Thus tragically was ushered in the reign of the boy-king, Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, the Illustrious, whose dates are 205-182 B. C., and whose pre-nomen or throne name, found on his cartouch, means “heir of the (two) father loving gods, chosen of Ptah, strength of the Ka of Ra, living image of Amen.” Too young to take matters into his own hands, the power seems to have been divided between Tlepolemus as military, and Aristomenes, called the king’s tutor, as civil administrator of affairs. The reign of a minor is apt to be distracted by conflicts of one sort and another, and this proved no exception.
In the case of the youthful son of Alexander the Great it was the generals of his father’s army who wrested from him his inheritance; in that of the young Ptolemy it was the foreign powers, the kings of Macedonia and Syria, who sought to do so. But the Romans proved the instruments of the boy’s salvation, though not for his sake, and conquered in battle and made tributary the men who were his enemies, while the two ministers who had taken his affairs in charge guarded him well at home.
There are also some who maintain that the[397] guardianship of the boy’s rights was offered to the Romans, though the weight of evidence seems against this idea. Certain it is, however, that Ptolemy Epiphanes, or those who acted for him, sent very submissive embassies to this great and growing power, destined eventually to swallow up his country, or rather to become possessed of its sovereignty.
We cannot trace the course of foreign wars or native rebellions, but must return to the more domestic aspect of the history. The little king lived in Alexandria and very early in his life there seems to have been some suggestion of his marriage with the daughter of the king of Syria, and in the seventh year of his reign, when he must have been about twelve, it is said that the betrothal took place. It was of course a political alliance, to cement a good understanding between the two nations. How much greater the privileges and the independence, at least on the question of marriage, of the private individual over the sometimes envied king or queen.
At thirteen or fourteen years of age Ptolemy V was crowned at Memphis and the decree of the Rosetta Stone was issued. It begins “In the reign of the young,” and then goes on to enumerate the king’s ancestors, to name priests and priestesses, and to give a detailed list of the benefits his Majesty had bestowed upon the kingdom, “in requittal of which the gods have given him health, victory, power and all other good things, his sovereignty remaining to him and his children for all time. With propitious fortune. It seemed good to the priests of all the temples in[398] the land to increase greatly the existing honors of the king, Ptolemy, his parents, grand-parents, etc.” As Ptolemy was but in early childhood when he is said to have bestowed so many benefits upon the kingdom it was to his ministers rather than to himself that any such praise was due. Possibly it was a mutual agreement between them and the priests to strengthen his power, since there seemed more chance of dispute in the case of a child than when a full-grown man had ascended the throne.
The Rosetta Stone has been virtually the key which has, in part at least, revealed the mysteries of the Hieroglyphics to Europeans. The inscription was written in Hieroglyphic, the original form of Egyptian writing, in the Demotic, the subsequent and common language of later dynasties, and in Greek, which was of course largely introduced by the Ptolemies. And as the three inscriptions are approximately alike, Greek scholars were able to interpret the two former by the last. The original Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum, but copies of it may be seen in many of the collections abroad, and in the United States, such as the University of Pennsylvania, etc.
Meanwhile the boy-king was growing to manhood and there is record of his being trained to equestrianism and athletic sports. At a certain banquet an ambassador, in speaking of the king, “said a great deal in his praise, quoting anecdotes of his skill and boldness in hunting, as well as his excellence in riding and the use of arms;” and ended by averring in proof of this that “the[399] king on horseback once transfixed a bull with a javelin.”
When Ptolemy Epiphanes was but sixteen or seventeen his marriage took place, the new queen being presumably near his age. With her we enter on the puzzling list of Cleopatras, and she seems to have been a woman of character and ability, and worthy of respect. Her father, Antiochus of Syria, a country with which the inter-marriages of the kings of this dynasty were very frequent, brought her to the bridegroom, with a splendid retinue, and the nuptials were handsomely celebrated at the border town of Raphia. It was here that the mother of the king had ridden before the troops many years previously to encourage them on the eve of the battle between Ptolemy IV. and Antiochus. The dowry of the bride was the taxes of Coele, Syria and Palestine, but not, it is said, the possession of the land.
The young queen loyally accepted the duties and obligations attaching to her new position; “Thy people shall be my people” was the spirit that distinguished her actions, and she stood to this even when her husband’s interests were opposed to those of her native country. It is said of her that she was a “vigorous and prudent woman, and she certainly introduced new blood into a stock likely to degenerate from the constant unions of close blood relations.” Nor do there seem to be any special stories recorded of cruelty on her part, such as we have in other instances of Ptolemy queens. We may presume[400] also that she had more or less claim to beauty and had attractions both of person and mind.
Like his predecessors, Ptolemy V. worked upon the temples, notably that of Phil?. The temple of Asklepias was especially credited to this king, and we cannot but suppose that the queen, too, had a great interest. An inscription, the duplicate of the Rosetta Stone, was placed on one of the walls at Phil? by Epiphanes, but afterwards carved out by another ruler.
Cleopatra I, like some others of the Ptolemy women, was the superior of the man to whom she was united, yet, as far as we can judge at this distance of time, the marriage was on the whole a harmonious and satisfactory one. At least no special quarrels are recorded and the husband did not make way with his wife in the all too common fashion. She seems to have been joined with her husband in public acts, as were Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II, even when these were directed against her father and her native land. Mahaffy says that it is noteworthy that Livy speaks of the king and queen as of equal importance, but perhaps this may have referred to Cleopatra I. and her son when she was regent, rather than to her husband. Livy says “Ambassadors were sent from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, sovereigns of Egypt, with congratulations that Manius Acilius, the consul, had driven King Antiochus from Greece, and advising the Romans to send their army over to Asia, that all Syria as well as Asia was in a panic, that the sovereigns of Egypt were prepared to do whatever the senate[401] desired.” A proof that Egypt was now continually bending before the power of Rome.
Ptolemy wished to secure some of the Syrian provinces and of the queen it is said “she was always striving to spread her influence towards the North.”
Disputes had arisen between the priests and the crown as to the dowries of the late deified queens............