The Ptolemaic Kingdom is an interesting part of history. Its rise and fall were bookended by the deaths of two of the most famous figures of ancient history: Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.

The Ptolemies were very protective of their lineage. They were Greek rulers in Egypt. They often married siblings to maintain the bloodline. Despite this, they weren’t shy about using betrayals and assassinations to gain power. As you will see, the biggest danger to a Ptolemy was another Ptolemy in most cases.

10 The Rise Of The Dynasty

The death of Alexander the Great plunged the ancient world into chaos as many of his generals fought for power in a series of conflicts that lasted almost 50 years and were known as the Wars of the Diadochi (“successors”). Prior to this, though, one general named Perdiccas came closer than anyone to gaining control over the empire of the deceased king.

There were two camps—one wanted rule to be granted to Alexander’s half-brother Arrhidaeus, while the other one thought it should go to his unborn child by Roxana, the future Alexander IV. In the end, the two were named joint kings while Perdiccas served as regent of the empire and commander of the army.

This was just a ploy for Perdiccas to consolidate his power. He began orchestrating the deaths of his opponents. In 323 BC, the generals who supported him were named satraps to various parts of the empire at the Partition of Babylon.

Ptolemy I Soter was given Egypt. His governorship didn’t last long, though. First, he arranged the arrest and execution of Cleomenes, a powerful official who was in Alexandria to serve Perdiccas’s interests. Then he stole Alexander’s body to be buried in Egypt instead of the tomb prepared in Macedonia.

Perdiccas considered this an act of war. He tried to invade Egypt but failed to cross the Nile and lost thousands of men. He was assassinated by his own officers in 321/320 BC. Some historians contend that Ptolemy could have claimed the regency of the empire for himself at this point, but he chose to start his own dynasty in Egypt.^[1]

9 Three Intrigues, An Execution, And An Exile

Ptolemy I was followed by his son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, but it was his daughter, Arsinoe II, who proved to be adept at intrigue and ruthless enough to seize power. The true extent of her influence is debated by historians, but every court she arrived at seemed to have someone quickly lose power in her favor.

Ptolemy II strengthened his rule through two diplomatic weddings with Lysimachus, king of Thrace and another of Alexander’s Diadochi. Circa 299 BC, Lysimachus married Ptolemy’s sister, Arsinoe II, while the pharaoh wed the Thracian’s daughter, also called Arsinoe.^[2]

The Ptolemaic Arsinoe gave Lysimachus three sons, but none of them was positioned for the throne as the king already had a son named Agathocles. However, the heir apparent was convicted of treason around 282 BC and executed. Some historians claimed this was the work of Arsinoe to secure the kingship for her sons. This made certain cities in Asia Minor revolt against Lysimachus. The king tried to quell the rebellion but was killed in battle.

Arsinoe then married her half-brother Ptolemy Ceraunus who wanted to strengthen his claim to the kingdoms of Thrace and Macedonia. She may have plotted against him, but the queen’s plan failed and Ceraunus killed two of her sons.

Eventually, Arsinoe made her way back to Egypt. The Thracian Arsinoe, who was her brother’s wife, was soon exiled for planning to murder the king. Again, rumors appeared that the accusations were the work of the pharaoh’s sister. Soon after that, she married her brother and became queen of Egypt.

8 A Purge Of Ptolemies

Ptolemaic Egypt is generally considered to have reached its peak during the rule of Ptolemy III Euergetes following his triumphs in the Third Syrian War. Conversely, his son and heir, Ptolemy IV Philopator, was described by historians as a weak ruler who was easily controlled by his associates as long as they indulged his vices. His reign marks the beginning of the decline of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Ptolemy IV became king of Egypt in 221 BC when he was 23–24 years old. He dedicated himself to a life of debauchery while the administration of the kingdom was mainly handled by his chief minister, Sosibius. The Greek historian Polybius named the minister as the instigator behind the deaths of several of the young pharaoh’s relatives.^[3] They included Ptolemy’s mother, Berenice II, as well as his brother, Magas, and his uncle, Lysimachus.

