Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/611

Rh PTOLEMAEUS. PTOLEMAEUS XII I. {UroXe^alos), king of Egypt, was the youngest son of Ptolemy Auletes. He was declared king by Caesar in conjunction with Cleopatra, after the death of his elder bro- ther Ptolemy XII., B. c. 47 : and although he was a mere boy, it was decreed that he should marry his sister, with whom he was thus to share the power. Both his marriage and regal title were, of course, purely nominal : in B. c. 45, Cleopatra took him with her to Rome, but shortly after the death of Caesar she put the poor boy to death, after he had enjoyed his titular sovereignty a little more than three years, B. c. 43. (Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Arm. p. 118 ; Hirt. B.Alex. 33 ; Dion Cass. xlii. 44, xliii. 27 ; Strab. xvii. p. 797 ; Suet. Goes. 35.) Concerning the history of the Ptolemies in general, see Vaillant, Historia Ptolemaeorum Re- gum, Aegyptif fol. Amstel. 1701 ; ChampoUion- Figeac, Atmales des Lagides, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1815 ; Letronne, RechercJies pour servir a l''his- toire d'^Egypte., 8vo. Paris, 1823, and Recueil des Inscriptions Grecques en Egypte, 4to. Paris, 1842 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. Appendix, ch. 5. Much light has been thrown upon the history of the earlier Ptolemies by Niebuhr, Kleine Schriften, pp. 179 — 305, and by Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii., but a good history of this dynasty is still a desideratum. Of the coins of the Ptolemies it may be ob- served, that most of them can only be assigned to the several monarchs of the name by conjecture ; very few of them bearing any title but those of nTOAEMAIOT BA2IAEn2. Hence they are of little or no historical value. (See on this subject Eckhel, vol. iv. pp. 4—25 ; Visconti, Iconographie Grecque, vol. iii. chap. 18.) [E. H. B.] PTOLEMAEUS (nroAe^aios), king of Epei- Rus, was the second son of Alexander II., king of Epeirus, and Olympias, and grandson of the great Pyrrhus. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his elder brother, Pyrrhus II., but reigned only a very short time, having set out on a mili- tary expedition, during the course of which he fell sick and died. (Justin, xxviii. 1, 3 ; Pans. iv. 35. § 3.) The date of his reign cannot be fixed with certainty, but as he was contemporary with Deme- trius II. king of Macedonia, it may be placed be- tween 239—229, B. c. [E. H. B.] PUBLICIA. 599 COIN OF PTOLEMAEUS, KING OP EPEIRUS. PTOLEMAEUS, kings of Macedonia. [Pto- LEMAEUS of Alorus, and Ptolemabus Cerau- nus.] PTOLEMAEUS (nTojuaros),kingof Mauri- tania, was the son and successor of Juba II. By his mother Cleopatra he was descended from the kings of Egypt, whose name he bore. The period of his accession and the death of his father cannot be determined with certainty, but we know that Ptolemy was already on the throne when Strabo wrote, about 18 or 19, a. d. (Strab. xvii. pp. 828, 840 ; Clinton. F. II. vol. iii. p. 203.) He was at this time very young, and the adminis^ tration of affairs fell in consequence, in great measure, into the hands of his freedmen. Great disorders ensued, and many of the Mauritanians joined the standard of the Numidian Tacfarinas, who carried on a predatory warfare against the Romans. But in A. d. 24 Tacfarinas himself was defeated and killed by P. Dolabella, and Ptolemy himself rendered such efficient assistance to the Roman general in his campaign, that an embassy was sent to reward him, after the ancient fashion, with the presents of a toga picta and sceptre, as a sign of the friendship of the Roman people. (Tac. Ann. iv, 23 — 26.) He continued to reign with- out interruption till A. D. 40, when he was sum- moned to Rome by Caligula, and shortly after put to death, his great riches having excited the cu- pidity of the emperor. (Dion Cass. lix. 25 ; Suet. Cal. 26; Senec. de Tranquil. 11.) We learn nothing from history of his character ; but from the circumstance that a statue was erected in his honour by the Athenians (Stuart's Antiq. of Athens^ vol. iii. p. 55 ; Visconti, Iconographie Grecque., vol. iii. p. 275), we may probably infer that he inherited something of his father's taste for literature. The annexed coin belongs to this Ptolemy ; the curale chair and sceptre, on the reverse, probably refer to the honours decreed him by the Roman senate, as already mentioned. [E. H. B.] coin of PTOLEMAEUS, KING OF MAURITANIA. PTOLEMAEUS, son of Mennaeus. [Pto- LEMAEUS, tetrarch of Chalcis.] PTO'LICHUS {TIt6kixos), statuaries. 1. Of Aegina, the son and pupil of Svnnodn, flourished from about 01. 75 to about 01. 82, B. c. 480—448. [ Aristocles]. The only works of his, which are mentioned, are the statues of two Olympic victors, Theognetus of Aegina, and Epicradius of Manti- neia (Pans. vi. 9. § 1, 10. § 2). 2. Of Corcyra, the pupil of Critios of Athens (Pans. vi. 3. § 2. s. 5). Pausanias does not men- tion any work of his, but merely gives his name as one of the following artistic genealogy of teachers and pupils : Critios of Athens, Ptolichus, Amphion, Pison of Calauria. Damocritus of Sicyon. As Cri- tios flourished chiefly about 01. 75, B. c. 477, we may place Ptolichus about 01. 83, B. c. 448. He was therefore a contemporary of Pheidias. [P. S.] PTOUS (riTijJos), a son of Athamas and The- raisto, from whom mount Ptoum and the sanc- tuary of Apollo, which was situated upon it, were believed to have derived their name. (Paus. ii. 23. § 3 ; Apollod. i. 9. § 2.) Ptous also occurs as a surname of Apollo. (Paus. iv. 32. § 5, ix. 23. § 3.) [L. S.] PUBLI'CIA. 1. The wife of L. Postumius Albinus, consul B. c. 154, was accused of murder- ing her husband. She gave bail to the praetor for her appearance, but was put to death by order of her relations, consequently by s. judicium domesti- cum. (Val. Max. vi. 3. § 8 ; Li v. Epit. 48 ; Rein, Q Q 4