A Manual of Ancient History

by M. E. Thalheimer

Coin of Antony and Cleopatra, twice the size.

64. The princess Cleopatra received the crown under Roman patronage, in conjunction with the elder Ptolemy. The brother and sister quarreled, and Cleopatra was driven into Syria. Here she met Julius Cæsar, and by her talents and accomplishments gained great ascendency over his mind. By his aid Ptolemy was conquered and slain, and Cleopatra established in the kingdom. She removed her younger brother by poison, and had thenceforth no rival. With consummate ability, mixed with the unscrupulous cruelty of her race, she reigned seventeen years in great prosperity. Cæsar was her protector while he lived, and Antony then became her slave, sacrificing all his interests, and his honor as a Roman and a general, to her slightest caprices. In the civil wars of Rome, Antony was at length defeated at Actium; Cleopatra committed suicide, and her kingdom became a Roman province, B. C. 30.

65. The kingdom of the Ptolemies had continued 293 years, from the death of Alexander to that of Cleopatra. During 101 years, under the first three kings, it was the most flourishing, well organized, and prosperous of the Macedonian monarchies; the nearly two centuries which remained were among the most degraded periods in the history of the human race.

RECAPITULATION.

Prosperity of Egypt under the Ptolemies. Concourse of races at Alexandria. Ptolemy I. (B. C. 323-283) conquered Palestine, Phœnicia, Cyprus, and the African coast as far as Cyrene. Old laws and worship retained. Alexandrian Library and Museum, professors and public works. Ptolemy Philadelphus (B. C. 283-247) ordered a Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures; constructed cities, roads, and canals for purposes of commerce. Acquisitions of Ptolemy III. (B. C. 247-222). Rapid conquests in Asia, speedily lost. Collection of manuscripts and recovery of images. Decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Crimes of Ptolemy IV. (B. C. 222-205). Victory at Raphia, B. C. 217. Roman interference during the minority of Ptolemy V. (B. C. 205-181). Ptolemy VI. (B. C. 181-146) taken by Antiochus IV., of Syria. His brother Physcon crowned. Rome protected Egyptian dependencies against Syria, and divided them between the brothers. Ptolemy VII. was murdered by his uncle, Ptolemy Physcon, who reigned B. C. 146-117. He was exiled for his crimes, but recalled in three years. Ptolemy VIII. and his brother Alexander reigned alternately in Egypt and Cyprus while their mother lived (B. C. 117-89). After her death, the former was sole monarch until B. C. 81. Berenice reigned six months (B. C. 81, 80), and was then murdered by her husband, Ptolemy X. He was slain by the Alexandrians. Ptolemy XI. (B. C. 80-51) made good his claim after fifteen years’ anarchy; was acknowledged by the Romans, but expelled (B. C. 59-55) by his subjects; returned to reign under Roman protection. Cleopatra poisoned her two brothers, and by favor of Cæsar and Antony kept her kingdom twenty-one years, B. C. 51-30.

III. Macedonia and Greece.

66. Upon the death of Alexander, the greater part of Greece revolted against Macedon, Athens, as of old, being the leader. Antipater, the Macedonian regent, was defeated near Thermopylæ, and besieged in Lamia, in Thessaly. The confederates were afterward worsted at Cranon, and the good management of Antipater dissolved the league by treating with its members separately, and offering the most lenient terms to all except the leaders. Athens suffered the punishment she had often inflicted. Twelve thousand of her citizens were forcibly removed to Thrace, Illyria, Italy, and Africa, only nine thousand of the wealthier sort being left, who willingly submitted to the Macedonian supremacy. Demosthenes, with the principal members of his party, were executed, and the last remains of Athenian independence destroyed.

67. The wars of the generals and the intrigues of the Macedonian princesses belong to Period II. ([See §§ 19-25.]) Three years after the battle of Ipsus, Cassander died, B. C. 298, leaving the crown to his son, Philip IV. The young king reigned less than a year, and his mother, Thessalonica, then divided Macedonia between her two remaining sons, Antipater and Alexander. The former, being dissatisfied with his portion, murdered his mother and called in his father-in-law, Lysimachus, to aid him in gaining the whole. His brother, at the same time, asked aid of Demetrius, who reigned in Greece, and of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. With their help he drove Antipater out of Macedonia; but he gained nothing by the victory, for Demetrius had undertaken the war solely with the view of placing himself upon the throne, which he accomplished by the murder of Alexander. Antipater II. was put to death the same year by Lysimachus, B. C. 294.

68. The kingdom now included Thessaly, Attica, and the greater part of the Peloponnesus, Pyrrhus having received several countries on the western coast of Greece. Demetrius, however, sacrificed all his dominions to his unbounded ambition and conceit. He failed in an attack on Pyrrhus, and being invaded both from the east and west, was compelled to abandon Macedonia, B. C. 287. In a later expedition into Asia, he became the prisoner of Seleucus, and died in the third year of his captivity. ([See § 29.])