Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/601

PTOLEMAEUS. was at length terminated, or rather sViSpended by a truce for ten years ; but the contest between the two brothers soon broke out afresh, and continued until the total defeat of Antiochus compelled him to take refuge in Egypt. Here, however, he was received rather as a captive than an ally ; probably because it did not suit Ptolemy to renew hostilities with Syria. (Justin, xxvii. 2, 3.) In regard to the remainder of the reign of Euergetes we have scarcely any information. It appears, however, that in his foreign policy he followed the same line as his father. We find him generally unfriendly to Macedonia, and on one occasion at least in open hostility with that power, as we are told that he defeated Antigonus (Go- natas) in a great sea-fight off Andros (Trog. Pomp. Prol. xxvii.) ; but the date and circumstances of this action are wholly uncertain. (See on this subject, Niebuhr, Kl. Schrift. p. 297 ; Droysen, vol. ii. p. 364. ) With the same views he con- tinued to support Aratus and the Achaean league, until the sudden change of policy of the former, and his unnatural alliance with Macedonia, led to a corresponding change on the part of Ptolemy, who thenceforth threw all the weight of his influ- ence in favour of Cleomenes, to whom he afforded an honourable retreat after his decisive defeat at Sellasia, B.C. 222. (Plut. Arat 24,41, Cleom. 22, 32 ; Pans. ii. 8. § 5.) We find him also maiu- taining the same friendly relations as his father with Rome, though he declined the offers of assist- ance made him by that powerful republic during his war with Syria, (Eutrop. iii. 1.) During the latter years of his reign Euergetes took advantage of the state of peace in which he found himself with his neighbours to turn his arms against the Ethiopian tribes on his southern frontier, whom he eflfectually reduced to submission, and advanced as far as Adule, a port on the Red Sea, where he established an emporium, and set up an inscription commemorating the exploits of his reign. To a copy of this, accidentally preserved to us by an Egyptian monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes, we are indebted for much of the scanty information we possess concerning his reign. (See Buttmann's Museum f. Alterthumswissmschaft, vol.ii. pp. 105 — 166 ; the inscription itself is also given by Chi»- huU, Antiq. Asiaticae, p. 76, and by Salt in his Travels in Abyssmia (1814), p. 453, as well as by Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 382, note.) Ptolemy Euergetes is scarcely less celebrated than his father for his patronage of literature and science: he added so largely to the library at Alexandria that he has been sometimes erroneously deemed its founder, and the well-known anecdote of the stratagem by which he possessed himself of the original manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, sufficiently attests the zeal with which he pursued this object. (Galen, Comm. ad Hijypocr. lib. iii. Epidem. p. 411 ; Parthey, Das Alex. Mus. p. 88.) Among the distinguished men of letters who flourished at Alexandria during his reign, the names of Eratosthenes, Apollonius Rho- dius, and Aristophanes, the grammarian, are alone Bufficient to prove that the literature and learning of the Alexandrian school still retained their former eminence. The reign of Euergetes may undoubtedly be looked upon as the most flourishing period of the Egyptian kingdom. (See Polyb. v. 34.) His brilliiwit military successes in the first years after PTOLEMAEUS. 58,9 his accession not only threw a lustre over hia reign, but added some important and valuable acquisitions to his territories ; while his subjects continued to enjoy the same internal tranquillity as under his predecessors. He appears also to have shown more favour than the two fbrmer monarchs towards the native-born Egyptians ; and he evinced a desire to encourage their religious feelings, not only by bringing back the statues of their gods out of Asia, but by various architectural works. Thus we find him making large additions to the great temple at Thebes, erecting a new one at Esne, and dedicating a temple at Canopus to Osiris in the names of himself and his queen Berenice. '(Wilkinson's Tliebes, p. 425; Letronne, Rectieil, pp. 2 — 6.) On the other hand, his foun- dations of new cities and colonies were much less numerous than those of his father, though that of Berenice in the Cyrenai'ca may in all probability be ascribed to him. (See Droysen, vol. ii. pp. 723 — 726.) Among the last events of his reign may be mentioned the magnificent presents with which he assisted the Rhodians after their city had been overthown by an earthquake ; the amount of which is in itself a sufficient proof of the wealth and power which he possessed. (Polyb. v. 89.) The death of Euergetes must have taken place before the end of B. c. 222 : it is clearly ascribed by Poly bins (ii. 71) to natural causes ; though a rumour followed by Justin i xxix. 1) asserted that he was poisoned by his son, a suspicion to which the character and subsequent conduct of the young man lent sufficient countenance. He had reigned twenty-five years in uninterrupted prosperity. By his wife Berenice, who survived him, he left three children: I.Ptolemy, his successor; 2. Magas ; and 3. Arsinoe, afterwards married to her brother Ptolemy Philopator. Trogus Pompeius twice designates Ptolemy Euergetes by the epithet of Tryphon (Prol. xxvii. and XXX.), an appellation which is also found in Eusebius (p. 165, ed. Arm.). Neither this nor the title of Euergetes appears on his coins, which can only be distinguished from those of his two prede cessors by the difference of physiognomy. [E.H.B. j COIN OF PTOLEMAEUS III., KING OP EGYPT. PTOLEMAEUS IV. (nroAeMaros), king of Egypt, surnamed Philopator, was the eldest son and successor of Ptolemy Euergetes. He was very far from inheriting the virtues or abilities of his father: and his reign was the commencement of the decline of the Egyptian kingdom, which had been raised to such a height of power and prosperity by his three predecessors. Its first beginning was stained with crimes of the darkest kind. Among his earliest acts, on assuming the sovereign power (b. c. 222), was to put to death his mother, Berenice, and his brother, Magas, of whose influence and popularity with the army he was jealous, as well as his uncle