Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC he declared himself King Ptolemy I, later known as "Soter" (saviour). The Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC.
The dynastic history of Ptolemaic Egypt is very confusing, because all the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy, and because many of them married their sisters, who were often called Cleopatra. The most famous member of the line was the last Ptolemaic queen, Cleopatra VII.
The dates in brackets are regnal dates for the kings. They frequently ruled jointly with their wives, who were often also their sisters. Several queens exercised regal authority, but the most famous and successful was Cleopatra VII (51 BC-30 BC), with her two brothers and her son as successive nominal co-rulers.
Ptolemaic queens, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenike.
Ptolemaic rule did not remain popular, and there were revolts in the area of Thebes in 208-186 BC and 88-86 BC.
During the Ptolemaicperiod and the subsequent Romanperiod, Alexandria was a thriving and cosmopolitan city, and by the mid-first century BC had a population of around half a million, including substantial numbers of Greeks and Jews.
Ptolemaic system, historically the most influential of the geocentric cosmological theories, i.e., theories that placed the earth motionless at the center of the universe with all celestial bodies revolving around it (see cosmology).
Egyptian architecture the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, formulated prior to 3000 BC and lasting through the Ptolemaicperiod (323-30 BC).
The only temple from the Ptolemaicperiod that is still standing in the Nile Delta.
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