One big difference between this and Ex Oriente Lux: Song China had high incomes for a preindustrial society; Ancient Rome did not, and was hamstrung by a social structure that made sure it would never have any incentive to invest in labor-saving technology.
Thats acutally why I am looking at technoloy that can't be simply substituted by slave labour, but requires machine/electrical power to work.
Why not sticking to Latin, so that the final result is guaranteed not to be too long or too clunky? My humble proposal is Video meliora ac sequor, "I see the better way and follow it", a slight ateration of Ovid's well-known maxim which instead ended with him preferring to follow the worse way. But after years of reading your TL's, that's not how it usually ends up in your works, right Comrade?
Pretty nice motto. If I can come up with a fitting poster design I'll might consider it as an alternative title. Also thanks for your continued support
Edit: Additional chapters inserted here.
The Discovery of Electricity V
“The first generation builds the business, the second makes it a success, and the third wrecks it ”This old piece of wisdom can be applied to businessmen as well as kingdoms. In the case of Egypt it has to be adjusted a bit. All first three generation did not only well but good. Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphus,Ptolemy III Euergetes. In this final chapter we don’t concern ourselves a less with the discovery of electricity, but more how its knowledge was almost completely erased from Egypt.
The Long Decline
The first began to show under Ptolemy IV Philopator (221–204 BCE), under his reign the fortunes of the Ptolemaic dynasty began to decline. Ptolemy IV's reign was inaugurated by the murder of his mother, and he was always under the dominion of favorites, male and female, who indulged his vices and conducted the government as they pleased.
Self-interest led his ministers to make serious preparations to meet the attacks of Antiochus III the Great on Coele-Syria including Judea, and Ptolemy himself was present at the great Egyptian victory of Raphia (217 BCE) which secured the northern borders of the kingdom for the remainder of his reign. The arming of Egyptians in this campaign had a disturbing effect upon the native population of Egypt, leading to the secession of Upper Egypt under pharaohs Harmachis and Ankmachis, thus creating a kingdom that occupied much of the country and lasted nearly twenty years. Philopator was devoted to orgiastic forms of religion and literary dilettantism. He built a temple to Homer and composed a tragedy, to which his favorite Agathocles added a commentary.
Ptolemy Epiphanes (204–181 BCE) was only a small boy when his father, Ptolemy Philopator, died. Philopator's two leading favorites, Agathocles and Sosibius, fearing that Arsinoe would secure the regency, had her murdered before she heard of her husband's death, thereby securing the regency for themselves. However, in 202 BCE, Tlepolemus, the general in charge of Pelusium, put himself at the head of a revolt. Once Epiphanes was in the hands of Tlepolemus he was persuaded to give a sign that his mother's killers should be killed. The child king gave his consent, it is thought more from fear than anything else, and Agathocles along with several of his supporters were killed by the Alexandrian mob Great cruelty and treachery were displayed in the suppression of the native rebellions, and some accounts represent Epiphanes as personally tyrannical. In 183 BCE/184 BCE, the rebels in Lower Egypt surrendered on the basis of terms that Epiphanes had personally promised to honor. However, showing himself treacherous and vindictive, he had them put to death in a cruel manner.
Ptolemy VI Philometor (ca. 186–145 BC) reigned from 180 to 145 BCE, starting at the age of 6. In 170 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire invaded and captured King Ptolemy VI Philometor and all of Egypt, with the exception of the city of Alexandria. Antiochus allowed Ptolemy VI to continue as a puppet monarch. Meanwhile, the people of Alexandria chose Ptolemy VIII Euergetes (182 BCE – June 26, 116 BCE), his younger brother, as king. Euergetes was popularly known as "
Physkōn", Latinized as
Physcon, meaning sausage, potbelly or bladder, due to his obesity.
After Antiochus withdrew from the area in 168 BC due to threats from Rome, Physcon agreed to jointly rule Egypt in a triumvirate with Philometor and Cleopatra II (Philometor's wife and their sister). This arrangement led to continuous intrigues, lasting until October 164 BCE, when Philometor traveled to Rome to appear before the Senate, who were somewhat agreeable with the arrangement. However, areas under Physcon's sole rule were not satisfied with the arrangement, and in May 163 BCE the two brothers agreed to an altering of the original partition. This left Physcon in charge of Cyrenaica. Although the arrangement lasted until Philometor's death in 145 BCE, it did not end the power struggles.
The Purge of Alexandria
When Philometor died on a campaign in 145 BCE, Cleopatra II (Philometer’s wife) quickly had her son proclaimed King Ptolemy VII. Physcon, however, returned from battle and proposed joint rule and marriage with Cleopatra II, both of which she accepted. He had the younger Ptolemy assassinated during the wedding feast and claimed the throne himself, as "Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II" (a name deliberately recalling his ancestor Ptolemy III Euergetes), and had himself proclaimed pharaoh in 144 BCE. But he could be further from his ancestor.
In 145 BCE, Physcon took his revenge on the intellectuals of Alexandria who had opposed him, including Aristarchus of Samothrace and Apollodorus of Athens. He engaged in mass purges and expulsions, leaving Alexandria a changed city [Menecles of Barca]
Most of them escaped with their lives. However it were Bacchius disciple that faced the brunt of his ire. Believing their experiments were responsible for the hubris, of the intellectual class, he had all his followers rounded up and killed, their works destroyed (1)
Physcon seduced and married Cleopatra III (his wife's daughter) without divorcing Cleopatra II, who became infuriated. Many speculate that Physcon only married Cleopatra II because he was plotting to marry Cleopatra III when she became of marrying age. By 132 or 131 BCE, the people of Alexandria had rioted and set fire to the royal palace. Physcon, Cleopatra III, and their children escaped to Cyprus; while Cleopatra II had their twelve-year-old son, Ptolemy Memphitis, acclaimed as king. Physcon was able to get hold of the boy, killed him, and sent the dismembered pieces back to Cleopatra. The ensuing civil war pitted Cleopatra's city of Alexandria against the rest of the country, who supported Physcon. But the damage was already done.
A Renaissance ?
While the political turmoils ebbed and flowed, after Ptolemy VIII Physcon death theMusaeum of Alexandria slowly but steadily recovered. But it seemed that some of the suspicion against the art of
pneuma topere generation still lingered in the minds of Egypt’s rulers. Nevertheless the great Abdaraxus Didaskalos overcame these obsticles and returned Alexandria to its scientific glory.
Notes
(1) He did expel many scholars in OTL but in this timeline he goes a bit further adopting a similar but even more drastic policy of "Burning books and burying of scholars" than Qin Shi Huang (246–210 BCE), the first Emperor of China.
People
Ptolemy I Soter (303–282 BCE)
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE)
Ptolemy III Euergetes (246–221 BCE)
Ptolemy IV Philopator(221–203 BCE)
Ptolemy V Epiphanes (203–181 BCE)
Ptolemy VI Philometor (181–164 BCE, 163–145 BCE)
Ptolemy VIII Physcon (170–163 BCE, 145–116 BCE)
Abdaraxus Didaskalos (127 BCE – 58 BCE)
Sources
Wikipedia
