ὁ δὲ Φιλομήτωρ καλούμενος ὄγδοος μέν ἐστιν ἀπόγονος Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Λάγου, τὴν δὲ ἐπίκλησιν ἔσχεν ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ. οὐ γάρ τινα τῶν βασιλέων μισηθέντα ἴσμεν ἐς τοσόνδε ὑπὸ μητρός, ὃν πρεσβύτατον ὄντα τῶν παίδων ἡ μήτηρ οὐκ εἴα καλεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχήν, πρότερον δὲ ἐς Κύπρον ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς πεμφθῆναι πράξασα· τῆς δὲ ἐς τὸν παῖδα τῇ Κλεοπάτρᾳ δυσνοίας λέγουσιν ἄλλας τε αἰτίας καὶ ὅτι Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν νεώτερον τῶν παίδων κατήκοον ἔσεσθαι μᾶλλον ἤλπιζε. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἑλέσθαι βασιλέα Ἀλέξανδρον ἔπειθεν Αἰγυπτίους·
ἐναντιουμένου δέ οἱ τοῦ πλήθους, δεύτερα ἐς τὴν Κύπρον ἔστειλεν Ἀλέξανδρον, στρατηγὸν μὲν τῷ λόγῳ, τῷ δὲ ἔργῳ διʼ αὐτοῦ Πτολεμαίῳ θέλουσα εἶναι φοβερωτέρα, τέλος δὲ κατατρώσασα οὓς μάλιστα τῶν εὐνούχων ἐνόμιζεν εὔνους, ἐπήγετο σφᾶς ἐς τὸ πλῆθος ὡς αὐτή τε ἐπιβουλευθεῖσα ὑπὸ Πτολεμαίου καὶ τοὺς εὐνούχους τοιαῦτα ὑπʼ ἐκείνου παθόντας. οἱ δὲ Ἀλεξανδρεῖς ὥρμησαν μὲν ὡς ἀποκτενοῦντες τὸν Πτολεμαῖον, ὡς δὲ σφᾶς ἔφθασεν ἐπιβὰς νεώς, Ἀλέξανδρον ἥκοντα ἐκ Κύπρου ποιοῦνται βασιλέα.
Κλεοπάτραν δὲ περιῆλθεν ἡ δίκη τῆς Πτολεμαίου φυγῆς ἀποθανοῦσαν ὑπὸ Ἀλεξάνδρου, ὃν αὐτὴ βασιλεύειν ἔπραξεν Αἰγυπτίων. τοῦ δὲ ἔργου φωραθέντος καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου φόβῳ τῶν πολιτῶν φεύγοντος, οὕτω Πτολεμαῖος κατῆλθε καὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἔσχεν Αἴγυπτον· καὶ Θηβαίοις ἐπολέμησεν ἀποστᾶσι, παραστησάμενος δὲ ἔτει τρίτῳ μετὰ τὴν ἀπόστασιν ἐκάκωσεν, ὡς μηδὲ ὑπόμνημα λειφθῆναι Θηβαίοις τῆς ποτε εὐδαιμονίας προελθούσης ἐς τοσοῦτον ὡς ὑπερβαλέσθαι πλούτῳ τοὺς Ἑλλήνων πολυχρημάτους, τό τε ἱερὸν τὸ ἐν Δελφοῖς καὶ Ὀρχομενίους. Πτολεμαῖον μὲν οὖν ὀλίγῳ τούτων ὕστερον ἐπέλαβε μοῖρα ἡ καθήκουσα· Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ παθόντες εὖ πολλά τε καὶ οὐκ ἄξια ἐξηγήσεως χαλκοῦν καὶ αὐτὸν καὶ Βερενίκην ἀνέθηκαν, ἣ μόνη γνησία οἱ τῶν παίδων ἦν.
