332-30 B.C.
The large empire Alexander the Great had conquered was too big for one successor. One general was entrusted with Macedonia; another Thrace; and a third Syria. One of Alexander's favorite generals, Ptolemy Soter, was made governor of Egypt. Ptolemy Soter's rule of Egypt, the start of the
Ptolemaic Dynasty, lasted from 332-283 B.C. The son of Ptolemy Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphos, co-ruled for the last two years of the reign of Ptolemy Soter and then succeeded him. The Ptolemaic rulers adopted Egyptian customs like marriage to siblings. Cleopatra, the only one of the Ptolemies known to have learned the language of the subject people -- Egyptian -- was a direct descendant of the Macedonian general Ptolemy Soter and a daughter of the flute-playing Ptolemy, Ptolemy Auletes.
