What was the role of Ptolemy I under Alexander the Great How important Essay

What was the role of Ptolemy I under Alexander the Great How important was Ptolemy to Alexander - Essay Example When Philip was murdered by a faction of aristocrats in 336 B.C.E., Ptolemy went back to the court and backed up Alexander’s rights as heir to the throne (Yardley 1984, 64) As a result, according to Bingen and Bagnal (2007), Alexander employed Ptolemy as his custodian, protector, and friend. Ptolemy escorted Alexander on his battles in 336 B.C.E. in the Danube, and in Corinth and Thebes. Ptolemy strongly supported the fledgling king in his military campaigns (Bingen & Bagnal 2007). Ptolemy persuaded and helped Alexander’s conquest of Asia Minor, Syria, and Persia. These campaigns were carried out to liberate the Greeks from Darius III’s Persian Empire (p. 16). Ptolemy supported Alexander’s nonviolent invasion of Egypt and the building of the Alexandria city, and perhaps escorted Alexander to Zeus’s temple in Siwa. Ptolemy immediately saw the huge importance of Egypt, and a wholehearted concern for the country thrived within him. Ptolemy afterwards escorted the young king to northern Mesopotamia for the ultimate clash with Darius’s armed forces in 331 B.C.E. (Green 1990, 131). Ptolemy played a major role in the crusades of Alexander in India and Afghanistan. When the great king passed away Ptolemy seized control over a large portion of all the territories that Alexander had invaded, becoming overseer of Egypt. Ptolemy’s major objective all over his almost four decades in power was to erect a strong reign, the Ptolemaic dynasty (Green 1990, 291). This dynasty reigned throughout Egypt for three centuries and was the leader of all the empires which were indebted to the invasions of Alexander the Great. Ptolemy buil t his main city at Alexandria where he also constructed a museum and began bringing together written works for a grand library, which eventually became the hub for scientific study and the world’s greatest compilation of Roman and Greek papyri (Ellis 1994,