You are here: BP HOME > BPG > Eusebius: Chronica > fulltext
Eusebius: Chronica

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages
Choose display
  • Enable images
  • Enable footnotes
    • Show all footnotes
    • Minimize footnotes
Search-help
Choose specific texts..
Eusebius: Chronica
    Click to Expand/Collapse Option Complete text
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionIntroduction
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionChaldeans
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionChaldeans
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionLydians
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionPersians
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionHebrews
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEgyptians
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionGreeks
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionRomans
Back to library
. 
. 
The kings of Egypt and the city of Alexandria after the death of Alexander of Macedonia, from the writings of Porphyrius: 
.  .  . 
.  .  . 
Alexander of Macedonia died in the 114th Olympiad [324 B.C.], after reigning for a total of 12 years.  He was succeeded by Aridaeus, also called Philippus, who was a brother of Alexander, but by a different mother; for he was the son of Philippus and Philinna of Larissa.  Aridaeus ruled for 7 years, before he was killed in Macedonia by Polysperchon the son of Antipater. 
.  .  . 
.  .  . 
(161) A year after Philippus became king, Ptolemy the son of Arsinoe and Lagus was sent to be satrap of Egypt.  He was satrap for 17 years, and then he was king for 23 years; so altogether he ruled for 40 years, until his death.  However, while still alive he abdicated in favour of his son Ptolemy, called Philadelphus, and he lived for a further two years after his son had taken over as king; so we reckon the reign of this first Ptolemy, called Soter, to be 38 rather than 40 years long. 
.  . 
.  . 
He was succeeded by his son Ptolemy, who as we said was called Philadelphus.  The son reigned for two years while his father was still alive, and then for a further 36 years after his death, so that we reckon the length of his reign to be 38 years, the same as for his father. 
. 
. 
After him, the third Ptolemy, called Euergetes, reigned for 25 years. 
. 
. 
After him, the fourth Ptolemy, called Philopator, reigned for 17 years. 
. 
. 
After him, the fifth Ptolemy, called Epiphanes, reigned for 24 years. 
.  . 
.  . 
This Ptolemy had two sons, the elder called Philometor and the younger called the second Euergetes, who ruled after him for a combined total of 64 years.  We have counted their years together, because they were constantly fighting against each other and alternately gained and lost control of the kingdom, which makes it difficult to calculate their years separately. 
.  .  .  . 
.  .  .  . 
Philometor first ruled on his own for 11 years; but when Antiochus invaded Egypt and removed him from the throne, the inhabitants of Alexandria put the younger brother in charge.  Then they forced Antiochus out of Egypt, and freed Philometor.  They called that the 12th year of Philometor, and the first year of Euergetes.  After that the two kings ruled jointly until the 17th year, but from the 18th year onwards Philometor ruled on his own. 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
At that time the elder brother, who had been deposed by the younger brother, was restored by the Romans.  (163) So he ruled in Egypt, and made his brother ruler of Libya instead, and after that Philometor ruled as sole king of Egypt for 18 years.  When he died in Syria, which was also under his control, Euergetes was called back from Cyrene and proclaimed king.  Euergetes counted his years from the time when he first became king, so that he seems to have reigned for 25 [29?] years after his brother's death, but officially he reigned for 54 years.  The 36th year of Philometor should have been called the first year of his reign, but instead he ordered it to be written as the 25th year of his reign.  So the combined length of both their reigns is 64 years, 35 years under Philometor and the rest under Euergetes; but to split it up into separate reigns would lead to confusion. 
.  .  . 
.  .  . 
Ptolemy the second Euergetes had two sons by Cleopatra, the elder called Ptolemy Soter and the younger called Ptolemy Alexander.  The elder son was appointed by his mother to reign first; she thought he would obey her, so favoured him for a time.  But in the tenth year of his reign he murdered his parents' friends, and was deposed by his mother because of his cruelty, and fled to Cyprus. 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
His mother summoned her younger son from Pelusium, and appointed him to be king along with her.  So the younger son ruled jointly with his mother, and the country was governed in both their names; this year was called the 11th year of Cleopatra and the 8th year of Alexander, because Alexander counted his years from the 4th year of his brother's reign, which was when he started to rule over Cyprus.  This state of affairs continued until the death of Cleopatra; after she died, Alexander ruled on his own, and he reigned for 18 years in all after he returned to Alexandria, though officially he reigned for 26 years.  In the 19th year, after a dispute with his soldiers, he went away to collect an army to bring to Egypt against them.  - However they followed him, and under the leadership of a relative of the kings called Tyrrus, (165) they defeated him in a naval battle.  Alexander was forced to take refuge with his wife and daughter in Myra, a city of Lycia; from there, he crossed over to Cyprus, where he was defeated by the admiral Chaereas, and died. 
.  .  .  .  . 
.  .  .  .  . 
After his expulsion, the inhabitants of Alexandria sent envoys to the elder brother, Ptolemy Soter, and established him as king again, when he had sailed back from Cyprus.  Soter lived for another 7 years and 6 months after his return, and the whole period after the death of the brothers' father was counted in his name, which was a total of 35 years and 6 months.  But if we split the period up according to the actual course of events, Ptolemy Soter ruled at two different times for a total of 17 years and 6 months, and in between the younger brother, Ptolemy Alexander, ruled for 18 years.  The inhabitants of Alexandria were unable to completely delete Alexander's reign from the records, but as far as was in their power they erased all mention of it, because Alexander had assaulted them with the help of some Jews.  So they do not count the years of his reign, but attribute the whole 36 years to the elder brother. 
.  . 
.  . 
