Editing Ptolemy V Epiphanes (section)

==Personal reign==
===Coronation===
[[File:Rosetta Stone.JPG|thumb|The Memphis decree, inscribed on the [[Rosetta Stone]]]]
By 197 BC the dismal Ptolemaic performance in the war against Antiochus III had completely eroded Aristomenes' authority as regent. Around October or November 197 BC, the Ptolemaic governor of Cyprus, [[Polycrates of Argos]], came to Alexandria, and arranged for Ptolemy V to be declared an adult with a ceremony known as an [[anacleteria]], even though he was only thirteen years old. [[Polybius]] writes that Ptolemy V's courtiers "thought that the kingdom would gain a certain degree of firmness and a fresh impulse towards prosperity, if it were known that the king had assumed the independent direction of the government."<ref>[[Polybius]] 18.55.3-6</ref> He was crowned in [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]] by the High Priest of Ptah on 26 March 196. Polycrates now became the chief minister in Alexandria and Aristomenes was forced to commit suicide in the following years.<ref>Polybius 18.55.7; [[Diodorus]] ''Bibliotheca'' 18.14; [[Plutarch]] ''Moralia'' 71c-d.</ref><ref name=H1360/>

The day after Ptolemy V's coronation, a synod of priests from all over Egypt who had gathered for the event passed the [[Rosetta Stone decree|Memphis decree]]. The decree was inscribed on [[stelae]], and two of these stelae survive: the [[Nubayrah Stele]] and the famous [[Rosetta Stone]]. This decree praises Ptolemy V's benefactions for the people of Egypt, recounts his victory over the rebels at Lycopolis, and remits a number of taxes on the temples of Egypt. The decree has been interpreted as a reward for the priests' support of Ptolemy V against the rebels.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode33//|title=History of the World in 100 Objects:Rosetta Stone|author=British Museum|publisher=BBC}}</ref> Günther Hölbl instead interprets the decree as a sign of the priests' increased power. In his view, the priests asserted their right to the remission of taxes, aware that Ptolemy V was relying more heavily on their support than his predecessors had, and he had no choice but to concede.<ref>{{harvnb|Hölbl|2001|p=165}}</ref>

===Peace with Antiochus III===
[[File:Cleopatra I.jpg|thumb|Modern depiction of Queen [[Cleopatra I]] produced from a contemporary [[relief]]]]
After the Romans decisively defeated Philip V at the [[Battle of Cynoscephalae]] in 197 BC, they turned their attention to Antiochus III, whose troops had crossed the [[Hellespont]] and entered Thrace. In late 196 or early 195 BC [[Lucius Cornelius Lentulus (consul 199 BC)|Lucius Cornelius Lentulus]] met with the Syrian king and, among other things, demanded that Antiochus III return everything he had conquered from Ptolemy V. However, Antiochus announced that he had already begun peace negotiations with Egypt and the Romans departed without achieving anything.<ref>Polybius 18.49-52; [[Livy]] ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 33.39-41; [[Appian]], ''Syriaca'' 3.</ref> Antiochus then concluded peace with Ptolemy, engaging him to his own daughter [[Cleopatra I]]. In winter of 194/193 BC, the sixteen-year old Ptolemy V married Cleopatra I, who was somewhere between 14 and 23 years old. Symbolically, Antiochus held the wedding that sealed his conquest of Coele-Syria at Raphia, the site of his great defeat at the hands of Ptolemy IV.<ref>Livy ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 33.13; [[Cassius Dio]] 19.18</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Chris |title=Cleopatra I|url=http://instonebrewer.com/TyndaleSites/Egypt/ptolemies/cleopatra_i_fr.htm|website=Egyptian Royal Genealogy |access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref>

===End of the Egyptian Revolt (196–185 BC)===
In the mid 190s BC, Ankhmakis made some sort of agreement with King [[Adikhalamani]] of [[Meroe]]. In return for the southern Egyptian city of [[Syene]], Adikhalamani provided some sort of aid which enabled Ankhmakis to recapture Thebes by autumn 195 BC. Violent battles between the forces of Ptolemy V and Ankhmakis took place around [[Asyut]]. In late 191 or early 190 BC, papyrus records indicate that Thebes was once again under Ptolemy V's control. The Ptolemaic general [[Comanus]] led this reconquest. In 187 BC, Adikhalamani pulled out of Syene and abandoned his support for Ankhmakis. The priests who had supported Ankhmakis accompanied his troops back to Meroe. On 27 August 186 BC, Ankhmakis and his son led a last-ditch attack on Thebes, but were defeated by Comanus. This victory re-established Ptolemaic rule in Upper Egypt, as well as the [[Triakontaschoinos]]. In temples in the region, inscriptions with the names of the Meroitic kings who had ruled the region since 206 BC were scratched out.<ref name=H1557/>

