Ptolemy V Epiphanes was just a boy of just five years old when his father was assassinated in 204 BC. The little pharaoh had to assume power at a particularly tumultuous time. Egypt was going through a time of 'lean cows'. Their wealth had been used up to finance a multitude of foreign wars and a growing violent insurrection began by the native population, who no longer wished to live as second-class citizens while the Macedonian dynasty and Greek imperialists prospered at their expense.
In the year 196 BC, the well-known Decree of Memphis was promulgated, which was inscribed in stone and copies were distributed throughout all the temples. In that text it was explained that the priests of Ptah (supporters of the Ptolemaic dynasty) proclaimed the anointing of Ptolemy V as the divine pharaoh of Egypt.
The writing also described Ptolemy's successful campaigns against Egyptian rebels and noted his success in the siege of a city near Thmouis, in the Nile River delta. The message appeared in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek formats and its most recent copy. Found by a French officer in 1799 and known as the Rosetta Stone, it famously enabled the philologist Jean-François Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Over the decades, the inscription became famous for its key role in the investigation of human history and the container ended up being more important than the content. The violent revolt was lost in time and how close the young Ptolemy V came to being overthrown was forgotten.
That's why researchers Jay E. Silverstein of Nottingham Trent University and Robert Littman of the University of Hawai'i hopped on a plane to Egypt to uncover evidence of civil war among the ruins of Thmouis (near present-day Tell El-Timai)
As explained in an article published in the Journal of Field Archeology, archaeological evidence reveals widespread destruction of the city at the time of the rebellion, between 204 and 186 BC. The work started in 2009 and concluded in 2022 has made it possible to recover weapons and unburied human bodies spread over a wide area and which graphically pointed to an episode of extreme violence.
One of the skeletons had old wounds, which has led experts to interpret that it had been a warrior, and some others that had not even healed, indicating that he died violently. A young man was also found in a furnace, suggesting that he had crawled there to hide.
“At Thmouis, a room contained evidence that allowed precise dating,” recalls Silverstein in The Conversation. “A hoard of coins in the ground dates to the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV, while all the coins in the leveling layer date to Ptolemy VI. A Dinner for Four also had some distinctive vessels, following an Athenian style that places them in the first quarter of the 2nd century BC, during the reign of Ptolemy V,” he adds.
The great revolt had particularly economic and political consequences, especially for those cities in the central Nile delta that joined the rebellion and saw their ports closed. The insurgents appointed their own leaders (pharaohs) and, with the help of the Nubians, took control of much of Egypt.
After 20 years of conflict, the Hellenistic military machine subdued the rebellion and the last rebel leaders were assassinated when they went to negotiate peace in the city of Sais. The Greek general Aristonicus was the one who led the forces of Ptolemy V in their campaign to eradicate the last rebels at Tell el Balamun, north of Thmouis.
“Had the rebels prevailed, Egyptian history might have taken a different turn. Their traditional gods, Isis and Horus, for example, might not have so easily handed over their identities to Mary and Jesus with the advent of Christianity," Silverstein notes.
After securing control of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty played a key role in the geopolitics of the eastern Mediterranean. He supported the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid dynasty of Syria, establishing a Jewish kingdom. And, the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra was a vital figure at the time the Roman Republic became an Empire.
“Thmouis was rebuilt as a capital filled with Greek settlers and soon became the regional seat of power, as the Ptolemaic dynasty took influence away from the Egyptian priests who participated in the insurrection. They wanted to make sure that no other revolt would threaten their control again," concludes the researcher.
