PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, REIGN 285-246 B.C.

Ptolemy II Philadelphos came to the throne of Egypt as co-ruler in 285 B.C. at the age of 25. To celebrate his accession he staged an elaborate pageant, which included music, images of Egyptian and Greek gods, and a long train of wild beasts and birds unknown to Egypt, including elephants harnessed to chariots. He enriched the city of Alexandria with a lavish building program in an effort to make the new city a cultural rival to Athens, which included the completion of the famed library, the greatest of the Hellenistic world. He was first married to Arsinoe I, daughter of Lysimachus of Thrace, who bore him three children, but she was later accused of treason and banished to Coptos. Her accuser was Ptolemy's sister Arsinoe II, who later married her brother. Egypt prospered and expanded during his thirty-eight year reign. He died in 246 B.C., aged about 60, and was succeeded by his son, Ptolemy III Euergetes (see M. Davis and C.M. Kraay, The Hellenistic Kingdoms, Portrait Coins and History, pp. 151-158).