Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/594

Rh 582 PTOLEMAEUS. enterprize, the winter campaign against the Cos- saeans, b.c. 324. (Arr. ih. vii. 15.) From all these facts it is clear that at the death of Alexander few among his friends and generals occupied so prominent a place as the son of Lagus, and Perdiccas appefirs to have looked upon him from the first as one of his most formidable rivals. But Ptolemy was too prudent to allow his ambition to lead him into any premature demonstrations of enmity. In the first assembly of the generals he had indeed proposed that the government should be administered by a council of officers ; but this suggestion being rejected, he attached himself to tlie party of Perdicras during the subsequent trans- actions. But he was far from losing sight of his own interests. It is said to have been by his ad- vice that the different provinces and satrapies were portioned out among the generals, and he took care to secure for himself in the distribution the important government of Egypt, at once the most wealthy and the most secure from foreign invasion, (Curt. X. 6. §§ 13, 16, 7. § 16 ; Justin, xiii. '2, 4 ; Arrian ap. Pliot. p. 69, a ; Dexippus, ibid. p. 64, a ; Paus. i. 6. § 2) Thither he appears to have has- tened as speedily as possible : and one of his first acts on arriving in his new government was to put to death Cleomenes, who had administered the province under Alexander with the title of receiver- general of tributes, and had been expressly ap- pointed by the council of generals to continue as hyparch under Ptolemy. Cleomenes had amassed vast treasures by extortion and rapine, and his execution thus tended to conciliate the minds of the Egyptians at the same time that it removed out of the way of Ptolei 'y a partisan of Perdiccas, and put him in possession of this accumulated treasure. ( Paus. i. 6. § 3 ; Arrian, /. c. ; Dexij)- pus, /. c.) All his efforts were now directed to strengthen himself in his new position : he attached his subjects by the mildness of his rule at the same time that he raised large forces, and concluded a secret league with Antipater against their common enemy, the regent Perdiccas. A still more overt act of dis- obedience was his persuading Arrhidaeus, who had been entrusted with the funeral of Alexander, to allow his body to be transported to Egypt, instead of conducting it, as originally agreed, to Aegae in Macedonia. (Diod. xviii. 14, 26, 28; Paus. i. 6. § 3 ; Arrian, a/). Fhot. p. 70, b.) About the same time (b. c. 322) he took advantage of the civil dissensions at Cyrene to annex that im- portant city and province to his dominions. (Diod. xviii. 21 ; Arrian, ap. Phd. p. 70, a.) It was not till the beginning of the year b. c. 321 that hostilities actually commenced between Perdiccas and his adversaries. The regent, justly deeming Ptolemy the most formidable of his anta- gonists, determined to leave Euraenes to make head against his enemies in Asia, while he him- self marched against Egypt. The result of his expedition has been already givt-n under Per- diccas [p. 187]. The personal popularity of Ptolemy with the Macedonian army, which had contributed essentially to his success, secured him a welcome reception by the royal forces imme- diately after the death of Perdiccas, but he wisely declined the office of regent, which was bestowed, by his advice, on Arrhidaeus and Pithon. In the new arrangements at Triparadeisus, he naturally retakied possession of Egypt and Cyrene ; and it PTOLEMAEUS. was probably at this period that he strengthened his union with the new regent Antipater, by mar- rying his daughter Eurydice. (Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. p. 154.) But the very next year (b. c. 320) we find him venturing on a bold step, in direct contravention of the arrangements then made, by seizing on the important satrapy of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, which had been assigned to Laomedon, whom he did not scruple to dispossess by force of arms. (Diod. xviii. 39, 43 ; Appian. Syr. 52 ; Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 71, b.) It was probably during this expedition that he made himself master of Jerusalem, by attacking the city on the Sabbath day. (Joseph us, Ant. xii. 1, adv. Apion. i. 22.) The death of Antipater (b. c. 319) produced a great change in the relative situations of the dif- ferent leaders, and Ptolemy was now induced to contract an alliance with Cassander and Antigonus against Polysperchon and Eumenes. He at first fitted out a ileet, with which he repaired to the coasts of Cilicia, and commenced operations against Eumenes, who in his turn threatened Phoenicia (Diod. xviii. 62, 73) ; but the war was eventually drawn off to the upper provinces of Asia, and Ptolemy remained a passive spectator of the con- test. At length the decisive victory of Antigonus over Eumenes raised the former to a height of power which rendered him scarcely less formidable to his allies than his enemies, and his treatment of Pithon and Peucestes sufficiently betrayed his ambitious designs. Seleucus, who had himself with difficulty escaped from his hands, fled for refuge to Egypt, and by his representations of the character and projects of Antigonus awakened Ptolemy to a sense of the danger, and induced him to enter into an alliance with Cassander and Lysimachus against their common enemy, B. c. 316. (Id. xix. 56; Paus. i. 6. § 4.) The next spring (315), after ineffectual attempts at negotiation, Antigonus commenced hostilities l)y the invasion of Syria, quickly recovered most of the cities in Phoenicia which had fallen under the yoke of Ptolemy, and laid siege to Tyre, the most im- portant of all, and the sirength of which for a long time defied all his efforts. V'hile he was engaged in this siege, and in the equipment of a fleet, and his nephew Ptolemy was carrying on the war iii Asia Minor with great success, the king of Egypt was undisputed master of the sea, of which he availed himself to establish a footmg in Cyprus, where he either gained over or subdued almost all the petty princes among whom the island was divided. At the same time he did not neglect the .affairs of Greece, whither he despatched a strong fleet under his admiral Polycleitus, and endeavoured to gain over the Greek cities by idle proclamations of liberty. Polycleitus, on his return, defeated Theodotus, one of Antigonus's admirals, at Aphro- disias in Cilicia, and took his whole fleet. But the next year (314) Tyre at length fell into the hands of Antigonus, who now found himself undisputed master of Syria and Phoenicia, and was, conse- quently, able to turn his own attention towards Asia Minor, leaving his son Demetrius to protect the newly-acquired provinces. The youth of De- metrius would have induced Ptolemy to attempt their recovery, but his attention was occupied during the year 313 by a revolt in Cyrene, and the defection of several of the princes of Cyprus. Th<5 former he succeeded in putting down through tkio