Like his grandfather, Ptolemy IV married his sister, Arsinoe III. She met her demise soon after Ptolemy’s death in 204 BC. This was done by Sosibius and another official called Agathocles to ensure that they would become regents until Ptolemy V came of age.

7 Anything For Power

Many members of the Ptolemy family showed themselves capable of ruthlessness and cruelty to ascend to power, but few, if any, outdid Ptolemy VIII Physcon.

He had a decades-long fight for the throne with his older brother, Ptolemy VI Philometor. In 145 BC, the elder Ptolemy died on campaign and his sister-wife, Cleopatra II, wanted her young son, Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator, to rule.

The details of his reign are a bone of contention among historians as some aren’t sure that he ever became king at all. If he did rule, his reign was short-lived. Due to lack of support, Cleopatra had to marry Ptolemy VIII and rule jointly. Once Neos Philopator was deposed, his uncle had him executed.

Once he was in power, Physcon renamed himself Ptolemy Euergetes after his honored ancestor. He married his niece, Cleopatra III, while still married to her mother.

In 131 BC, the elder Cleopatra managed to stage a rebellion against Ptolemy, who left Alexandria with Cleopatra III. They stayed in exile in Cyprus for four years during which Cleopatra II served as regent until her son, Ptolemy Memphites, came of age. This never happened, though, as Ptolemy Physcon was reunited with his son and had him murdered. He then cut off the boy’s head, hands, and legs and had them delivered to Alexandria on Cleopatra’s birthday.^[4]

Despite these “squabbles,” Ptolemy and Cleopatra eventually had a public reconciliation and ruled jointly alongside Cleopatra III until Physcon’s death in 116 BC.

6 Violent Ends For Violent People

Certainly, a black eye for the 300-year rule of the Ptolemaic family was the brief but violent reign of Ptolemy XI Alexander II.

He took the throne in 80 BC, succeeding his father, Ptolemy X Alexander I. He also married his father’s wife, Berenice III, who was also his cousin. Before the marriage, there was a brief window where Berenice ruled alone and managed to endear herself to the people of Egypt.^[5]

However, her new husband-stepson-cousin didn’t like her. Less than three weeks after getting married, Ptolemy XI had his wife assassinated. This severely angered the people of Alexandria, and a mob stormed the palace and killed the young pharaoh in the Gymnasium.

5 Rome Intervenes

Ptolemy XII Auletes ascended to the throne in 80 BC. By this time, Egypt was a client of Rome and had to pay a substantial tribute which resulted in heavy taxes on the Egyptian people. His popularity reached an all-time low in 58 BC when the Romans took over Cyprus and his brother, King Ptolemy of Cyprus, killed himself.

The people wanted Ptolemy to either demand Cyprus back or denounce Rome. He was unwilling to do either, and a rebellion forced him out of Egypt. He went to Rome where he stayed with Pompey.

While in Rome, there was talk in the Senate of going into Egypt and restoring Ptolemy to the throne. At one point, a delegation of 100 Egyptians, led by philosopher Dio of Alexandria, formed to state their case for the Roman Senate. They intended to present their complaints against Ptolemy.

However, the exiled pharaoh used his money and Pompey’s connections to ensure that no envoy would make it. According to Cassius Dio, most of the messengers were assassinated, including Dio of Alexandria, and those who survived were bribed.

Ptolemy might have succeeded in dealing with one problem through murder, but there was a divine issue which could not be solved with violence.

As they were known to do in times of crisis, the leaders of Rome consulted the oracles. Specifically, they turned to a collection of prophecies known as the Sibylline Books.

According to Cassius Dio, they said, “If the king of Egypt come requesting any aid, refuse him not friendship, nor yet succour him with any great force; else you shall have both toils and dangers.”^[6]

4 The March Gabinius

The oracle prophecies made the Roman Senate deny Ptolemy military support. But in the end, it was greed which triumphed over godly resolutions. It was Pompey again who sent one of his generals, Aulus Gabinius, to invade Egypt. He didn’t have Senate approval, but Pompey was powerful enough to avoid consequences.

During Ptolemy’s exile, his daughter, Berenice IV, ruled Egypt. She tried to secure an alliance by marrying Seleucus of Syria. He turned out to be less influential than expected, and Berenice had him killed and married Archelaus.

Her new husband died when Gabinius conquered Alexandria. He reinstated Ptolemy and left him a Roman legion to protect him from future rebellions. They became known as the Gabiniani.

Back on the throne, Ptolemy put his daughter to death.^[7] He also killed Egypt’s richest citizens to seize their fortunes as he had a large debt to repay to Gabinius and Pompey.

Alas, Gabinius couldn’t enjoy his plunder for long. The people of Rome were outraged at his defiance of the Sibylline verses and the Senate, and he was arrested when he returned. The most serious charge was high treason.

Through the generous dispersal of influence and bribes, the Roman general was found not guilty. There were other lesser charges, however. Cassius Dio claimed that Gabinius got too confident and too stingy with his bribe purse as he was found guilty. He was exiled, and his property was confiscated.

3 The Murder Of Pompey

In 52 BC, Ptolemy XII named his daughter, Cleopatra VII Philopator, as his coregent. This would be the famous Cleopatra. He wanted her to rule Egypt together with her brother, Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator. However, the young pharaoh wanted to rule alone, although he was actually under the heavy influence of the eunuch Pothinus, his regent. Together, in 48 BC, they deposed Cleopatra.

Both would-be rulers wanted Roman support, but Rome had its own problems to worry about. By this point, Julius Caesar had started the civil war that would end the republic. He had just earned a decisive victory over Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus.

Pompey went to Egypt, expecting support and refuge from Ptolemy XIII as he had once provided to the pharaoh’s father. Ptolemy, however, preferred to ingratiate himself with Caesar.

He sent men to greet Pompey under the guise of friendship. But they stabbed him, decapitated him, and threw his body in the water. As far as who committed the deed, Plutarch names two Gabiniani: a former tribune named Lucius Septimius and a centurion named Salvius, alongside Egyptian commander Achillas.^[8]

The plan backfired as Caesar was disgusted when presented with the head of Pompey and was said to burst into tears when he received the seal ring of his former friend-turned-rival.

2 War Of The Ptolemies

Whether the assassination of Pompey influenced Caesar is hard to say, but he decided to support Cleopatra. However, he lacked the troops to stage open war. Therefore, he barricaded himself in Alexandria in 47 BC as Ptolemy’s forces, led by Achillas, laid siege to the city.

Another child of Ptolemy XII, Arsinoe IV, got involved in the war as she also had a claim to the throne. She sided with her brother, Ptolemy XIII, but had Achillas put to death and replaced with her tutor, Ganymedes.

Eventually, Caesar received reinforcements from his ally, Mithridates of Pergamum. He was victorious against his rivals at the Battle of the Nile in 47 BC.^[9] Ptolemy XIII drowned in the river at age 15 while his sister Arsinoe was first marched through Rome as a prisoner and then banished to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. She was later executed at the insistence of Cleopatra.

1 The End Of The Dynasty

Cleopatra regained the throne of Egypt, but Caesar made her rule jointly with another brother, Ptolemy XIV. Their marriage was brief. In March 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome. Two months later, Ptolemy XIV died in Egypt, and several historians, such as Cassius Dio and Josephus, claimed that he was poisoned by Cleopatra.

If she did kill him, it was so that Cleopatra could position her son as pharaoh. He was Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, better known as Caesarion. As was obvious from his name, Cleopatra was hailing him as the son of Julius Caesar.

With the Roman leader dead, the Egyptian queen took on Marc Antony as her new lover. Antony was part of the political alliance with Octavian and Marcus Lepidus which governed Rome. The alliance was known as the Second Triumvirate.

In 34 BC, Marc Antony enacted the Donations of Alexandria.^[10] He bestowed lands and titles upon Cleopatra’s children, which included three of his own by that point.

Crucially, though, he acknowledged Caesarion as the legitimate heir of Julius Caesar. This didn’t sit well with the Romans who felt that Antony had abandoned them in favor of Egypt. Furthermore, Caesarion being considered an heir made him a target for Octavian who was Julius Caesar’s adopted son.

War broke out between Antony and Octavian. The latter won following his victory at the Battle of Actium and subsequent siege of Alexandria. Antony and Cleopatra ostensibly committed suicide, while Caesarion was put to death on Octavian’s orders.

Egypt was annexed and became a province of the Roman Empire. Octavian renamed himself Augustus Caesar and became the first Roman emperor. Thus ended the story of Marc Antony and Cleopatra and the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt.

What does the average person know about Babylon? Probably they’ve heard the phrase “whore of Babylon.” They also know of them as villains from the Bible for bringing one of God’s punishments to Israel. Maybe they’ll remember something about Hammurabi’s Code of Laws from history class, or playing Civilization if they like video games. 

There’s so much more to Babylonian civilization. That’s true even if you limit the scope of your analysis to the Amorite Dynasty. They were the first dynasty of the empire, and this particular dynasty lasted from 1894 BC to 1595 BC. They came to an end more than a millennium before Babylon became one of history’s villain figures for eons by destroying Israel around 586 BC, so even the hardcore Abrahamic faithful can find these particular people interesting without guilt.

10. Math Pioneers

Many people don’t find it particularly exciting for someone to be good at geometry, trigonometry, and algebra. Yet these are some of the most significant contributions that the Babylonian Empire made to civilization. This is firmly established because they were considerate enough to record their mathematical tables on clay tablets known as cuneiform, which were used as teaching aids for elite students. 

What’s more, First Dynasty Babylonians were able to do something with advanced mathematics that the majority of students today have never been able to: find practical applications for it. They were able to design and aim cutting edge siege equipment for their era, which was invaluable for conquering such rivals as the Akkadian Empire. It also found use in portioning limited arriable land and for maximizing agricultural yields. Indeed, they were so celebrated for their math accomplishments that a particular cuneiform known as Plimpton 322 was speculated in 2017 as potentially offering a superior trigonometry model to those in common use today, though in August 2017 Scientific American aggressively threw some cold water on that notion when they told everyone “don’t fall for [the] hype.” 

9. The Sometimes Bewildering Code of Laws

As implied earlier, Hammurabi, the sixth king of the dynasty, is best known for codifying a system of laws. Since he reigned from 1792 to 1750 BC, his code of laws predates the Ten Commandments of Moses by centuries. Curiously, existing clay tablets of his code date to long after. You’ve probably heard that it contains a law that a successful surgeon was to be paid 10 shekels, but if the patient died the surgeon was to lose a hand. As it happens, that’s by no means the most alien law to modern thinking. 

For example, one of Hammurabi’s laws basically said that if someone were found guilty of burglary, after they were executed their body was to be buried on the premises of the home they had broken into, which seems at least a bit of a hassle for a family that just went through such an ordeal. If no burglar was caught, essentially the community became the household’s insurance provider as the homeowner was to declare their losses under oath and then the community was to collectively compensate them. Another law said that if the wife of a soldier taken prisoner during the war had children with another man after her house ran out of food, she then had to return to her husband if he came back, but the paramour had custody of the children. 

While it’s understandable that it was punishable by death to be a construction worker in a building that collapsed and killed a homeowner, it’s perhaps less understandable that if, in a collapse, the child of the homeowner died, that meant the construction owner’s child was to be put to death. In neither case were they to be buried at the site of the collapse, even though that seems much more appropriate than burying a burglar there. It was also punishable by death to be a female tavern keeper where a band of thieves met, while no stipulations stated that the tavern keeper had to be a knowing accessory to the crime.

8. The Overlooked Codifier of the Empire

There is a tendency to go overboard in giving Hammurabi credit for Babylon’s success as an empire, with some acting as if the empire took a nosedive immediately after he stepped down. This might seem supported by the fact that literally dozens of cities rose up in rebellion, comprising pretty much everything Hammurabi had conquered. As it happened, while he is much less famous than his father, Samsu-iluna did a commendable job of his own keeping his father’s realm intact during his reign from 1750 to 1712 BC. 

