Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

One writer has made Berenike daughter of Lagos and therefore step-sister of Ptolemy, but Mahaffy says “it is likely he was misled by the formula ‘wife and sister’ applied to Egyptian queens as a mere title of honor and which was probably used in many documents regarding the present princess.” And since Sotor was one of the few Ptolemies who did not marry his immediate relatives, it is well he should have credit therefor.

Both ladies appear to have been amiably disposed and Berenike was evidently a strong character as well, who maintained a life-long influence over her husband and secured for herself and her children the first place. She was more strictly speaking the queen, since it was after this last marriage that Ptolemy assumed the title, and it was Berenike’s son who succeeded to the throne, as did the son of Atossa; Eurydike had children, a son Ptolemy Keraunos and others, and several daughters, whose claims were all set aside for those of the more favored Berenike. So in 317 B. C. Ptolemy married his chosen princess and gave her and her children the first place. By her previous marriage Berenike already had three children, a son, Magas, and two daughters, Theoxena and Antigone. These three Ptolemy seems to have accepted almost as his own, using the princesses as the cards or dice of the great games he was playing, as auxiliaries in cementing his political alliances. In arranging all these marriages we may infer that Berenike’s opinions and wishes had weight and who knows but she may have used her influence to induce Ptolemy himself to assure the title of King of Egypt. She would be neither the first nor the last wife who has endeavored to fire her husband with ambition.

To anticipate somewhat, her son, Magas, became King of Cyrene, and Theoxena was married to Agathocles of Syracuse, who was an upstart and adventurer, but clever and able and making so much of himself and his opportunities that he had to be reckoned with by the contesting powers. “Antigone was married to Pyrrus; Lysandra to Sassander’s son, Alexander; Lysandra (probably a second of the name), to Agathocles, son of Lysimachus of Thrace; Arsinoe to Lysimachus himself; Eirene to Eunostos, king of Soli in Cyprus, and ultimately in 287 B. C., even Ptolemais to Demetrius.” Thus Ptolemy Sotor utilized his large family, consisting, it is said, of twelve children, to serve his political purposes.

Ptolemy Keraunos, the eldest son and rightful heir of his father, beheld, with bitterness, himself set aside in favor of his younger brother and continued, during his stormy life, to be a thorn in the side of the Ptolemy succession. Our line of research is to follow the domestic histories rather than the public acts of the king, already made familiar by the pens of many able writers.

The first child of Sotor by his marriage with Berenike was a daughter, later the well-known Arsinoe II, queen of Egypt. The son Ptolemy Philadelphus, who succeeded his father, was born in 308 B. C. (on the island of Kos, a favorite retreat from Alexandria) during one of the campaigns of Ptolemy in the Aegean, whither Berenike had accompanied her husband, either from the affection between them which forbade separation, or the desire on the queen’s part to keep near the king that she might continue to use her great influence, seeking to bend the course of events as they arose, to her own purposes. She might well have earned the title both of Berenike the Ambitious, and Berenike the Successful, but scarcely those of Berenike the Just or the Generous. The virtues of self-sacrifice and generosity were sometimes shown under the ancient moral code, but consideration and Justice were fruits of the Christian Dispensation.

Ptolemy Sotor did not marry young, but lived to see his children grow up and to associate with him, on the throne, his son Ptolemy, called Philadelphus, son of Berenike, and for the last years of his life seemed to have resigned the regal power into his hands. So large a family, composed of such diverse elements, would, even in modern times, have been apt to have difficulties as regards matters of inheritance, and it is little to be wondered at perhaps that such was supremely the case in this instance. But, during his lifetime, the arrangements of Ptolemy Sotor seem to have been accepted, in a great degree, and it was not till after his death that a fierce conflict broke out among the rival claimants.

Ptolemy Sotor is said to have eaten with the poor and borrowed plate from the rich. The use of gold, silver and copper coins had been common in Phoenicia and other countries before it was introduced into Egypt by the first Ptolemy, but Poole says “the monograms and symbols indicating mints are more constant and regular in the coinage of the Ptolemies than in any other series of Greek regal money.” The pictures of the kings and queens on the coins, albeit frequently conventionalized, assist us much in our search for knowledge concerning them. The regular silver coinage presents the heads of kings and queens on one side, often those of the gods, eagles, etc., on the other. The place of the mint name was usually on the reverse side, and, if dated, on opposite sides of the field. A rare place for the mint name was between the legs of the eagle. The gold coinage was often not struck in the time of those whose heads it bears. Thus Philadelphus honored both his parents after their decease. Queen Berenike I appears on the coins both alone and with her husband. The face is dignified and beautiful, a straight Greek nose and regular features. Of her death we find no record, but she appears to have been loved and honored by both husband and son, and whichever survived her no doubt she was buried with all possible respect.

Though many wars occurred during the reign of Ptolemy Sotor, yet it was so long that he had also much time to spare for the internal administration and improvement of his kingdom, and some writers believe that many things of benefit thereto, attributed to Ptolemy Philadelphus should really be credited, at least in their inception, to Ptolemy Sotor. He built and added to some of the finest temples, extended and adorned Alexandria and is said to have written a history of Alexander’s campaigns, which, unfortunately, has been lost, and showed his appreciation of mental attainments by surrounding himself with men of learning and culture.

Queen Eurydike seems to have endured with what grace she might the secondary place accorded to her and her children, till the younger Ptolemy was made king, when they all left Egypt, no doubt in bitterness of soul and resolved if possible to wrest from him, whom they regarded as a usurper of his elder brother’s rights, his regal powers.

The Ptolemies, called the Lagidae, were a popular race. Ptolemy Sotor seems to have possessed much suavity and personal charm of manner, and the Egyptians and other conquered peoples were treated by him and the earlier Ptolemies with much more consideration and humanity than by other more ruthless conquerors. Ptolemy Sotor is said to have had at least twelve children by different wives, as well as by the courtezan Thais. Statues of him are mentioned by various writers, but have not been found, and his portrait on the coins is the only one that remains to us. The three earliest members of the family seem to have a stronger claim to good looks than their successors, who, both in regularity of outline and general expression, are distinctly below the ancestral level.