In June 323 BC, Alexander the Great having created a Macedonian Empire over the whole extent of the Old Persian Empire and more, died suddenly in Babylon.
About five months later, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus appeared in Egypt as the satrap appointed by the new Macedonian king, Philip Arrhidaeus.
Ptolemy took over the country, establishing the rule of the Ptolemies, Egypt depended for is development and success more fundamentally than did any other Hellenistic power on its control of the routes by river and sea.
Ptolemy left his heirs a state characterized by stability and a relative balance between the two principal population groups, the Graeco-Macedonia and the Egyptian, and with the embryo of a Mediterranean empire that could assure political security and commercial prosperity for the land and its capital.
At the end of several wars, not all of them equally successful, his son Ptolemy II managed to add considerably to the possessions his father had left him.
Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt
