Arsinoe II

Relatives:

• Father: Ptolemy I Soter
• Mother: Berenice I
• First husband: Lysimachus
  • Children: Ptolemy, Philip, Lysimachus
• Seond husband: her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos
• Third husband: her brother Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Main deeds:

• c.316: Born
• c.299: Marriage to Lysimachus
• 298/297: Birth of Ptolemy
• 297: Birth of Philip
• 294: Birth of Lysimachus Junior
• 293: Ephesus is renamed Arsinoea
• 282: Arsinoe accuses Agathocles, a son of Lysimachus from his earlier marriage to Nicaea), of treason. Agathocles is executed
• Agathocles' wife Lysandra flees to Babylon to Seleucus, who sees an opportunity to expand his dominions
• Agathocles' wife Lysandra flees to Babylon to Seleucus, who sees an opportunity to expand his dominions
• 281: In the battle of Corupedium, Seleucus defeats Lysimachus, who is killed. Seleucus adds Lysimachus' realm to his own empire, but is killed almost immediately after by Ptolemy Keraunos (a half-brother of Arsinoe who had left Egypt)
• Ptolemy Keraunos becomes king of Lysimachus' empire in the Aegean world; he marries Arsinoe and kills her sons
• Arsinoe flees to Samothrace and, later, to Egypt
• Here, she marries her brother, king Ptolemy II, who is from now on surnamed Philadelphus, 'man who loves his sister', which is a more or less neutral expression without incestuous connotations. To an Egyptian, it would be a reference to the divine marriages of gods like Isis and Osiris.
• Arsinoe adopts the children of her husband.
• 268: Death

Literature

• S.M. Burstein, "Arsinoe II Philadelphos: A Revisionist View", in W.L. Adams and E.N. Borza (eds.), Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage (1982 Washington), pages 197-212
• E.D. Carney, "Arsinoe before she was Philadelphos", Ancient History Bulletin 8 (1994), pages 123-131
• H. Hauben, "Arsinoé II et la politique extérieure de l' Égypte", in E. Van 't Dack and P. van Dessel (eds.), Egypt and the Hellenistic World (1983 Leuven)