A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

568 PTOLEMAEUS. PTOLEMAEUS.
Suidas mentions a Ptolemy of Cythera, an epic giving hostages for his friendly disposition towards
poet, who wrote a poem about the virtues of the the Thebans. (Plut. Pelop. 27.) To this new
plant called psalacantha; but this statement is alliance it may be ascribed that Ptolemy abanperhaps the result of some confusion, since the doned his friendly relations with the Athenians,
work of Ptolemy Chennus contains various marvel- notwithstanding the benefits he had received from
ious statements respecting that very plant. Iphicrates. (Aesch. 1. c. p. 32.) He continued to
The work of Ptolemy has been edited, with administer the sovereign power for a period of
commentaries, by And. Schottus and Day. Hoes- three years, when he was, in his turn, assassinated
chelius in Gale's lTistosriae P-'oeticae Scriptores, by the young king Perdiccas III., B. c. 364.
p. 303, &c. Paris, 1675, 8vo., with a dissertation (Diod. xv. 77.) Diodorus gives Ptolemy the title of:upon Ptolemy; by L. H. Teucher, with Conon and king, and his name is included by the chronoParthenius, Lips. 1791, 8vo.; and by Westermann, graphers among the Macedonian kings (Dexippus
in his Ml1ythographi, p. 182, &c. Brunsv. 1843, ap. Syncell. 1. c.; Euseb. Arm. pp. 153, 154), but
8vo. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 256, ed. Wester- it seems more probable that he assumed the regal
mann; Fabric. Bibl. G'aec. vol. v. pp. 295, 296, authority without its designation. (Compare, in
vol. vi. pp. 377, 378). regard to the above facts, Thirlwall's Greece, vol. v.
13. A heretic, of the sect of the Valentinians p. 162-165; Flathe, Gesch. Alacedoniens, vol. i.
(Iren. adv. Haeres. Praef.). His Letter to Flora p. 38-40; and Abel, Makedonien vor Kinig
is preserved by Epiphanius (xxx. 7), and printed Philipp. p. 217-223.) [E. H. B.]
in Grabe's Spicilegiumn Patrum (Dodwell, Dissert. PTOLEMAEUS (IlroAshla7os), surnamed
ad Iren. pp. 318, foll.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. APION ('A7riwv) king of Cyrene, was an illegitip. 296). [P. S.] mate son of Ptolemy Physcon, king of Egypt, by
PTOLEMAEUS (nTrohAEa7os), a surgeon, one his mistress Eirene. His father left him by his
of whose medical formulae is quoted by Celsus (De will the kingdom of the Cvrenaica, to which he
Med. vi. 7. 2, p. 126), and who must, therefore, have appears to have succeeded without opposition, on
lived in or before the first century after Christ. the death of Physcon, B. C. 117. We know noHe is perhaps the same person whose opinion on thing of the events of his reign, bhut at his death
the cause of dropsy is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus in B. c. 96, he bequeathed his kingdom by his will
(De AIforb. Chron. iii. 8. p. 479), and who is called to the Roman people. The senate, however, reby him a follower of Erasistratus. Perhaps also he fiused to accept the legacy, and declared the cities
is the physician whose medical formulae are quoted of the Cyrenaica free. They were not reduced to
by Asclepiades Pharmacion (ap. Galen. De Coimbsos. the condition of a province till near thirty years
lAfedicamn. sec. Loc. ii. 2, vol. xii. p. 584; see also afterwards; a circumstance which has given rise
ibid. iv. 7. p. 789, De Compj)os. Aledicam. sec. Gen. to much confusion, some of the later Roman
v. 14, vol. xiii. pp. 849, 853.) [W. A. G.] writers having considered this latter date to be
PTOLEMAEUS (rToXse.La7oS) of ALORUS, that of the death of Apion, and the accompanying
regent, or according to some authors king of Mace- bequest. Hence Sextus Rufus, Ammianus, and
donia. The circumstances connected with his Hieronymus were led to suppose that there were
elevation, and the revolutions in which he took two kings of the name of Apion, an error in
part, are very variously related. Diodorus (xv. 71 ) which they have been followed by Scaliger, Freincalls him a son of Amyntas II.; but this seems to shemius, and other modern writers. The subject
be certainly a mistake, and Dexippus (ap. Syncell. has been satisfactorily examined by Valesius in his
p. 263, b.) says that he was a stranger to the royal notes to Ammitanus, and by Clinton. (Justin.
family. During the short reign of Alexander IT., xxxix. 5; Liv. Epit. lxx.; Jul. Obsequens, c. 109;
the eldest son of Amyntas, we find Ptolemy en- Eutrop. vi. ]; Sex. Ruf. c. 13; Anum. Marc.
gaged in war with that prince, and apparently dis- xxii. 16. ~ 24; and Vales. ad loc.; Hieronym. in
puting the throne with him. Their differences Euseb. Chron. 01. 171. 1, and 01. 178. 3; Clinton,
were terminated for a time by the intervention of F. H. vol. iii. p. 389, note.) [E. H. B.]
Pelopidas, but the reconciliation was a hollow one, PTOLEMAEUS (rIroAeeaZos), surnamed CEand Ptolemyv soon took anll opportunity to remove RAUNUS, king of Macedonia, was the son of
the young king by assassination, B. C. 367. (Plut. Ptolemy I. king of Egypt, by his second wife
Pelop. 26, 27; Diod. xv. 71; Marsyas ap. Athen. Eurydice. The period of his birth is not menxiv. p. 629, d.) It seems probable that this murder tioned; but if Droysen is right in assigning the
was perpetrated with the connivance, if not at the marriage of Eurydice with Ptolemy to the year
instigation, of the queen-mother Eurydice [EURY- B. C. 321 (see Hellenism. vol. i. p. 154), their son
DICE, No. 1.]; and Ptolemy in consequence ob- cannot have been born till B. c. 320. He must,
tained possession of the supreme power without at all events, have been above thirty years old in
opposition. But the appearance of a new pretender B. c. 285, when the aged king of Egypt came to
to the throne, Pausanias, soon reduced him to the resolution of setting aside his claim to the
great difficulties, from which he was rescued by throne, and appointing his younger son, Ptolemy
the intervention of the Athenian general Iphicrates, Philadelphus, his successor. (Appian. Syr. 62;
who established the brother of Alexander, Per- Justin. xvi. 2.) To this step we are told that the
diccas III., upon the throne, while Ptolemy exer- old king was led not only by his warm attachment
cised the virtual sovereignty under the name of to his wife Berenice and her son Philadelphus, but
regent. (Aesch. de F. Leg. pp. 31, 32; Corn. Nep. by apprehensions of the violent and passionate
Jphicr. 3.) It was probably after this that the character of his eldest son, which subsequent
partisans of the late king invoked the assistance of events proved to be but too well founded. Ptolemy
Pelopidas, who invaded Macedonia with a merce- Ceraunus quitted the court of Egypt in disgust,
nary force, but was met by Ptolemy, who disarmed and repaired to that of Lysimachus, where his
his resentment by protestations of submission, and sister Lvsandra was married to Agathocles, the
obtained the confirmation of his authority as regent, heir to the Thracian crown. On the other hand,