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All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenike. The most famous member of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII, known for her role in the Roman political battles between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and later between Octavian and Mark Antony. Her suicide at the conquest by Rome marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt.
Alexander the Great had initiated a policy in which he portrayed himself as an Egyptian ruler, effectively grafting the new administration on to the existing political and religious structure, and this policy appears to have been continued by his Ptolemaic successors with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success. Which Ptolemy? Ptolemy I Soter I (ruled 305-285 BC) was the founder of the Ptolemaic line, and he took the Egyptian throne after the death of Alexander IV. Known as Ptolemy of Lagos, he had originally administered Egypt as a general since the death of Alexander the Great.
The Macedonians and Greeks were already familiar to the Egyptians long before the arrival of Alexander the Great, since the Egyptian army in the Late Period had invariably included large numbers of Greeks as mercenaries. Ptolemaic rule did not remain popular, and there were revolts in the area of Thebes in 208-186 BC and 88-86 BC. As Ptolemaic rule weakened, so the Ptolemies tended to rely ever more heavily on Rome. Eventually, a propaganda campaign by Octavian and the actions of Cleopatra VII, the daughter of Ptolemy XII, and the sister-wife of Ptolemy XIII, provided an ideal pretext for the Romans to conquer Egypt. Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, led the campaign, and on 30th August 30 BC, proclaimed himself "Pharaoh of Egypt". New temples and a new capital Many Egyptian temples were either rebuilt, repaired or built as new during the Ptolemaic Period, including those listed below:
The main pharaonic administrative and religious centres at Thebes, Memphis and Tanis were replaced by Alexandria, the new capital on the shores of the Mediterranean, built on the site of an earlier Egyptian settlement called Raqote. During the Ptolemaic period and the subsequent Roman period, Alexandria was a thriving and cosmopolitan city, and by the mid-first century BC had a population of around half a million, including substantial numbers of Greeks and Jews.
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The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Hellenistic royal family
that ruled over
Egypt for nearly 300 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC. Ptolemy, a Macedonian
and one of Alexander the Great's generals, was appointed satrap (a Persian
title for the ruler of Egypt)
after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himself King
Ptolemy I, later known as "Soter" (saviour). The Egyptians soon accepted
the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt.
Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC.
Whilst Ptolemy I
and Cleopatra VII are perhaps the best-known rulers, most of the Ptolemaic
kings and queens emerge as distinctive individuals. Ptolemaic Egypt was
one of the two great powers of the Hellenistic East for most of its
existence. During this period Egyptian armies ranged further east and
further north than at any other time in Egyptian history. The
mediterranean city of 
