Arsinoe II

Arsinoe II (born c. 318–314 (316?) bce—died July 270/268 bce) was the queen (basilissa) of Thrace and Macedonia and, later, the wife of her younger brother, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt, and possibly his coruler. It has been inferred by modern historians that she wielded great power in both roles, though the extent of that power is contested. Some scholars contend that the impression of her puissance in Egypt was the effect of symbolic efforts by her brother-husband.

Various—and sometimes contradictory—accounts, or references to, the life of Arsinoe are found in the writings of Pausanias, Memnon (by way of Nymphis), Strabo, Polybius, Plutarch, Polyaenus, and Justin. She was the daughter of Berenice I and Ptolemy I Soter, who was one of the Diadochi (“successors”) of Alexander the Great and the founder of the Macedonian (Ptolemaic) dynasty in Egypt following Alexander’s death in 323 bce.

About 300/299 bce, the teenaged Arsinoe became the third wife of the sexagenarian Lysimachus, another of the Diadochi. Lysimachus was satrap (from 323 bce) and king, or basileus (from 305 bce), of Thrace, and he eventually came to rule extensive portions of Asia Minor (from 301 bce) and Macedonia (from 285 bce). The marriage was likely intended to solidify an alliance between Ptolemy I and Lysimachus against Seleucus I Nicator, who presided over the Seleucid kingdom (much of present-day Syria and Iran), in the wake of the Battle of Ipsus. Arsinoe bore three sons by Lysimachus between 298 and 294/293 bce: Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Philip.

It has been suggested that Lysimachus changed the name of the city of Ephesus (located in what is now western Turkey) to Arsinoeia in Arsinoe’s honour (294 bce), though he also had a daughter by that name who may have been the intended honoree. Arsinoe II is known to have lived in the renamed Ephesus later in her marriage. She was certainly given Heraclea Pontica (in what is now northern Turkey) following the murder of its ruler, Lysimachus’s second wife, Amastris, by her own sons about 285/284 bce. The governor that Arsinoe chose for the latter city was widely reviled by its citizens as draconian and unfair. Some sources claim that Lysimachus also granted his wife control of Cassandreia, in addition to several other cities on the Black Sea, but this has not been proved conclusively. The granting of cities to female family members was a common custom at the time, and aside from Heraclea Pontica, Arsinoe’s possession of any additional cities was likely either nominal or entailed only the receipt of revenues.

In 285/284 bce, Ptolemy I proclaimed that his son Ptolemy II, Arsinoe’s brother, would corule until his death and then succeed him. Arsinoe thus rose in prominence in Lysimachus’s court at Sardis (in modern Turkey). Her proximity to the Egyptian dynastic line likely elevated her in station above Agathocles, the product of Lysimachus’s first marriage and his heir apparent. Agathocles was married to Arsinoe’s half sister Lysandra. Lysandra’s mother was Ptolemy I’s other wife, Eurydice, whose issue had been cut out of the Egyptian succession. Though salacious historical rumour speculates that Arsinoe was obsessed with Agathocles and turned against him when he rejected her romantic overtures or that she single-handedly manipulated Lysimachus into turning against his son, it is in fact likely that both Lysimachus and Arsinoe stood to benefit from the removal of Agathocles, who would have contested the primacy of Arsinoe’s children.

Whatever the case, the elderly king ordered his son executed in 283/282 bce. Lysandra fled to Babylon, accompanied by her offspring and her brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who had stood to inherit the Egyptian throne prior to the elevation of Ptolemy II. They requested aid from Seleucus I Nicator. Seleucus proceeded to invade Lysimachus’s territories in 282 bce. Much of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) preferred to side with Seleucus, having backed the succession of Agathocles, so Lysimachus was unable to mount a significant opposition. Notably weakening his defense was the defection of Philetaerus, governor of Pergamum, who was custodian of a large portion of Lysimachus’s treasury. Following Lysimachus’s death in the battle of Corupedium in 281 bce, Arsinoe fled Ephesus for Cassandreia, where her husband had retained allies. She may have hired mercenaries to defend the city.

