Ptolemy III Euergetes

Ptolemy III Euergetes
Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης Iwaennetjerwysenwy Sekhemankhre Setepamun
Gold coin depicting Ptolemy III issued by Ptolemy IV to honor his deified father
King of Egypt
Reign	246–222 BC (Ptolemaic)
Predecessor	Ptolemy II
Successor	Ptolemy IV
Royal titulary
Consort	Berenice II
Children	Ptolemy IV, Arsinoe III, Alexander, Magas, Berenice
Father	Ptolemy II
Mother	Arsinoe I

Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης

Ptolemy III Euergetes (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs, reigned 246–222 BC) was the third king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

Euergetes ("Benefactor") was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife, Arsinoe I, and came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father. He married Berenice of Cyrene in the year corresponding to 244/243 BC; and their children were:

Ptolemy III Euergetes was responsible for the first known example of a series of decrees published as bilingual inscriptions on massive stone blocks in three writing systems. His stone stela is the Canopus Stone of 238 BC. Other well-known examples are the Memphis Stele (Memphis Stone), bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 BC, passed by his son, Ptolemy IV, as well as the famous Rosetta Stone erected by Ptolemy Epiphanes, his grandson, in 196 BC.

Ptolemy III's stone contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals.

He is also credited with the foundation of the Serapeum, as well as the temple of Horus at Edfu, which he commissioned in about 237 BC, although the main temple would not be finished until the reign of his son, Ptolemy IV, in 231 BC, and it would not be officially opened until 142 BC, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII. Also, the reliefs on the great pylon were only completed in the reign of Ptolemy XII. He, like many Pharaohs before him, also added to the Temple of Karnak.