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Results for Ptolemy:

Ptolemy: CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Name held by a succession of 15 Hellenistic rulers of Egypt from 305/304 to 30 BC. The Ptolemaic period is often taken to include the brief preceding Macedonian phase (332-305 BC), encompassing the reigns of Alexander the Great (332-323 BC), his half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus (323-317 BC), and his son Alexander IV (317-310 BC). Ptolemy I Soter (b 367/366 or 364 BC-d 283/282, Egypt), Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, became ruler of Egypt (323-285 BC) and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The dynasty reigned longer than any other dynasty and only succumbed to the Romans in 30 BC after Cleopatra VII's death.
Al Mina: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the coast of Syria near the mouth of the Orontes River that was a Greek settlement before the end of the 9th century BC and may have been Poseideion. Material from the 8th-4th centuries BC has been found, indicating further links between Greece and the Near East. Al Mina was sacked and destroyed by Ptolemy of Egypt in 413 BC.
Alexandria: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Raqote
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The Greek city founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, capital of the Ptolemy dynasty, located on a narrow strip of land in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Alexandria was placed on the earlier Egyptian settlement of Raqote of which pre-Ptolemaic seawalls are the only archaeological traces. The great city soon replaced Memphis as the capital of Egypt and is famed for its lighthouse (Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, built by Sostratos of Knidos between 299-279 BC; destroyed in 1326 AD by an earthquake), the jetty of Heptastadion, the royal palaces; and the Museion, a library and institution of scientific and philological research. It was composed of quarters: Egyptian, Greek, Jewish, and Kings. The city became the center of trade and culture in the eastern Mediterranean. The Ptolemys ruled over Egypt until 30 BC.
Benghazi/Banghazi: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Euesperides; later Berenice; Italian Bengasi
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Seaport city of northeastern Libya, the de jur capital, which was founded by the Greeks of Cyrenaica as Hesperides (Euesperides) in the 6th century BC. It was replaced in the mid-3rd century by a new city, named Berenice by the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III in honor of his wife. It continued in occupation until the 10th or 11th century ad and was ultimately replaced by the city of Benghazi, remaining a small town until it was extensively developed during the Italian occupation of Libya (1912-42). Excavations offer evidence of Classical and Hellenistic levels and the refurbishing of the enclosing walls during Justinian's time (reigned 527-565 AD).
Berenice: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Three different sites: a town on the coast of Cyrenaica, Libya which was the site of Euhesperides; a port on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea founded by Ptolemy II, especially important in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD; and Pella, Jordan, which was once known as Berenice.
Borneo: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The largest island of Southeast Asia, first mentioned in Ptolemy's Guide to Geography" of c 150 AD. Joined to mainland Southeast Asia during the low sea-level Pleistocene period archaeological sequences have been found in the Niah Caves of Sarawak and the Madai-Tingkayu region of Sabah. The Niah Great Cave sequence suggests the presence of a population of early Australoids from about 40 000 years ago and evidence from all sites indicate that the ancestors of present-day Borneans arrived around 3000 BC possibly from the Philippines. Though traces of Homo erectus from 2 million years ago were found on neighboring Java so far no evidence has been found of Homo erectus in Borneo. Roman trade beads and Indo-Javanese artifacts give evidence of a flourishing civilization dating to the 2nd or 3rd century BC. A Sanskrit inscription dated to c 400 AD is the earliest historical document on the island. Three rough foundation stones with an inscription recording a gift to a Brahman priest date from the early 5th century AD found at Kutai provide evidence of a Hindu kingdom. The first recorded European visitor was Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone who visited on his way from India to China in 1330."
Cyprus: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The third largest island in the Mediterranean, on its east end. Cyprus was inhabited as early as the late Neolithic Age (mid-6th millennium BC) and by the late Bronze Age (c 1600 BC-c 1050 BC) had become a trading center, visited and settled by Mycenaeans and Achaeans, who introduced Greek culture and language. By 800 BC, Phoenicians had begun to settle there. By the 7th century BC, a number of Cypriot kingdoms had achieved great wealth and influence. It was finally taken over by the Ptolemys of Egypt and then annexed by Rome in 58 BC. Initially its most important center was Enkomi; later Salamis.