Shortly after Seleucus crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) to Thrace, he was murdered by Ptolemy Ceraunus, who proclaimed himself the king of Macedonia and Thrace. Ceraunus then persuaded his half sister Arsinoe to marry him, likely in an effort to quell any conflicts with her issue by Lysimachus and to consolidate his grip on Macedonia. Suspicious of his motivations, Arsinoe demanded a public marriage. The couple was married, and Arsinoe was crowned queen of Macedonia. Her suspicions were warranted; Ceraunus promptly executed her two younger sons upon his entrance to Cassandreia. Her eldest son, Ptolemy, had refused to accompany her, having suspected the trap as well. Arsinoe fled to Samothrace, where she likely waited for some time to ascertain whether her surviving son might still win the Macedonian throne. She had made allies there during her marriage to Lysimachus, and a massive rotunda—the largest known in Greek architecture—had been dedicated in her name. She eventually decamped to Alexandria (c. 279–276 bce), from which her younger brother ruled, their father having died about 283/282 bce. Though Ceraunus was killed in a battle with Gaulish (Galatian) invaders in 279 bce, Arsinoe’s eldest son never managed to gain a foothold in the succession conflicts that ensued. He was later granted control of Telmessus by Euergetes, son of Ptolemy II.

Ptolemy II’s first queen, Arsinoe I, the daughter of Lysimachus, was accused, possibly at Arsinoe II’s instigation, of plotting his murder and was exiled. Arsinoe II then married her own brother (c. 279–272 bce), a customary practice in Egypt but one until then foreign to the Greeks. Ptolemy II was known as Philadelphus, and the pair were deified as the Theoi Philadelphoi, meaning “sibling-loving.” The union had been condemned by some Greeks, notably the poet Sotades, who was exiled and ultimately killed as a result of his irreverent verses. Ptolemy and Arsinoe seem to have taken some steps to validate their union through mythological precedent. A poem by Theocritus, a figure in the Alexandrian court, equates the couple with Zeus and Hera (also siblings), an equivalence likely intended to assuage the Greek aversion to incestuous marriage. The pair further aligned themselves with the Egyptian deities Isis and Osiris, also married siblings.

Arsinoe’s influence in the Egyptian government grew swiftly. She was recorded as having accompanied Ptolemy in surveying the Egyptian borders during the First Syrian War (274–271 bce). The conflict, fought between Egypt and the Seleucid realm, which had ultimately been reclaimed by Antiochus I Soter, the son of Seleucus I Nicator, ultimately ended in Egyptian victory following the weakening of the Seleucid forces due to a plague outbreak in Babylon.

Arsinoe shared all of Ptolemy’s titles and appeared on coinage alone and with her husband. The fact that she was depicted on those coins in full pharaonic accoutrements, notably the crown of Lower Egypt, strongly suggests that she was at least nominally a pharaoh herself. Additional components of her headdress were symbolic of the goddesses Isis and Hathor, suggesting that she was likely deified during her life. She was referred to as pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt in some historical texts, though that title may have been posthumous. She adopted Ptolemy’s children by Arsinoe I, a move that they evidently recognized even following the death of their father; Ptolemy may in fact have enacted this adoption after her death. Towns were named after her in Greece, and dedications to her were made at numerous places in Greece and Egypt, notably at port cities, where she was worshipped because of the supremacy of Ptolemy’s naval forces. Some have credited Arsinoe’s influence with the completion of the Alexandrian Museum, which notably included the Library of Alexandria.

After Arsinoe’s death about 270/268 bce, her cult was established in numerous places, including Alexandria, where a great shrine, the Arsinoeion, was dedicated to her. Toward the end of Ptolemy’s reign, a province, Al-Fayyūm, southwest of Cairo, where the king had done much land reclamation, was renamed in her honour as the Arsinoite province.