Ptolemy IX Soter

Coin of Ptolemy VIII

When the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy V died in 180 BC, he left three children: Ptolemy VI, Cleopatra II, and Ptolemy VIII. All three ruled together from 169 BC until 164 BC, when Ptolemy VIII expelled his brother from power. In 163 BC, he was expelled in turn and forced to withdraw to Cyrene. However, when Ptolemy VI died in 145 BC, Ptolemy VIII was invited back to Egypt to serve as king, marrying his sister Cleopatra II, also sister and widow of Ptolemy VI. The relationship between Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra II rapidly deteriorated, especially when Ptolemy VIII took Cleopatra III, daughter of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II, as a second wife. The conflict eventually led to a civil war with Cleopatra II on one side and Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III on the other (132-126 BC). Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III were victorious, but reconciled with Cleopatra II and restored her as co-regent in 124 BC.[4]

Ptolemy IX was the son of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III. The exact date of his birth is a bit unclear. As pharaoh, his Horus name was "Distinguished through his birth together with the living Apis; twin in his birthplace with the son of Isis" which seems to indicate that he was born in the same year as an Apis bull, i.e. 143/2 BC.[1] This would put his birth two years before his parents' marriage, which took place in 141 BC.[5] Some historians, like Günther Hölbl, consider this insuperable and propose to place his birth in 140 or 139 BC instead.[2]

Initially, Ptolemy IX was not the heir to the throne – that was Ptolemy Memphites, the son of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II, who was roughly the same age as him. In 134/3 BC, Ptolemy IX served as the annual priest of Alexander the Great, the year after Ptolemy Memphites had done the same.[6][1] However, during the civil war, in 130 BC, Cleopatra II attempted to have Ptolemy Memphites crowned as her co-ruler, so Ptolemy VIII had him murdered, leaving Ptolemy IX as the heir.

Around 117 BC, Ptolemy IX was sent to Cyprus, reportedly at his mother's request, where he served as governor of the island (strategos, nauarchos, archiereus, archikynegos).[7] Shortly before this he had married his sister Cleopatra IV, who probably gave birth to two sons while the couple was on Cyprus: the future Ptolemy XII in 117 BC and Ptolemy, future king of Cyprus, c. 116 BC.[8]

After his expulsion from Alexandria, Ptolemy IX went to the isle of Cyprus. There forces loyal to Cleopatra III and Ptolemy X rebuffed him, forcing him to retreat to Seleucia in Pieria. From there he mounted another invasion of Cyprus in 106 BC, which succeeded in conquering the island.[21] He initially maintained control of Cyrene, but it seems to have come under the control of his half brother Ptolemy Apion some time after 105 BC. Apion protected his position by publishing a will which left all his territories to Rome in the event that he died without heirs, a method which was often used by Hellenistic kings to prevent rivals from attempting to depose or assassinate them. However, he actually died without heirs in 96 BC, meaning that Rome inherited the territory.[22][18]

In 103 BC, the new Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus led an army to conquer Ptolemais Akko. The city appealed to Ptolemy IX for help and he sailed over and caused Jannaeus to lift his siege. He then invaded Galilee, defeated Jannaeus in a battle at Asophon near the River Jordan, and despoiled Judaea with impunity.[23] Fearing that Ptolemy IX was planning to use Judaea as a springboard for an invasion of Egypt, Cleopatra III and Ptolemy X invaded Judaea themselves. Ptolemy X invaded Phoenicia by sea and then marched inland to Damascus, while Cleopatra III besieged Ptolemais Akko. Ptolemy IX attempted to slip past them and into Egypt, but Ptolemy X managed to rush back and stop him. Ptolemy IX spent the winter encamped at Gaza, before deciding to sail back to Cyprus in early 102 BC. Nothing further is known about his activities until 88 BC.[18]

In August 115 BC, Ptolemy IX travelled down the Nile to Elephantine in order to celebrate the festival there in honour of the Great God of the Nile – a traditional Pharaonic duty which was meant to give thanks for the inundation and ensure the success of the next. The fact that Ptolemy IX carried this ritual out personally, rather than letting a local priest carry it out in his stead, shows the extent to which Ptolemy embraced the Pharaonic role.[28]

It is possible that construction of certain buildings occurred during the first reign of Ptolemy IX. This would have included work on the Dendera Temple complex and on the temple in Edfu.

Rare drachms of Ptolemy XII minted at Paphos, Cyprus in 53 BC[29]

Ptolemy IX is only known to have married twice, first to Cleopatra IV from c. 119 BC until he was forced to divorce her in 115 BC, and secondly to Cleopatra Selene from 115 BC, until he abandoned her during his flight from Alexandria in 107 BC.

At least three children are attested for Ptolemy IX. The birth dates and parentage of his two sons Ptolemy XII and Ptolemy of Cyprus are disputed.[30] According to Justin, Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy IX had two children.[31] The historian John Whitehorne noted that the existence of those two children is doubted and they might have died at a young age.[32]

Ptolemy XII is referred to by Cicero and other ancient sources as an illegitimate son; Pompeius Trogus called him a "nothos" (bastard), while Pausanias wrote that Berenice III was Ptolemy IX's only legitimate offspring.[33] This has discouraged the identification of Ptolemy XII and Ptolemy of Cyprus with the two sons mentioned by Justin. Michael Grant suggested that Ptolemy XII's mother was a Syrian or a partly Greek concubine while Günther Hölbl suggested that she was a member of the Egyptian elite.[34] However, John Pentland Mahaffy and Christopher Bennett argue that they were considered illegitimate simply because their mother had not been a co-regnant queen. They propose Cleopatra IV as the mother, in which case Ptolemy XII and Ptolemy of Cyprus would have been born in 117 and 116 BC respectively. Bennett further proposes that Ptolemy XII and Ptolemy of Cyprus are identical with the two sons mentioned by Justin.[1]

The mother of Ptolemy IX's daughter, Berenice III is not certain either. Cleopatra IV and Cleopatra Selene are candidates, with the former favoured by modern scholarship.[35] Bennett noted that Berenice III's legitimacy was never questioned by ancient historians, and the illegitimacy of Ptolemy IX and Cleopatra IV's marriage makes it more probable that Berenice III was the result of a legitimate marriage, that is between her father and Cleopatra Selene.[36][37]

Name	Image	Birth	Death	Notes
Ptolemy XII		117 or c. 98 BC	February/March 51 BC	King of Egypt (80-58 & 55-51 BC)
Ptolemy		116 or c. 96 BC?	58 BC	King of Cyprus (80-58 BC)
Berenice III		Late 115 or early 114 BC	April 80 BC	Co-regent with Ptolemy X (101-88 BC), Queen of Egypt (81-80 BC)

• Bennett, Christopher J. (1997). "Cleopatra V Tryphæna and the Genealogy of the Later Ptolemies". Ancient Society. Peeters Publishers. 28: 39–66. doi:10.2143/AS.28.0.630068. ISSN 0066-1619.
• Fletcher, Joann (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-83173-1.
• Hölbl, Günther (2001). A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415201454.
• Sullivan, Richard (1990). Near Eastern Royalty and Rome, 100–30 BC. Phoenix: Supplementary Volume. Vol. 24. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-802-02682-8.
• Whitehorne, John (1994). Cleopatras. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-05806-3.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ptolemy IX.

• Ptolemy IX Lathyrus entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
• Ptolemy IX (Soter) at Thebes by Robert Ritner