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Document Details : Title: The Birth-date of Arsinoe II Philadelphus Author(s): VAN OPPEN DE RUITER, Branko Journal: Ancient Society Volume: 42 Date: 2012 Pages: 61-69 DOI: 10.2143/AS.42.0.2172287 Abstract : This article examines the modern assumption that Arsinoe II was born ca. 316 — and argues that her birth cannot be dated more precisely than between 320/19 and 312/1. More importantly, I intend to reveal the dubious rationale underlying scholarly assumptions about (royal) marriageable age and marital relations. Historians appear reluctant to accept, on the one hand, that Arsinoe may have been as young as twelve when she married Lysimachus, and, on the other hand, that Ptolemy I may well have married Berenice I around the same time as Eurydice. I will further explore the implications of post- or ante-dating Arsinoe’s birth in relation to her position at the courts of Lysimachus and Ptolemy II. This note may thus serve as a general warning about the intricacies of the marital behavior of the (early-) Hellenistic dynasties. |
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