Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/600

Rh 588 PTOLEMAEUS. the friend and counsellor of his father, who was believed to have advised the latter against altering the succession in favour of his younger son ; and it was probably not long afterwards that he put to death his brother Argaeus, who was accused of conspiring against his life. Another of his brothers, Avho had attempted to excite a revolt in Cyprus, subsequently shared the same fate ; and his first wife Arsinoe, the daughter of Lysiniachus, was banished to Coptos in Upper Egypt on a similar charge (Pans, i, 7. § 1 ; Djog. Laert. v. 78 ; Schol. cut Theocr. Id. xvii. 128). After her removal Pto- lemy took the strange resolution of marrying his own sister Arsinoe, the widow of Lj'simachus ; a flagrant violation of the religious notions of the Greeks, and which gave rise to severe animad- versions. Though she must have been many years older than himself, he appears to have continued tenderly attached to her throughout her life, and evinced his affection not only by bestowing her name upon many of his newly-founded colonies, but by assuming himself the surname of Philadel- phus, a title which some writers referred in derision to his unnatural treatment of his two brothers. After her death he erected a temple to Arsinoe, and caused divine honours to be paid to her memory. (Pans. i. 7. §§ 1, 3 ; Theocrit. [dylL xvii. 130, and Schol. ad luc. ; Athen. xiv. p. 621.) By this se- cond marriage Ptolemy had no issue : but his first wife had borne him two sons — Ptolemy, who suc- ceeded him on the throne, and Lysimachus ; and a daughter, Berenice, whose marriage to Antiochus II., king of Syria, has been already mentioned. Philadelphus died a natural death before the close of the year B. c 247 ; having reigned thirty- eight years from his first accession, and thirty-six from the death of his father (Euseb. Arm. p. 1 14 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 379). He had been al- ways of a feeble and sickly constitution, which pre- vented him from ever taking the command of his armies in person ; and lie led the life of a refined voluptuary, combining sensual and dissolute plea- sures with the more elevated gratifications of the taste and understanding. (Strab. xvii. p. 789 ; Athen. xiii. p. 576.) The great defects of his character as an individual have been already ad- verted to, but there can be no doubt that his do- minions enjoyed the utmost prosperity under his mild and pacific rule, and his skilful policy added as much to the greatness and strength of his em- pire as could the arms of a more warlike monarch. The coins of Ptolemy Philadelphus are only to be distinguished from those of his father by the character of the countenance, and in some instances bv their dates ; none of them bearing the epithet of Philadelphus. [E. H. B.J COIN OP PTOLEMAEUS II., KING OF EGYPT. PTOLEMAEUS III. (nToe/xo7os), king of EuvPT, surnamed Eubrgetes, was the eldest son PTOLEMAEUS. and successor of Ptolemy II., Philadelphus. When a mere child he was betrothed to Berenice, the daughter of Magas ; but it was not till after the death of Magas, and the assassination of Demetrius the Handsome, who had made himself master of Cyrene [Bkrenice, p. 483], that their nuptials were solemnised. The date of these events is un- certain ; but the marriage cannot have long pre- ceded the death of Philadelphus. b. c. 247. On that event Ptolemy succeeded quietly to the exten- sive dominions of his father ; to which he now reunited Cyrene in right of his wife. But a still wider field was soon opened to his ambition. On learning the death of Philadelphus, Antiochus II. king of Syria, put aside his wife Berenice, the daughter of the Egyptian king, and recalled his former wife, Laodice, who soon sacrificed to her resentment both her faithless husband and her rival, Berenice, with her infant son. Ptolemy appears to have taken up arms on receiving the first news of the danger of his sister ; but finding that he was too late to save her, he determined at least to avenge her fate, and invaded Syria in person at the head of a numerous army. The cruelties of Laodice, and the unhappy fate of Berenice, had already excited general disaffection ; many cities voluntarily joined Ptolemj", and nei- ther the 3'outhful Seleucus nor his mother were able to oppose the progress of the Egyptian kins/, who advanced apparently without opposition as far as Antioch, and made himself master of the whole country south of Mount Taurus. But instead of crossing that ridge, and pursuing Seleucus himself, he turned his arms eastward, crossed the Euphrates, advanced as far as Babylon and Susa, and after reducing all Mesopotamia, Babyloniji, and Susiana, received the submission of all the upper provinces of Asia as far as the confines of Bactria and India. From this career of conquest he was recalled b}"- the news of seditions in Egypt, and returned to that country, carrying with him an immense booty, comprising, among other objects, all the statues of the Egyptian deities which had been carried off by Cambyses to Babylon or Persia. These he restored to their respective temples, an act by which he earned the greatest popularity with his native Egyptian subjects, who bestowed on him in consequence the title of Euergetes (the Benefactor), by which he is generally known. While the arms of the king himself were thus successful in the East, his fleets reduced the mari- time provinces of Asia, including Cilicia, Pam- phylia, and Ionia, as far as the Hellespont, toge- ther with Lysimachia and other important places on the coast of Thrace which continued for a long period subject to the Egyptian rule. (Monuni. Adulitan. ap. Clinton. F. H. vol. iii. p. 382 ; Hie- ronym. ad Daniel, xi. 7 ; Justin, xxvii. 1 ; Appian. Syr. 65 ; Polyb. v. 58.) Concerning the events which followed the return of Euergetes to his own dominions (probablj- in b. c. 243) we are almost wholly in the dark ; but it appears that the greater part of the eastern provinces speedily fell again into the hands of Seleucus, while Ptolemy retained pos- session of the maritime regions and a great part of Syria itself. He soon obtained a valuable ally in the person of Antiochus Hierax, the younger bro- ther of Seleucus, whom he uniformly supported in his wars against his elder brother, and by this diversion effectually prevented Seleucus from pro- secuting active hoBtilities against Egypt. The war