Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/580

Rh 568 PTOLEMAEUS. Suidas mentions a Ptolemy of Cythera, an epic poet, who wrote a poem about the virtues of the plant called psalacantha; but this statement is perhaps the result of some confusion, since the work of Ptolemy Chennus contains various marvel- lous statements respecting that very plant. The work of Ptolemy has been edited, with commentaries, by And. Schottus and Dav. Hoes- chelius in Gale's Historiae Poeticae Scriptores, p. 303, &c. Paris, 1675, 8vo., with a dissertation upon Ptolemy ; by L. H, Teucher, with Conon and Parthenius, Lips. 1794, 8vo. ; and by Westerrnann, in his Mythograplii^ p. 182, «&.c. Brunsv. 1843, 8vo. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 256, ed. Wester- rnann ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. pp. 295, 296, vol. vi. pp. 377, 378). 13. A heretic, of the sect of the Valentinians (Iren. adv. Haeres. Praef.). His Letter to Flora is preserved by Epiphanius (xxx. 7), and printed in Grabe's Spicileyiuni Patrum (Dodwell, Dissert. ad Iren. pp. 318, foil. ; Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. v. p. 296). [P. S.] PTOLEMAEUS (nroAe/xaTos), a surgeon, one of whose medical formulae is quoted by Celsus (De Med. vi. 7. 2, p. 126), and who must, therefore, have lived in or before the first century after Christ. He is perhaps the same person whose opinion on the cause of dropsy is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus {De Morb. Chron. iii. 8. p. 479), and who is called by him a follower of Erasistratus. Perhaps also he is the physician whose medical formulae are quoted by Asclepiades Pharmacion (ap. Galen. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. ii. 2, vol. xii. p. 584 ; see also ibid. iv. 7. p. 789, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. V. 14, vol. xiii. pp. 849, 853.) [W. A. G.] PTOLEMAEUS (nroAe^aros) of Alorus, regent, or according to some authors king of Mace- donia. The circumstances connected with his elevation, and the revolutions in which he took part, are very variously related. Diodorus (xv. 71) calls him a son of Amyntas II. ; but this seems to be certainly a mistake, and Dexippus {ap. SyncelL p. 263, b.) says that he was a stranger to the royal family. During the short reign of Alexander 1 1., the eldest son of Amyntas, we find Ptolemy en- gaged in war with that prince, and apparently dis- puting the throne with him. Their differences were terminated for a time by the intervention of Pelopidas, but the reconciliation was a hollow one, and Ptolemy soon took an opportunity to remove the young king by assassination, b. c. 367. (Plut. Pdop. 26, 27 ; Diod. xv. 71 ; Marsyas ap. Athen. xiv. p. 629, d.) It seems probable that this murder was perpetrated with the connivance, if not at the instigation, of the queen-mother Eurydice [Eury- DicE, No. 1.]; and Ptolemy in consequence ob- tained possession of the supreme power without opposition. But the appearance of a new pretender to the throne, Fausanias, soon reduced hira to j^reat difficulties, from which he was rescued by the intervention of the Athenian general Iphicrates, who established the brother of Alexander, Per- diccas III., upon the throne, while Ptolemy exer- cised the virtual sovereignty under the name of regent. (Aesch. de F. Leg. pp. 31, 32 ; Corn. Nep. Jphicr. 3.) It was probably after this that the partisans of the late king invoked the assistance of Pelopidas, who invaded Macedonia with a merce- nary force, but was met by Ptolemy, who disarmed biB resentment by protestations of submission, and obtained the confirmation of his authoiity as regent, PTOLEMAEUS. giving hostages for his friendly dispositioii towards the Thebans. (Plut. Pelop. 27.) To this new alliance it may be ascribed that Ptolemy aban- doned his friendly relations with the Athenians, notwithstanding the benefits he had received from Iphicrates. (Aesch. /. c. p. 32.) He continued to administer the sovereign power for a period of three years, when he was, in his turn, assassinated by the young king Perdiccas III., b. c. 364. (Diod. XV. 77.) Diodorus gives Ptolemy the title of king, and his name is included by the chrono- graphers among the Macedonian kings (Dexippus up. Sy7icell. I.e.; Euseb. Arm. pp. 153, 154), but it seems more probable that he assumed the regal authority without its designation. (Compare, in regard to the above facts, Thirlwall's Greece, vol. v. p. 162 — 165; Flathe, Gesch. Macedoniens, vol. i. p. 38 — 40 ; and Abel, Makedonien vor Konig Pldlipp. p. 217—223.) [E. H. B.] PTOLEMAEUS {UToX^y^am), sumamed Apion ('ATri&jj') king of Cyrene, was an illegiti- mate son of Ptolemy Physcon, king of Egypt, by his mistress Eirene. His father left him by his will the kingdom of the Cyrenai'ca, to which he appears to have succeeded without opposition, on the death of Physcon, B. c. 117. We know no- thing of the events of his reign, but at his death in B. c. Q'o, he bequeathed his kingdom by his will to the Roman people. The senate, however, re- fused to accept the legacy, and declared the cities of the Cyrenai'ca free. They were not reduced to the condition of a province till near thirty years afterwards ; a circumstance which has given rise to much confusion, some of the later Roman writers having considered this latter date to be that of the death of Apion, and the accompanying bequest. Hence Sextus Rufus, Ammianus, and Hieronymus were led to suppose that there were two kings of the name of Apion, an error in which they have been followed by Scaliger, Frein- shemius, and other modem writers. The subject has been satisfactorily examined by Valesius in his notes to Ammianus, and by Clinton. (Justin, xxxix. 5 ; Liv. Epit. Ixx. ; Jul. Obsequens, c 109 ; Eutrop. vi. 11; Sex. Ruf. c. 1 3 ; Amm. Marc. • xxii. 16. § 24 ; and Vales, ad loc; Hieronym. in Euseb. Chron. 01. 171. 1, and 01. 178. 3 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 389, note.) [E. H. B.] PTOLEMAEUS (nroAe^aros), surnamed Ce- RAUNUS, king of Macedonia, was the son of Ptolemy I. king of Egypt, by his second wife Eurydice. The period of his birth is not men- tioned ; but if Droysen is right in assigning the marriage of Eurydice with Ptolemy to the year B. c. 321 (see Hellenism, vol. i. p. 154), their son cannot have been born till b. c. 320. He must, at all events, have been above thirty years old in B, c. 285, when the aged king of Egypt came to the resolution of setting aside his claim to the throne, and appointing his younger son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, his successor. (Appian. Syr. 62 ; Justin, xvi. 2.) To this step we are told that the old king was led not only by his warm attachment to his wife Berenice and her son Philadelphus, but by apprehensions of the violent and passionate character of his eldest son, which subsequent ■ events proved to be but too well founded. Ptolemy fl Ceraunus quitted the court of Egypt in disgust, ^ and repaired to that of Lysimachus, where his sister Lysandra was married to Agathocles, the heir to the Thracian crown. On the other hand,