Magas of Cyrene

Magas of Cyrene (; born before 317 BC – 250 BC, ruled 276 BC – 250 BC) was a Greek King of Cyrenaica. Through his mother’s second marriage to Ptolemy I he became a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He managed to wrest independence for Cyrenaica (in modern Libya) from the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and became King of Cyrenaica from 276 BC to 250 BC.

Family background and early life Magas was the first-born son of the Macedonian noblewoman Berenice and her first husband, Philip, who had served as a military officer in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. He had two younger sisters: Antigone of Epirus and Theoxena of Syracuse. His father, Philip, was the son of Amyntas by a mother whose name is unknown. Plutarch (Pyrrhus 4.4) implies that his father was previously married and had children, including daughters born to him. Phillip served as a military officer in the service of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great and was known for commanding one division of the phalanx in Alexander’s wars.

Magas's mother, Berenice, was from Eordeaea. She was the daughter of local obscure nobleman Magas and noblewoman Antigone. Berenice’s mother was the niece of the powerful regent Antipater He was the namesake of his maternal grandfather.

About 318 BC, Magas's father, Philip, died of natural causes. After her husband's death, Berenice took her children to the Ptolemaic Kingdom, where they were a part of the entourage of Berenice's cousin Eurydice. Eurydice was then the wife of Ptolemy I, the first Greek pharaoh and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

By 317 BC, Ptolemy I fell in love with Berenice and repudiated Eurydice to marry her. Through her marriage to Ptolemy, Berenice became an Egyptian queen and the queen mother of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Magas was thus a stepson to Ptolemy I; he became an Egyptian prince living in his stepfather's court and was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. His mother bore Ptolemy I three children: Queen Arsinoe II, Princess Philotera, and King Ptolemy II.

Governorship and kingship of Cyrenaica Magas as Ptolemaic governor, first reign, circa 300 - 282/75 BC. Rev: silphium and small crab symbols. After Agathocles of Syracuse had Ophellas, the governor of Cyrene, put to death in November 308 BC, Magas's step-father Ptolemy exercised direct control over Cyrene. Shortly after Ptolemy declared himself king (c.305 BC), the Cyrenaeans rebelled. Around 300 BC, Ptolemy dispatched Magas, then about 20 years old, to reconquer Cyrene. Magas subsequently served as the province's governor. As a posthumous honor to his biological father, Magas, when he served as a priest of the Greek God Apollo, had dedicated an honorific inscription proudly naming him as ‘the eponymous priest’ and ‘Magas son of Philip’.

Following the death of his stepfather Ptolemy I in 283 BC, Magas tried to wrest independence for Cyrenaica from his stepfather's successor, his maternal half-brother Ptolemy Philadelphus, and crowned himself King. The philosophy of the Cyrenaics under Magas evolved in a way that has similarities with Skepticism, Epicurianism and also Buddhism.

The rivalry between Magas and Ptolemy continued after the military clash of their early reigns for some time. The first signs of a reconciliation between Magas and Ptolemy II may be visible in a document from the 260s. In the treaty that Magas concluded with the Cretan League of the Oreioi, he is styled basileus, while Cyrenaica is referred to as an eparchia (province), suggesting that although Magas retained his royal title, the link with Ptolemaic Egypt had been reasserted. However, the general thrust of the treaty still appears to have been directed against Ptolemy, raising doubts as to whether a full reconciliation had been achieved.

To further mend the dynastic rift, Magas betrothed his only child, Berenice II, to Philadelphus's son, the future Ptolemy III Euergetes, at some point after 259 BC.

After the death of Magas, Apama II broke the marital alliance between her daughter Berenice II and Ptolemy III and proposed her daughter and the throne to Demetrius the Fair, son of the Antigonid king Demetrius I Poliorcetes, who became the new king of Cyrene. This gave the Antigonids strategic control of the western side of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Ashoka also claims that he encouraged the development of herbalism, for men and animals, in the territories of the Hellenistic Kings. Buddhist proselytism at the time of king Ashoka (260–218 BC), according to the Edicts of Ashoka.

There are no records of such emissaries in Western sources. However, the philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, from the city of Cyrene where Magas ruled in Cyrenaica, is sometimes thought to have been influenced by the teachings of Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries, given the similarity of some of his teachings with Buddhism.

Still, Magas probably was quite knowledgeable about India. His father, Philip, had been a phalanx officer in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Later, Magas, having been raised in part at the Ptolemaic court, must also have received first-hand accounts of India from his stepfather Ptolemy I, a former general in Alexander's campaigns. The predecessor of Magas in Cyrene, the Ptolemaic governor named Ophellas, had also been one of the Alexander's officers in India, in charge of one of his triremes during the expedition down the Indus River. Magas was probably quite acquainted with matters pertaining to India through his contacts with such veterans of the Indian campaigns.