PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. Arsinöe II Philadelphus (277-270/68 BC). AR decadrachm (35mm, 34.77 gm, 12h). NGC XF 4/5 - 2/5, Fine Style,

Arsinoë II (Koinē Greek: Ἀρσινόη, c. 316 BC – between 270 and 268 BC) was a Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in ancient Egypt. She was previously Queen of Thrace, Anatolia, and Macedonia by marriage to King Lysimachus and later Ptolemy Keraunos. In 273/72 BC, she became queen of Ptolemaic Egypt upon her marriage to her brother, Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus, acquiring the royal name Arsinoe Philadelphos. As queen of Egypt, Arsinoe was given the Egyptian title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt", which may suggest that she was co-ruler with her husband; the exact meaning of this elevation and whether it occurred during her life or posthumously is uncertain.^[3][4][a] After her death, Arsinoe was deified at the orders of her husband and the cult of Arsinoe Philadelphos became widespread in the Ptolemaic territories.

Arsinoë was the first daughter of Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Hellenistic state of Egypt, and his second wife Berenice I of Egypt.^[7]

She was maybe born in Memphis, but was raised in the new city of Alexandria, where her father moved his capital.^[8] Nothing is known of her childhood or education, but judging from her later life as patron of scholars and noted for her learning, she is estimated to have been given a high education.^[9] Her brothers were tutored by intellectuals hired by their fathers, and it is regarded likely that she attended these lessons as well: she corresponded with the intellectual Strato of Lampsacus later in life, and he may have previously been her tutor.^[10]