cured solely from India, and so important did he deem this resource that he founded a city or fortress named Ptolemaïs on the confines of Ethiopia, solely with a view to this object (Agatharchides ap. Phot. p. 441, b, 453, a ; Hieronym. ad Dan. xi. 5; Plin. H. N. vi. 34; Diod. iii. 36). With Ergamenes, the Greek king of Meroë, he appears to have maintained friendly relations. In order to command the important navigation and commerce of the Red Sea, he founded the city of Arsinoe at the head of the gulf (on the site of the modern Suez), and that of Berenice on the coast almost under the tropic. The former he connected with the Nile by renewing and clearing out the canal which had previously been constructed by Necho, while he opened a high road from Berenice to Coptos on the Nile, which continued for ages to be the route by which all the merchandise of India, Arabia, and Aethiopia was conveyed to Alexandria. Not contented with this, we find him sending Satyrus on a voyage of discovery along the western coast of the Red Sea, and founding another city of Berenice as far south as the latitude of Meroë (Strab. xvii. pp. 770, 804, 815; Plin. H. N. vi. 34; Diod. i. 33; Droysen, Hellenism. vol. ii. p. 735--738; Letronne, Rec. des Inser. p. 180-188). It was doubtless also with a view to the extension of his commerce with India that we find him sending an ambassador of the name of Dionysius to the native princes of that country. (Plin. H. N. vi. 21.)

But it is more especially as the patron and promoter of literature and science that the name of Philadelphus is justly celebrated. The institutions of which the foundations had been laid by his | father quickly rose under his fostering care to the highest prosperity. The Museum of Alexandria became the resort and abode of all the most distinguished men of letters of the day, and in the library attached to it were accumulated all the treasures of ancient learning. The first person who filled the office of librarian appears to have been Zenodotus of Ephesus, who had previously been the preceptor of Ptolemy: his successor was the poet Callimachus. (Suid. s. v. Znvódoros; Parthey, das Alex. Museum, p. 71; Ritschl, die Alex. Bibliothek, p. 19.) Among the other illustrious names which adorned the court and reign of Ptolemy, may be mentioned those of the poets Philetas and Theocritus (the last of whom has left us a laboured panegyric upon the Egyptian monarch, which is of some importance in an historical point of view), the philosophers Hegesias and Theodorus, the mathematician Euclid, and the astronomers Timocharis, Aristarchus of Samos, and Aratus. It was not merely by his munificence, or the honours which he bestowed upon these eminent men that Ptolemy was able to attract them to his court: he had himself received a learned education, and appears to have possessed a genuine love of literature, while many anecdotes attest to us the friendly and familiar terms upon which he associated with the distinguished strangers whom he had gathered around him. Nor was his patronage confined to the ordinary cycle of Hellenic literature. By his interest in natural history he gave a stimulus to the pursuit of that science, which gave birth to many important works, while he himself formed collections of rare animals within the precincts of the royal palace. It was during his reign also, and perhaps at his desire, that Manetho gave to the world in a Greek form the historical

records of the Egyptians; and according to a wellknown tradition,—which, disguised as it has been by fables, may not be without an historical foundation,-it was by his express command that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews were translated into Greek (Joseph. xii. 2. For the fuller investigation of this subject, see ARISTEAS). Whatever truth there may be in this tale, it is certain that he treated the Jewish colonists, many of whom had already settled at Alexandria under Ptolemy Soter, with much favour, and not only allowed them perfect toleration for their religion, but appears to have placed them in many respects on a par with his Greek subjects. (Joseph. l. c.)

The fine arts met with scarcely less encouragement under Ptolemy than literature and science, but his patronage does not appear to have given rise to any school of painting or sculpture of real merit; and we are told that Aratus gained his favour by presents of pictures of the Sicyonic school. (Plut. Arat. 12.) His architectural works, on the contrary, were of a superior order, and many of the most splendid buildings at Alexandria were erected or completed under his reign, especially the museum, the lighthouse on the island of Pharos, and the royal burial place or sepulchre, to which he removed the body of Alexander from Memphis, while he deposited there the remains of his father and mother (Paus. i. 7. § 1; Strab. xvii. p. 791). As a farther proof of his filial piety he raised a temple to the memory of Ptolemy and Berenice, in which their statues were consecrated as tutelary deities of Egypt (Theoer. Id. xvii. 123). The new cities or colonies founded by Philadelphus in different parts of his dominions were extremely numerous. On the Red Sea alone we find at least two bearing the name of Arsinoë, one called after another of his sisters Philotera, and two cities named in honour of his mother Berenice. The same names occur also in Cilicia and Syria: and in the latter country he founded the important fortress of Ptolemaïs in Palestine. (Concerning these various foundations, see Droysen, Hellenism. vol. ii. pp. 678, 699, 721, 731, &c.; Letronne, Recueil des Inser. pp. 180-188.)

