(EGYPT, surnamed PHILADELPHUS, was the son of
Ptolemy I. by his wife Berenice. He was born in the island of Cos, whither his mother had
accompanied her husband during the naval campaign of ad loc. ; Callim. H. ad
Del. 165-190; Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. p. 418.) We have scarcely
any information concerning the period of his boyhood or youth, though we learn that he
received a careful education ; and Philetas, the elegiac poet of Cos, and Zenodotus the
grammarian, are mentioned as his literary preceptors (Suid. s.v.
It is probable that the virtual authority of king still remained in the hands of Ptolemy
Soter, during the two years that he survived this event ; but no attempt was made to disturb
his arrangement of the succession. Ptolemy Cerannus and Meleager quitted Egypt, and
Philadelphus found himself at his father's death (ad Callim. h. in Del.
170-190). Magas, however, subsequently induced Antiochus II., king of Syria, to make common
cause with him against the Egyptian monarch, aud himself undertook a second expedition against
Egypt, in which he again advanced to the frontier, and took the fortress of Paraetonium ; but
the efforts of Antiochus were paralysed by the address of Ptolemy, and he was able to effect
nothing on the side of Syria. At length the war was terminated by a treaty, which left Magas
in undisputed possession of the Cyrenaica, while his infant daughter Berenice was betrothed to
Ptolemy, the son of Philadelphus. (Hellenism. vol. ii. pp.
244-250.)
It was probably during the continuance of this war that we find Ptolemy also taking an
active part in the affairs of Greece, by sending a fleet under Patroclus to the assistance of
the Athenians against Antigonus Gonatas [PATROCLUS]. Nor was he
inattentive to the events that were passing in more distant countries. After the defeat of
Pyrrhus by the Romans, he had hastened to conclude a treaty with the rising republic, and
during the subsequent war between Rome and Carthage, he continued faithful to his new allies,
and refused to assist the Carthaginians. (Liv. Epit. xiv. Dio Cass. fr.
146; Sic. 1.)
Of the subsequent relations between Egypt and Syria, we know only in general terms that
hostilities between them were frequently interrupted or suspended, and as often renewed; but
the wars appear to have been marked by no events of a striking character. It must have been
towards the close of the reign of Philadelphus that the long protracted contest was terminated
by a treaty of peace, by which Ptolemy gave his daughter Berenice in marriage to Antiochus II.
The other stipulations of the peace are unknown to us, but it is certain that Phoenicia and
Coele-Syria-the never-failing cause of dispute between the two monarchies-remained in the
hands of Ptolemy (Hieron. ad Daniel. 11.6; Droysen, vol. ii. p. 316.) In
Greece Ptolemy appears to have continued throughout his reign on unfriendly if not directly
hostile terms with Macedonia, and lost no opportunity of assisting the party opposed to that
power ; but it was not until a few years defore his death that the successes of Aratus and the
rise of the Achaean league opened out to his policy fresh prospects in that quarter. He
hastened to support Aratus with considerable sums of money, and received him in the most
friendly manner when he visited Alexandria in person. (
But while Ptolemy was thus attentive to the events that were passing among the neighbouring
potentates, his chief care was directed to the internal administration of his kingdom, and to
the encouragement and extension of its foreign commerce. One of the first measures of his
reign was to take effectual steps for clearing Upper Egypt from the robbers and banditti by
which it was infested (Theocr. Idyll. 15.46-49, and Schol. ad loc.), and
he afterwards carried his arms far into Ethiopia, and established friendly relations with the
barbarian tribes of that country. He was also the first to derive from those regions a supply
of elephants for war, which had been previously procured ad Dan. 11.5; Hellenism. vol. ii. p. 735-738; Letronne, Rec. des
Inscr. p. 180-188). It was doubtless also with a view to the extension of his commerce
with India that we find him sending an ambassador of the name of Dionysius to the native
princes of that country. (
But it is more especially as the patron and promoter of literature and science that the name
of Philadelphus is justly celebrated. The institutions of which the foundations had been laid
by his father quickly rose under his fostering care to the highest prosperity. The Museum of
Alexandria became the resort and abode of all the most distinguished men of letters of the
day, and in the library attached to it were accumulated all the treasures of ancient learning.
The first person who illed the office of librarian appears to have been Zenodotus of Ephesus,
who had previously been the preceptor of Ptolemy : his successor was the poet Callimachus.
(Suid. s. v.
das Alex.
Museum, p. 71; Ritschl, die Alex. Bibliothek, p. 19.) Among the
other illustrious names which adorned the court and reign of Ptolemy, may be mentioned those
of the poets Philetas and Theocritus (the last of whom has left us a laboured panegyric upon
the Egyptian monarch, which is of some importance in an historical point of view), the
philosophers Hegesias and Theodorus, the mathematician Euclid, and the astronomers Timocharis,
Aristarchus of Samos, and Aratus. It was not merely by his munificence, or the honours which
he bestowed upon these eminent men that Ptolemy was able to attract them to his court : he had
himself received a learned education, and appears to have possessed a genuine love of
literature, while many anecdotes attest to us the friendly and familiar terms upon which he
associated with the distinguished strangers whom he had gathered around him. Nor was his
patronage confined to the ordinary cycle of Hellenic literature. By his interest in natural
history he gave a stimulus to the pursuit of that science, which gave birth to many important
works, while he himself formed collections of rare animals within the precincts of the royal
palace. It was during his reign also, and perhaps at his desire, that Manetho gave to the
world in a Greek form the historical records of the Egyptians; and according to a wellknown
tradition, which, disguised as it has been by fables, may not be without an historical
foundation, it was by his express command that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews were translated
into Greek (Joseph. 12.2. For the fuller investigation of this subject, see ARISTEAS). Whatever truth there may be in this tale, it is certain that
he treated the Jewish colonists, many of whom had already settled at Alexandria under Ptolemy
Soter, with much favour, and not only allowed them perfect toleration for their religion, but
appears to have placed them in many respects on a par with his Greek subjects. (Joseph. I. c.)
The fine arts met with scarcely less encouragement under Ptolemy than literature and
science, but his patronage does not appear to have given rise to any school of painting or
sculpture of real merit; and we are told that Aratus gained his favour by presents of pictures
of the Sicyonic school. (Hellenism. vol. ii. pp. 678, 699, 721, 731, &c.; Letronne, Recueil
des Inscr. pp. 180-188.)
All authorities concur in attesting the great power and wealth, to which the Egyptian
monarchy was raised under Philadelphus. We are told that he possessed at the close of his
reign a standing army of 200,000 foot and 40,000 horse, besides war-chariots and elephants; a
fleet of 1500 ships, among which were many vessels of stupendous size; and a sum of 740,000
talents in his treasury; while he derived from Egypt alone an annual revenue of 14,800 talents
(Appian. praef. 10; Hieronym. ad Daniel. 11.5). His dominions comprised,
besides Egypt itself, and portions of Ethiopia, Arabia, and Libya, the important provinces of
Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, together with Cyprus, Lycia, Caria, and the Cyclades : and during a
great part at least of his reign, Cilicia and Pamphylia also (Theocrit. Idyll. 17.86-90 ; Droysen, l.c. p. 316). Before his death Cyrene
was reunited to the monarchy by the marriage of his son Ptolemy with Berenice, the daughter of
Magas.
The private life and relations of Philadelphus are far from displaying his character in as
favourable a light as we might have inferred from the splendour of his administration. Almost
immediately on his accession he had banished Demetrius Phalereus, ad Theocr. Id. 17.128). After her lemy took the
strange resolution of marrying his own sister Arsinoe, the widow of Lysimachus ; flagrant
violation of the religious notions of the Greeks, and which gave rise to severe
animadversions. Though she must have been many years older than himself, he appears to have
continued tenderly attached to her throughout her life, and evinced his affection not only by
bestowing her name upon many of his newly-founded colonies, but by assuming himself the
surname of Philadelphus, a title which some writers referred in derision to his unnatural
treatment of his two brothers. After her death he erected a temple to Arsinoe, and caused
divine honours to be paid to her memory. (Idyll. 17.130, Schol. ad loc. ;
Philadelphus died a natural death before the close of the year F. H. vol. iii. p.
379). He had been always of a feeble and sickly constitution, which prevented him from ever
taking the command of his armies in person; and he led the life of a refined voluptuary,
combining sensual and dissolute pleasures with the more elevated gratifications of the taste
and understanding. (
The coins of Ptolemy Philadelphus are only to by their dates; none of them bearing the epithet of Philadelphus.