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REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS
In the third and final instalment of his Ptolemaic series, Grainger presents what he describes as a ‘deeply unpleasant and murderous succession of barely competent kings and queens’, following the dynasty’s decline into ‘confusion and chaos’, and untangling the complex interrelations between Egypt, Seleucid Syria, and Rome.
Ptolemy VIII (‘Potbelly’) is perhaps the most notorious of the dynasty, but Grainger gives a measured appraisal of his often extreme behaviour. He takes issue with the often unreliable, and sometimes ‘unpleasantly’ embellished, later sources. Ptolemy VIII ‘is… not quite the fat, scantily dressed buffoon of our sources’, he argues, but rather an accomplished politician. By marrying his sister Cleopatra II and her daughter Cleopatra III, creating a triumvirate of co-rulers, he prevented their marriage to foreign princes who could then have had a claim to the throne of Egypt. However, it is highly probable that he did murder his stepson/nephew, and there is no dispute over the murder of his own son Memphites, whose body was sent in pieces back to his sister-wife after her coup d’état forced him into exile in 132 BC, leaving her to rule alone.
After this, the story becomes ‘terribly complicated’ (although clearly narrated by the author) due to a ‘royal game of wife-swapping’. Later Ptolemies married and divorced several sisters, while other sisters married a series of Seleucid kings, each producing children with various claims to rule Egypt and Syria. Ongoing family disputes led to constant civil and international war, which also ensnared Rome and the Jewish Maccabee rebels.
A crisis point was reached in 80 BC with the deaths of three Ptolemaic rulers in as many months (including the assassination of Berenice III, and the lynching of her murderous stepson/cousin). Most of the Cleopatras in Syria also came to rather horrific ends. As Ptolemy XII (‘Fluteplayer’) came to power, he was faced with the steadily rising threat of Rome, and bankrupted Egypt by paying huge bribes to powerful senators including Pompey and Caesar. The author’s unkind assessment of his daughter and successor Cleopatra VII is perhaps unfair, describing her as ‘much more concerned with her personal pleasures than the well-being and future of the people over whom she ruled’. He denies her any agency in her own death, suggesting Octavian forced her to take her own life. Overall, while he agrees the Ptolemies made some ‘notable achievements’ (in particular the development of Alexandria, and crucial influence on the shaping of imperial Rome), his assessment of the dynasty is that it was ‘an oppressive institution’ and ‘the antitheses of what a dynasty of rulers ought to be’.
There are a couple of errors – for example, Cleopatra II was the sister-wife of Ptolemy VI, and not his daughter as stated at one point. Some sort of family tree would be very useful, too. But, overall, this is a fitting final volume for what has been an enjoyable trilogy – highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Egyptian, Roman or Hellenistic history.
The Decline and Fall of the Ptolemies: Ptolemaic Egypt 146-30 BC
by John D Grainger
Pen & Sword, 2024
ISBN 978-1-39909-012-4
Hardback, £25
