Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 58, Ptolemaic Egypt. Two lands, two peoples, one ruler.

Under the reign of Ptolemy II, Philadelphia, and his son, Ptolemy the third Uruguities, the third century BC saw the glory days of Hellenistic Egypt.

Though their domain was not as large as the contemporary Salucate kings of Syria,

nor the Morian emperors in India, the Ptolemies were easily the wealthiest people on earth.

Their intensive cultivation of the Nile River and the facilitation of trade networks

had created the kingdom of unparalleled splendor and luxury.

Yet, much of this wealth was largely centered on the Nile Delta

and their great capital of Alexandria by Egypt. Alexandria was home to some of the most

brilliant intellectual and artistic minds to come out of the period and considered one of the

greatest cities in history. Thanks to the vast output of literary works and extensive

archaeological and papyological evidence,

we can reconstruct the inner workings of the Ptolemaic state to such a degree that is unmatched by any contemporary society at the time.

I want to spend several episodes guiding you through the world of Hellenistic Egypt,

and today we will discuss the Ptolemaic monarchy and its attempts to legitimize their rule with both Greeks and Egyptians alike.

King Kambisi's conquests of Egypt and its subsequent incorporation into the Persian Empire during the late 6th century

ushered in the time of great unrest for its native inhabitants.

While archaeological evidence and surviving

descriptions run counter to Herodotus' writings, which claimed that the Persian occupation

resulted in tight-fisted despotism and particularly egregious acts of sacrilege against the

Egyptian pantheon, there were a number of rebellions that indicated a deep resentment of these

foreign occupiers. In about 404, the Egyptians threw off

the Persian yoke, and the 28th through the 30th dynasties ruled independently for another 60 years,

...