This is John Batchel, conversation with the Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson.

Ptolemy I, late 4th century BCE, one of Alexander's best friends.

Alexander is dead, and Ptolemy takes the part of the empire that was Egypt.

And that is a decision that Ptolemy makes consciously

to become part Macedonian king

and part Egyptian Pharaoh.

How does he do that?

He honors the traditions.

Ptolemy, the first, is a genius.

He puts together two cultures that have never, ever lived side by side.

And it lasts for over 300 years.

Here's the professor describing Ptolemy the first, the man with the vision of knitting together ancient Egypt with conquering Macedonia.

Much more of this later.

Yeah, and he surrounds himself with advisors who are Egyptian as well as Greek,

including priests of the ancient Egyptian religion.

And he wants to forge this united culture, this united country that draws on all of these different

cultural traditions. I mean, had he spoken Latin, he might well

have chosen the motto, E pluribus, Unum, for Ptolemaic Egypt, because he was trying to fashion

one out of many, one identity out of many different strands of cultural backgrounds.

And he actually creates an entirely new god, the god Serapis,

who is shown as a Greek god as a man with a big bushy beard,

rather like Zeus, but is actually drawing from ancient Egyptian religion.

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