Ptolemy and Alexander, brothers?

I Digress

25 Apr

Were they brothers or just great friends?

The mystery behind Alexander the Great and Ptolemy, of Egyptian fame, continues.

The rumours

So there are two stories as to the paternal figure in Ptolemy’s life.

One is that he was the son of a Macedonian noblemen, Lagus.

The other is that he was the illegitimate son of Philip II. Who coincidentally, was also the King of Macedonia and the father of Alexander the Great.

It’s said that Arsinoe, Ptolemy’s mother, was a concubine or mistress in Philip’s court and after falling pregnant with Philip’s help, Philip arranged for Arsinoe to marry the nobleman, Lagus.

So those are the basic facts of the possible origin of Ptolemy. One a fair bit more scandalous than the other.

But which is true?

Is it true?

It’s important to point out right off the bat, that modern day scholars don’t believe any of this nonsense about Ptolemy being Alexander’s half-brother. And are strong in the belief of Ptolemy being Lagus’ son.

But the rumour of Ptolemy being Philip’s secret child is incredibly interesting, especially its origin.

There are three ancient writers, Curtius, Pausanias and Aelian, who all at one time or another, all but confirm that they believe that Ptolemy was Philip’s son.

As we hear Curtius’ and Pausanias’ accounts, keep in mind that they are writing several hundred after Ptolemy’s death.

Here’s Curtius:

Ptolemy was a blood-relation [of Alexander] and some believed him to be a son of Philip; at any rate, it was known for certain that he was the offspring of one of the king’s concubines.

Some good information from Curtius, basically if he wasn’t Philip’s son, he’s definitely the son of Philip’s concubines, making him Philip’s son.

Moving on to Pausanias:

The Macedonians think that Ptolemy was the son of Philip … though in pretence the son of Lagos, since his mother was pregnant with him by Philip, when she was married to Lagos.

Okay, some more good stuff, with Pausanias being a lot more forward and set in what he says. This also backs up that original rumour; that Ptolemy was Philip’s son, but that his mother married Lagus when she was pregnant with him.

While these accounts have been flat out denied by modern historians, they do bring the legitimacy of Ptolemy’s birth into question. And Plutarch fans the flames with his reference to

The ‘unfortunate’ birth of Ptolemy I.

While there are no records that tell us straight that Ptolemy was the son of Philip II, and neither does any of Plutarch’s writings. I think it might be pretty safe to assume that Ptolemy’s birth was still illegitimate, just not royally illegitimate, at least this is the understanding of Nina Collins in her article, The Various Fathers of Ptolemy I, where she says:

We must conclude that as no record exists that Philip II ever fathered a son with Arsinoe [Ptolemy’s mother, there was still a rumour] that the first Ptolemaic king was illegitimately born, and that his natural father was either unknown, or sufficiently unimportant to remain unnamed.

The original rumour of Ptolemy and Alexander having the same father is believed to have originated with the idea of providing Ptolemy with significant social standing after the death of Alexander. And being associated, by blood, with the house of Philip was a pretty good way of doing it.

If this assumption can be believed, then it’s a natural step to think that it was Ptolemy himself, who helped spread the story. But this causes problems.

Our old mate Arrian, who quite proudly claims to use Ptolemy as his primary source, only refers to him as Lagus’ son, and he does this several times. At no point does Arrian even mention a blood connection between Ptolemy and either Alexander or Philip.

And there also don’t appear to be any familial association between Ptolemy and Alexander in the writings that immediately followed Alexander’s death.

And that’s without us getting into the intricacies of how bastardisation was looked upon in Greek life. And I can tell you, it wasn’t looked upon favourably. So it could also be safely assumed that if Ptolemy was born out of wedlock he would have gone out of his way to cover it up.

At least it’s believed that Ptolemy II, Ptolemy’s son, goes to lengths to lessen the scandal of his mysterious grandfather, by boldly proclaiming him to be Lagus.

Whatever the truth was, as the Ptolemaic empire continued in Egypt, Lagus was seen as the official father of Ptolemy I.

Ptolemaic Empire

Whoever Ptolemy’s father was, you can’t deny that Ptolemy did petty well for himself and left a lasting legacy that is still being taught about in schools today.

Ptolemy became Ptolemy I when he was crowned King of Egypt, after the palaver that was the fight for Alexander the Great’s Empire. Basically the entire Macedonian Empire was divided between Alexander’s generals, with Ptolemy snagging Egypt, and hence the Ptolemaic Dynasty was born.

Spanning a good 300 years, each ruler of Egypt was, quite confusingly, named Ptolemy, and despite a disgusting amount of incest, the dynasty did eventually result with the very famous Cleopatra, who was actually the VII of her name.

Even though our friend Ptolemy is said to have put Egypt in good economic and administrative standing. The same can’t be said for the rest of the Ptolemy’s, with Julius Caesar eventually coming by and claiming Egypt for the Roman Empire.

Not bad for a bloke who was at one point exiled from his country by the man who, supposedly, could have been his father.

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