Similarly, they do not attribute the next 6 months after the death of the elder brother, which make up the complete 36 years, to Cleopatra, the daughter of the elder brother and wife of the younger brother, who took over control of the kingdom after the death of her father.  Nor do they formally attribute to Alexander the 19 days in which he jointly reigned with her. 
.  .  .  . 
.  .  .  . 
This Alexander was the son of the younger Ptolemy, who was also called Alexander, and the stepson of Cleopatra.  He was staying in Rome, when he was summoned back to Alexandria because there were no men of the royal family left in Egypt.  He married the aforesaid Cleopatra, and when she had willingly handed over power to him, after an interval of 19 days he murdered her.  Then he himself was seized and killed by the armed men in the gymnasium, because of the foul murder which he had committed. 
.  . 
.  . 
(167) This Alexander was succeeded by Ptolemy, called the new Dionysus, who was the son of Ptolemy Soter and the brother of the aforesaid Cleopatra.  He reigned for 29 years. 
.  . 
.  . 
His daughter Cleopatra was the last of the dynasty of the Ptolemaei.  She reigned for 22 years. 
.  .  .  . 
.  .  .  . 
These reigns also did not follow an continuous sequence from start to finish, as laid out in the records, but each of them had some interruptions in the middle of it.  In the reign of the new Dionysus, a three year period was ascribed to the rule of his daughters Cleopatra Tryphaena and Berenice, one year as a joint reign and the following two years, after the death of Cleopatra Tryphaena, as the reign of Berenice on her own.  Because Ptolemy had gone off to Rome, and was spending a long time there, his daughters took over the rule of the kingdom, as if he was not going to return, and Berenice took on some men of the royal family as co-rulers.  But when Ptolemy returned from Rome, he forget all affection towards his daughter, and in his anger at what she had done, he put her to death. 
.  .  .  .  . 
.  .  .  .  . 
In the first years of Cleopatra's reign, she shared power with her elder brother Ptolemy and then with others, for the following reasons.  When the new Dionysus died, he left four children, two sons called Ptolemy and daughters called Cleopatra and Arsinoe.  He handed over power to the two eldest children, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, who reigned jointly for 4 years.  And this state of affairs would have continued, if Ptolemy had not wanted to seize sole power for himself, in contravention of his father's orders.  However he was fated to die soon afterwards, after being defeated in a naval battle by Julius Caesar, who intervened on behalf of Cleopatra. 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
.  .  .  .  .  . 
After Ptolemy's death, Cleopatra's younger brother, who was also called Ptolemy, became joint ruler with his sister, as proposed by Caesar.  - The next year was called the fifth year of Cleopatra and the first year of Ptolemy, and so it continued for the following two years, (169) until he died.  He was plotted against and killed by Cleopatra, in his 4th year, which was Cleopatra's 8th year.  From then onwards Cleopatra ruled on her own, up until her 15th year.  However, her 16th year was also called the first year, because after the death of Lysimachus the king of Chalcis in Syria, the Roman general Marcus Antonius gave Chalcis and the surrounding regions to Cleopatra.  And from then onwards for the remaining years up until the 22nd year, which was the last of Cleopatra's reign, the years were counted in the same way, so that the 22nd year was also called the 7th year. 
.  .  . 
.  .  . 
Octavius Caesar, also called Augustus, conquered Egypt in the battle of Actium, and succeeded Cleopatra as ruler of Egypt in the second year of the 184th Olympiad [43 B.C.].  From the first year of the 111th Olympiad [336 B.C.], when Aridaeus Philippus became king, until the second year of the 184th Olympiad [43 B.C.], is 73 Olympiads and one additional year.  So the total duration of the rule of all the kings of Alexandria, down to the death of Cleopatra, is 293 years. 
. 
. 
So the reign-lengths of the Ptolemaei are as follows: 
.  .  . 
.  .  . 
Alexander the Macedonian began his reign in the first year of the 111th Olympiad [336 B.C.].  He founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt, and ruled for 12 years and 7 months.  After him, the kings of the city of Alexandria and the whole of Egypt were: 
. 
. 
Ptolemy the son of Lagus - for 40 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Philadelphus - for 38 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Euergetes - for 24 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Philopator - for 21 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Epiphanes - for 24 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Philometor - for 31 years 
. 
. 
(171) Ptolemy the second Euergetes - for 29 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Physcon, or Soter - for 17 years and 6 months 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Alexander, after the expulsion of [Soter], his predecessor - for [10] years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, returning from exile after the expulsion of Alexander - for 8 years 
. 
. 
Ptolemy Dionysus, called Philadelphus - for 30 years 
. 
. 
Cleopatra the daughter of Ptolemy - for 22 years 
.  . 
.  . 
In her reign, Gaius Julius Caesar became the first Roman emperor.  The next emperor, Octavius Caesar Augustus, called Sebastos in Greek, killed Cleopatra and put an end to the dynasty of the Ptolemaei, who had ruled for 295 years. 
. 
. 
THE GREEKS 
. 
. 
According to the historians of their ancient times. 
. 
. 
The kings of the Athenians 
. 
. 
The kings of the Argives 
. 
. 
The kings of the Sicyonians 
. 
. 
The kings of the Lacedaemonians 
. 
. 
The kings of the Corinthians 
. 
. 
Who ruled the sea, and for how long 
. 
. 
The individual Olympiads of the Greeks 
. 
. 
The early kings of the Macedonians 
. 
. 
The kings of the (?) Macedonians, Thessalians, Syrians and Asians after Alexander 
Permanent link
Go to Wiki Documentation
Enhet: Det humanistiske fakultet   Utviklet av: IT-seksjonen ved HF
Login