Ptolemy VII

Ptolemy VII (Ptolemy Physcon) , d. 116 BC, king of ancient Egypt (145-116 BC), of the Macedonian dynasty, brother of Ptolemy VI . He is also called Ptolemy Euergetes II. He was coruler with his brother and his brother's wife from 170-164 BC Trouble resulted in a settlement by which Ptolemy Physcon ruled Cyrene. On his brother's death he returned to Egypt, had his nephew put to death, and married Cleopatra, his brother's widow. He soon repudiated her and married her daughter, also named Cleopatra. The elder Cleopatra led a revolt and drove him (130 BC) out of Egypt. He returned in 127 BC and later ruled peacefully though despotically. Both queens survived him. His reign was one of great cruelty; he drove the scholars from Alexandria and thus precipitated the spread of Alexandrian culture.

Ptolemy The kings who ruled Egypt from 323 BCE after the death of Alexander the Great took this name; their aim was to introduce Greek culture and learning at Alexandria (where there lived a large community of Jews). In the 2nd cent. BCE there was considerable strife within the dynasty, with the Seleucids of Syria, and finally with the Romans. The last of the line was Cleopatra VII, married to Mark Antony, who gave her his territory in Palestine; but when Augustus defeated their combined navies at Actium in Sept. 31 BCE Cleopatra committed suicide.

Ptolemies The Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt from 323 to 30 BC. Ptolemy I was an officer of Alexander the Great who, after the king's death, was appointed satrap of Egypt. He proclaimed himself king in 304, and by the time of his death in 283–82 he had established control over Cyprus, Palestine, and many cities in the Aegean and Asia Minor. The reigns of the Ptolemies who succeeded him were characterized externally by struggles with the SELEUCIDS for control of Syria, Asia Minor, and the Aegean; and internally by dissatisfaction and rebellion among the native Egyptians. Contact with the rising power of Rome came to a head during the reign of CLEOPATRA VII, whose liaison with MARK ANTONY led ultimately to defeat at Actium, suicide, and the annexation of Egypt by Octavian.