Ptolemy V Epiphanes

Ptolemy V Epiphanes (born c. 210—died 180 bce) was a Macedonian king of Egypt from 205 bce under whose rule Coele Syria and most of Egypt’s other foreign possessions were lost.

After Sosibius, Ptolemy IV’s corrupt minister, had murdered Ptolemy V’s mother, the five-year-old king was officially elevated to the throne; Sosibius became his guardian. According to the 2nd-century bc Greek historian Polybius, all prominent officials were banished from Egypt while Sosibius’ clique announced the young king’s accession and the death of his parents. The rulers of Macedonia and of the Syrian-based Seleucid kingdom, however, realizing Egypt’s weakness, conspired to partition that kingdom’s Asiatic and Aegean possessions.

When Sosibius retired about 202, Agathocles, another member of the clique, became Ptolemy’s guardian. Soon, however, he provoked Tlepolemus, the governor of Pelusium (Egypt’s eastern frontier city), who marched on Alexandria, where his supporters roused a mob, compelling Agathocles to resign in favor of another courtier. When the boy king, enthroned in the stadium while the mob clamored for the murderers of his parents, nodded in confusion at the prompting of a courtier, the mob searched out and butchered Agathocles and his family. Tlepolemus, however, soon proved incompetent and was removed.

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During the confusion in Egypt, Antiochus III, the Seleucid king, made serious inroads into Coele Syria. Ptolemy’s forces mounted a counteroffensive, capturing Jerusalem; but in 201 the Seleucid king returned, defeating the Ptolemaic army and later seizing the Ptolemaic lands in Asia Minor. Roman diplomatic intervention finally halted the war; and in 194/193 bce, as part of the peace treaty, Cleopatra I, a daughter of Antiochus, was married to Ptolemy.

Within Egypt the revolts that had begun under Ptolemy’s father continued; in 197 the king fought rebels in the Nile Delta, exhibiting great cruelty toward those of their leaders who capitulated. In Upper Egypt troubles persisted until 187/186. Though an adult, the king still was under the control of his guardians and advisers. To forestall further insurrections, he extended the authority of the governor of Thebes to include all Upper Egypt. In 196 he promulgated the decree inscribed on the Rosetta Stone; found in 1799, it provided the key to the hieroglyphic, or pictographic writing, of ancient Egypt. The decree, which reveals the increasing influence of Egyptian natives, remitted debts and taxes, released prisoners, pardoned rebels who surrendered, and granted increased benefactions to the temples.

Ptolemy retained existing alliances in Greece. Late in his reign an able eunuch was sent to recruit Greek mercenaries; but whatever the king’s plans may have been, he died suddenly, about May 180, leaving two sons and a daughter, with the queen as their regent.