Dynastic Period: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Dynastic Egypt
CATEGORY: chronology
DEFINITION: A period of ancient Egypt's history tied to a framework of 30 dynasties (ruling houses) of kings, or pharaohs, who rule from the time of the country's unification into a single kingdom in c 3100 BC until its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. The two Predynastic kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united by the legendary king Menes, possibly to be identified with the historical King Narmer. The Dynastic Period was followed by a Greek Period when the country was ruled by the Ptolemys, descendants of Alexander the Great's general. The Ptolemaic Period and Egypt's independence were brought to an end in 30 BC when Queen Cleopatra VII died and the country was absorbed into the Roman Empire. The political history, largely derived from written sources, has a detailed and, for the most part, precise chronology. From the 21st Dynasty onwards, Egypt's cohesion broke, and from the 11th-7th centuries BC, Libyan, Asian and Nubian contenders vied with Egyptians for control of the state. The divine ruler, the pharaoh, was ultimately responsible for the complex bureaucracy and was also the figurehead of the official religion, the personification of the sun god Ra, counterpart of Osiris, the god of the land of the dead. Because of their belief in the afterlife, the royal tombs of the pharaohs in particular reflect the great wealth and concentration of resources at the pharaoh's disposal. Much of our information about ancient Egyptian history comes from the records that were carefully maintained by the Egyptians themselves, notably by the priests who were regarded as the guardians of the state's accumulated wisdom.
el-Yehudiyeh, Tell: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Camp site of the southeastern Nile delta in Egypt, surrounded by a glacis. Just north is a Jewish temple and town founded during the reign of Ptolemy VI.
Hafun / Hafun Point: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Xaafuun
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A peninsula on the eastern coast of Somalia with the best archaeological evidence yet available from the East African coast south of the Red Sea for early trade contact with the Mediterranean world at the beginning of the Christian era. No permanent settlement is attested, but burials contain imported pottery, some of it Hellenistic. The earliest written accounts of the East African coast occur in the Periplus Maris Erythraei" -- apparently written by a Greek merchant living in Egypt in the second half of the 1st century AD -- and in Ptolemy's Guide to Geography the East African section of which in its extant form probably represents a compilation of geographic knowledge available at Byzantium in about 400. The Periplus describes in some detail the shore of what was to become northern Somalia. Ships sailed from there to western India to bring back cotton cloth grain oil sugar and ghee while others moved down the Red Sea to the East African coast bringing cloaks tunics copper and tin. Aromatic gums spices tortoiseshell ivory and slaves were traded in return."
Kouklia-Palaepaphos: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Old Paphos, Palaipaphos
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Southern Cyprus site occupied from the 3rd millennium BC, which became a major center in the Late Cypriot period. It was settled by Greek colonists in the Mycenaean period. Besides the Evreti cemetery, there was an ashlar temple built c 1200 BC for Aphrodite's cult. Palaepaphos was capital of one of the Cypriot kingdoms in 498 BC when it was attacked by the Persians. The Cinyrad dynasty ruled Palaeopaphos until its final conquest by Ptolemy I of Egypt (294 BC).
library: CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Collection of books used for reading or study, or the building or room in which such a collection is kept. The origin of libraries came in the 3rd millennium BC, when records on clay tablets were stored in a temple in the Babylonian town of Nippur. In the 7th century BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal assembled and organized a collection of records, of which some 20,000 tablets and fragments have survived. The first libraries as repositories of books were those of the Greek temples and those established in conjunction with the Greek schools of philosophy in the 4th century BC. Important libraries of the ancient world were those of Aristotle, the great Library of Alexandria with its thousands of papyrus and vellum scrolls, its rival at Pergamum that included many works on parchment, the Bibliotheca Ulpia of Rome, and the Imperial Library at Byzantium set up by Constantine the Great in the 4th century AD. China also has a long tradition of record keeping and book collecting, in private libraries as well as in centralized government libraries. Extant Greek and Roman literary works were preserved alongside the early Christian literature in Constantine's library and, beginning in the 2nd century, in libraries of monasteries. The loss of the Great Library at Alexandria, which was burned to the ground in the late third century AD, was devastating. The Alexandria library had probably been established by Ptolemy I Soter (305-285 BC), who also founded the Museum ('shrine of the Muses'), initially creating both institutions as annexes to his palace. Later in the Ptolemaic period, another large library was created, probably within the Alexandria serapeum, but this too was destroyed in 391 AD.
Manetho (c. 305-285 BC): CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: An Egyptian priest and historian who wrote a history of his country in the 3rd century BC. Though the work is lost, quotations from it in later writings are extremely important for reconstructing the dynastic lists of the pharaohs. The history was probably written in Greek for Ptolemy I (305-282). He provided the basis for the relative chronology of Egypt before the invasion of Alexander the Great. The fragments of his work confirmed the succession of kings where the archaeological evidence was inconclusive, and Manetho's division of the rulers of Egypt into 30 dynasties is still accepted.
museum: CATEGORY: structure; term
DEFINITION: An institution that collects, studies, exhibits, and conserves objects for cultural and educational purposes; literally, a temple (or seat) of the Muses. The term was first applied to an establishment founded by Ptolemy I, called Soter, at Alexandria in Egypt, in the late 3rd century BC.