μετὰ δὲ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους Φίλιππός τε καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Φιλίππου κεῖνται· τούτοις μείζονα ὑπῆρχέ πως ἢ ἄλλου πάρεργα εἶναι λόγου. τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἀπʼ Αἰγύπτου τιμῇ τε ἀληθεῖ καὶ εὐεργέταις οὖσι γεγόνασιν αἱ δωρεαί, Φιλίππῳ δὲ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ κολακείᾳ μᾶλλον ἐς αὐτοὺς τοῦ πλήθους, ἐπεὶ καὶ Λυσίμαχον οὐκ εὐνοίᾳ τοσοῦτον ὡς ἐς τὰ παρόντα χρήσιμον νομίζοντες ἀνέθηκαν.
ὁ δὲ Λυσίμαχος οὗτος γένος τε ἦν Μακεδὼν καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου δορυφόρος, ὃν Ἀλέξανδρός ποτε ὑπʼ ὀργῆς λέοντι ὁμοῦ καθείρξας ἐς οἴκημα κεκρατηκότα εὗρε τοῦ θηρίου· τά τε οὖν ἄλλα ἤδη διετέλει θαυμάζων καὶ Μακεδόνων ὁμοίως τοῖς ἀρίστοις ἦγεν ἐν τιμῇ. τελευτήσαντος δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρου Θρᾳκῶν ἐβασίλευεν ὁ Λυσίμαχος τῶν προσοίκων Μακεδόσιν, ὅσων ἦρχεν Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ ἔτι πρότερον Φίλιππος· εἶεν δʼ ἂν οὗτοι τοῦ Θρᾳκίου μοῖρα οὐ μεγάλη. Θρᾳκῶν δὲ τῶν πάντων οὐδένες πλείους εἰσὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὅτι μὴ Κελτοὶ πρὸς ἄλλο ἔθνος ἓν ἀντεξετάζοντι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐδείς πω πρότερος Θρᾷκας Ῥωμαίων κατεστρέψατο ἀθρόους· Ῥωμαίοις δὲ Θρᾴκη τε πᾶσά ἐστιν ὑποχείριος, καὶ Κελτῶν ὅσον μὲν ἀχρεῖον νομίζουσι διά τε ὑπερβάλλον ψῦχος καὶ γῆς φαυλότητα, ἑκουσίως παρῶπταί σφισι, τὰ δὲ ἀξιόκτητα ἔχουσι καὶ τούτων.
τότε δὲ ὁ Λυσίμαχος πρώτοις τῶν περιοίκων ἐπολέμησεν Ὀδρύσαις, δεύτερα δὲ ἐπὶ Δρομιχαίτην καὶ Γέτας ἐστράτευσεν· οἷα δὲ ἀνδράσι συμβαλὼν οὐκ ἀπείροις πολέμων, ἀριθμῷ δὲ καὶ πολὺ ὑπερβεβληκόσιν, αὐτὸς μὲν ἐς τὸ ἔσχατον ἐλθὼν κινδύνου διέφυγεν, ὁ δέ οἱ παῖς Ἀγαθοκλῆς συστρατευόμενος τότε πρῶτον ὑπὸ τῶν Γετῶν ἑάλω. Λυσίμαχος δὲ καὶ ὕστερον προσπταίσας μάχαις καὶ τὴν ἅλωσιν τοῦ παιδὸς οὐκ ἐν παρέργῳ ποιούμενος συνέθετο πρὸς Δρομιχαίτην εἰρήνην, τῆς τε ἀρχῆς τῆς αὑτοῦ τὰ πέραν Ἴστρου παρεὶς τῷ Γέτῃ καὶ θυγατέρα συνοικίσας ἀνάγκῃ τὸ πλέον· οἱ δὲ οὐκ Ἀγαθοκλέα, Λυσίμαχον δὲ αὐτὸν ἁλῶναι λέγουσιν, ἀνασωθῆναι δὲ Ἀγαθοκλέους τὰ πρὸς τὸν Γέτην ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πράξαντος. ὡς δὲ ἐπανῆλθεν, Ἀγαθοκλεῖ Λυσάνδραν γυναῖκα ἠγάγετο, Πτολεμαίου τε τοῦ Λάγου καὶ Εὐρυδίκης οὖσαν.
διέβη δὲ καὶ ναυσὶν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν Ἀντιγόνου συγκαθεῖλε. συνῴκισε δὲ καὶ Ἐφεσίων ἄχρι θαλάσσης τὴν νῦν πόλιν, ἐπαγαγόμενος ἐς αὐτὴν Λεβεδίους τε οἰκήτορας καὶ Κολοφωνίους, τὰς δὲ ἐκείνων ἀνελὼν πόλεις, ὡς Φοίνικα ἰάμβων ποιητὴν Κολοφωνίων θρηνῆσαι τὴν ἅλωσιν. Ἑρμησιάναξ δὲ ὁ τὰ ἐλεγεῖα γράψας οὐκέτι ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν περιῆν· πάντως γάρ που καὶ αὐτὸς ἂν ἐπὶ ἁλούσῃ Κολοφῶνι ὠδύρατο. Λυσίμαχος δὲ καὶ ἐς πόλεμον πρὸς Πύρρον κατέστη τὸν Αἰακίδου· φυλάξας δὲ ἐξ Ἠπείρου ἀπιόντα, οἷα δὴ τὰ πολλὰ ἐκεῖνος ἐπλανᾶτο, τήν τε ἄλλην ἐλεηλάτησεν Ἤπειρον καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς θήκας ἦλθε τῶν βασιλέων.
τὰ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἐμοί ἐστιν οὐ πιστά, Ἱερώνυμος δὲ ἔγραψε Καρδιανὸς Λυσίμαχον τὰς θήκας τῶν νεκρῶν ἀνελόντα τὰ ὀστᾶ ἐκρῖψαι. ὁ δὲ Ἱερώνυμος οὗτος ἔχει μὲν καὶ ἄλλως δόξαν πρὸς ἀπέχθειαν γράψαι τῶν βασιλέων πλὴν Ἀντιγόνου, τούτῳ δὲ οὐ δικαίως χαρίζεσθαι· τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς τάφοις τῶν Ἠπειρωτῶν παντάπασίν ἐστι φανερὸς ἐπηρείᾳ συνθείς, ἄνδρα Μακεδόνα θήκας νεκρῶν ἀνελεῖν. χωρὶς δὲ ἠπίστατο δή που καὶ Λυσίμαχος οὐ Πύρρου σφᾶς προγόνους μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοὺς αὐτοὺς τούτους ὄντας· καὶ γὰρ Ἀλέξανδρος Ἠπειρώτης τε ἦν καὶ τῶν Αἰακιδῶν τὰ πρὸς μητρός, ἥ τε ὕστερον Πύρρου πρὸς Λυσίμαχον συμμαχία δηλοῖ καὶ πολεμήσασιν ἀδιάλλακτόν γε οὐδὲν πρὸς ἀλλήλους γενέσθαι σφίσι. τῷ δὲ Ἱερωνύμῳ τάχα μέν που καὶ ἄλλα ἦν ἐς Λυσίμαχον ἐγκλήματα, μέγιστον δὲ ὅτι τὴν Καρδιανῶν πόλιν ἀνελὼν Λυσιμάχειαν ἀντʼ αὐτῆς ᾤκισεν ἐπὶ τῷ ἰσθμῷ τῆς Θρᾳκίας χερρονήσου.
Ptolemy, surnamed Philometer, was the seventh in descent from Ptolemy, son of Lagus. His surname was given to him sarcastically, for none of the kings is known to have been hated so heartily by his mother. Though he was her eldest son she would not suffer him to be called to the throne, but had previously contrived that he should be sent by his father to Cyprus. For the ill-will that Cleopatra bore her son various causes are alleged ; amongst others that she expected that her younger son Alexander would be more dutiful.
Therefore she would fain have persuaded the Egyptians to elect Alexander king. When the multitude opposed, she sent Alexander to Cyprus, nominally as general, but really because she wished by his means to overawe Ptolemy. Lastly, she caused the eunuchs whom she deemed most attached to her to be wounded, and then brought them before the multitude, pretending that Ptolemy had plotted against her and had treated her eunuchs thus. The Alexandrines rushed to kill Ptolemy, but he escaped from them on shipboard; so they made Alexander, who had returned from Cyprus, their king.
