Money Money Money Money

Ptolemy II and sister-wife Arsinoe II

The Macedonian rulers of  Egypt and Syria in the three centuries before the common era spared no expense in catering to their own comfort.

               A visitor to the royal yacht of Ptolemy IV passed through  a series of spacious banqueting rooms finished in ivory, cedar, cypress and other expensive woods and  surrounded by pillars with gold bases Each contained  circles of up to twenty couches. The columns were girdled with ‘figures of animals beautifully carved in ivory, more than a cubit high…’ There were also sleeping chambers with multiple couches, temples to Venus and Bacchus, adorned with statues of the gods and the royal relatives. A second floor had vaulted beams tented over in purple cloth. The visitor commented that ‘the workmanship was not so conspicuous as the beauty of the materials.’ (Quoted in John Marlowe, The Golden Age of Alexandria.)

Lots of money, little taste. Even more true of Hellenistic entertainment. Tune in to my next blog for a description of a Hellenistic parade.