When pretty much every major city in the Southern Region of the empire rebelled, it initially caught Samsu-iluna off guard, but he rallied quickly. Within two years, he had put down the rebellion and made allies of rival kings, such as Rim-Anum of the major city of Uruk. Ironically, it was the arrival of a great enemy of the Babylonian Empire that aided him greatly. The Kassites invaded the south and what had once been an opposition population in large part turned into a mass of refugees for Samsu-iluna to take in. Not that Samsu-ilana was particularly merciful: In putting down the rebellion and driving out the Kassites, the infrastructure of the Southern regions were damaged to an extent where they were never fully repaired during the First Dynasty. In all, 26 enemy kings were put down by Samsu-iluna. While Hammurabi had invaded and beaten the leaders of these regions, it was his much-overlooked son who showed that the First Dynasty would last as a major power for the region.  

7. The War Dam

While the situation was much more stabilized by the time Samsu-iluna’s son Abiesh took the throne, he had rebellions of his own to deal with, and in one case, he adopted a solution that would seem millennia ahead of its time. During the 19th year of his reign, having routed the rebel armies of the Elamites, Abiesh desperately wanted to capture an enemy king that was said to be from “Sealand.” Instead of relying on an army, Abiesh turned to engineering. He had the Tigris River dammed so that the enemy’s escape route was disrupted by flooding. 

Surprisingly, while the Babylonians were successful in altering the flow of one of the two major rivers that made Mesopotamia the Fertile Crescent it was, history records that he didn’t capture the king he was after. That’s an astonishing level of embarrassing honesty as far as official records go. As his very materialistic and indirect solution to a military challenge implied, the surviving records of Abiesh imply that he concerned himself more with supply chains and goods, such as grain shipments and pack animals for cities in need, and his success in those fields goes to show that his failure to capture an enemy king by no means indicated his reign was a failure overall.  

6. The Forgotten Father

While Hammurabi’s successors by no means deserved to be overlooked in the way they largely have been by historians, his predecessors weren’t exactly slouches either. Hammurabi’s father, Sin-Muballit, took the throne for the city-state of Babylon in 1748 BC, and the argument could be made that he was the first ruler of the First Dynasty, since he was the first to declare himself King of Babylon. He faced the dynasties of Larsa and Isin, which had long been enemies of Babylon.

In the 13th year of his reign, Sin-Muballit defeated an attack from the city-state of Ur. Apparently no longer content for his city-state to simply hold its own, Sin-Muballit retained the initiative and struck out at the city of Isin. In the 17th year of his reign, he conquered it. He had two more years to reign and consolidate power, but it was he that set Babylon on the path to conquest that would make an empire of the city. It’s perhaps a bit understandable that his reign is so overshadowed, as he reigned a relatively modest 19 years and Babylon was not yet the sort of powerhouse that could afford to set down the details of the life of the king in clay yet.  

5. Amorite Conquest

If you’re one of the rare list consumers who doesn’t skip intros, you probably noticed that the word “Amorite” was used to describe the first Babylonian Dynasty, and odds are you had no idea what it meant. Well, it turns out that Babylon became one of the largest and easily the most celebrated civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia for a very surprising reason: A bunch of raiders needed to find a place to feed their horses.  

The Amorites were a nomadic group from what today is Syria. Their chieftains led them into Mesopotamia in no small part looking for grazing land. While many surviving Sumerian accounts are dismissive of them for not even advancing enough to “know grain,” the primitives had the last laugh when they conquered the Sumerians and the Babylonians as well. This may sound similar to stories of the barbarians that sacked Rome early in its history, or the Mongols that created the largest empire in the world. The Amorites were different in that while they weren’t an agrarian society; they set down roots in the cities they conquered and reigned over them for centuries. It could be said that their hot-blooded nomadic tradition would turn the Babylonians into a people that would create one of the first empires, but since there were five kings between their conquest of Babylon and Babylon’s expansion into an empire, those must have been very recessive genes that caused that. 

