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Magas of Cyrene question - Iacqlinia - 05-25-2010
Hoping someone here can help
I'm specifically looking for some information on Magas of Cyrene and when it was that Ptolemy gave him governorship there. Also, can we confirm that it was after Ptolemy's death he rebelled and claimed kingship (277BCE).
I'm doing a paper on a coin, and I am trying to date it. 2 sources I have say Magas (who was Berenice's son and Ptolemy's stepson) became governor in 300 or 303 after putting down a revolt from the previous governor (who had colluded with the Carthaginians). I can't seem to find why they suggest the date of circa 300BCE. Only one of these books has been in hard copy, and it was a numismatics text, and the other was on Google books. The only Journal article I have found has been in French. All the other books I have looked at in the Uni Library on the Ptolemies and the Hellenistic kingdoms don't mention Magas at all.
I'm trying to track down details on the Cyrene mint too, and that has been a bit hard.
My prof is the head of the Numismatics area at uni and has a thing for the Ptolemies. What I am going to suggest might be controversial, in that the part of the mint mark on the coin I am looking at looks like it a M, and could mean Magas. This is somewhat different to what the Prof told me so I so I want to back it up with as much evidence as possible. I feel like I have hit a brick wall. I usually concentrate on Roman and Late Antiquity and don't know much about this period at all.
cheers
Jacqueline
Re: Magas of Cyrene question - PMBardunias - 05-25-2010
A footnote from: Ptolemy "The Son" Reconsidered: Are There Too Many Ptolemies?
Author(s): Jennifer Ann Tunny
Source: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 131 (2000), pp. 83-92
Quote:Magas, the king of Cyrene, was the son of Philadelphus's mother, Berenice, by her first husband, Philip (Paus. 1.7.1). He had originally been sent there as governor in c.300 by Ptolemy I and stayed on to become king (Paus. 1.7.1 ; Chamoux 1956: 18-21).
Chamoux simply states that "Magas a du gouverner la Cyrenaique d 300 a 250 avant J.-C.", so from 300- 250 BC. when he died.