Retribution overtook Cleopatra for Ptolemy’s exile: she was put to death by Alexander, whom she had herself been instrumental in setting on the throne of Egypt. When the crime came to light and Alexander fled for fear of the people, Ptolemy returned and made himself master of Egypt for the second time. He made war on the rebel Thebans, and having subdued them in the second year after the revolt, he treated them with such severity that not even a memorial was left of that golden age in which the riches of Thebes had surpassed the riches both of the Delphic sanctuary and of Orchomenus, the two wealthiest places in Greece. Not long afterwards Ptolemy came by his appointed end, and the Athenians, who had received at his hands many benefits which I need not specify, set up bronze statues of him and of Berenice, his only legitimate child.
After the Egyptians are statues of Philip and Alexander his son: their achievements were too great to be described in a parenthesis. The Egyptian kings were real benefactors, and the honours bestowed on them were a tribute of true respect ; but the compliment to Philip and Alexander was rather the fruit of popular adulation; and even the statue of Lysimachus was erected from motives of temporary interest rather than esteem.
This Lysimachus was a Macedonian, and one of Alexander’s guard. Alexander once in a rage shut him up in a lion’s den; but finding that he overcame the beast, Alexander admired him ever afterwards, and honoured him with the noblest of the Macedonians. After Alexander’s death Lysimachus reigned over those Thracian tribes bordering on Macedonia over whom Alexander and Philip before him had ruled.
These tribes are probably but a small part of the Thracian stock ; for no single nation, except the Celts, is more numerous than the Thracians collectively. Hence no one ever conquered the whole Thracian people till the Romans did so. But the whole of Thrace is subject to the Romans, who hold also all the lands of the Celts that are worth having, disregarding only such as they deem useless on account of the severity of the cold or the poverty of the soil.
The first of the neighbouring tribes on whom Lysimachus made war were the Odrysians. Next he marched against the Getae and their chief Dromichaetes. Having engaged a far superior force of that warlike tribe, he had a hairbreadth escape himself; but his son Agathocles, then serving his first campaign with him, fell into the hands of the Getae. Fresh defeats and anxiety at the captivity of his son induced him to conclude a peace with Dromichaetes, whereby he ceded to that chief all his domains beyond the Danube, and gave him, somewhat reluctantly, his daughter to wife. Some say that it was not Agathocles, but Lysimachus himself who fell into the hands of the enemy, and that he was rescued by Agathocles, who negotiated on his behalf with the Getan chief. On his return he married Agathocles to Lysandra, daughter of Ptolemy (the son of Lagus) and Eurydice. He also crossed over to Asia and helped to put an end to the rule of Antigonus. He founded, too, the present city of Ephesus down to the sea, importing inhabitants from Lebedus and Colophon, which cities he destroyed, so that the iambic poet Phoenix lamented the capture of Colophon. I suppose that Hermesianax, the elegiac poet, was no longer in life, else no doubt he too would have bewailed the taking of Colophon. 9. Lysimachus also engaged in a war with Pyrrhus, son of Aeacides. Taking advantage of the departure of Pyrrhus from Epirus, for indeed Pyrrhus was generally roving, he pillaged the country and advanced as far as the sepulchres of the kings. 10. The rest of the story is to me incredible ; but Hieronymus the Cardian states that Lysimachus opened the sepulchres and scattered the bones of the dead. This Hieronymus has the reputation of having written disparagingly of the kings in general except Antigonus, to whom he is said to have been unduly partial. As to the graves of the Epirots in particular, it is perfectly plain that the story of a Macedonian having opened the sepulchres of the dead is a scurrilous fabrication of the writer. Besides, Lysimachus was of course aware that they were the forefathers of Alexander as well as of Pyrrhus; for Alexander was an Epirot and an Aeacid by his mother’s side. Moreover, the subsequent alliance of Pyrrhus with Lysimachus proves that even as enemies they had not proceeded to extremities. Hieronymus may have had other grudges against Lysimachus, but certainly he had one very strong one: Lysimachus had destroyed the city of Cardia, and had founded Lysimachia in its stead on the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonese.
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