Did climate contribute to the fall of the Ptolemys?

Angela

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See:
https://www.archaeology.org/news/6027-171017-egypt-volcano-nile

I certainly have no trouble believing it might have contributed to it, but things are rarely that simple, imo. It's like talking about the reasons for the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations, or Rome. Climate change, poor crops, problems with trade, are all factors, as they were in the French Revolution, for that matter. I don't think you can pin it down to one cause. As for misgovernment, the Ptolemys were masters at it, spending far more effort killing each other, when they weren't marrying each other (sibling vs sibling, parent vs child, you name it), to take good care of Egypt. The science writers don't seem to know or remember that Egypt was a protectorate of a sort of Rome, and that Julius Caesar helped Cleopatra in her fratricidal war with her brother, really picking her over her brother has ruler of Egypt and his ally.

"DUBLIN, IRELAND—According to a report in The Guardian, an analysis of environmental records and historic documents suggests a volcanic eruption may have contributed to the Roman victory over Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 30 B.C. Egypt’s defeat has long been blamed on the shortcomings of the 300-year-long Ptolemaic dynasty, including infighting, decadence, and incest. But ice core data, Islamic records of water levels in the Nile River, and ancient Egyptian histories written on papyrus suggest a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world in 44 B.C. may have disrupted the annual flooding of the Nile and triggered famine, plague, and social unrest. Historian Joe Manning of Yale University and climate historian Francis Ludlow of Trinity College Dublin say failure of the Nile floodwaters, and the resulting social stresses, could have weakened Cleopatra’s power and left her reign vulnerable to the Romans."


"Hollywood history" again. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKyDjOIT0is
 
This has a broader application, not just to the Ptolemys.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/fe-vel101317.php

"[FONT=&quot]Around 245 BCE Ptolemy III, ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt, made a decision that still puzzles many historians: After pursuing a successful military campaign against the kingdom's nemesis, the Seleucid Empire, centred mainly in present-day Syria and Iraq, Ptolemy III suddenly decided to return home. This about-face "changed everything about Near-East history," says Joseph Manning, a historian at Yale University.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Now, Manning and his colleagues have identified a possible reason for Ptolemy III's trek back to Egypt: volcanoes. It's a strange link, but one borne out by evidence. Massive eruptions, a new study suggests, can disrupt the normal flow of the Nile River by cooling the planet's atmosphere. In Ancient Times, that may have led to food shortages and heightened existing tensions in the region. The research, which will be published on Tuesday, 17 October in Nature Communications, links eruptions not just to the end of Ptolemy III's war, but to a series of violent uprisings and other upheavals that rocked Ptolemaic Egypt - an empire that extended over large portions of Northeast Africa and the Middle East."[/FONT]
 
Well, this was a "sign", and the biggest one ever, I might add.
 

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