Ptolemy II Philadelphus (
Greek: ,
Ptolemaĩos Philádelphos"
309 BC–246 BC), was the king of
Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BC 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, both of whom became kings of
Macedonia (in 281 BC and 279 BC
respectively). Both died in the Gallic invasion of 280-279 BC (see
Brennus).
As did the Ptolemy's 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 BC–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 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; 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
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 BCE).
Ptolemy's first wife,
Arsinoë I,
daughter of
Lysimachus, was the mother of
his legitimate children. After her repudiation he married his full
sister
Arsinoë II, the widow of
Lysimachus—an Egyptian custom—which
brought him her Aegean possessions.
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 BC).
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 golden statue may have
been led by four.
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. 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." 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
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.
See also
External links
References
- Scullard, H.H The Elephant in the Greek and Roman
World Thames and Hudson. 1974 pg 125 "At the head of an
imposing array of animals (including...)"
- Theocritus: Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus
- Walter Kaiser: A History of Israel, p. 467
- Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap.
21
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