Open AccessProskynema of the Achaean Theodotos for Ptolemy XII
Author(s) -
Alessandro Rossini
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
axon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 2532-6848
DOI - 10.30687/axon/2532-6848/2021/01/010
Subject(s) - ptolemy's table of chords , epigraph , history , ancient history , daughter , wife , cleopatra , classics , genealogy , philosophy , art , literature , law , theology , political science
A proskynema by an Achaian, at Philae, for Ptolemy XII and his children, is usually dated to the king’s widowhood. The death of Cleopatra Tryphaena, Ptolemy XII’s only known official wife, has been placed in 69-68 BC, while his youngest child was born in 59 to an unknown woman. Ptolemy died in 51. The inscription was dated 59/58-52/51. But traces of the reappearance of Tryphaena during the kings’s exile (58-55) – together with Berenice, the only legitimate daughter – implies that Tryphaena was deposed and subjected to abolitio memoriae , and that Ptolemy got involved in relationships illegitimate to Greek eyes. The absence of any queen in the proskynema could derive from their unimportance from a Greek point of view, and the epigraph could be, at least, ten years older.