Now the Ptolemy called Philometor is the eighth in descent from
Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and he got his name in irony; for none of
these kings that we know of was so hated by their mother as he was;
for though he was the eldest of her sons she would not allow them to
call him to the kingdom, but got him banished to Cyprus by his father
previously. Now of this dislike of Cleopatra to her son they allege
other motives, but especially this one, that she thought Alexander, the
younger of her sons, would be more obsequious to her. And therefore she
urged the Egyptians to choose Alexander for their king. And when the
people opposed her in this, she sent Alexander to Cyprus, nominally
as general, but really because she wished through him to make herself
more formidable to Philometor. And at last having mutilated those of
the eunuchs whom she thought most friendly, she brought them before the
populace, and pretended that she was plotted against by Philometor,
and that the eunuchs had been treated in that shameful manner by
him. And the Alexandrians were eager to kill Philometor, but, as he
got on shipboard and escaped them, they made Alexander king on his
return from Cyprus. But Cleopatra was punished eventually for her
getting Philometor banished by being slain by Alexander, whom she had
got appointed king over the Egyptians. And the crime being detected,
and Alexander fleeing from fear of the citizens, Philometor quietly
returned from exile and a second time held Egypt, and warred against
the Thebans who had revolted. And having reduced them in the third
year after the revolt, he punished them so severely that there was no
vestige left them of their ancient prosperity, which had reached such
a pitch that they excelled in wealth the wealthiest of the Greeks,
even the treasures of the temple at Delphi and the Orchomenians. And
Philometor not long after meeting the common fate, the Athenians
who had been well treated by him in many respects that I need not
enumerate, erected a brazen statue both of him and Berenice, his only
legitimate child. And next to the Egyptian kings are statues of Philip
and his son Alexander. They performed greater exploits than to be mere
appendages to an account of something else. To the other Egyptian kings
gifts were given as being of real merit and benefactors, but to Philip
and Alexander more, from the flattery of the community towards them,
for they also honoured Lysimachus by a statue, not so much out of good
will as thinking him useful under existing circumstances.
Now this Lysimachus was by birth a Macedonian and the armour-bearer
of Alexander, whom Alexander once in anger shut up in a building with a
lion and found him victorious over the beast. In all other respects he
continued to admire him, and held him in honour as among the foremost
of the Macedonians. And after Alexander’s death Lysimachus ruled over
those Thracians who were contiguous to the Macedonians, over whom
Alexander had ruled, and still earlier Philip. And these would be no
very great portion of Thrace. Now no nations are more populous than
all the Thracians, except the Celts, if one compares one race with
another; and that is why none of the Romans ever subdued all Thrace at
an earlier period. But all Thrace is now subject to the Romans, and
as much of the Celtic land as they think useless from the excessive
cold and inferiority of the soil has been purposely overlooked by
them, but the valuable parts they stick to. Now Lysimachus at this
period fought with the Odrysæ first of all his neighbours, and next
went on an expedition against Dromichetes and the Getæ. And fighting
with men not inexperienced in war, and in number far superior, he
himself getting into the greatest danger, fled for his life; and his
son Agathocles, now first accompanying his father on campaign, was
captured by the Getæ. And Lysimachus after this, being unfortunate in
battles and being greatly concerned at the capture of his son, made a
peace with Dromichetes, abandoning to Getes his possessions across the
Ister, and giving him his daughter in marriage, more of necessity than
choice. But some say that it was not Agathocles who was captured, but
Lysimachus himself, and that he was ransomed by Agathocles negotiating
with Getes on his account. And when he returned he brought with him
for Agathocles a wife in Lysandra, the daughter of Ptolemy Lagus
and Eurydice. And he crossed over into Asia Minor in his fleet, and
destroyed the rule of Antigonus. And he built the present city of the
Ephesians near the sea, bringing into it as settlers Lebedians and
Colophonians, after destroying their cities, so that Phœnix, the Iambic
writer, laments the capture of Colophon. Hermesianax, the Elegiac
writer, could not have lived, it seems to me, up to this date; for else
he would surely have written an elegy over the capture of Colophon.
Lysimachus also waged war against Pyrrhus the son of Æacides. And
watching for his departure from Epirus, as indeed he was wandering
most of his time, he ravaged all the rest of Epirus, and even meddled
with the tombs of the kings. I can scarce believe it, but Hieronymus
of Cardia has recorded that Lysimachus took up the tombs of the dead
and strewed the bones about. But this Hieronymus has the reputation
even on other grounds of having written with hostility against all the
kings except Antigonus, and of not having been altogether just even to
him. And in this account of the tombs in Epirus he clearly must have
invented the calumny, that a Macedonian would interfere with the tombs
of the dead. And besides it appears that Lysimachus did not know that
the people of Epirus were not only the ancestors of Pyrrhus but also of
Alexander; for Alexander was not only a native of Epirus, but on his
mother’s side one of the Æacidæ. And the subsequent alliance between
Pyrrhus and Lysimachus proves that if they did fight together there was
no irreconcilable animosity between them. But perhaps Hieronymus had
other causes of complaint against Lysimachus besides the chief one that
he destroyed the city of Cardia, and built instead of it Lysimachia on
the Isthmus of the Thracian Chersonese.