Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter, (323 BC—283 BC).

Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter (son of Lagus) was a general of Alexander the Great and as speculated by some, his possible half-brother. After Alexander's death he received the Satrapy of Egypt during the regency of Pediccas. After the Battle of Salamis with Antigonus, he proclaimed himself king of Egypt, thereby establishing the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Titles

After assuming the purple, Ptolemy clad himself with the vestments of Egypt's traditional customs and religion bearing the title of Pharaoh. While the colloquial "Soter" (saviour) was coffered after a military victory. Yet despite taking the title of Pharaoh, the coin shown still is classically greek in style.

The reverse of the coin on the right depicts the sacred bird of Zeus, the Eagle of the State cluching or perched on the sacred lightning of Zeus Kataibates, "Zeus who descends in lightning" declaring: "He who rules by Zeus' permission and will".

Meanwhile the only title thereon reads in Greek ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ: "of King Ptolemy" or "of Ptolemy the King". But both ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ and ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ are singular genative which necessitates the nominative being the subject of the sentence. Since there is no text in the nominative the iconography supplies the void of the missing nominative to read a true title as: "Zeus grants kingship to Ptolemy."

Wars of the Successors

Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, he by martial art ceased the funeral train headed for Macedonia and "brought his body with him to be buried in Alexandria, reuniting the famed conqueror with the city that bore his name. For the next two-and-a-half centuries, the Ptolemaic dynasty of the Greeks would successfully rule Egypt, mingling Hellenic traditions with the mighty legacy of the Pharaohs."

Family

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Great Library

In his old age Ptolemy I ceded the throne to his son Philadelphus and dedicated the remainder of his years to the construction of the Great Library of Alexandria which came to supersede the library at Pergamos. As part of this project he wrote his own history on the life of Alexander, which Quintus prized as the "most trustworthy" source on the history of Alexander the Great.

in Prophecy

Ptolemy I's repeated appearance in the prophecies of Daniel have long been noted. For Josephus' telling of Alexander the Great's arrival at Jerusalem and identification therein neccessitates that Ptolemy I's appearance in Daniel 7:6,17; furthermore in Daniel 8:8,21-22; finally the story of the Ptolemy I is again told Daniel 11:4-5 as noted in Anthony's Study Aid.

Further Study

See also

• Alexander the Great
• Cleopatra

External links

• The Ptolemaic Dynasty