Cleopatra the Ptolemies and the Hellenistic Era

Classics Lecture 1: The Ptolemies and the Hellenistic Era

Chronology

• BCE/BC
• BCE go backwards
• 700BCE – 600 BCE – 500 BCE – 400 BCE
• 6th century BCE = 599-500 BCE

Cleopatra VII: Sources

• 1. Traditional Greek and Roman writers

• Find in Jones source books, mostly men in Greek and Latin

• 2. Egyptian and African writers

• Can be slotted in w Roman bc they mostly all write in Latin and Greek and write when under Roman rule

• 3. Early Christian and Moslem Egyptian historians

• Later sources… She’s a diff person here… appears as a doctor, woman of strength and political aspects.. Muslims give her a diff picture

• 4. Alternative sources: visual

• Coins, aritechture, inscriptions, etc

• 7th Cleopatra is the OG one (there are a bunch of Cleopatras)
• Mythology of Cleopatra begins in her lifetime
• B/c of her presence in Greek and roman, she’s viewed as a euro monarch even tho she was Egyptian

Hellenistic Period

• 323 BCE – 31 BCE
• Begins with the death of Alexander the Great

• Alexander the Great is the conqueror of the East
• He doesn’t leave a successor
• His generals carve the empire amongst themselves
• Ptomlemoy is one of the generals 🡪 produces Cleopatra

• Cleo lives in this period
• 323: Alexander the Great dies in this year and he loves Greek culture
• Hellenistic kingdoms spread Greek culture widely
• As did Alexander himself, always travelled with Iliad
• Literature, cities, art, etc.

• The Hellenistic period came to an end with the arrival of who? (2nd C BCE) .. Acc ends earlier than Cleopatra bc Romans come and conquer
• Hellenistic era produced many things as well
• Test: ends in the 2nd C BCE but the last person ruling Hellenistic dies in 30 (Cleopatra)

[pic 1][pic 2]

The Death of Alexander III

• From fever, drinking, and a broken heart in 323 BCE

• Who died the year before 323 BCE? Hiphistion (one of his generals, boyfriend)

• ‘Toi kratistoi’ (said this while he was dying?) /Perdicaas (passed his ring to this general?)

• Only 33, when he dies, he gave his kingdom to the strongest
• Everyone’s tries to grab a piece of the kingdom

• Dissention and rivalry
• Why did his empire disintegrate so fast?

• His empire fell apart without him
• His empire is carved up by his generals and successors

• The generals/ the Successors

Funeral Cortege of Alexander III

• In a coffin of gold in a huge opulent carriage

• Ppl are arguing over his body and all
• Alexander the Great is Macedonian, takes two years to get him back

• Ptolemy

• The coffin is sidetracked and stolen by Ptolemy (one of his generals)
• He seizes is by force and takes it to city of Alexandria (never makes it to Macedonia)

• The resting place of Alexander’s sarcophagus

• Alexander the Great lay in his sarcophagus but we don’t know where it was and it’s never been discovered

• Strabo (geographer) saw it

[pic 3]

• Rams horns curling out of his head bc Alexander thought he was the son of Zeus
• Ammon had horns (the son)

[pic 4]

• Alexandria (Egypt) is where we will be
• Ptolemy controls the yellow part

The Ptolemies

• Ruled Egypt 305 – 30 BCE

• Hard time establishing himself as Egypt
• They don’t really want him as King
• He doesn’t really solidify his power until 305

• Wealthy and prosperous

• Egypt was hella rich
• Ptolemy did well getting Egypt for himself

• Geographically favorable, easy to defend itself
• Late Dynastic period in Egypt 1087- 322 BCE
• Foreign occupation: Libyans, Nubians, Persians
• + brief periods of national resurgence (when its invaded by diff groups)

[pic 5]

• Ptolemy
• Missing: paint
• Stone is sturdy but paint is fragile and tends to slide off so none of statues now have paint on them

[pic 6]

• Ptolemoy the first on left side
• All of them have this weird popped out eyes
• Prob bc Alexander the Great is also shown with the big eyes?

