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the other suggested reading: "ETrov r9T) Kai 9, a double dating-the
seventh year which is also the sixth.
As indicated briefly above, a double-dating system is known to exist in
the very early years of the reign of Cleopatra. There are a few papyri which
refer to "the first year which is also the third": SB VI 9065 from Abusir elMalaq;3 SB VIII 9764, provenance Bacchias, the month of Payni = June
49;4 and probably BGU VIII 1839 from the Herakleopolite nome, August
49.5 The nature of the formula itself suggests the obvious conclusion that
Cleopatra had, in her third year, lost considerable influence. Not only did
she have to recognize the regnal era of a co-ruler-not evidenced previously
in the papyri-but she had to take second position to the upstart. Ptolemy's
regnal year appears first. This has led interpreters to conclude that the
Ptolemy of this double era is Ptolemy XIII, who evidently gained so much
influence in Cleopatra's third year that he replaced her as primary ruler and
perhaps even forced her from Alexandria.6 She was, one should recall, in
this same position when Caesar landed in Alexandria in 48.7
Skeat contends, however, that the first date refers to Ptolemy XIV.
According to Skeat, "the revolutionary change" to which the double date
refers is "the final expulsion of Ptolemy XIII from the kingship," and
Ptolemy XIV was his only likely replacement. He supports his conclusion
by the fact that while her regnal year is given second place, Cleopatra's
name remains first in SB VI 9065, and therefore "the first year quoted,'year
1' must relate to some alternative reckoning of her own regnal years. "8 One
is left to assume that Ptolemy XIII managed a comeback prior to Caesar's
landing in Alexandria on 1 October 48, since Cleopatra had been forced to
flee the city some time before this.
Contrary to Skeat, BGU VIII 1730 can be interpreted as support for
the alternate solution.9 This royal decree, forbidding the export of grain to
3 See T. C. Skeat, "Notes on Ptolemaic Chronology: III.'The First Year Which Is Also
the Third': A Date in the Reign of Cleopatra VII,"JEA 48(1962) 100-105. SB9065 = P.Berol.
inv. 16277.
4 Skeat, "Notes" 103. SB 9764 =P.Fay. 151 (desc.).
5 Skeat, "Notes" 103 f.
6 Heinen, Rom und Agypten 27-32; M. Grant, Cleopatra (New York 1972) 49-51.
7 Caesar, BC 3.103; Appian, BC 2.84.
8 Skeat, "Notes" 102. A. E. Samuel also finds this explanation appealing: "Year 27 = 30
and 88 B.C.," Cd'E 40 (1965) 396 f.; but in Ptolemaic Chronology (Mtinchener Beitrage 43;
Munich 1962) 158 f., he chooses to limit his discussion of this joint era to Porphyry's
chronology. See also below, n.16.
9 SB IV 7419. Other editions: C.Ord.Ptol. 73; C.P.Jud. I 137; David and van
Groningen, Papyrological Primer4 6; Hunt and Edgar, Select Papyri II 209; Archiv 8 (1927)
212-215, No. 15. For the date in 50 B.c., see M. Th. Lenger, "Les lois et ordonnances des
Lagides," Cd'E 19 (1944) 127; Rostovtzeff, SEHHE 2.909, 3.1551; Skeat, "Notes" 104; and
above, n.6.
