The Romanov dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty have rather a lot in common

Both were marked by great achievements, by tragedy, and by a pronounced peculiarity of historical fate.

Both dynasties had their adventurers and desperate men.

The Romanov dynasty was founded by a man with flimsy rights but a great deal of adventurism. Strictly speaking, that was not the seventeen-year-old Mikhail Fyodorovich but his father. The Ptolemies began in much the same way: the founder of the dynasty, Ptolemaeus Lagus, a diadochus of the commander Alexander, saw the courtiers do away with the dead king's son at once, and then launch an energetic struggle for territories. Ptolemy received Egypt, not on a silver platter with a gilt rim, to be sure, but received it all the same.

In both dynasties power was established by means of elective procedures.

In both dynasties women reigned: the Ptolemies had figures comparable to Catherine II.

And both dynasties lasted three hundred years.