The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0000/00004.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 29KB | 442 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00004}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Chapter II: The Ptolemies}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{son
cleopatra
ptolemy
alexander
mother
physcon
fact
time
upon
husband}
$Date{1900}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt
Book:        Cleopatra
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter II: The Ptolemies

     The founder of the dynasty of the Ptolemies - the ruler into whose hands
the kingdom of Egypt fell, as has already been stated, at the death of
Alexander the Great - was a Macedonian general in Alexander's army.  The
circumstances of his birth, and the events which led to his entering into the
service of Alexander, were somewhat peculiar.  His mother, whose name was
Arsinoe, was a personal favorite and companion of Philip, king of Macedon, the
father of Alexander.  Philip at length gave Arsinoe in marriage to a certain
man of his court named Lagus.  A very short time after the marriage, Ptolemy
was born.  Philip treated the child with the same consideration and favor that
he had evinced toward the mother.  The boy was called the son of Lagus, but
his position in the royal court of Macedon was as high and honorable, and the
attentions which he received were as great, as he could have expected to enjoy
if he had been in reality a son of the king.  As he grew up, he attained to
official stations of considerable responsibility and power.

     In the course of time, a certain transaction occurred, by means of which
Ptolemy involved himself in serious difficulty with Philip, though by the same
means he made Alexander very strongly his friend.  There was a province of the
Persian empire called Caria, situated in the southwestern part of Asia Minor.
The governor of this province had offered his daughter to Philip as the wife
of one of his sons named Aridaeus, the half brother of Alexander. Alexander's
mother, who was not the mother of Aridaeus, was jealous of this proposed
marriage.  She thought that it was part of a scheme for bringing Aridaeus
forward into public notice, and finally making him the heir to Philip's
throne; whereas she was very earnest that this splendid inheritance should be
reserved for her own son.  Accordingly, she proposed to Alexander that they
should send a secret embassage to the Persian governor, and represent to him
that it would be much better, both for him and for his daughter, that she
should have Alexander instead of Aridaeus for a husband, and induce him, if
possible, to demand of Philip that he should make the change.

     Alexander entered readily into this scheme, and various courtiers,
Ptolemy among the rest, undertook to aid him in the accomplishment of it. The
embassy was sent.  The governor of Caria was very much pleased with the change
which they proposed to him.  In fact, the whole plan seemed to be going on
very successfully toward its accomplishment, when, by some means or other,
Philip discovered the intrigue.  He went immediately into Alexander's
apartment, highly excited with resentment and anger.  He had never intended to
make Aridaeus, whose birth on the mother's side was obscure and ignoble, the
heir to his throne, and he reproached Alexander in the bitterest terms for
being of so debased and degenerate a spirit as to desire to marry the daughter
of a Persian governor; a man who was, in fact, the mere slave, as he said, of
a barbarian king.

     Alexander's scheme was thus totally defeated; and so displeased was his
father with the officers who had undertaken to aid him in the execution of it,
that he banished them all from the kingdom.  Ptolemy, in consequence of this
decree, wandered about an exile from his country for some years, until at
length the death of Philip enabled Alexander to recall him.  Alexander
succeeded his father as King of Macedon and immediately made Ptolemy one of
his principal generals.  Ptolemy rose, in fact, to a very sigh command in the
Macedonian army, and distinguished himself very greatly in all the celebrated
conqueror's subsequent campaigns.  In the Persian invasion, Ptolemy commanded
one of the three grand divisions of the army, and he rendered repeatedly the
most signal services to the cause of his master.  He was employed on the most
distant and dangerous enterprises, and was often intrusted with the management
of affairs of the utmost importance.  He was very successful in all his
undertakings.  He conquered armies, reduced fortresses, negotiated treaties,
and evinced, in a word the highest degree of military energy and skill.  He
once saved Alexander's life by discovering and revealing a dangerous
conspiracy which had been formed against the king. Alexander had the
opportunity to requite this favor, through a divine interposition vouchsafed
to him, it was said, for the express purpose of enabling him to evince his
gratitude.  Ptolemy had been wounded by a poisoned arrow, and when all the
remedies and antidotes of the physicians had failed, and the patient was
apparently about to die, an effectual means of cure was revealed to Alexander
in a dream, and Ptolemy, in his turn, was saved.

     At the great rejoicings at Susa, when Alexander's conquests were
completed, Ptolemy was honored with a golden crown, and he was married, with
great pomp and ceremony, to Artacama, the daughter of one of the most
distinguished Persian generals.

     At length Alexander died suddenly, after a night of drinking and carousal
at Babylon.  He had no son old enough to succeed him, and his immense empire
was divided among his generals.  Ptolemy obtained Egypt for his share.  He
repaired immediately to Alexandria, with a great army, and a great number of
Greek attendants and followers, and there commenced a reign which continued in
great prosperity and splendor, for forty years.  The native Egyptians were
reduced, of course, to subjection and bondage.  All the offices in the army,
and all stations of trust and responsibility in civil life, were filled by
Greeks.  Alexandria was a Greek city, and it became at once one of the most
important commercial centers in all those seas Greek and Roman travelers found
now a language spoken in Egypt which they could understand, philosophers and
scholars could gratify the curiosity which they had so long felt, in respect
to the institutions, and monuments, and wonderful physical characteristics of
the country, with safety and pleasure.  In a word, the organization of a Greek
government over the ancient kingdom, and the establishment of the great
commercial relations of the city of Alexandria, conspired to bring Egypt out
from its concealment and seclusion, and to open it in some measure to the
intercourse, as well as to bring it more fully under the observation, of the
rest of mankind.

     Ptolemy, in fact, made it a special object of his policy to accomplish
these ends.  He invited Greek scholars, philosophers, poets, and artists, in
great numbers, to come to Alexandria, and to make his capital their abode. He
collected an immense library, which subsequently, under the name of the
Alexandrian library, became one of the most celebrated collections of books
and manuscripts that was ever made.  We shall have occasion to refer more
particularly to this library in the next chapter.

     Besides prosecuting these splendid schemes for the aggrandizement of
Egypt, King Ptolemy was engaged, during almost the whole period of his reign,
in waging incessant wars with the surrounding nations.  He engaged in these
wars, in part, for the purpose of extending the boundaries of his empire, and
in part for self-defense against the aggressions and encroachments of other
powers.  He finally succeeded in establishing his kingdom on the most stable
and permanent basis, and then, when he was drawing toward the close of his
life, being in fact over eighty years of age, he abdicated his throne in favor
of his youngest son, whose name was also Ptolemy.  Ptolemy the father, the
founder of the dynasty, is known commonly in history by the