http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus

Ptolemy II Philadelphus, King of Egypt, was born circa 309 BC, died circa 246 BC.

Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaĩos Philádelphos" 309 BCE–246 BCE), was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BCE to 246 BCE. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice, and was educated by Philitas of Cos. He had two half-brothers, Ptolemy Keraunos and Meleager, both of whom became kings of Macedonia (in 281 BCE and 279 BCE respectively). Both died in the Gallic invasion of 280-279 BCE (see Brennus).

As did the Ptolemies III through V, Ptolemy II erected a commemmorative stele, the Great Mendes Stela.

Reign

He began his reign as co-regent with his father Ptolemy I from ca. 290 BCE–ca. 283 BCE, and maintained a splendid court in Alexandria.

Egypt was involved in several wars during his reign. Magas of Cyrene opened war on his half-brother (274 BCE), and the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter, desiring Coele-Syria with Judea, attacked soon after in the First Syrian War. Two or three years of war followed. Egypt's victories solidified the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the eastern Mediterranean; his fleet (112 ships) bore the most powerful naval siege units of all time, guaranteed the king access to the coastal cities of his empire. The Ptolemaic sphere of power extended over the Cyclades to Samothrace, and the harbours and coast towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.

The victory won by Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedonia, over the Egyptian fleet at Cos (between 258 BCE and 256 BCE) did not long interrupt Ptolemy's command of the Aegean Sea. In a Second Syrian War with the Seleucid kingdom, under Antiochus II Theos (after 260 BCE), Ptolemy sustained losses on the seaboard of Asia Minor and agreed to a peace by which Antiochus married his daughter Berenice (c. 250 BCE).

Family

Ptolemy's first wife, Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, was the mother of his legitimate children:

Ptolemy III Euergetes, his successor.

Lysimachus

Berenice Phernopherus, married Antiochus II Theos, king of Syria.

After her repudiation he married his full sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus—an Egyptian custom—which brought him her Aegean possessions.

Ptolemy had several concubines. With a woman named Bilistiche he had an (illegitimate) son named Ptolemy Andromachou [2]

Other mistresses include: Agathoclea (?), Aglais (?) daughter of Megacles, the cupbearer Cleino, Didyme, the Chian harp player Glauce, the flautist Mnesis, the actress Myrtion, the flautist Pothine and Stratonice. [3]

Court

The material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height under Ptolemy II. Pomp and splendor flourished. Ptolemy deified his parents and his sister-wife, after her death (270 BCE). Ptolemy staged a procession in Alexandria in honor of Dionysus led by 24 chariots drawn by elephants and a procession of lions, leopards, panthers, camels, antelopes, wild asses, ostriches, a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros. According to scholars, most of the animals were in pairs - as many as eight pairs of ostriches - and although the ordinary chariots were likely led by a single elephant, others which carried a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) golden statue may have been led by four.[4]

Callimachus, keeper of the library, Theocritus,[5] and a host of lesser poets, glorified the Ptolemaic family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to patronize scientific research. He had exotic animals of far off lands sent to Alexandria. Although an enthusiast for Hellenic culture, he also adopted Egyptian religious concepts, which helped to bolster his image as a sovereign.

The tradition preserved in the pseudepigraphical Letter of Aristeas which connects the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek with his patronage is probably overdrawn. However, Walter Kaiser says, "There can be little doubt that the Law was translated in Philadelphus's time since Greek quotations from Genesis and Exodus appear in Greek literature before 200 B.C. The language of the Septuagint is more like Egyptian Greek than it is like Jerusalemite Greek, according to some." [6] Ptolemy had many brilliant mistresses, and his court, magnificent and dissolute, intellectual and artificial, has been compared with the Versailles of Louis XIV.

Ptolemy was of a delicate constitution. Elias Joseph Bickermann (Chronology of the Ancient World, 2nd ed. 1980) gives the date of his death as January 29.

