Ptolemy Apion
Encyclopedia
Ptolemy Apion or simply known as Apion was the last Greek Cyrenaean King
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...

 and was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty
Ptolemaic dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...

. Ptolemy was Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 Macedonian
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians originated from inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, in the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios...

 and native Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian in descent. His second name Apion is a name of ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

ian origin and could be a name from his maternal ancestry.

Ptolemy was a son and was the first child among from the children of Egyptian Greek prince, Cyrenaean King and future Pharaoh of Egypt Ptolemy VIII Physcon
Ptolemy VIII Physcon
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II , nicknamed , Phúskōn, Physcon for his obesity, was a king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. His complicated career started in 170 BC, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Egypt, captured his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor and let him continue as a puppet monarch...

. Ptolemy’s paternal uncle was the Egyptian Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy VI Philometor
Ptolemy VI Philometor
Ptolemy VI Philometor was a king of Egypt from the Ptolemaic period. He reigned from 180 to 145 BC....

 and his paternal aunt was the Egyptian Greek princess and queen Cleopatra II of Egypt
Cleopatra II of Egypt
Cleopatra II was a queen of Ptolemaic Egypt.-Family:Cleopatra II was the daughter of Ptolemy V and likely Cleopatra I. She was the sister of Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Tryphon. She would eventually marry both of her brothers.Her first marriage was with her brother Ptolemy VI in ca....

. His paternal grandparents were Egyptian Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes , son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He became ruler at the age of five, and under a series of regents the kingdom was paralyzed.-Regency infighting:Ptolemy Epiphanes was only a small boy when his father, Ptolemy...

 and Egyptian Greek Queen who was a Greek princess of the Seleucid Empire Cleopatra I of Egypt
Cleopatra I of Egypt
Cleopatra I Syra , c. 204–176 BC was a princess of the Seleucid Empire and by marriage, Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt.-Family:...

.

Ptolemy’s mother was a native Egyptian woman called Eirene (Irene) or according to the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 Jewish historian Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

 her name was Ithaca. Eirene originated from Cyrenaica and not much is known on her origins. She was a mistress of Physcon’s and was among his concubine
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...

. Eirene served as Physcon’s mistress from 150 BC til 127 BC. Eirene accompanied Physcon in 145 BC to Egypt when he became pharaoh and succeeded his brother Ptolemy VI.

Ptolemy was most probably born in Cyrene, the capital of Cyrenaica, however was raised and educated in his father’s court in Egypt. Until 116 BC, he most probably lived in Egypt. Ptolemy never held a royal Egyptian title. In 116 BC, Ptolemy’s father had died. From Physcon’s will, Ptolemy inherited Cyrenaica and in that year, he became king of Cyrenaica. When he became king, Ptolemy succeeded without any political opposition.

Unfortunately, little is recorded of Ptolemy’s reign of Cyrenaica. Ptolemy died in 96 BC and he implemented the terms of his father’s will for Cyrenaica. He never married and had no heirs. In Ptolemy’s will, he left Cyrenaica and his ancestral royal estates to the rule of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

. Physcon had planned this for Cyrenaica after Ptolemy’s death.

Ptolemy’s ancestral estates were occupied by locals in the 1st century. The occupiers of the estates, needed assistance from the Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 to legalise the land title through their occupations, so they could own the estates.

Sources

  • Tacitus
    Tacitus
    Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

    - Annals of Imperial Rome, Nero and his Helpers (xiv. 14-65)
  • http://www.livius.org/ps-pz/ptolemies/ptolemy_viii_physcon.html
  • http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2901.html
  • http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/apion.htm#Apion
  • http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/eirene_iii.htm#Eirene
  • http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/ithaca.htm#Ithake
  • http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/ptolemy_viii.htm
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