The Ptolemaic Kingdom: A Brief Guide to Egypt's Last Pharaonic Dynasty

The final dynasty of pharaonic Egypt was born with the death of one of the most famous men in the ancient world - Alexander the Great - and died with the dramatic suicide of one of antiquity's most famous women - Cleopatra.

The Ptolemies ruled over Egypt for almost three hundred years and ushered in the final period of Egyptian greatness by establishing the most powerful empire in the eastern Mediterranean. But they were Greek, not Egyptian, and attempted to justify their rule by merging Greek and Egyptian culture and embracing pharaonic traditions.

A new era was born with the rise of the Ptolemies in the late fourth century BC. They moved Egypt's capital from Memphis to the newly-established city of Alexandria, and turned it into one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the age.

Thanks to Egypt's strategic position at the crossroads of three continents and its abundance of natural resources, the Ptolemaic court was unimaginably wealthy. This enabled the Ptolemies to become generous sponsors of religious cults and extravagant temple building projects, as well as of scholarship and the arts. Alexandria was home to the largest library and greatest research facility in the ancient world, and many academic breakthroughs we take for granted today were accomplished there.

But the Ptolemies were also ruthless despots, and their court was a dangerous place. Members of the royal family married each other, plotted against each other, and killed each other in order to gain power (and keep themselves alive). This infighting and opposition from the Egyptian population cost them their empire in the second century BC, yet their kingdom limped on for another hundred years with Roman support.

The Ptolemies' relationship with Rome was a toxic one. It kept them on life support, but gradually stripped their kingdom of its independence, and ultimately led to it being absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Few tragedies are more famous than the defeat and suicide of the last Ptolemaic pharaoh - Cleopatra - and her lover Mark Antony at the hands of the future Emperor Augustus, which has inspired works of art, poetry, literature, drama and film down through the ages. Even more significantly, it marked one of the most important junctures in human history. Because when the Ptolemaic dynasty collapsed, the age of the Egyptian pharaohs came to an end and the era of the Roman emperors was born.