Ptolemy & the Making of Greek Egypt

A History of Mankind (155)

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Ptolemy I Soter was the most boring of the Diadochi. A man whose shrewdness was exemplified by his decision to put young Pyrrhus in the throne of Epirus, thus stirring the Greek pot for decades while everyone else forgot about Egypt, his reign was marked by caution: after all, he was 62 years old when he became pharaoh in 305 BC.

A high-born Macedonian and former bodyguard of Alexander who fought with distinction in many of his campaigns, Ptolemy ensured the Egyptian satrapy for himself when Alexander died, by murdering his predecessor Cleomenes of Naucratis in typical Diadochi style. He fully squeezed his success on holding on to Alexander’s corpse for all its worth, setting up a cult of the dead conqueror.

A successful general and administrator, as Diadochus he fought successful campaigns in Greece and Asia Minor but, unlike Alexander wannabes like Pyrrhus and Demetrius I, he reinforced his power base in Egypt and only really attempted to gain control – in a very Egyptian manner – of Cyprus, Palestine and Syria.

Ptolemy’s only foundation of a Greek city was Ptolemais, in Upper Egypt, mostly to shore up his own control of the region; still, of the many mistresses this Macedonian had, only one was Egyptian, and the only known Egyptian to have reached a high office during his reign was a general named Nectanebo¹. It was under Ptolemy I that Petosiris, an Egyptian magnate, designed and built for himself the last known tomb in the old Egyptian aristocratic tradition².