Scope: Here we see the beginning of the end for ancient Egyptian civilization. Under the rule of the first Ptolemies, Egypt was reorganized and run like a business. Taxation was heavy and administration oppressive. The Greeks viewed the Egyptians as existing only to enrich their coffers. The great achievements of the first Ptolemies were purely Greek conceptions: the Pharos Lighthouse and the famous library of Alexandria.
Outline
I. Ptolemy I first ruled Egypt as governor (323-305 BC) and later as king (305-282 BC).
A. Ptolemy ruled first as governor of Egypt in deference to the memory of Alexander. Alexander’s retarded half-brother (Philip III Arrhidaeus) and Alexander’s son by Roxanne (Alexander IV) were still alive and were possible rulers.
B. Alexander’s mother, Olympia, had her stepson, Philip III (323-317 BC), king of Egypt, assassinated so her grandson, Alexander IV, could rule.
C. When Alexander IV (317-305 BC) and Roxanne were assassinated, Alexander’s line came to an end.
D. Ptolemy married the daughter of Nectanebo II and became king. He was called “Soter” (Savior) after he repelled an attack on Rhodes by one of Alexander’s other generals.
E. Ptolemy was clearly one of the “good” Ptolemies, although the dynasty, as we shall see, would rapidly decline over time.
II. Ptolemy Soter was committed to public works.
A. The library of Alexandria was his creation, though no traces remain.
1. It contained perhaps 700,000 “books,” or papyrus scrolls.
2. A Greek idea far removed from the secrecy of Egyptian religion, the library was a public place.
3. A museum (“the place of the muses”) was part of the library complex, the first think tank in history, supported by the state.
4. At the museum, the tradition of working in teams began. Euclid wrote his Elements of Geometry (300 BC); Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth; Hirophilus determined that the brain, not the heart, was the seat of intelligence.
5. Still, we don’t know where the library was located or why it disappeared.
B. The Pharos Lighthouse was another of Ptolemy’s projects.
1. Four hundred and twenty-three feet high, it was one of the few Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that was secular. It was on Pharos Island across the port from Alexandria.
2. The lighthouse had three tiers: a square base with an octagonal and then a circular level. It could be seen thirty miles away.
3. A permanent fire was kept burning on the upper level, and its light was reflected by a huge mirror of bronze.
4. Earthquakes damaged and finally destroyed the lighthouse in 1303. Sultan Qait Bay used the remaining blocks to build a fort on Pharos Island at the base of where the lighthouse stood in Alexandria Harbor.
III. The Ptolemies ran Egypt like a business.
A. Egyptian temples were also built for Ptolemy’s glory. The Ptolemies supported the priests as an educated class to administer the realm.
B. There was heavy taxation—ten percent on all sales of land, for example—and the Ptolemies had monopolies on such items as papyrus.
C. Emeralds and gold, heavily taxed, were mined by prisoners.
D. The port of Alexandria exported excess grain, the main source of Egypt’s wealth.
E. The Ptolemies controlled banking and the flow of money. The Greeks simplified business in Egypt by introducing coins.
F. Manetho’s History of Egypt (Aegyptiaka) was written for the Ptolemies in Greek, the language of commerce.
G. There were about 300,000 Greeks in Alexandria and seven million Egyptians throughout the country. Alexandria was called “the City”; the rest was Egypt.
H. The Ptolemies remained in Alexandria. Thus was Egypt divided and ruled by an elite class.
IV. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC) continued the Greek trend.
A. He reclaimed land by draining part of Fayoum Lake to increase grain production.
B. He continued the Alexandria Library and commissioned the Septuagint—the Old Testament translated into Greek by seventy rabbis.
C. He married his sister, a tradition going back to Isis and Osiris and followed by subsequent Ptolemies.
Essential Reading:
Michael Grant, From Alexander to Cleopatra.
Supplementary Reading:
Peter A. Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, pp. 208-212.
Questions to Consider:
1. What were the major achievements of the early Ptolemies?
2. What did the Ptolemies want from Egypt?
* Erratum. On the tape, the professor states that the Pharos Lighthouse was the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that was secular; in fact, it was one of the few Wonders that was secular, as shown in the outline.