The seat of power and government changed from time to time. First Memphis, the “City of the Good”; the “White Walled,” founded by Menes, with its great temple of Ptah, which dominated it like a fortress. Next “Hundred-gated Thebes,” the “City of Amon”; then Sais, situated on a hill, with a royal citadel and storied and painted houses. Tanis, recreated from an earlier settlement and stamped with his signet, his giant statue, eighty or a hundred feet in height by Rameses the Great—all these in turn were sovereign in the land and the dwelling places of the queens. Now under Ptolemies, Alexandria, one of the masterpieces of the great Macedonian, rose into prominence, vieing with Athens as a seat of learning and the scene of unrivaled splendor, magnificence and debauchery.
Deinocrates, the gifted architect of Alexander, created a city of noble proportions, and inaugurated a new style of architecture, happily combining the values of the Oriental and the Greek. The so-called “Pompey’s pillar” is the only one remaining of the forest of columns which formed part of the Greek temple of Serapis, the platform on the top reached by a hundred steps, and the walls incrusted with metals and jewels. It stood high above the city, which was regularly laid out, with streets cutting each other at right angles, and bordered with colonnades. Among the other noted buildings of which nothing now remains, were the Mausoleum of Alexander, the harbor works uniting the city and island of Pharos, the temple of Pan, and that built by Ptolemy II, on the outside of one of the city gates, to celebrate the Elusinian mysteries, the aqueduct and others, of which no trace remains, but of whose existence we learn from early writers. The present Rue de Rosette is said to follow the course of the ancient main street, which crossed the city from the east to the west gates. The paintings still seen on the walls of Pompeii give us an idea of the decorations of Alexandrine architecture.
The great museum was a combination of university, club and social gathering place. The early Ptolemies, especially, were patrons of learning, and people of all nations met at their brilliant court, and thus it is said “arose in Egypt the Neo-Greek culture which we are accustomed to call Hellenism.” Literature, science and sculpture flourished, and painting took on new forms and woke to new life. The beautiful head of Alexander in the British Museum and many other fine examples of sculpture have come down to us from this period.
The goldsmith’s work was also a fashionable art and as Louis XVI of France amused himself by being a locksmith—and how differently might life have ended for him had Nature made him of that class—Ptolemy II amused himself by being a goldsmith.
For several years Ptolemy Sotor I, of the House of Diodachi, reigned as nominal satrap or governor. He then assumed the title of king, which he bore for twenty-three years, dying at the advanced age of eighty-four. His administration was beneficial to the country, and he attached the people to him by kindness and clemency, in marked contrast to his Persian predecessors. He had not hesitated to secure his throne by permitting the murder of the young king, but showed himself, in general, less cruel and blood-thirsty than many of his contemporaries. He established wise regulations, encouraged literature and art, and brought captive Jews to people Alexandria. His title of Sotor or Saviour was derived from the assistance he lent the people of Rhodes against their enemies. Though brought up to a military life and often engaged in war he evidently did not love it for its own sake, and was not the dashing soldier, but where diplomacy and cautious measures would serve his purpose, preferred to employ them.
The only portrait of Ptolemy Sotor is on the coins, coinage being introduced into Egypt under the Ptolemies. Here he appears, like other members of the family with a full, rounded face, a forehead not high but fleshy over the eyes, arched brows, a nose rather too short and with wide nostrils, a firm mouth and a prominent chin. Not so handsome as Alexander, the Ptolemies, especially the earlier ones, must yet have had considerable claim to good looks.
The cartouches of Ptolemy I are uncertain and not familiarly known, while those of Ptolemy XIV and XV had not up to a very recent date been found.
What is called the throne names of the Ptolemies were as follows: Ptolemy Sotor, Arsinoe III, and Philip Arridaeus had the same pre-nomen “chosen of Ra, beloved of Ra.”
Arsinoe IV “Joy of the heart of Amen, chosen of Ra, living image of Amen.” Ptolemy III and his wife were spoken of as “Fraternal gods, chosen of Ra, living image of Amen.”