Ptolemy I Founds the Ptolemaic Kingdom
Ptolemy son of Lagus had served Alexander since youth as one of his closest companions and bodyguards. When Alexander died, Ptolemy maneuvered skillfully: he took Egypt as his satrapy — the most defensible and wealthy of Alexander's territories — and secured it by stealing Alexander's funeral cortege and bringing the body to Egypt, a brilliant political and religious coup. For fifteen years Ptolemy ruled Egypt as satrap in the name of the joint kings. He fought the other Diadochi with considerable skill, generally defensive rather than aggressive, building a strong power base. He repelled two invasions by Perdiccas (who was killed by his own officers trying to cross the Nile) and avoided the decisive land battles that destroyed Perdiccas and later Antigonus. When Antigonus declared himself king in 306 BCE, the other Diadochi followed suit. Ptolemy declared himself Ptolemy I Soter ('Savior') in 305 BCE — the epithet honoring his defense of Rhodes against Demetrius Poliorcetes' siege. Ptolemy was an intellectual as well as a general. He wrote a history of Alexander's campaigns, patronized scholarship, and began the foundations of what would become the great Library and Museum of Alexandria. He established Greek as the language of administration while patronizing Egyptian religion, presenting himself to Egyptian subjects as pharaoh. The Ptolemaic dynasty developed a distinctive Egyptian-Greek hybrid culture. Ptolemaic rulers built temples in Egyptian style while their court spoke Greek and engaged with Greek philosophy.
- Year: 305 BCE
- Category: Political
