Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/602

Rh 590 PTOLEMAEUS. LysimachuB, the brother of Ptolemy Euergetes. In all these murders his minister Sosibius was his ready and dextrous instrument, and probably the first to advise their perpetration. Cleomenes, the exiled king of Sparta, of whose influence with the mercenary troops Sosibius had skilfully availed himself, soon became in his turn an object of sus- picion, and was placed in confinement, from which he sought to escape by raising a revolt in Alexan- dria, and failing in this put an end to his own life. (Polyb. V. 34—39 ; Plut. Cleom. 33—37.) Having thus, as he conceived, secured himself from all danger from domestic enemies, Ptolemy gave himself up without restraint to a life of indo- lence and luxury, and to every kind of sensual indulgence, while he abandoned to his minister Sosibius the care of all political affairs. The latter seems to have been as incapable as his master : the discipline of the army was neglected, and the king- dom was allowed to fall into a state of the utmost disorder, of which Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, was not slow to avail himself. The de- fection of Theodotus, the governor of Coele-Syria under Ptolemy [Theodotus], afforded the first opening to the ambitious designs of the Syrian king, who turned his arms in the first instance against Seleucia in Pieria ; and after reducing that important fortress (which had been held by the kings of Egypt since the invasion of Syria by Euergetes) advanced into Phoenicia, where the two strong fortresses of Tyre and Ptolsmais were be- trayed into his hands by Theodotus. These tidings at length aroused Ptolemy and his ministers from tfieir apathy, and while they sought to amuse Antiochus with pretended negotiations they began to Rssemble Greek mercenaries, as well as to arm and train Egyptian troops after the Macedonian fashion. With the approach of spring (a c. 218) they were able to oppose an army under Nicolaus and a fleet under Perigenes to the arms of Anti- ochus ; but Nicolaus was defeated near Porphy- reon, and the Syrian king made himself master, with little difficulty, of great part of Coele-Syria and Palestine. But the next year (b.c. 217) Ptolemy in person took the command of his forces, and set out from Alexandria at the head of an army of 70,000 foot and 5000 horse. He was met by, Antiochus with a nearly equal force at Raphia, on the borders of the desert, and a pitched Vjattle ensued, in which the Egyptian army was completely victorious, and Antiochus lost more than 14,000 men. This decisive success was fol- lowed by the immediate submission of the whole of Coele-Syria ; and Antiochus, apprehensive of farther defections, hastened to sue for peace, which was readily granted by the indolent Ptolemy, who was anxious to return to his life of ease and luxury at home. (Polyb. v. 40, 58—71, 79—87 ; Justin. XXX. 1.) It was on his return from this expedition that he visited Jerusalem ; on which occasion the re- fusal of the high priest to admit iiim to the sanc- tuary of the temple, is said to have excited in his mind an implacable animosity against the Jewish nation, which led him on his return to Alexandria not onlj-^ to withdraw from the Jews of that city the privileges they had enjoyed under his prede- cessors, but to subject them to the most cruel per- secutions, (iii. Mace.) The tranquillity of Egypt was further disturbed at the same period by a revolt of the native Egyptians — the first that had PTOLEMAEUS. occurred under their Greek rulers — whteh appears to have lasted a considerable time, and not to have been suppressed without much bloodshed. (Polyb. V. 107, xiv. 12.) Meanwhile, the kmg, after his return from his Syrian expedition, gave himself up more and more to every species of vice and debauchery. His mistress Agathoclea, and her brother Agathocles, became not only the abandoned ministers of his pleasures, but were admitted to a large share in the direction of affairs, and divided with Sosibius the patronage and distribution of all places of honour or profit. The latter minister, however, continued till near the close of the reign of Ptolemy to pre- side over the chief administration of the state ; and as he had been the instrument of Ptolemy in the murders which disgraced the early part of his reign, so he again lent him his assistance in putting to death his queen Arsinoe, who had become ob- noxious to her profligate husband. (Polyb. xiv. 11, 12, XV. 25, 33 ; Justin, xxx. 1,2.) After her death Ptolemy gave himself up without restraint to the career of vice which probably contributed to shorten his life. He died in b. c. 205, after a reign of seventeen years, leaving only one son, a child of five years old. (Euseb. Arm. p. 114; Justin, xxx. 2.) The character of Ptolemy Philopator — feeble, effeminate, and vicious — is sufficiently attested by ancient authorities; and from his reign may be dated the commencement of the decline of the kingdom of Egypt, which thenceforth proceeded by rapid strides. Externally, however, its decay was not yet visible : it still retained all its former pos- sessions and commanded the respect of foreign powers. We find Ptolemy, during the earlier years of his reign, still following up the policy of his predecessors ; in Greece, cultivating the friendship of the Athenians, and interposing his mediation to bring about a peace between Philip and the Aeto- lians. (Polyb. v. 100, 106.) He continued also stedfastly attached to the alliance of the Romans, to whom he furnished large supplies of corn during their struggle with Carthage. (Polyb. ix. 44 ; Liv. xxvii. 4.) Philopator is also mentioned as striving to display his wealth and power by the construction of ships of the most gigantic and un- wieldy size, one of which is said to have had forty banks of oars. (Athen. v. pp. 203 — 206.) Plunged as he was in vice and debauchery, Phi- lopator appears to have still inherited something of the love of letters for which his predecessors were 60 conspicuous. Not only did the literary schools and institutions of Alexandria continue to flourish under his reign, but we find him associating on familiar terms with philosophers and men of letters, and especially patronising the distinguished gram- marian Aristarchus. (Diog. Laert. vii. 177; Suid. COIN OF PTOLEMAEUS IV., KING OF EGYPT.