Relations with India

Ptolemy is recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra in India, probably to Emperor Ashoka:

"But [India] has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21 [7]

He is also mentioned in the Edicts of Ashoka as a recipient of the Buddhist proselytism of Ashoka, although no Western historical record of this event remain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus

ID: I82287

Name: Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt

Prefix: Pharoah

Given Name: Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Surname: of Egypt

Sex: M

_UID: DAA01FAC6BAE2242891D85B1E4DF48B25BA7

Change Date: 26 Nov 2005

Death: Y

Marriage 1 Arsinoe I of Thrace

Married:

Children

Berenice Phernophorus of Egypt

Forrás / Source:

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jdp-fam&i...

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaîos Philádelphos, 309–246 BC) was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 to 246 BC. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice, and was educated by Philitas of Cos. He had two half-brothers, Ptolemy Keraunos and Meleager, who both became kings of Macedonia (in 281 BC and 279 BC respectively), and who both died in the Gallic invasion of 280-279 BC. Ptolemy was first married to Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, who was the mother of his legitimate children; after her repudiation he married his full sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus.

During Ptolemy's reign, the material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height. He promoted the Museum and Library of Alexandria, and he erected a commemorative stele, the Great Mendes Stela.

Reign

Ptolemy II began his reign as co-regent with his father Ptolemy I from c. 285 BC to c. 283 BC, and maintained a splendid court in Alexandria.

Egypt was involved in several wars during his reign. Magas of Cyrene opened war on his half-brother (274 BC), and the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter, desiring Coele-Syria with Judea, attacked soon after in the First Syrian War. Two or three years of war followed. Egypt's victories solidified the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the eastern Mediterranean; his fleet (112 ships) bore the most powerful naval siege units of the time, guaranteed the king access to the coastal cities of his empire. The Ptolemaic sphere of power extended over the Cyclades to Samothrace, and the harbours and coast towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.

In the 270 BCE Ptolemy hired 4,000 Gallic mercenaries (who in 279 BC under Bolgios killed his half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos). According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Gauls plotted “to seize Egypt,” and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile River where “they perished at one another’s hands or by famine.”

The victory won by Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedonia, over the Egyptian fleet at Cos (between 258 BC and 256 BC) did not long interrupt Ptolemy's command of the Aegean Sea. In a Second Syrian War with the Seleucid kingdom, under Antiochus II Theos (after 260 BC), Ptolemy sustained losses on the seaboard of Asia Minor and agreed to a peace by which Antiochus married his daughter Berenice (c. 250 BC).

Ptolemy was of a delicate constitution. Elias Joseph Bickermann (Chronology of the Ancient World, 2nd ed. 1980) gives the date of his death as January 29.

Family

Ptolemy's first wife, Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, was the mother of his legitimate children:

• Ptolemy III Euergetes, his successor.
• Lysimachus
• Berenice Phernopherus, married Antiochus II Theos, king of Syria.

After her repudiation he married his full sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus — an Egyptian custom—which brought him her Aegean possessions.

He also had several concubines. With a woman named Bilistiche he had an (illegitimate) son named Ptolemy Andromachou.

He had many mistresses, including Agathoclea (?), Aglais (?) daughter of Megacles, the cupbearer Cleino, Didyme, the Chian harp player Glauce, the flautist Mnesis, the actress Myrtion, the flautist Pothine and Stratonice, and his court, magnificent and dissolute, intellectual and artificial, has been compared with the Versailles of Louis XIV.

Ptolemy deified his parents and his sister-wife after their deaths.

Court

The material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height under Ptolemy II. Pomp and splendor flourished. He had exotic animals of far off lands sent to Alexandria, and staged a procession in Alexandria in honor of Dionysus led by 24 chariots drawn by elephants and a procession of lions, leopards, panthers, camels, antelopes, wild asses, ostriches, a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros. According to scholars, most of the animals were in pairs - as many as eight pairs of ostriches - and although the ordinary chariots were likely led by a single elephant, others which carried a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) golden statue may have been led by four.[5] Although an enthusiast for Hellenic culture, he also adopted Egyptian religious concepts, which helped to bolster his image as a sovereign.

Callimachus, keeper of the library, Theocritus, and a host of lesser poets, glorified the Ptolemaic family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to patronize scientific research.

The tradition preserved in the pseudepigraphical Letter of Aristeas which connects the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek with his patronage is probably overdrawn. However, Walter Kaiser says, "There can be little doubt that the Law was translated in Philadelphus's time since Greek quotations from Genesis and Exodus appear in Greek literature before 200 BC The language of the Septuagint is more like Egyptian Greek than it is like Jerusalemite Greek, according to some."

Relations with India

Ptolemy is recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra in India, probably to Emperor Ashoka:

"But [India] has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21

He is also mentioned in the Edicts of Ashoka as a recipient of the Buddhist proselytism of Ashoka.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus#Family

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaîos Philádelphos, 309–246 BC) was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 to 246 BC. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice, and was educated by Philitas of Cos. He had two half-brothers, Ptolemy Keraunos and Meleager, who both became kings of Macedonia (in 281 BC and 279 BC respectively), and who both died in the Gallic invasion of 280-279 BC. Ptolemy was first married to Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, who was the mother of his legitimate children; after her repudiation he married his full sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus.

During Ptolemy's reign, the material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height. He promoted the Museum and Library of Alexandria, and he erected a commemorative stele, the Great Mendes Stela.

Reign

Ptolemy II began his reign as co-regent with his father Ptolemy I from c. 285 BC to c. 283 BC, and maintained a splendid court in Alexandria.

Egypt was involved in several wars during his reign. Magas of Cyrene opened war on his half-brother (274 BC), and the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter, desiring Coele-Syria with Judea, attacked soon after in the First Syrian War. Two or three years of war followed. Egypt's victories solidified the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the eastern Mediterranean; his fleet (112 ships) bore the most powerful naval siege units of the time, guaranteed the king access to the coastal cities of his empire. The Ptolemaic sphere of power extended over the Cyclades to Samothrace, and the harbours and coast towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.

In the 270 BCE Ptolemy hired 4,000 Gallic mercenaries (who in 279 BC under Bolgios killed his half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos). According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Gauls plotted “to seize Egypt,” and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile River where “they perished at one another’s hands or by famine.”

The victory won by Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedonia, over the Egyptian fleet at Cos (between 258 BC and 256 BC) did not long interrupt Ptolemy's command of the Aegean Sea. In a Second Syrian War with the Seleucid kingdom, under Antiochus II Theos (after 260 BC), Ptolemy sustained losses on the seaboard of Asia Minor and agreed to a peace by which Antiochus married his daughter Berenice (c. 250 BC).

Ptolemy was of a delicate constitution. Elias Joseph Bickermann (Chronology of the Ancient World, 2nd ed. 1980) gives the date of his death as January 29.

Family

Ptolemy's first wife, Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, was the mother of his legitimate children:

• Ptolemy III Euergetes, his successor.
• Lysimachus
• Berenice Phernopherus, married Antiochus II Theos, king of Syria.

After her repudiation he married his full sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus — an Egyptian custom—which brought him her Aegean possessions.

He also had several concubines. With a woman named Bilistiche he had an (illegitimate) son named Ptolemy Andromachou.

He had many mistresses, including Agathoclea (?), Aglais (?) daughter of Megacles, the cupbearer Cleino, Didyme, the Chian harp player Glauce, the flautist Mnesis, the actress Myrtion, the flautist Pothine and Stratonice, and his court, magnificent and dissolute, intellectual and artificial, has been compared with the Versailles of Louis XIV.

Ptolemy deified his parents and his sister-wife after their deaths.

Court

The material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height under Ptolemy II. Pomp and splendor flourished. He had exotic animals of far off lands sent to Alexandria, and staged a procession in Alexandria in honor of Dionysus led by 24 chariots drawn by elephants and a procession of lions, leopards, panthers, camels, antelopes, wild asses, ostriches, a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros. According to scholars, most of the animals were in pairs - as many as eight pairs of ostriches - and although the ordinary chariots were likely led by a single elephant, others which carried a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) golden statue may have been led by four.[5] Although an enthusiast for Hellenic culture, he also adopted Egyptian religious concepts, which helped to bolster his image as a sovereign.