4. Greece Took Their Astronomy

Many people today associate ancient astronomy more with Greece than any other ancient empire. After all, all the constellations we know have Greek names, and the oldest astronomers we can name are individuals like Pythagorus. As it happens, while the First Dynasty was cursing future generations of students with trigonometry and algebra, they were also performing major innovations in astronomy, such as recording of the Transit of Venus during the reign of King Ammisaqda (1646-1626 BC). 

It would be the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great that would spread huge amounts of information regarding astronomy throughout the Greek Empire, and with such speed that there was no question Babylon was the impetus. To be fair to the Greeks, they didn’t just copy then Babylonians’ homework. Centuries after Alexander’s conquest, geographers such as Strabo of Amasia would give detailed tributes to the astronomical (in both senses of the word) accomplishments of the Babylonians. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give a constellation or two a Babylonian name, just to give them their due. 

3. The Client Priesthood

When they weren’t trying to expand the empire, or more often trying to keep the existing parts of the empire in the fold by putting down rebellions, one of the main preoccupations of the First Dynasty was keeping the favor of the priests and paying tribute to Babylon’s most esteemed god, Marduk. As the approval of Marduk supposedly endowed the king of kings with his divine destiny, this largely amounted to tithing like mad. Even with all his military accomplishments, Hammurabi was particularly noted for buying their favor, though he was also noted for giving extremely strict laws for priests, such as making drinking by holy people a crime punishable by death. A number of kings bribed the priesthood to declare them immortal, but since this was so clearly not the physical reality, it tended to be done only by the most desperate monarchs.  

With so much wealth pouring into them over the centuries, the Babylonian priesthood could think big. Not only were many grand temples built throughout the empire, but technological innovations emerged as well. Babylonian temples were among the first buildings in human history to incorporate columns into their design. This was more a practical decision than an aesthetic one, as the bricks used at the time were largely still crude. With it being a capitol offense for a building to collapse and kill someone, Babylonian construction workers had all the motivation in the world to be so careful.

2. State of the Art Statues

What is one of the defining features of a statue? Something so fundamental that it wouldn’t even occur to you as an aspect of a statue? In the case of the Babylonians, it was to be a freestanding three-dimensional structure. Before their masons came along, statues were bas reliefs, meaning that they were essentially two dimensional and extended from walls. Babylonians were the first to build them as separate structures and introduce a high degree of realism to them.

Babylonian stone carvers favored alabaster, diorite, and limestone. Since none of these materials were particularly abundant or easy to ship with the tools of the day, extremely skilled craftsmen were strongly favored over anything like mass production. Their empire was also early in decorating such containers as clay pots. With such a degree of artistic development, it’s little surprise that Babylon was famous for being perhaps the most beautiful city in the world, even centuries before the famed Hanging Gardens came and went. 

1. Attack of the Hittites

While the Kassites to the East of Babylon inadvertently saved the First Dynasty for a time by disrupting the rebellion against Samsu-iluna, ultimately they also buried that dynasty too. In 1595, a Hittite army (from what’s now Turkey) under Mursulius I invaded Babylon and sacked the capitol. While the Hittites did not have the inclination to stay and consolidate power, they had weakened Babylon enough for the Kassitites to exploit the power vacuum, and reign over Babylon for nearly five centuries, which was actually a fair deal longer than the First Dynasty could.  

Yet even as they were being conquered, the Amorites had a surprising degree of influence over the Kassites. The religions of Babylon didn’t just remain in place, they actually spread into the Kassites. Indeed, the first king of the Kassite Dynasty, Agum-Kakrime, waged war against the Hittites and was said to have retrieved a statue of Marduk that the Hittites had stolen. It was perhaps one of the greatest victories that a dynasty ever scored from beyond the grave.     

Dustin Koski talks about another dead empire in the supernatural comedy novel he co-wrote with Jonathan “Bogleech” Wojcik, Return of the Living.