Greek - Ptolemy II Philadelphos - 285-246 B.C. -
Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt -
Bronze 24mm Struck in Alexandria in Egypt 285-246 B.C.
Reference: Sear 7787; B.M.C. 6.54,75-6 ---
Diademed head of Zeus Ammon right.
ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, Eagle standing left on thunderbolt; in field to left,
club.
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Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek:
Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος,
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.[1]
Callimachus, keeper of the library,
Theocritus,[2]
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."
[3]
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
[4]
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.
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