Ptolemy I Soter rivals after Alexander's death. For example, Arrian's account of the fall of Thebes in 335 BC ("Anabasis" , a rare section of narrative explicitly attributed to Ptolemy by Arrian) shows several significant variations from the parallel account preserved in Diodorus Siculus (17.11–12), most notably in attributing a distinctly unheroic role in proceedings to Perdiccas. More recently, J. Roisman has argued that the case for Ptolemy's blackening of Perdiccas and others has been much exaggerated. Ptolemy personally sponsored the great mathematician Euclid. He found Euclid's seminal work, the "Elements", too difficult to study, so he asked if there were an easier
Reign of Cleopatra could be classified as Greeks if they abandoned their original cultures, received a Greek education, labeled their gods and goddesses with Greek names, and embraced the Greek lifestyle. Native Egyptians had been largely excluded from serving in the military by the reign of Ptolemy II, replaced by Greek and Jewish landholders called cleruchs. By the reign of Ptolemy IV in the late 3rd century BC they were reintroduced as phalangite soldiers. Large migrations of Greeks to Egypt ceased by the 2nd century BC, so that the Greek minority in Ptolemaic Egypt remained demographically small. Although Egyptian priests were often wealthy