RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ptolemy
put down by force, treachery, and cruelty. In spite of the generally bad repute in which literary reports have left this Ptolemy, there are not wanting indications that he was less evil than the records assume. He was not averse to literature and is even credited with the composition of a drama, and continued the policy of his predecessors with regard to the library of Alexandria. Detached inscriptions and records show that Egyptian sway continued over distant lands, that the Romans sent an embassy in his tenth regnal year and recalled the understanding with Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, and that the Creeks paid him reverence. Evidence of his regard for Egypt appears in the temples he completed, built, repaired, or adorned. Yet color is given also to the historians' reports that at least the later years of his reign were inglorious. He and the kingdom alike seem to have been ruled by his mistress Agathocleia, her brother Agathocles, and the wily Sosibius. Not improbably to the first two was due the murder of his sister-wife Arsinoe. Jews appear to have been in less favor at the court than under the previous reigns.
An interesting but unreliable Jewish apocryphon supporting this assumption, III Maccabees (text in most editions of the Septuagint; German translation in Kautzsch, Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, Tubingen, 1900; cf. H. Cotton, The Five Books of Maccabees in English, Oxford, 1832), deals with Ptolemy IV. It relates that after the battle of Raphia Ptolemy visited Jerusalem and purposed to enter the sanctuary in spite of all prayers and dissuasion ; that when he was about to carry out his design Simon the hish priest knelt before the Temple and prayed God to smite the king with paralysis; that his prayer was heard, and that the king was carried away helpless; that Ptolemy returned to Egypt vowing vengeance upon the Jews, which he attempted to carry out by removing the civil equality with Greeks which the Jews had hitherto enjoyed in Egypt unless they embraced the worship of Dionysos, while those who refused were branded with the Dionysiac ivy leaf; that a great multitude of the Jews, refusing to surrender their religion, were brought in chains to Alexandria, where the populace favored them because of their uprightness; that the king directed that 500 elephants be made mad with wine and incense and driven so as to trample to death the captives on the race-course; but that when the order was to be carried out two angels appeared and threw the army into consternation while the elephants turned about and crushed the royal forces beneath them; that thereupon the king ordered the Jews released, feasted them for seven days, and then commended them to the rulers of the provinces where they resided; while to the Jews was given permission to execute 300 apostates. After this, the standing of the nation with the people was higher than ever. A part of the same tradition appears in Josephus (Apion, ii. 5) in simpler form, but in connection with Ptolemy IX. Physcon. The basis of the story in the war between Ptolemy IV. and Antiochus is fairly in accord with the facts, as is the description of Ptolemy's character. But the narrative is turgid, and impossible both historically and psychologically, stresses unduly the miraculous, and in at least one respect follows Esther in that it attempts to validate a new feast, which did not, however, receive recognition. The real fact which the document seems to register is a change in the condition of the Jews in Egypt, subjection to higher taxation, or the like. The willingness of the Jews in Palestine to receive the rule of Antiochus reveals some basis for the story in the change of their feelings toward Egypt, toward which they had had so good reasons to be friendly.
Ptolemy V. Epiphanes Eucharistus (205-182) was a child of five when he came to the throne, and had already for three years been nominally associated with his father in the government. The regency during his infancy was begun by Agathocles and Sosibius, whose first care was to send into distant
regions or on diplomatic or other missions those of eminent position who might endanger their control. The young king was placed in the care of the infamous Agathocleia; new mercenaries were recruited from abroad, so that the soldiery might be at the call of the new masters and furnish a dependable force. This done, Agathocles gave himself up to a riot of debauchery which soon aroused indignation, resentment, and insurrection. Tlepolemos, a shrewd Greek and a rival of Agathocles, collected forces and took measures by well-timed denunciation of Agathocles to put the latter on the defensive. In a riot Agathocles and his entire family were slain, Tlepolemos became prime minister, while another Greek of excellent character became the guardian of the king and the virtual ruler. External events were no less stormy. Antiochus seized the time as propitious to gain control of Coele-Syria and Palestine, and entered Jerusalem in 198, thus definitely ending Egyptian possession after defeating the Egyptian forces under Scopas. Philip V- of Macedon also took under his rule some of the Grecian islands which had been Egyptian possessions, only Cyprus and Cyrene remaining of the foreign territory ruled by the Ptolemies. Antiochus was intent upon pressing his advantage, but appeal was made to Rome and the Syrian was forbidden to take further steps hostile to Egypt. Meanwhile a treaty had been made by which Ptolemy was to marry Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus, and thus this celebrated name was introduced into Egypt. She was to receive as her dowry the revenues from the former possessions of Egypt on the Asian continent, though these regions were garrisoned by Syrian troops, and ruled by Syrian officials. The guardianship of Aristomenes continued with a return of prosperity, until the greedy general Scopas attempted an insurrection and was convicted and executed. There are clear indications that the native insurrections which began in the preceding reign continued in Upper Egypt, and that not till near the end of the reign was that region recovered completely from the Nubians who had pressed in. In 196 Ptolemy took the power into his own hands, and the record of this is on the Rosetta Stone (see Inscriptions, I., § 3). In 193 the king went to Raphia to meet and marry Cleopatra, who proved an able woman, loyal to the interests of her husband. Ptolemy attempted to maintain foreign affairs in a favorable condition, and an embassy went to Rome with gifts (which were declined) and to the Achaean League, this too being fruitless of results. In his later years Ptolemy seems to have degenerated and to have aroused the resentment of his subjects by the imposition of new taxes and by encroaching upon the temple privileges. An insurrection which then broke out was suppressed with difficulty, and the close was marked with exhibitions of faithlessness and treachery on the part of the king. He poisoned his able minister Aristomenes and estranged his supporters among the nobility, probably by proposing to make them bear the expense of an invasion of Syria which he was contemplating. At this time he was poisoned, not improbably by the old nobility whom he had so recently offended. He did little in the way
Ptolemy Puerstingrer