Arsinoe II
Arsinoe II Philadelphos | |
---|---|
Ptolemy II Philadelphos | |
Issue | Ptolemy Epigonos Lysimachus (son of Lysimachus) Philip (son of Lysimachus) |
Dynasty | Ptolemaic |
Father | Ptolemy I Soter |
Mother | Berenice I of Egypt |
Arsinoë II (
Arsinoe was Queen of Thrace, Anatolia, and Macedonia by marriage to King Lysimachus. She became co-ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom upon her marriage to her brother, Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
Life
Early life
Arsinoë was the first daughter of Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Hellenistic state of Egypt, and his second wife Berenice I of Egypt.[4]
She was maybe born in Memphis, but was raised in the new city of Alexandria, where her father moved his capital.[5] Nothing is known of her childhood or education, but judging from her later life as patron of scholars and noted for her learning, she is estimated to have been given a high education.[6] Her brothers were tutored by intellectuals hired by their fathers, and it is regarded likely that she attended these lessons as well: she corresponded with the intellectual Strato of Lampsacus later in life, and he may have previously been her tutor.[7]
Queen of Lysimachus
Around the age of 15, Arsinoë married King Lysimachus, who was then around 60 years old.[8] Together, the pair had three sons: Ptolemy Epigonos,[9][10] Lysimachus,[10] and Philip.[10]
In order to position her sons for the throne, she had Lysimachus' first son, Agathocles, poisoned on account of treason.
Arsinoe reportedly paid for a rotunda in the Samothrace temple complex, where she was likely an initiate. [11]
Queen of Ptolemy Keraunos
In 281 BC, Lysimachus died in battle and Arsinoë fled to
As Ptolemy Keraunos was becoming more powerful, Arsinoë decided it was time to stop him and conspired against him with her sons. This action caused Ptolemy Keraunus to kill two of her sons, Lysimachus and Philip, while the eldest, Ptolemy, was able to escape and to flee north, to the kingdom of the Dardanians.
Arsinoë sought refuge in the Samothrace temple complex, which she had benefited during her tenure as queen.[12] She eventually left from Samothrace for Alexandria, Egypt, to seek protection from her brother, Ptolemy II Philadelphus.[13]
It is not known which year she left for Egypt. She may have left as early as 280 BC, directly after the murder of the younger sons, or as late as 276 BC, when the claim of her eldest son to the Macedonian throne had clearly failed, following the succession of Antigonus II Gonatas.[7]
Queen of Egypt
In Egypt, she is believed to have instigated the accusation and exile of Arsinoe I, the wife of her younger brother Ptolemy II. Whether this belief was correct remains unknown. It is not known which year she arrived in Egypt, nor when her sister-in-law was exiled, nor whether the divorce between her brother and Arsinoe I may have taken place without the involvement of Arsinoe II.[14]
Whatever the case, after the divorce of Ptolemy, Arsinoe II then married her brother. As a result, both were given the epithet "Philadelphoi" (
Her role as queen was unprecedented in the dynasty at the time and became a role model for later Ptolemaic queens: she acted alongside her brother in ritual and public display, became a religious and literal patron, and was included in the Egyptian and Greek cults created for them by her brother.[17] Sharing in all of her brother's titles,[18] she was quite influential, having towns dedicated to her, her own cult (as was Egyptian custom), appearing on coinage, and contributing to foreign policy,[19] including Ptolemy II's victory in the First Syrian War between Egypt and the Seleucid Empire.
According to
Deification
She died in 270 or 268 BC and circumstantial evidence supports the latter date.
Arsinoe's cult was also propagated in Alexandria. An annual priesthood, known as the
Arsinoe seems to have been a genuinely popular goddess throughout the Ptolemaic period, with both Greeks and Egyptians, in Egypt and beyond. 'Arsinoe' is one of the few Greek names to be naturalised as an Egyptian personal name in the period. Altars and dedicatory plaques in her honour are found throughout Egypt and the Aegean, while hundreds of her faience oenochoae have been found in the cemeteries of Alexandria.
Marriage and issue
Arsinoe married Lysimachus of Thrace in 300 or 299 BC and had three children:
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Ptolemy | 299/8 BC | February 240 BC | Co-regent of Egypt with her younger brother, Ptolemy II (267-259 BC), rebelled in 259 BC, subsequently Ptolemaic vassal ruler of Telmessus until 240 BC.
|
Lysimachus | 297/6 BC | 279 BC | Murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos. |
Philip | 294 BC | 279 BC | Murdered by Ptolemy Keraunos. |
After Lysimachus' death in 281 BC, Arsinoe was briefly married to her half-brother Ptolemy Ceraunus from 280 to 279 BC and then to her full-blooded, younger brother Ptolemy II of Egypt from the late 270s BC until her death. Ptolemy II's children by his first wife
See also
References
- ^ Bennett, Chris. "Arsinoe II". Egyptian Royal Genealogy.
- ISBN 9781627343589.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 115.
- ^ Lorenzi 2010.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 16.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 17.
- ^ a b Carney 2013.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 31.
- ^ Billows 1995, p. 110.
- ^ a b c Bengtson 1977, p. 569.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 38.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 60-63.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 66.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 67-70.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 70-82.
- ISBN 978-0-8020-4313-9.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 95-100.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 85.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 90-95.
- ^ Posidippus, p. VIII 309.
- ^ Carney 2013, p. 142.
- ^ Oppen, Branko van (2010-01-01). "The Death of Arsinoe II Philadelphus: The Evidence Reconsidered". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik.
- ^ a b Holbl 2001, pp. 101–104
- P. Oxy27.2465.
- ^ Thompson, D.B. (1973). Ptolemaic Oinochoai and Portraits in Faience: Aspects of the Ruler-Cult. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bibliography
- Bengtson, H. (1977). Griechische Geschichte von den Anfängen bis in die römische Kaiserzeit. C.H.Beck.
- Billows, R.A. (1995). Kings and colonists: aspects of Macedonian imperialism. Brill.
- Carney, Elizabeth Donnelly (2013). Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-971101-7.
- Holbl, Gunther (2001). A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. London: Routledge.
- Lorenzi, Rossella (December 2, 2010). "Did female Egyptian pharaoh rule before Cleopatra?". NBC News. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- Posidippus. Milan Papyrus aka P. Mil. Vogl.
Further reading
- S.M. Burstein, "Arsinoe II Philadelphos: A Revisionist View", in W.L. Adams and E.N. Borza (eds), Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage (Washington, 1982), 197-212
- P. McKechnie and P. Guillaume (eds) Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World. Leiden, 2008.
- M. Nilsson, The Crown of Arsinoë II: The Creation of an Image of Authority. Oxford, 2012.
- D. L. Selden, Daniel L. "Alibis". Classical Antiquity 17 (2), October 1998.
External links
- Coin with her portrait
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Arsinoe II entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith