Πτολεμαῖος), tetrarch of CHALCIS in Syria, the son of Mennaeus. He appears to have held the cities of Heliopolis and Chalcis as well as the mountain district of Ituraea, from whence he was in the habit of infesting Damascus and the more wealthy parts of Coele-Syria with predatory incursions. These Alexan. dra, queen of Judaea, endeavoured to repress by sending against him her son Aristobulus with an army, but without much success. Subsequently, when Pompey came into Syria, B. C. 64, Ptolemy was summoned to answer for his misdeeds, but was able to purchase impunity from the conqueror with a sum of a thousand talents. In B. C. 49, when Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, was put to death at Antioch by the partisans of Pompey, Ptolemy afforded shelter and protection to the brothers and sisters of the deceased prince, and his son Philippion at first married one of the fugitive princesses, Alexandra : but, afterwards, Ptolemy becoming enamoured of her himself, put Philippion to death, and made Alexandra his own wife.
After the battle of Pharsalia Ptolemy was confirmed by Caesar in the possession of his dominions, over which he continued to rule till his death in B. C. 40, when he was succeeded by his son Lysanias. The only occasion on which we meet with his name during this interval is in B. C. 42, when he united with Marion, prince of Tyre, in an attempt to restore Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, to the throne of Judaea. They were, however, both defeated by Herod. (Strab. xvi. p.753 ; J. AJ 13.16.3, 14.3.2, 7.4, B. J. 1.9.2, 13.1.) We learn from his coins that he assumed the title of tetrarch. (Eckhel, vol. iii. p. 264.)
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