Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/577

Rh PTOLEMAEUS. of Pteras shows that the story of his building the temple is only a rationalistic interpretation of this fable. Another story about Pteras was that the Apteraei in Crete took their name from him. (Paus. X. 5. § 5. s. .9, 10.) [P. S.] PTOLEMAEUS (nroXe/iaros), the name of two mythical personages, one a son of Peiraeas, who accompanied Agamemnon as charioteer to Troy (Horn. //. iv. 228), and the other a son of Damasichthon, king of Thebes. (Paus. ix. 5. § 8.) [L. S.] PTOLEMAEUS {Uroena7os), minor historical persons. (Several persons of this name, which ap- pears to have been one in its origin exclusively Macedonian, occur among the officers and generals of Alexander the Great, whom it is not always easy to distinguish from one another.) 1. Son of Lagus. [Ptolemaeus I. king of Egypt.] 2. Son of Philip, an officer who commanded the leading squadron of Macedonian cavalry at the passage of the Granicus. (Arr. Anab. i. 14.) It is supposed by Gronovius {ad Arr. I. c.) and by Droysen, that he is the same who was afterwards left by Alexander with a force of 3000 foot and 200 horse to defend the province of Caria, and who subsequently, together with Asander the go- vernor of Lydia, defeated the Persian general Orontobates, B. c. 332. (Arr. ib. i. 23, ii. 5.) 3. One of the select officers called Soraatophylaces, or guards of the king's person, who was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus, B.C. 334. (Arr. Anab. i. 22.) Freinsheim, in his supplement to Curtius (ii. 10. § 13), has assumed this to be the son of Philip, but it is more probable, as already pointed out, that the latter was the governor of Caria, 4. Son of Seleucus, another of the Soraato- phylaces, who combined with that distinguished post the command of one of the divisions of the phalanx. He was lately married when he accom- panied Alexander on his expedition to Asia, B. c. 334, on which account he was selected by the king to command the body of Macedonians, who were allowed to return home for the winter at the end of the first campaign. In the following spring he rejoined Alexander at Gordium, with the troops under his command, accompanied by fresh rein- forcements. At the battle of Issus (b. c. 332) his division of the phalanx was one of those opposed to the Greek mercenaries under Dareius, and upon which the real brunt of the action consequently devolved ; and he himself fell in the conflict, after displaying the utmost valour. (Arr. Anab. i. 24, 29, ii. 8, 10 ; Curt. iii. 9. § 7.) 5. An officer who commanded a force of Thracian mercenaries, with which he joined Alexander in Bactria, a. c. 329. (Arr. Anab. iv. 7 ; Curt. vii. 10. § H.) 6. Son of Ptolemy, an officer appointed by Antipater in b.c. 321, to be one of the Somato- phylaces of the titular king, Philip Arrhidaeus. (Arr. ap. Phot. p. 72, a.) Nothing more is known of him, but Droysen conjectures that he was a son of No. 4. {Hellenism, vol. i. p. 154.) 7. Nephew of Antigonus, the general of Alex- ander, who afterwards became king of Asia, His name is first mentioned as present with his uncle at the siege of Nora in B. c. 320, when he was given up to Eumenes as a hostage for the safety of the latter during a conference with Antigonus. (Plut. Eum. 10.) At a later period we find him PTOLEMAEUS. 565 entrusted by his uncle with commands of im- portance. Thus in b.c. 315, when Antigonus was preparing to make head against the formidable coalition organized against him, he placed Ptolemy at the head of the army which was destined to carry on operations in Asia Miiior against the generals of Cassander. This object the young general successfully carried out — relieved Amisus, which was besieged by Asclepiodorus, and re- covered the whole satrapy of Cappadocia ; after which he advanced into Bithynia, of which he compelled the king Zipoetes to join his alliance, and then occupied Ionia, from whence Seleucus withdrew on his approach. (Diod. xix. 57, 60.) He next threatened Caria, which was however for a time defended by Myrmidon, the Egyptian general ; but the following year Ptolemy was able to strike a decisive blow in that quarter against Eupolemus, the general of Cassander, whom he surprised and totally defeated. (Id. ib. 62, 68.) The next summer (b. c. 313) the arrival of Anti- gonus himself gave a decided preponderance to his arms in Asia Minor, and Ptolemy, after ren- dering active assistance in the sieges of Caunus . and lasus, was sent with a considerable army to Greece to carry on the war there against Cas- sander. His successes were at first rapid : he drove out the garrisons of his adversary from Chalcis and Oropus, invaded Attica, where he compelled Demetrius of Phalerus to make overtures of sub- mission, and then carried his arms triumphantly through Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris. Wherever he went he expelled the Macedonian garrisons, and proclaimed the liberty and independence of the several cities. After this he directed his march to the Peloponnese, where the authority of Antigonus had been endangered by the recent defection of his general Telesphorus. (Id. ib. 75, 77, 78, 87.) Here he appears to have remained till the peace of 311 suspended hostilities in that quarter. But he considered that his services had not met with their due reward from Antigonus ; and when, therefore, in B. c. 310 the kings of Macedonia and Egypt were preparing to renew the war, Ptolemy suddenly abandoned the cause of his uncle and concluded a treaty with Cassander and the son of Lagus. Probably his object was to establish himself in the chief command in the Peloponnese : but the reconciliation of Polysperchon with Cassander must have frustrated this object : and on the arrival of the Egyptian king with a fleet at Cos, Ptolemy repaired from Chalcis to join him. He was received at first with the utmost favour, but soon gave offence to his new patron by his intrigues and ambitious demonstrations, and was in consequence thrown into prison and com- pelled to put an end to his life by poison, B. c. 309. (Id. XX. 19, 27.) Schlosser has represented this general as an enthusiast in the cause of the liberty of Greece, but there seems no reason to suppose that his professions to that effect were more earnest or sincere than those of his contem- poraries. 8. Son of Lysimachus, king of Thrace. He was the eldest of the three sons of that monarch by his last wife Arsinoe, and the only one who escaped fall- ing into the hands of Ptolemy Ceraunus. Having in vain urged his mother not to trust to the friendly professions of the usurper, he himself appears to have made his escape and taken refuge with Monunius, king of the Dardanians, whom he pei> o o 3