Arsinoë I.

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Decadrachm Ptolemy III. for Arsinoe I (245 BC); Museum August Kestner , Hanover

Arsinoë I (* between 305 and 295 BC; † after 279 BC) was the wife of Ptolemy II, a queen of Egypt .

Life

Arsinoë I was the daughter of King Lysimachus of Thrace . Her mother's name is not known. In research it is mostly assumed that she was a daughter of Nikaia , the first wife of Lysimachus.

Between about 285 and 281 BC. The marriage between Arsinoë I and the Egyptian king Ptolemy II took place. The couple had three children:

Günther Hölbl assumes that Ptolemy II and Arsinoë I had another son who was their eldest, namely Ptolemy "the son" , but the question of his ancestry is extremely controversial among ancient historians. Werner Huss considers Ptolemy "the son" to be identical with Ptolemy, the son of Lysimachos and Arsinoë II. Hans Volkmann , however, considers him a son of Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II. There are other theories, including that Ptolemy "the Son “with Ptolemy III. is identical.

Arsinoë I had to live between about 279 and 274 BC. Chr. Go into exile in the Upper Egyptian Koptos because of an alleged plot to murder their husband . Their supposed co-conspirators, an Amyntas and the Rhodian doctor Chrysippus, were executed. Most ancient historians assume that she fell victim to an intrigue of her stepmother Arsinoë II. The two women probably knew each other very well because Arsinoë II. From about 300 to 281 BC. Was the third wife of Lysimachus and his daughter Arsinoë I probably until the 280s BC. Had also lived at her father's court. After Arsinoë II had fled from her new husband Ptolemy Keraunos , she traveled in 279 BC. BC or a little later to Egypt. Presumably she wanted to come to power again, so she accused her stepdaughter Arsinoë I of a conspiracy and, after her exile, assumed the position of wife and perhaps also co-regent of her full brother Ptolemy II.

The stele of Senu-sher, the administrator of a queen Arsinoë in Koptos, is mostly related to Arsinoë I during the time of her exile. The scant tradition gives no information about when Arsinoë I died.

The condemnation of Arsinoës I was so thorough that Ptolemy III. at his accession to the throne in 246 BC BC, so more than a generation later, wrongly presented as the son of Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II, so that his mother Arsinoë I does not officially appear among the ancestors of the Ptolemies.

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. Pausanias 1, 7, 3; Scholion to Theocritus 17, 128.
  2. For example W. Huss, 2001, p. 306.
  3. Scholion to Theocritus 17, 128.
  4. G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 32.
  5. W. Huss, 2001, p. 311.
  6. Hans Volkmann : Ptolemaios 20). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXIII, 2, Stuttgart 1959, Sp. 1666 f.
  7. Scholion to Theocrites 17, 128; Diogenes Laertios 7, 186.
  8. G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 33; W. Huss, 2001, p. 265f. and 306f.
  9. G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 45; W. Huss, 2001, p. 335.