The daughter of Ptolemy and Berenike, her's was a life like no other and with her began the bloody tale of the house of Ptolemy which would unfold for 300 years. Arsinoë was born a royal princess of Egypt and carefully raised to be used as a political pawn in the great game of power. Her marriage was planned to strengthen Egypt's position in the struggles for world domination which define the Hellenistic era. Any thought of Arsinoë's opinion in the matter never even occurred to anyone, probably not even to Arsinoë, herself. In her teen years a most brilliant match was arranged. She was to be wed to the great king Lysimachos who ruled most of the lands north of the Taurus mountains across Anatolia and westward through Macedon to Epiros. Lysimachos was a great power in the world and she could not have been married higher. She would be a great queen equal to her mother, the queen of Egypt, and she would become the mother in law of her older half sister, Lysandra, who had some time before, been married to Agothocles, the son and heir of her husband to be. The problem in the arrangement would at once, be obvious to Queen Berenike. Lysimachos was a very old man and his son, Agothocles, would soon become king in his stead. The future of Arsinoë would not be bright. At best, she would be allowed to live the rest of her life in retirement as a somewhat embarrassing dowager queen and never expected to re marry. If she had sons, they would most likely be killed and herself as well. As bright a match as it seemed on the surface, it was a sentence of early death for Arsinoë and Berenike would be well aware of that. Either way, Egypt won. A daughter of Ptolemy would sit upon the throne of Lysimachos. Arsinoë would be shipped off and left to her own devices. One wonders what advice Berenike would have given to her daughter before she departed. Berenike faced the same problem in Egypt. Ptolemy had 3 sons by his first wife, Eurydike, and the eldest, Ptolemy Mikros, was heir to the throne.This Ptolemy who would later be called, "Keraunos" (the lightning bolt) was a vicious lout who would most certainly put Berenike and her children to death on the day of his accession to the throne. Berenike's only hope of survival for herself and her children was to get rid of Ptolemy Mikros by any means. But that is another story and a good one. Many stories have been told of Arsinoë's years with Lysimachos. He most certainly must have been very pleased with his young wife for he made her extremely wealthy in her own right.He showered Arsinoë with honors and gifts, among them the great and ancient city of Ephesus which he re named, Arsinoeia. The kingdom of Lysimachos had grown into a vast empire. It covered most of Anatolia stretching north from the Taurus Mountains. It straddled The Hellespont and controlled the traffic between The Mediterranean and The Black Seas. It comprised the costal lands north of The Aegean Sea and Macedon west to Reprobation had everything she could wish for, but the original problem remained. Lysimachos was very old and must soon die to be replaced by his son, Agothocles. Pausanias tells a fine tale about Arsinoë lusting after Agothocles, her stepson.It is most probably simple sensationalism, but there may be a germ of truth to it. Arsinoë may have attempted to become the secret lover of Agothocles with the plan of having him repudiate his wife, Lysandra, and marrying her when he became king. It is very like what she would do later in Egypt. Agothocles would have nothing to do with her. There was only one other possibility open to her; Agothocles must be removed. Arsinoë set to work poisoning the mind of Lysimachos against his son. She employed the obvious tack that the heir was plotting to do away with the king and begin his reign at once. It would seem that Lysimachos at his advanced age would not believe such a thing, but Arsinoë had one thing in her favor. Agothocles was young and dashing. He cut a glamorous figure in public and the people and the armies loved him. There must have been some father-son rivalry here. In the end, Lysimachos came to see his son as a danger to his life. He had the attractive young prince executed and the people were stunned into revolt. Lysandra, the widow of Agaothocles and half sister of Arsinoë, took her children and fled the country. She went to the nearest safe spot, the palace of Seleucos, enemy of both Egypt and Lysimachos. Seleucos welcomed the princess Lysandra with open arms.He was only too happy to march upon the kingdom of his enemy Lysimachos to avenge the death of Agothocles and add its territories to his own while he was at it. He moved quickly to march upon Asia Minor where he met with little resistance from the disaffected subjects of Lysimachos. Within a year he held most of Anatolia. Even the strongly fortified hill town of Pergammon opened its gates to him as well as a treasury of 9,000 talents.It seemed as if nothing could stop his advance upon Lysimachos and Arsinoë. Finally, Lysimachos marched south to meet the armies of Seleucos at Corupedion in one great battle. Arsinoë went to her city of Ephesus to await the outcome. She would be less than 100 miles from the battle with a ship conveniently waiting on the coast. Arsinoë would be safe no matter what the outcome. The battle took place in February of 281 B.C. E. It was a complete victory for Seleucos and old Lysimachos who was, then in his 80's, was killed. Seleucos died as he had lived,in battle. He had outlived Alexander by 51 years and carved an empire of his own which now included Alexander's Macedon. He had made but one great error and that destroyed him. It was the serpent Arsinoë who brought about his ruin and the ruin of his house for all time. The news would have reached Arsinoë very quickly. She had chosen her vantage point with great care. A fast courier riding in stages would get to her far in advance of the armies of Seleucos. She