Ankhmakis was taken to Alexandria and executed on 6 September 186 BC. Soon after, an official synod of priests gathered in the city and passed a [[Ptolemaic decrees|decree]], known today as the [[Philensis II decree]], in which Ankhmakis was denounced for rebellion and various other crimes against humanity and the gods. A month later, on 9 October 186 BC, Ptolemy V issued the 'Amnesty Decree', which required all fugitives and refugees to return to their homes and pardoned them for any crimes committed before September 186 BC (except temple robbery). This was intended to restore land to cultivation that had been abandoned during the prolonged period of warfare. To prevent further revolts in the south, a new military governorship of Upper Egypt, the ''epistrategos'', was created, with Comanus serving in the role from 187 BC. Greek soldiers were settled in villages and cities in the south, to act as a garrison force in the event of further unrest.<ref name=H1557/>   
 
The rebels in Lower Egypt still continued to fight on. In 185 BC, the general Polycrates of Argos succeeded in suppressing the rebellion. He promised the leaders of the rebellion that they would be treated generously if they surrendered. Trusting this, they voluntarily went to [[Sais]] in October 185 BC, where they were stripped naked, forced to drag carts through the city, and then tortured to death.<ref>[[Polybius]] 22.17.3-7</ref> Whether Polycrates or Ptolemy V was responsible for this duplicitous cruelty is disputed.<ref name=H1557/>

===Foreign policy after the Fifth Syrian War (194/3–180 BC)===
After the end of the Fifth Syrian War, Ptolemy V made an effort to reassert Ptolemaic power on the world stage and to claw back some of the territories lost to the Seleucids, with very little success. When the [[Roman–Seleucid War]] broke out in 192 BC, Ptolemy V sent an embassy to Rome offering financial and military support, but the [[Roman Senate|Senate]] refused it, apparently annoyed about the separate peace that Ptolemy V had made with Antiochus III in 194/3 BC.<ref>[[Livy]]  ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 36.41</ref> Another embassy was made to Rome in 191 BC which congratulated the Senate on the Roman victory at the [[Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC)|Battle of Thermopylae]] and proposed further action against the Seleucids with Ptolemaic support, but the ambassadors were simply thanked for the congratulations and gifted presents.<ref>[[Livy]] ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 37.3.9-11</ref> At the end of the war in 188 BC, when the Romans imposed the [[Treaty of Apamea]] on Antiochus III, which forced him to give up all his territory in [[Asia Minor]], they did not return the former Ptolemaic holdings in the region to Ptolemy V, but awarded them to [[Pergamum]] and Rhodes instead.<ref>[[Polybius]] 21.45.8; [[Livy]] ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 38.39</ref><ref name=H1413>{{harvnb|Hölbl|2001|pp=141–143}}</ref>

When Antiochus III died in 187 BC and was succeeded by his son [[Seleucus IV]], Ptolemy V began preparations for a renewed war to recapture Coele-Syria. Ptolemy V's childhood friend, the eunuch [[Aristonicus (eunuch)|Aristonicus]], was sent to Greece to recruit mercenaries in 185 BC.<ref>Polybius 22.22</ref> At the same time, the king revived the alliances that his grandfather [[Ptolemy III]] had maintained with the [[Achaean League]], presenting the League with monetary gifts and promising them ships as well.<ref>Polybius 22.3.5-9, 22.9</ref> To raise his profile in Greece, Ptolemy V also entered a chariot team in the [[Panathenaic Games]] of 182 BC.<ref>''[[Inscriptiones Graecae|IG]]'' II<sup>2</sup> 2314, line 41; S. V. Tracy & C. Habicht, ''Hesperia'' 60 (1991) 219</ref> In the same year, Aristonicus led a naval raid on Syria, attacking the island of [[Aradus]].<ref name=H1413/>

Ptolemy V died suddenly in September 180 BC, not yet thirty years old. The ancient historians allege that he was poisoned by his courtiers, who believed that he intended to seize their property in order to fund his new Syrian war.<ref>Diodorus ''Bibliotheca'' 29.29; [[Jerome]], ''Commentary on Daniel'' 11.20</ref><ref name=H1413/><ref name=CBP5/>