Pharos: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the Seven Wonders of the World and the most famous lighthouse in antiquity, built on the island of Pharos in the harbor of Alexandria. It was a technological triumph and is the archetype of all lighthouses since. Built by Sostratus of Cnidus for Ptolemy II of Egypt in c 280 BC, it is said to have been more than 350 feet (110 m) high. The lighthouse was surmounted by a huge statue, probably representing either Alexander the Great or Ptolemy I Soter. Pharos appeared in the list of wonders in the 6th century AD and it was known to still be standing in the 12th century. By 1477, it was in ruins.
Ptolemaic Egypt: CATEGORY: chronology; culture
DEFINITION: Term describing Egypt during the Hellenistic era, when it was ruled by the dynasty of the Macedonian general Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 305/304-283/282 BC) and his descendants. The Ptolemaic Period was a large-scale experiment in bureaucratic centralism and mercantilism. Egypt was ruled by Ptolemy's descendants until the death of Cleopatra VII on Aug. 12, 30 BC.
Rosetta Stone: CATEGORY: language; artifact
DEFINITION: A basalt stela discovered at Rosetta, at the western mouth of the Nile, during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt, in 1799. This trilingual inscription on stone, a decree of King Ptolemy V (196 BC), was carved in Greek, Egyptian Demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphic. It provided Jean-François Champollion with the key to the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, thus paving the way to modern Egyptology. The Rosetta Stone is now in the British Museum.
Salamis (Cyprus): CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A principal city of prehistoric and classic Cyprus, located on the east coast of the island, north of modern Famagusta. According to the Homeric epics, Salamis was founded after the Trojan War by the archer Teucer, who came from the island of Salamis, off Attica. This literary tradition probably reflects the Sea Peoples' occupation of Cyprus (c 1193 BC). Later, the city grew because of its harbor; it became the chief Cypriot outlet for trade with Phoenicia, Egypt, and Cilicia. Salamis came under Persian control in 525 BC. In 306 BC, Demetrius I Poliorcetes of Macedonia won a great naval victory there over Ptolemy I of Egypt. Salamis was sacked in the Jewish revolt of 115-117 AD and suffered repeatedly from earthquakes. It was completely rebuilt by the Christian emperor Constantius II (reigned 337-361 AD) and given the name Constantia. Under Christian rule, Salamis was the metropolitan see of Cyprus. Destroyed again by the Arabs under Mu'awiyah (c 648), the city was then abandoned. There is a large area of surviving ruins, and an extensive necropolis to the west. The Mycenaean settlement was probably at Enkomi. Most remarkable are the so-called 'Royal Tombs', perhaps dating from the Late Geometric period, featuring large dromoi. The burial chambers are constructed of large rectangular blocks and have gable roofs, but were robbed in antiquity. There is an association with horse-and-chariot funerary rites, and horse skeletons still complete with bit in mouth have been discovered. There are also bronze horse accouterments, and cauldron and tripod, and ivory furniture. One tomb shows evidence for an original upper beehive structure or tholos; other tombs are rock-cut and show evidence for rites involving pyres and clay figurines.
serapeum: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Serapeum, Sarapeum, Sarapieion
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Two temples of ancient Egypt dedicated to the worship of the Greco-Egyptian god Sarapis (Serapis). The original elaborate temple of that name was located on the west bank of the Nile near Saqqara and was a monument to the deceased Apis bulls. Though the area was used as a cemetery for the bulls as early as 1400 BC, it was Ramesses II (1279-13 BC) who designed a main gallery and subsidiary chambers. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the temple was called the Sarapeum. The vast underground galleries at Saqqara housed the 64 embalmed bodies of the Apis bulls. French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette discovered the ruins, first finding a limestone sphinx almost hidden in the sand in an area northwest of the Step Pyramid of Djoser and uncovering an avenue leading into the Western Desert, at the end of which lay a small temple built by a 30th-Dynasty pharaoh. He also found a large blocked doorway and 24 vaulted burial chambers within. Another important serapeum was built at Alexandria, the new Ptolemaic capital. Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 305-284 BC) selected Sarapis as the official god for Egypt and built largest and best known of the god's temples. There Sarapis was worshipped until 391 AD, when the serapeum was destroyed. In Roman times other serapeums were constructed throughout the empire.
Ujjain: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ujjayini, Ozene
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of seven sacred Hindu cities, the capital (as Ujjayini) of the Aryan Avanti kingdom (6th-4th century BC), near Indore on the main route from the Ganges plain to the Bombay coast. In the 2nd century BC, Ujjain was the seat of the emperor Ashoka, the last of the Mauryan rulers and an early influential Buddhist. Greek geographer Ptolemy (2nd century AD) called it Ozene, the capital of the Western Satraps (i.e. the Greek, Scythian, and Parthian rulers of western India). Black-and-red and painted gray wares and the use of iron are associated with the earliest occupation, succeeded by an occupation with Northern Black Polished Ware.

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