Ptolemy I Soter

Son of Lagus of the Macedonian aristocracy of Eordaea (the rumour preserved in Curt. 9.8.22 + Paus. 1.6.2 that he was the natural son of Philip II by Arsinoe of Eordaea was probably encouraged by the dynasty itself for legitimating purposes). Born c. 367 BC. Companion of Alexander from boyhood; rose through the Asian campaign to Royal Bodyguard. At the Babylon settlement of 323 took Egypt as his satrapy and held it for the next forty-three years against every challenger. Hijacked Alexander's funeral cortège on the road from Babylon to Aegae in 321 and diverted it to Memphis (Diod. 18.28) — the foundational political-religious move of the Ptolemaic kingdom, completing the translation a few years later to the new Alexandria where the body was on display in a glass coffin into the early Roman period (Augustus visited it in 30 BC, knocked off a piece of Alexander's nose on the kiss). Defeated and killed Perdiccas's invasion 321; assumed the royal title 305 with the other Diadochi after Antigonus's example; lost the naval engagement of Salamis-in-Cyprus 306 to Demetrius but recovered Cyprus a few years later. Founded the Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion (the philosophical-scientific institute attached to the palace) under the patronage of the philosopher Demetrius of Phaleron, refugee Athenian and former pupil of Theophrastus. By-name *Sōtēr* ('Saviour') awarded by the Rhodians for his relief of the Antigonid siege of 305/4. Abdicated to his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 285 and died at Alexandria 282, age about eighty-five — alone of the Diadochi to die a king at home in his own bed.

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