All authorities concur in attesting the great power and wealth, to which the Egyptian monarchy was raised under Philadelphus. We are told that he possessed at the close of his reign a standing army of 200,000 foot and 40,000 horse, besides war-chariots and elephants; a fleet of 1500 ships, among which were many vessels of stupendous size; and a sum of 740,000 talents in his treasury; while he derived from Egypt alone an annual revenue of 14,800 talents (Appian. praef. 10; Hieronym. ad Daniel. xi. 5). His dominions comprised, besides Egypt itself, and portions of Ethiopia, Arabia, and Libya, the important provinces of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, together with Cyprus, Lycia, Caria, and the Cyclades during a great part at least of his reign, Cilicia and Pamphylia also (Theocrit. Idyll. xvii. 86-90; Droysen, l. c. p. 316). Before his death Cyrene was reunited to the monarchy by the marriage of his son Ptolemy with Berenice, the daughter of Magas.

and

The private life and relations of Philadelphus are far from displaying his character in as favourable a light as we might have inferred from the splendour of his administration. Almost immediately on his accession he had banished Demetrius Phalereus,

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, who had attempted to excite a revolt in Cyprus, subsequently shared the same fate; and his first wife Arsinoë, the daughter of Lysimachus, was banished to Coptos in Upper Egypt on a similar charge (Paus. i. 7. §1; Diog. Laërt. v. 78; Schol. ad Theocr. Id. xvii. 128). After her removal Ptolemy took the strange resolution of marrying his own sister Arsinoe, the widow of Lysimachus; a flagrant violation of the religious notions of the Greeks, and which gave rise to severe animadversions. 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 Philadelphus, 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. (Paus. i. 7. §§ 1, 3; Theocrit. Idyll. xvii. 130, and Schol. ad loc.; Athen. xiv. p. 621.) By this second marriage Ptolemy had no issue: but his first wife had borne him two sons-Ptolemy, who succeeded him on the throne, and Lysimachus; and a daughter, Berenice, whose marriage to Antiochus II., king of Syria, has been already mentioned.

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 & Cyrene [BERENICE, p. 483], that their nuptials were solemnised. The date of these events is uncertain; but the marriage cannot have long preceded the death of Philadelphus. B. c. 247. On that event Ptolemy succeeded quietly to the extensive 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 Ptolemy, and neither the youthful Seleucus nor his mother were able to oppose the progress of the Egyptian king, 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, Babylonia, 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 by 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 maritime provinces of Asia, including Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Ionia, as far as the Hellespont, together with Lysimachia and other important places on the coast of Thrace which continued for a long period subject to the Egyptian rule. (Monum. Adulitan. ap. Clinton. F. H..vol. iii. p. 382; Hieronym. 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 (probably 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 inte the hands of Seleucus, while Ptolemy retained possession 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 brother of Seleucus, whom he uniformly supported in his wars against his elder brother, and by this diversion effectually prevented Seleucus from prosecuting active hostilities against Egypt. The war

Philadelphus died a natural death before the close of the year B. c. 247; having reigned thirtyeight years from his first accession, and thirty-six from the death of his father (Euseb. Arm. p. 114; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 379). He had been always of a feeble and sickly constitution, which prevented him from ever taking the command of his armies in person; and he led the life of a refined voluptuary, combining sensual and dissolute pleasures 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 adverted to, but there can be no doubt that his dominions enjoyed the utmost prosperity under his mild and pacific rule, and his skilful policy added as much to the greatness and strength of his empire 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 by their dates; none of them bearing the epithet of Philadelphus. [E. H. B.]

was at length terminated, or rather suspended 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 (Gonatas) 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 continued 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 influence 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; Paus. ii. 8. § 5.) We find him also maintaining the same friendly relations as his father with Rome, though he declined the offers of assistance 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 effectually 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. Alterthumswissenschaft, vol. ii. pp. 105166; the inscription itself is also given by Chishull, Antiq. Asiaticae, p. 76, and by Salt in his Travels in Abyssinia (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 Hippocr. 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 Rhodius, and Aristophanes, the grammarian, are alone sufficient 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 brilliant military successes in the first years after

his accession not only threw a lustre over his 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 former 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 Thebes, p. 425; Letronne, Recueil, pp. 2-6.) On the other hand, his foundations of new cities and colonies were much less numerous than those of his father, though that of Berenice in the Cyrenaïca 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 Polybius (ii. 71) to natural causes; though a rumour followed by Justin (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: 1. Ptolemy, his successor; 2. Magas; and 3. Arsinoë, 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 predecessors by the difference of physiognomy. [E.H.B.]

COIN OF PTOLEMAEUS III., KING OF EGYPT.

PTOLEMAEUS IV. (Птоλеuaîos), 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

Lysimachus, the brother of Ptolemy Euergetes. In all these murders his minister Sosibius was his ready and dextrons 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 suspicion, and was placed in confinement, from which he sought to escape by raising a revolt in Alexandria, 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 indolence 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 kingdom 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 defection 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 Ptolemaïs were betrayed into his hands by Theodotus. These tidings at length aroused Ptolemy and his ministers from their apathy, and while they sought to amuse Antiochus with pretended negotiations they began to assemble Greek mercenaries, as well as to arm and train Egyptian troops after the Macedonian fashion. With the approach of spring (B. C. 218) they were able to oppose an army under Nicolaus and a fleet under Perigenes to the arms of Antiochus; but Nicolaus was defeated near Porphyreon, 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 battle ensued, in which the Egyptian army was completely victorious, and Antiochus lost more than 14,000 men. This decisive success was followed 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 refusal of the high priest to admit him to the sanctuary 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 only to withdraw from the Jews of that city the privileges they had enjoyed under his predecessors, but to subject them to the most cruel persecutions. (iii. Macc.) The tranquillity of Egypt was further disturbed at the same period by a revolt of the native Egyptians-the first that had

occurred under their Greek rulers-which appears to have lasted a considerable time, and not to have been suppressed without much bloodshed. (Polyb. v. 107, xiv. 12.)

Meanwhile, the king, 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 pres 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 Arsinoë, who had become obnoxious 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 possessions 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 Aetolians. (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 unwieldy 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 so 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 grammarian Aristarchus. (Diog. Laërt. vii. 177; Suid,