matters of ruling and governing the kingdom.
For these reasons, every major Hellenistic urban center would have a royal library. The Library of Alexandria, was unprecedented due to the scope and scale of the Ptolemies' ambitions; the Library was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world, but details about it are a mixture of history and legend. The earliest known surviving source of information on the founding of the Library of Alexandria is the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas, composed between c. 180 and c. 145 BC. The Letter of Aristeas claims that the Library was founded during
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city in Egypt and a major economic centre, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is an important industrial center because of its natural oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is a popular tourist destination. Alexandria was founded around a small, ancient Egyptian town c. 332 BC by Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and leader of the Greek League of Corinth, during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexandria became an important center of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine Egypt for 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat. Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Alexandria was at one time the second most powerful city of the ancient Mediterranean region, after Rome.
Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, during the Ptolemaic dynasty. From the late 18th century, Alexandria became a major center of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centers in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton. Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. Although it has long been believed only a small village there, recent radiocarbon dating of seashell fragments and lead contamination show significant human activity at the location for two millennia preceding Alexandria's founding.
Alexandria was the cultural center of the ancient world for some time. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks and Syrians; the city was plundered and lost its significance. In the early Christian Church, the city was the center of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, one of the major centers of early Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire. In the modern world, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland and several islands; as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis existed on the shore and gave its name to Alexandria in the Egyptian language, it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander never returned to his city. After Alexander's departure, his viceroy, continued the expansion.
Following a struggle with the other successors of Alexander, his general Ptolemy Lagides succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria, though it was lost after being separated from its burial site there. Although Cleomenes was in charge of overseeing Alexandria's continuous development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to Rome, it became Egypt's main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world; the Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning, but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek and Egyptian.
By the time of Augustus, the city walls encompassed an area of 5.34 km2, the total population in Roman times was around 500-600,000. According to Philo of Alexandria, in the year 38 of the Common era, disturbances erupted between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by the Jewish king Agrippa I to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the Jewish nation to the Roman emperor, which escalated to open affronts and violence between the two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues; the violence was quelled after Caligula intervened and had the Roman governor, removed from the city. In AD 115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215, the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. On 21 July
Roman portraiture
Roman portraiture was one of the most significant periods in the development of portrait art. Originating from ancient Rome, it continued for five centuries. Roman portraiture is characterised by unusual realism and the desire to convey images of nature in the high quality style seen in ancient Roman art; some busts seem to show clinical signs. Several images and statues made in marble and bronze have survived in small numbers. Roman funerary art includes many portraits such as married couple funerary reliefs, which were most made for wealthy freedmen rather than the patrician elite. Portrait sculpture from the Republican era tends to be somewhat more modest and natural compared to early Imperial works. A typical work might be one like the standing figure "A Roman Patrician with Busts of His Ancestors". By the imperial age, though they were realistic depictions of human anatomy, portrait sculpture of Roman emperors were used for propaganda purposes and included ideological messages in the pose, accoutrements, or costume of the figure.
Since most emperors from Augustus on were deified, some images are somewhat idealized. The Romans depicted warriors and heroic adventures, in the spirit of the Greeks who came before them; the origin of the realism of Roman portraits may be, according to some scholars, because they evolved from wax death masks. These death masks were kept in a home altar. Besides wax, masks were made from bronze and terracotta; the molds for the masks were made directly from the deceased, giving historians an accurate representation of Roman features. In the days of the Republic, full-size statues of political officials and military commanders were erected in public places; such an honor was provided by the decision of the Senate in commemoration of victories and political achievements. These portraits were accompanied by a dedicatory inscription. If the person commemorated with a portrait was found to have committed a crime, the portrait would be destroyed. Development of the Roman portrait was associated with increased interest in the individual, with the expansion of the social circle portrayed.
At the heart of the artistic structure of many Roman portraits is the clear and rigorous transfer of unique features of the model, while still keeping the general style similar. Unlike the ancient Greek portraits that strived for idealization, Roman portrait sculpture was far more natural and is still considered one of the most realistic samples of the genre in the history of art. Roman portraiture of the Imperial period includes works created throughout the provinces combining Greek and local traditions, as with the Fayum mummy portraits. Imagines Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Il problema del ritratto, in L'arte classica, Editori Riuniti, Rome 1984. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli e Mario Torelli, L'arte dell'antichità classica, Etruria-Roma, Turin 1976. Pierluigi De Vecchi & Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell'arte, volume 1, Milan 1999 http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0866590048.html?imprint=jpgt&pg=6&res=20
Ptolemy IX Lathyros
Ptolemy IX Soter II nicknamed Lathyros, reigned twice as king of Ptolemaic Egypt. He took the throne after the death of his father Ptolemy VIII in 116 BC, in joint rule with his mother Cleopatra III, he was deposed in 107 BC by his mother and brother, Ptolemy X. He ruled Egypt once more from his brother's death in 88 BC to his own death in 81 BC; the legitimate Ptolemaic line in Egypt ended shortly after the death of Ptolemy IX with the death of his nephew Ptolemy XI. Ptolemy IX's illegitimate son Ptolemy XII took the throne of Egypt. Ptolemy IX was Cleopatra III of Egypt, he married his sister Cleopatra IV sometime prior to his accession. Ptolemy VIII died in 116 BC, leaving the throne to Cleopatra III. Cleopatra III wanted Ptolemy's younger brother Alexander to be her co-regent, but the Alexandrians forced her to choose Ptolemy IX; because Cleopatra IV was strong-willed, Cleopatra III pushed out Cleopatra IV and replaced her with their sister Cleopatra Selene I as the wife of Ptolemy IX. It is possible that construction of certain buildings occurred during the first reign of Ptolemy IX.
This would have included work on the temple in Edfu. Cleopatra III claimed that Ptolemy IX had tried to kill her and deposed him in 107 BC, putting Alexander on the throne as co-regent with her as Ptolemy X. Ptolemy IX went to the isle of Cyprus, he may have served at some point as its governor. In the Seleucid civil war between Ptolemy IX's cousins Antiochus VIII Gryphus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, whose mother Cleopatra Thea was Cleopatra III's sister, Ptolemy IX allied himself with Antiochus IX against Antiochus X, supported by Ptolemy X. Ptolemy IX and Antiochus IX supported Samaria in its war against John Hyrcanus, a king of Judaea from the Hasmonean dynasty. Ptolemy Apion, a son of Ptolemy VIII, left the Egyptian territory Cyrenaica to Rome in his will, it passed to Rome upon his death in 96 BC. Ptolemy X was killed in battle in 88 BC. Ptolemy IX reigned once again jointly with his daughter Berenice III. Ptolemy IX died in 81 BC. Besides Berenice III, Ptolemy IX had at least four other children: two sons by Cleopatra Selene I, both of whom died young.
Berenice III reigned for about a year after her father's death. She was forced to marry her cousin, Ptolemy X's son Alexander, who reigned under the name Ptolemy XI and had her killed nineteen days later. Shortly afterwards Ptolemy XI was lynched by an enraged Alexandrian mob. To stave off invasion or annexation by other powers, those with influence ensured the throne passed to Ptolemy IX's remaining, illegitimate children. Ptolemy XII and his younger brother were recalled from the Kingdom of Pontus. Ptolemy XII was given Cleopatra V as queen; the younger Ptolemy was given the rule of the last external territory Egypt possessed. Ptolemy IX Lathyrus entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith Ptolemy IX at Thebes by Robert Ritner