would have all the time she needed to make her escape by sea. There is a suspiciously theatrical tale of Arsinoë dressing a serving girl in her finery and sneaking through the city dressed as a beggar woman. It is a nice story,but a little advance planning would have made it all unnecessary and Arsinoë was very adept at planning in advance for her own safety. Arsinoë sailed from Ephesus with her 3 sons and a ship carefully laden with great wealth beforehand. She set out upon the Aegean sea in the rough weather of February bound for refuge in Macedon far from the reach of Seleucos. She landed in the costal city of Cassandreia where she was still considered to be queen and she settled in to await the political upheaval which would inevitably follow the fall of the house of Lysimachos which had been the result of her machinations. Among the prisoners taken after the battle of Corupedion was yet another viper bred in the house of Ptolemy. It was the half brother of Arsinoë, Ptolemy Keraunos, one of the most unsavory characters in all of ancient history. Very like Agothocles, he had been heir to the throne, a son of a repudiated queen, and a danger to the new queen who was Berenike, the mother of Arsinoë and the queen of Egypt. She had maneuvered his downfall and exile and he had fled first to the court of Seleucos and then on to Lysimachos where he served in the army welcomed him back with open arms and took him as a body guard and a personal companion.The world did not yet know the Ptolemy's. It would prove to be a grave error. It was the wish of Seleucos now to return now to his beginnings and rule his empire from his ancestral home. He set sail directly for Macedon taking his new friend, Ptolemy with him. No sooner had they landed at Lysimacheia on the coast of Macedon then Ptolemy contrived to get the old man alone and stab him to death. He at once proclaimed himself the king of Macedon. So much for the gratitude of the Ptolmies, a nest of serpents if there ever was one. Keranous managed to get the armies of Macedon to proclaim him king and he at last, became the king he always thought himself destined to be. To further strengthen his position, he sent a letter to Arsinoë offering to marry her and make her children his official heirs. here is the beginning of the incestuous marriages of the house of Ptolemy. Such a thing was unspeakable in Hellas, but such moral quibbling was senseless to a Ptolemy. Morality was not their long suit. Arsinoë's eldest son. Ptolemy of Telemessos, had the good sense to believe not a word of it and fled at once to the barbaric lands of Illyria which seemed somewhat less barbaric at the time. Arsinoë insisted upon a marriage witnessed by the entire assembled army of Macedon and it duly occurred. Of course, the first thing Keranous did was to murder the two of Arsinoë's children which remained in Macedon.He was after all, a Ptolemy. Arsinoë with her ever handy ship, escaped to the island of Samothrace not much the worse for wear. You will be happy to know that Keranous was a king for less than 2 years. After which, like a deus ex machina, the Goths descended upon Macedon. They kindly eliminated Ptolemy Keranous from the world in their first battle. On the island of Samothrace, Arsinoë the serpent sat and watched the changing world .Nothing was the same. All the great generals of Alexander were dead. The political boundaries had shifted as the new players in the great game of power took the field. She carefully plotted her next move. Arsinoë was a woman; she could not lead an army like the others, but she had her own weapons. She coiled and struck. Arsinoë sailed once more, this time for Egypt. Her brother, Ptolemy II, sat upon the throne of Egypt and Egypt had become the greatest single power in the world.Like a serpent to the warmth Arsinoë was drawn to the power. Arsinoë was a Ptolemy. As the sister of the king and widow of another king, she was of course, admitted to the royal residence in Alexandria where she began to insinuate herself into the good graces of her brother. Egypt was by now, the strongest of the players in the great game. It covered much of Asia Minor. It had become the super power of the world and Arsinoë knew it.She was a beautiful woman and she knew her brother had a well known weakness for beautiful women. The list of his paramours is a long one. Having already married her half brother, it was but a small step to marry her full brother and Arsinoë managed it. Ptolemy was of course, Already married to her step daughter, another Arsinoë, but that was but a small problem. It did not take long to have Ptolemy repudiate his wife and send her into seclusion far up the Nile. Arsinoë had climbed as high as she could go.She was queen of the most powerful nation in the world. Much has been said of the power and influence of Arsinoë in Egypt. It is possible that she was the real power behind the throne, but Ptolemy II was a shrewd ruler. Despite his seemingly dissolute life, he managed to lead Egypt to the apex of it's glory. Arsinoë sat at the top of the serpent's nest. She could go no further. Her brother/husband was worshiped as a god in his lifetime. There is evidence that Arsinoë was the object of prayers by sailors in her role of Isis, but she was not proclaimed a goddess until after her death in July of 270 BCE. The serpent had achieved all of goals. She was a great queen and a goddess. She is one of the most excoriated women in all of history and she was certainly an unsavory person by our standards and by the standards of her time. She achieved her goals however, with far less bloodshed than the men around her who killed tens of thousands of men women and children. She was a serpent, but the men around her were ravaging beasts. Which is the better? Is she worse because she used the weapons available to a woman? In the end she was a Ptolemy that used what weapons were available to her. She was Arsinoë