Ptolemy IV was spoken of as “heir of the beneficent gods, chosen of Ptah, strength of the Ka of Ra, living image of Amen.”
Ptolemy VII as “heir of the (two) manifest gods, form of Ptah, chosen of Amen, doing the rule of Ra.”
Ptolemy IX, “heir of the (two) manifest gods, chosen of Ptah, doing the rule of Amen, living image of Ra.”
Ptolemy X, “heir of the beneficent god and of the beneficent goddess, chosen of Ptah, doing the rule of Ra, living image of Amen.”
Ptolemy XI one cartouch “heir of the (two) beneficent gods, chosen of Ptah, doing the rule of Amen, living image of Ra.”
A second cartouch reads “Ptolemy, called Alexander, living forever, beloved of Ptah.” Ptolemy XIII, “heir of the god that saves, chosen of Ptah, doing the rule of Amen, living image of Ra.”
Various amours are credited to Ptolemy I which at this late date would be difficult to either prove or disprove, among many with a bad record he was not notably vicious. Three wives might legally have claimed the title, but his love was evidently given to the last and probably the youngest. Doubtless at Alexander’s behest he first took a Persian wife, the Princess Artakama, the daughter of Artabasus. Only two of these Persian wives are known to appear in later history, Amestris, daughter of Oxyartes, and probably a sister or half sister of Roxane, married to Krateras and subsequently to Lysimachus, and Apame, who married Seleukas and became the ancestress of the Seleukid dynasty.
Ptolemy I married the Princess Artakama 330 B. C., which would make him, if born 367 B. C., thirty-seven years of age at his first marriage. He again wedded Eurydike, daughter of Antipater, nine years later, and Berenike, evidently his favorite wife, when he was fifty. All the ladies were doubtless much his juniors. The Princess Artakama could not properly be called queen, since she passes out of Ptolemy’s life and history before he assumed the title of king.
The marriage with Eurydike, the daughter of Antipater, who had subsequently made himself king of Macedon, may have been merely a matter of policy and not dictated by any motives of affection. Ptolemy’s subsequent action and marked preference for Berenike seems to suggest this; but that he lived with her as his legal wife and acknowledged the children of both is matter of history. Eurydike came with a retinue to Egypt, in the style of a great princess. It seems to have been after the death of her father and during the reign of her brother Cassander, with whom Ptolemy had formed an alliance and wished to keep on peaceful terms, perhaps this very marriage was a pledge of their friendship. We judge Eurydike to have been of less fiery temper and disposition than Roxane, since she seems to have accepted a successor and rival with comparative equanimity and apparently made no effort to get rid of or destroy her. In her train came a grand niece of Antipater, doubtless young and beautiful, a widow with all the fascinations pertaining to that class, which probably she did not hesitate to use upon the middle-aged king. The situation bears some resemblance to that of Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, though less fatal in its immediate results.