Callimachus, keeper of the library, Theocritus, and a host of lesser poets, glorified the Ptolemaic family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to patronize scientific research.

The tradition preserved in the pseudepigraphical Letter of Aristeas which connects the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek with his patronage is probably overdrawn. However, Walter Kaiser says, "There can be little doubt that the Law was translated in Philadelphus's time since Greek quotations from Genesis and Exodus appear in Greek literature before 200 BC The language of the Septuagint is more like Egyptian Greek than it is like Jerusalemite Greek, according to some."

Relations with India

Ptolemy is recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra in India, probably to Emperor Ashoka:

"But [India] has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21

He is also mentioned in the Edicts of Ashoka as a recipient of the Buddhist proselytism of Ashoka.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus#Family

Ptolemy Keraunos

Ptolemy Keraunos (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Κεραυνός, died 279 BC) was the King of Macedon from 281 BC to 279 BC. His epithet Keraunos is Greek for "Thunder" or "Thunderbolt".

Departure from Egypt

Ptolemy was the eldest son of Ptolemy I Soter, Pharaoh of Egypt, and his second wife Eurydice, daughter of the regent Antipater.[1] After Keraunos' younger half-brother, also called Ptolemy, was named heir apparent and, in 282 BC, ascended to the throne as Ptolemy II, he had to leave Egypt, being a potential rival for the throne. He arrived at the court of Lysimachus, the king of Thrace, Macedon, and part of Asia Minor, where his half-sister Arsinoe was queen.

While Ptolemy was staying in Lysimachus's court, Arsinoe's intrigues led to the accusation of Lysimachus' first son, Agathocles, of treason and to his execution. Keraunos sided with his other sister (from the same mother) Lysandra, who was Agathocles' wife, and accompanied her to the court of Seleucus in the East to solicit his aid. Seeing an opportunity to intervene for his own gain in the politics of both Lysimachan Thrace and Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucus prepared an expedition against Lysimachus shortly afterwards.

Seizes the Macedonian throne

After Lysimachus' defeat and death in the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC, against Seleucus I Nicator, Ptolemy Keraunos murdered Seleucus I in order to gain the power of his former protector. He then rushed to Lysimacheia where he had himself acclaimed king by the Macedonian army. At this time he also formally relinquished his claim to the Egyptian throne. To stabilize his throne, Ptolemy asked his half-sister Arsinoe, the widow of Lysimachus, to marry him. In 281 BC, he made an alliance with Pyrrhus of Epirus. His only rival, Antigonos Gonatas (Greek : Αντίγονος Γονατάς), son of the ex-king of Macedon, Demetrius I Poliorcetes (Greek : Δημήτριος Πολιορκητής), was confined in the city of Demetrias, Thessaly, and so Keraunos' power extended to south Greece as well.

Arsinoe was not happy with the situation. While he was away on a campaign, she conspired against him from the capital, Cassandreia (Greek: Κασσάνδρεια), with the aid of her sons. Keraunos quickly captured Cassandreia, and killed Arsinoe's two younger sons, while the eldest fled north to the kingdom of the Dardanians. Arsinoe herself fled to Egypt, where she married her own brother Ptolemy II and became Arsinoe II.

Death

Although Ptolemy Keraunos was at the zenith of his power, he did not live long afterwards. In 279 BC, he was captured and killed during the wars against the Gauls led by Bolgius who conducted a series of mass raids against Macedon and the rest of Greece. His death brought anarchy to the Greek states, since none of his successors were able to bring stability. This situation lasted about two years, until Antigonos Gonatas defeated the Gauls in the battle near Lysimachia, Thrace, in 277 BC, After this victory he was recognized king of Macedon and his power extended eventually also to southern Greece.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_Keraunos