Magas of Cyrene - Governorship and Kingship of Cyrenaica

Governorship and Kingship of Cyrenaica

Magas received the governorship of Cyrenaica from his mother. 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 ‘the eponymous priest’ and ‘Magas son of Philip’. Following the death of his stepfather in 283 BC; Magas tried on several occasions to wrestle independence for Cyrenaica until he crowned himself as King around 276 BC, during the reign of his maternal half-brother Ptolemy II.

Magas then married Apama II, his third maternal cousin and one of the daughters of Seleucid King Antiochus I Soter and Stratonice of Syria. Antiochus I used his marital alliance to foment a pact to invade Egypt. Apama II and Magas had a daughter called Berenice II, who was their only child. Magas opened hostilities against Ptolemy II in 274 BC, attacking Egypt from the west, as Antiochus I was attacking Palestine. However, Magas had to cancel his operations due to an internal revolt of the Libyan nomad Marmaridae. In the east, Antiochus I suffered defeat against the armies of Ptolemy II. Magas at least managed to maintain the independence of Cyrenaica until his death in 250 BC. Over a year after Magas died, his daughter married Ptolemy III Euergetes, the first son of Ptolemy II. Through Berenice II’s marriage to her paternal cousin, Magas’ Kingdom was reabsorbed by Ptolemaic Egypt.