jwꜤ-n-nṯrwj-snwj stp.n-rꜤ sḫm-Ꜥnḫ-n-jmn Iwaensenwinetjerwy setepenre sekhemankhenamun The heir of the two divine brothers, chosen by Ra, the living image of Amun
ḥkn-nṯrw-rmṯ-ḥr.f Khekenetjeruremetj-heref The one over whom gods and people have rejoiced
Second Horus name: ḥkn-nṯrw-rmṯ-ḥr.f m-šsp.f-nsyt-m-Ꜥ-jt.f Hekenetjeruremetj-heref emshesepefnesytemaitef The one over whom gods and people have rejoiced when he has received the kingship from his father's hand
wr-pḥtj jrj-Ꜣḫt nb-ḥꜢbw-sd-mi-ptḥ-tꜢ-ṯnn jty-mi-rꜤ Werpehty iryakhut nebkhabusedmiptah-tatenen itymire Whose might is great, doing that which is beneficial, Lord of the years of Jubilee like Ptah Ta-Tjenen, a ruler like Ra
Ptolemy III Euergetes (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs "Ptolemy the Benefactor"; 284–222 BC[2]) was the third king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt from 246 to 222 BC.
Ptolemy Euergetes ("Benefactor") was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife, Arsinoe I, and came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father. He married Berenice of Cyrene in 244/243 BC. Their children were:
Arsinoe III, born in c. 246/245 BC. She later married her brother Ptolemy IV.
Bronze coin issued by Ptolemy III depicting Zeus-Amun (obverse) and traditional Ptolemaic eagle (reverse). Ptolemy III did not issue coins with his own image.
Ptolemy III Euergetes was responsible for the first known example of a series of decrees published as bilingual inscriptions on massive stone blocks in three writing systems. His stone stela is the Canopus Stone of 238 BC. Other well-known examples are the Memphis Stele (Memphis Stone), bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 BC, passed by his son, Ptolemy IV, as well as the famous Rosetta Stone erected by Ptolemy Epiphanes, his grandson, in 196 BC.
Ptolemy III's stone contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals.
He is also credited with the foundation of the Serapeum, as well as the Temple of Horus at Edfu, which he commissioned in about 237 BC, although the main temple would not be finished until the reign of his son, Ptolemy IV, in 231 BC, and it would not be officially opened until 142 BC, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII. Also, the reliefs on the great pylon were only completed in the reign of Ptolemy XII. He, like many pharaohs before him, also added to the Temple of Karnak.
He maintained his father's foreign policy of subduing Macedonia by supporting its enemies. Ptolemy backed the Achaean League, a collaboration of Greek city-states, and enemies of Macedonia, but switched his support to Sparta when it came into conflict with the Achaean League and proved itself more apt to fighting the Macedonians.
He was even more liberal towards Egyptian religion than his predecessors. He supported, promoted, and contributed towards various cults, particularly those of the Apis and Mnevis Bulls, as is stated in the Canopus Decree of 238 BC, in which the Egyptian priesthood praise him and his wife as "Benefactor Gods" for this religious support, as well as for maintaining peace by strong national security, and for good governance, including when he imported, at his own expense, a vast amount of grain to compensate for a weak inundation.
The Ptolemaic kingdom reached the height of its power during this reign.
He continued his predecessor's work on Alexandria, especially in the Great Library. He had every book unloaded in the Alexandria docks seized, had copies made of each one, and gave the copies to the previous owners while the original copies were kept in the Library. It is said that he borrowed works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides from Athens but decided to forfeit the considerable deposit he paid for them, keeping them for the Library rather than returning them.
Due to a falling out at the Seleucid court, Ptolemy's eldest sister Berenice Phernophorus was murdered along with her infant son. In response Ptolemy III invaded the Seleucid Empire, today known as Iraq, Syria, among other nations at the time.[7] During this war, the Third Syrian War, he occupied Antioch and even reached Babylon.[8] In exchange for a peace in 241 BC, Ptolemy was awarded new territories in the northern of Syria, including Seleucia Pieria, the port of Antioch. From this capture he received fifteen hundred talents of silver, roughly a tenth of his annual income. During his involvement in the Third Syrian War, he managed to regain many Egyptian works of art that had been stolen when the Persians conquered Egypt. While he was away fighting, he left his wife Berenice II in charge of the country, but swiftly returned when trouble erupted there. New insights of Ptolemy III's sudden return include papyri describing how the Nile river didn't flood for several years, resulting in famine, a 20-year revolt against Greek rule in Thebes, and climate proxy studies which suggest changes of the monsoon pattern at the time, all linked to a volcanic eruption which took place in 247 BC.[9]
Ptolemy III's reign was also marked by trade with other contemporaneous polities. In the 1930s, excavations by Mattingly at a fortress close to Port Dunford (the likely Nikon of antiquity) in present-day southern Somalia yielded a number of Ptolemaic coins. Among these pieces were 17 copper mints from the reigns of Ptolemy III to Ptolemy V, as well as late Imperial Rome and Mamluk Sultanate coins.[10]
Clayton, Peter A. (2006). Chronicles of the Pharaohs: the reign-by-reign record of the rulers and dynasties of ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. ISBN0-500-28628-0.
The Ptolemaic dynasty, sometimes also known as the Lagids or Lagidae, was a Macedonian Greek royal family, which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC. They were the last dynasty of ancient Egypt.
Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter was a companion and historian of Alexander the Great of the Kingdom of Macedon in northern Greece who became ruler of Egypt, part of Alexander's former empire. Ptolemy was pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 305/304 BC to his death. He was the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty which ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC, turning the country into a Hellenistic kingdom and Alexandria into a center of Greek culture.
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
Ptolemy II Philadelphus was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 to 246 BCE. He was the son of Ptolemy I Soter, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the Great who founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom after the death of Alexander, and queen Berenice I, originally from Macedon in northern Greece.
Berenice I of Egypt
Berenice I was Queen of Egypt by marriage to Ptolemy I Soter. She became the second queen, after Eurydice, of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
Berenice II of Egypt
Berenice II was a ruling queen of Cyrene, Libya by birth, and a queen and co-regent of Ptolemaic Egypt by marriage to her cousin Ptolemy III Euergetes, the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Magas of Cyrene
Magas of Cyrene was a Greek Macedonian nobleman and King of Cyrenaica. Through his mother’s second marriage to Ptolemy I he became a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He managed to wrestle independence for Cyrenaica from the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and became King of Cyrenaica from 276 BC to 250 BC.
Arsinoe I
Arsinoe I was Queen of Egypt by marriage to Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
Syrian Wars
The Syrian Wars were a series of six wars between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, successor states to Alexander the Great's empire, during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC over the region then called Coele-Syria, one of the few avenues into Egypt. These conflicts drained the material and manpower of both parties and led to their eventual destruction and conquest by Rome and Parthia. They are briefly mentioned in the biblical Books of the Maccabees.
Ptolemaic Kingdom
The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in ancient Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty, which started with Ptolemy I Soter's accession after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and which ended with the death of Cleopatra and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
