Of the personality and general characteristics of no queen in the long Ptolemy line can we gather a clearer idea from the records that remain to us. There is a statue of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II in the Vatican, with, Mahaffy thinks, the dear sister Philactera beside them. Not only on coins, but among the effigies at the entrance of the Odeum at Athens, where the statues of the Egyptian kings were set up, she had her place. Pausanius also saw at Helicon a statue of her “riding upon an ostrich in bronze.” A position elevated, but lacking in dignity, perhaps, like a grey-haired lady on the modern bicycle. “It is very likely,” continues Mahaffy, “that this statue or a replica was present to the mind of Callicachus when he spake in the ‘Coma Berinices,’ of ‘the winged horse, brother of the Aethiopian Memnon, who is the messenger of Queen Arsinoe, she is also in that poem called Venus and Zaphyrion.”
From the coins we learn of Arsinoe II that there were octadrams in all metals with her image, and those with portraits of Ptolemy I and Berenike I, and those of Ptolemy II and herself; and in silver of Ptolemy I, and also of her alone, struck in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus; also gold coins with Arsinoe II alone. The coins of Arsinoe II were mainly octadrams in gold and decadrams in silver. On these and also on those of her step-daughter, Berenike II, both queens are diademed and veiled, with regular features, indisputably handsome but conventionalized. Arsinoe II appears with the horn of Zeus Amon, diadem, stephane or crown, veil and sceptre. She is beautiful in youth and still handsome, though more portly as depicted in later years. Most of the Ptolemy queens grew comfortably plump with time; the murder of a rival or even the death of their nearest relatives appears to have interfered little with their digestion.
But death came at last to put an end to these ceaseless activities, whether by slow decay or sudden illness, we know not. Ptolemy Philadelphia died 247 B. C., Arsinoe II, some say 270 B. C., but we have no precise date. The king was in no sense a faithful lover, since he had a succession of feminine favorites, alternating in the company of philosophers and mistresses. Yet he seems to have mourned Arsinoe with a passionate grief, and indulged in what may be called wild schemes to do her honor. One of these was the building of a temple with a loadstone in the roof which should hold, suspended in mid-air, an iron statue of the queen. In everything he had leaned upon her, and she had made life agreeable to him, his sorrow for her loss was sincere and deep. Her popularity with the people was also widespread, more inscriptions in her honor have been found all over Egypt than of those of any of the succeeding queens.
Ptolemy Philadelphus reigned more than thirty-six years and left his kingdom peacefully to his son Euergetes, whose name had long been associated with his in public acts.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
PTOLEMY QUEENS (CONTINUED).
Ptolemy Euergetes, the Benefactor, son of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II, was the third of his race to become king of Egypt. He ascended the throne when past his early youth, and appears to have remained unmarried until this time. We know little of his early life, and one writer suggests that the all-pervading power and influence of his stepmother, Arsinoe II, may have caused him to absent himself from his native land, but this is merely hypothesis.
He chose for himself, or his father chose for him, Berenike, daughter and heiress of Magas, King of Cyrene, who at the time of their marriage was reigning queen in her father’s stead, the Egyptian prince having been declared Lord of Cyrene, and on this marriage King Consort, while she now became Berenike II of Egypt. Magas was the son of Berenike I, the grandmother of Euergetes by a marriage previous to that with Ptolemy Sotor, hence there was a sort of cousinship between Euergetes and his bride. Personal acquaintance there may have been also, and real affection, of which it is pleasant to read, appears between them. It is said too that no breath of scandal touched Ptolemy Euergetes’ name, which is indeed an unique record in his family. Like many other princes, and others of a later day, Euergetes may have been sent abroad to complete his education and see some thing of the world. If these travels led him to Cyrene, as appears likely, since he was proclaimed Lord of the same on the death of Magas, he may have become familiar with the lady of his choice and seen or heard tales of her prowess. A brave and valiant figure, this same Berenike II, warm-hearted, affectionate and courageous to a degree. Stories are told of her valor in rescuing her father, when in the midst of enemies, by riding in among and putting them to flight. Like the late Empress of Austria she was a splendid horsewoman, was accustomed to break horses for the Olympian games and performed other equestrian feats.
An individual figure was she, like her predecessor on the throne of Egypt, Arsinoe II, but a very different one, save in the fact that the husband of both seemed devoted to them. With these experiences behind her Berenike could not have been very young when she became queen of Egypt. Such as she was, doubtless handsome, intrepid and fascinating, she won the heart of a prince to whom she seems to have given her own unreservedly; even so the course of true love did not run quite smooth. Her mother, Berenike, also opposed the match, for reasons not given, but did not succeed in breaking it off. One line by a poet of the time gives an attractive touch to the picture of the new queen.