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PTOLEMY II

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 617 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PTOLEMY II . Philadelphus (309-246), was of a delicate constitu- tion, no Macedonian See also:warrior-See also:chief of the old See also:style. His See also:brother Ptolemy Ceraunus found See also:compensation by becoming See also:king in See also:Macedonia in 281, and perished in the Gallic invasion of 280-79 (see See also:BRENNUS). Ptolemy II. maintained a splendid See also:court in See also:Alexandria. Not that See also:Egypt held aloof from See also:wars. Magas of See also:Cyrene opened See also:war on his See also:half-brother (274), and See also:Antiochus I., the son of Seleucus, desiring See also:Palestine, attacked soon after. Two or three years of war See also:left Egypt the dominant See also:naval See also:power of the eastern Mediterranean; the Ptolemaic See also:sphere of power extended over the See also:Cyclades to See also:Samothrace, and the harbours and See also:coast towns of See also:Cilicia Trachea (" Rough Cilicia "), Pam- phylia, See also:Lycia and See also:Caria were largely in Ptolemy's hands (Theoc. Idyll. xvii. 86 seq.). The victory won by Antigonus, king of Macedonia, over his See also:fleet at See also:Cos (between 258-56; see Beloch, p. 428 seq.) did not See also:long interrupt his command of the See also:Aegean. In a second war with the Seleucid See also:kingdom, under Antiochus II.

(after 26o), Ptolemy sustained losses on the See also:

sea- See also:board of See also:Asia See also:Minor and agreed to a See also:peace b; which Antiochus married his daughter See also:Berenice (250?). Ptolemy's first wife, See also:Arsinoe (I.), daughter of See also:Lysimachus, was the See also:mother of his legitimate See also:children. After her repudiation he married, probably for See also:political reasons, his full-See also:sister Arsinoe (II.), the widow of Lysimachus, by an See also:Egyptian See also:custom abhorrent to See also:Greek morality. The material and See also:literary splendour of the Alexan- drian court was at its height under Ptolemy II. Pomps and See also:gay religions flourished. Ptolemy deified his parents as the 8eoi & €X4iol, and his sister-wife, after her See also:death (270), as Phila- delphus. This surname was used in later generations to distin- guish Ptolemy II. himself, but properly if belongs to Arsinoe only, not to the king. See also:Callimachus, made keeper of the library, See also:Theocritus, and a See also:host of lesser poets, glorified the Ptolemaic See also:family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to patronize scientific See also:research. He hau the See also:strange beasts of far-off lands sent to Alexandria. But, an enthusiast for Hellenic culture, he seems to have shown but little See also:interest in the native See also:religion. The tradition which connects the See also:Septuagint See also:translation of the Old Testament into Greek with his name is not See also:historical.

Ptolemy had many brilliant mistresses, and his court, magnificent and dissolute, intellectual and artificial, has been justly compared with the See also:

Versailles of See also:Louis XIV.

End of Article: PTOLEMY II

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