[pic 7]

Ptolemy I (Ruled 305-285 BCE)

• Murder of family members

• Rules for about 20 years and gets it through murder of family members
• There are other ppl in his family that want to be King too so he murdered them (that’s why rule started later)

• Married his full sister Arsinoe
• Egyptian habit of full brother-full sister marriage

• Married full sister lmao bc of the Egyptian habit
• Adv: wealth stays in the family + blood line stays clean and pure + less people trying to take over the throne (less law issues)
• Changed Egypt as necessary

• Changed Egypt only as necessary:
• Local expertise

• All the Ptolemies really liked to leave things as they were and relied on local expertise (person at the tax clinic stayed etc)
• Royal admin was cultural as well
• Royal administration based on the traditional divisions or nomes of Egypt

• The Greek language: administration

• Before: Egyptian, now Greek
• Now the language of admin is GREEK
• Egyptians were not as privileged

• Greeks privileged socially AND in the tax structure
• Greek status was now ‘acquired’

• You could ACQUIRE Greek status lmao through employment/education/indispensable to the King 🡪 you would pay less taxes and could own more land

• Employment and education
• The Ptolemaic army:

• Relied on army for security
• Land-grants to veterans (army)

• The importance of native temples, native cults

• Religion was getting imp….Ptolemy didn’t follow religion but they kept the temples to keep people happy and not rise against them

• Egyptian pharaohs AND Greek monarchs

• They speak GREEK

• But— many wars with the other Successor-Generals

• and dynastic intrigues, murders, civil wars
• Ptolemy manages to hold everyone off who’s tryna get Egypt

Ptolemy VIII Euergetes (182-116BCE)

• Son of Cleopatra I (215-176 BCE, who was a Seleucid) and Ptolemy V (ruled 210-180 BCE)

• PTO8 (charitable/kind) son of CLEO1 (from another Hellen period) and PTO5
• PTO 6, 7 are the older brothers (prob murdered)

• Ruled jointly 170–164

• PTO8 rules joint with PTO6 and sister CLEO2 from 170-164

• 164–163 alone

• PTO8 rules 164-163 ALONE bc PTO6 has died

• In Cyrene from 163 until 145

• PTO8 rules in Cyrene from 163-145 (in 145 manages to get back to Egypt and climb back on throne there)

• Married Cleopatra II (185-116 BCE) in 145 BCE

• PTO8 married CLEO2 (sister) ((with whom he ruled))
• While they were ruling together, she was married to PTO6

• He replaced Cleo II with Cleopatra III (d. 101 BCE), daughter of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II

• They married in 140/139 BCE
• PTO8 wants to marry niece (Cleopatra3) (rape from uncle therefore had to marry)
• He divorces Cleopatra2 and takes up with her daughter the Cleopatra3

• In continual conflict with the Alexandrians

• Didn’t have an easy reign bc of destruction
• Alexandrians were hostile to Ptolemy8, they wanted one of this other brothers but he ended up getting it therefore they weren’t happy

• Civil war 132 -124 BCE

• War w the Alexandrians
• Destruction, persecutions, expulsions

• Joint reign 124 -116 BCE with Cleo II and III

• Makes peace at 124

• Euergetes and Cleo II die 116 BCE
• Cleo III ruled 116-101 BCE, first with her elder then her younger son (Ptolemy IX and X)

• Cleopatra3 + Cleopatra2 fought a lot
• Joint reign of Ptolemy8 + Cleopatra2, Cleopatra3
• Cleopatra3 rules for a while with her son (Ptolemy9, then Ptolemy10)
• 101BCE: Cleopatra3 had her son put her to death

• She met a violent end in 101 BCE

[pic 8] Cleopatra I

[pic 9]Ptolemy 8, looks like Ptolemy 1

[pic 10]

• Egyptians depict ppl as stylized so you cant rlly tell who is who (no specific features)
• Left: Horus
• Right: PTO8 bringing an offering to him

[pic 11] Ptolemy 8

[pic 12] Cleopatra II

[pic 13] Cleopatra II and III 🡪 can’t tell who’s who (only from top part)

Languages of Egypt

• The Ptolemies did not speak Egyptian

• They are GREEK therefore speak GREEK

• Until…

• Cleopatra7 is the first person to learn Egyptian (everyone before her in royal palace spoke Greek)

• The Rosetta Stone (196 BCE)

• Rosetta Stone carved in 196 BCE --> decree of Ptolemy5

• A decree of Ptolemy V
• Two languages and three scripts:
• Greek and Egyptian /Greek, demotic, hieroglyphs

• It’s written in 2 languages and 3 scripts (3 ways of writing 1 for 1 and 2 for other)
• Greek: Greek
• Egyptian: demotic (the one that the people read), hieroglyphics (priests/high class language)

[pic 14]

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