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Cleomenes of Naucratis

 

 
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Cleomenes of Naucratis
 
 
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Cleomenes (in Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
, K?eoµe???; died 322 BC), a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 of Naucratis
Naucratis

Naucratis or Naukratis, , loosely translated as " power over ships" , was a city of Ancient Egypt, on the Canopus, Egypt branch of the Nile river, 45 mi SE of the open sea and the later capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alexandria....
 in Egypt
Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Aegyptus in 30 BC....
, was appointed by Alexander III
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
 of Macedon
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
 as nomarch of the Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
ian district (?oµo?) of Egypt and receiver of the tributes from all the districts of Egypt and the neighbouring part of Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 (331 BC). Some of the ancient writers say that Alexander made him satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
 of Egypt; but this is incorrect, for Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
 expressly states, that the other nomarchs were independent of him, except that they had to pay to him the tributes of their districts.






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Cleomenes (in Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
, K?eoµe???; died 322 BC), a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 of Naucratis
Naucratis

Naucratis or Naukratis, , loosely translated as " power over ships" , was a city of Ancient Egypt, on the Canopus, Egypt branch of the Nile river, 45 mi SE of the open sea and the later capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alexandria....
 in Egypt
Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Aegyptus in 30 BC....
, was appointed by Alexander III
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
 of Macedon
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
 as nomarch of the Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
ian district (?oµo?) of Egypt and receiver of the tributes from all the districts of Egypt and the neighbouring part of Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 (331 BC). Some of the ancient writers say that Alexander made him satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
 of Egypt; but this is incorrect, for Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
 expressly states, that the other nomarchs were independent of him, except that they had to pay to him the tributes of their districts. It would, however, appear that he had no difficulty in extending his depredations over all Egypt, and it is not unlikely that he would assume the title of satrap. It is told that his rapacity knew no bounds, that he exercised his office solely for his own advantage.

On the occurrence of a scarcity of grain
GRAIN

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, which works toward sustainable agriculture. It was formed upon the realization that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops are being drastically eliminated....
, which was less severe in Egypt than in the neighbouring countries, he at first forbad its exportation from Egypt; but, when the nomarchs represented to him that this measure prevented them from raising the proper amount of tribute, he permitted the exportation of the grain, but laid on it a heavy export duty. On another occasion, when the price of grain was ten drachmas, Cleomenes bought it up and sold it at 32 drachmas; and in other ways he interfered with the markets for his own gain.

At another time he contrived to cheat his soldiers of a month's pay in the year. Alexander had entrusted to him the building of the city of Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
. He gave notice to the people of Canopus
Canopus, Egypt

Canopus was an Ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around 25 kilometres from the centre of that city....
, then the chief emporium
Emporium

Emporium is a term used for a store selling a wide variety of goods, and for marketplaces or trade centres in ancient cities. The term is also used for:...
 of Egypt, that he must remove them to the new city. To avert such an evil they gave him a large sum of money; but, as the building of Alexandria advanced, he again demanded of the people of Canopus a large sum of money, which they could not pay, and thus he got an excuse for removing them.

He also made money out of the superstitions of the people. One of his boys having been killed by a crocodile
Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e....
, he ordered the crocodiles to be destroyed; but, in consideration of all the money which the priests could get together for the sake of saving their sacred animals, he revoked his order. On another occasion he sent for the priests, and informed them that the religious establishment was too expensive, and must be reduced; they handed over to him the treasures of the temples; and he then left them undisturbed.

Alexander was informed of these proceedings, but found it convenient to take no notice of them; but after his return to Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 (323 BC) he wrote to Cleomenes, commanding him to erect at Alexandria a splendid monument to Hephaestion
Hephaestion

Hephaestion , son of Amyntor, was a Ancient Macedonians nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "... by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets." This friendship lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to t...
, and promised that, if this work were zealously performed, he would overlook his misconduct.

In the distribution of Alexander's empire, after his death (323 BC), Cleomenes was left in Egypt as hyparch under Ptolemy
Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty....
, who put him to death on the suspicion of his favouring Perdiccas
Perdiccas

Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the province of Orestis ....
. The effect, if not also a cause, of this act was, that Ptolemy came into possession of the treasures of Cleomenes, which amounted to 8000 talents
Talent (weight)

The talent is an ancient unit of mass. It corresponded generally to the mass of water in the volume of an Amphora , i.e. one foot cubed. Depending on the length of the respective legal foot, this corresponds roughly to the mass of 27 kg or about 60 English pound s....
.