Ptolemy VI Philometor And Cleopatra I

Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra I​

ΒΑΣΙΛIΣΣHΣ KΛEOΠATPAΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ : Kraliçe Kleopatra ve Kral Ptolemy ​

The fifth Syrian War [202-195 BC] fought between the Seleukid king Antiochos III and the young Ptolemy V proved a disaster for Ptolemaic territorial possessions outside of Egypt. The unprecedented victory of Antiochos III at the Battle of Panion [200 BC] meant that after decades of failed attempts, the Seleukids could at last claim Phoenicia and Coele Syria as part of their kingdom. Antiochos III followed up the conquest by expelling the Ptolemaic garrisons from Karia and Cilicia, a development so ominous that in 196 BC the Romans dispatched ambassadors to warn him against invading

Egypt-the presumed next step in his program of conquest. At this point, Antiochos III agreed to negotiate the end of the war with Ptolemy V. The Seleukid king retained the lands he had taken at spear-point, but attempted to guarantee future peace [and the security of his gains] by arranging the marriage of his 10-year-old daughter, Kleopatra, to the 16-year-old king of Egypt. Kleopatra was married to Ptolemy V in 193 BC, at a ceremony that took place at Raphia, a city on the new frontier between the Seleukid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and, not coincidentally, the site of her fathers earlier defeat, when he had made his first serious attempt to seize Phoenicia and Koile Syria in 217 BC. Kleopatra I-the first queen in Egypt to bear that famous name-was nicknamed Syra [the Syrian] by the people of Alexandria and came to earn the respect of officials and subjects alike.

She received the same divine epithets as her husband [Theos Epiphanes and Eucharistos] and even held the title of Sister despite her origin outside of the Ptolemaic household. When Ptolemy V died suddenly in 180 BC [possibly the victim of a court plot], Kleopatra I ruled as regent for their young son, Ptolemy VI. In Egyptian demotic documents the regency was officially recognized as the joint reign of Kleopatra I and Ptolemy VI. The greater importance of Kleopatra in this shared rule is regularly indicated by the placement of her name before that of her son, a feature that can be seen on this unique coin.

Here, the name of the queen appears on the obverse, while that of Ptolemy VI is relegated to the reverse. The superiority of the queen is also underlined by the fact that she is actually depicted in the guise of the Egyptian fertility goddess Isis. Her son, however, is completely invisible in the eagle reverse type, which had been a staple of Ptolemaic bronze coinage since the dynasty was founded. When Kleopatra I died in 176 BC, she was honored with the establishment of an eponymous priesthood of Ptolemy and Kleopatra, his mother, which was later converted into a priesthood of Kleopatra the Mother, the Goddess Manifest. In death, Kleopatra I became a goddess in her own right, but the present unique coin illustrates her exercising her divinity as a living avatar of Isis.