Ptolemy III Euergetes

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Gold coin depicting Ptolemy III

Statue of Ptolemy III in the guise of Hermes wearing the chlamys cloak. Ptolemaic Egypt.

Bronze coin depicting Ptolemy III, toward the end of his reign. Obverse: close observation reveals a profile of Ptolemy as he looks to the right; reverse: a perched eagle

Ptolemy III Euergetes, (Greek: Πτολεμαίος Ευεργέτης, reigned 246 BC–222 BC) is sometimes called Ptolemy III Euergetes I. The third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, he was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife Arsinoe I. He came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father. He is most noted for his invasions of the northern kingdom of Syria which he commenced upon the murder of his eldest sister Berenice Phernophorus; during this war, the Third Syrian War, he occupied Antioch and -as a recent cuneiform discovery^[1] proves- even reached Babylon.

He married Berenice of Cyrene in the year corresponding to 244/243 BC; and they were parents of Arsinoe III and Ptolemy IV Philopator.

Ptolemy III Euergetes had put up the first of the Rosetta Stone series, the bilingual inscriptions on massive stone blocks in three writing systems. Ptolemy III's stone stela is the Canopus Stone of 238 B.C.E. His son, Ptolemy IV, is responsible for the Memphis Stele, or Memphis Stone, the second in the series, bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 B.C.E. The famous Rosetta Stone is the third, erected by Ptolemy V, in 196 BC.

Ptolemy III's stone contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals.