Lysimachus1, son of Ptolemy II by Arsinoe I2, probably not governor of Cyprus in 246/53, probably not governor of Coptos or the Thebaid in 2404, murdered by Sosibius at the orders of Ptolemy IV in c. 2215, no descendants known6.
[1]
PP VI 14531. Gr: LusimacoV..
Ý
[2]
Schol. Theocritus 17.128. Ý
[3] A. Roos, Mnemosyne 51 (1923) 262 argued as follows: pGurob 6, clearly written by a major comander in the Third Syrian War, describes a queen Berenice as "the sister"; from this, and from the welcome accorded to the author on his arrival by sea at Seleucia, it is inferred that the author was a brother of Berenice Phernophorus, hence either Ptolemy III or Lysimachus. According to the literary sources, Ptolemy III arrived too late to save his sister, and he arrived by land not sea. Therefore the author is not Ptolemy III but Lysimachus, who must therefore be the commander of the fleet. From later evidence (after 145), we know that the fleet was based on Cyprus and that its commander was also governor of Cyprus. Hence we may infer that Lysimachus was governor of Cyprus. The counterarguments generated by M. Holleaux (BCH 30 (1906) 330) are summarised by R. S. Bagnall, The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions Outside Egypt 42ff. The literary sources do not in fact indicate whether Ptolemy III was advancing by land or by sea; it is usual to interpret pGurob 6 as deliberately masking the fact that Berenice was dead (or, as E. R. Bevan, The House of Ptolemy 202f. suggested, that she was in fact Berenice II, or, with Polyaenus 8.50, her death was concealed, and Ptolemy III thought at the time of writing that she was still alive); and in any case the evidence to associate the fleet with Cyprus and its command with the governor of Cyprus is a century later. Ý
[4] CCG 31137, found at Karnak, names a Lysimachus "brother of the kings" and strategos on 2 or 8 Tybi of a year 7. J. P. Mahaffy (The Empire of the Ptolemies, 137 n. 2) translated the term as "royalties", which he understood to refer to Ptolemy III and Berenice II, and identified the governor Lysimachus with this prince, who he supposed to be strategos of Coptos. However, Ptolemy III and Berenice II were not joint rulers, since Berenice is not normally reflected in the dating formulae. There are in fact four possibilities: year 7 (=164/3) under the joint reigns of Ptolemy VI, Cleopatra II and Ptolemy VIII; year 7 (=111/0) under Cleopatra III and Ptolemy IX; year 7 (=75/4) under Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra V; and year 7 (= 46/5) under Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIV.
Moreover, there is every reason not to interpret the title literally. The title sn nsw (king's brother) is occasionally attested amongst certain royal officials who are provably not biological brothers of the king, particularly the strategoi of the Tentyrite nome in the late Ptolemaic and early Roman periods. Although it has been argued that the title could be as early as the reign of Ptolemy II (Amphiomis (PP VIII 210a, strategos in Mendes) the certainly datable examples are much later. The following examples are listed in L. Mooren, The Aulic Titulature in Ptolemaic Egypt: Introduction and Prosopography: (0127) Pachom-Heirax son of Pachom (cont. Cleopatra VII); (0128) Pamenches son of Pachom-Heirax; (0137) Panas son of Psenobastis (cont. Augustus); (0139) Ptolemy son of Panas. A related title is found in other strategoi in this period -- "brother of the family of pharaoh": (0124) Monkores, son of Pamonthes (Ombite and other nomes under Ptolemy XII and Berenice IV); (0129) Pamonthes, son of Monkores. Many of these officials are given the court title of SuggenhV (royal relative) in Greek from the mid second century, and some are also called AdelfoV (brother), meaning, presumably, "brother" of the king, a title which would naturally translate into Egyptian as sn nsw. Turning to the governors of the Thebaid as a whole, we have: (053) Boethos son of Nikostratus, SuggenhV or AdelfoV c. 152 - 135; (055) Lochos son of Kallimedes SuggenhV or AdelfoV c. 127 - after 124; and (057) Harmokrates, SuggenhV or AdelfoV c. 116.
We do not know what the Lysimachus CCG 31137 was strategos of, though presumably it was an area of Upper Egypt. As noted above, Mahaffy believed it was Coptos. W. Spiegelberg, Catalogue Général des Antiquités Égyptiennes du Musée du Caire: Die demotischen Denkmäler I -- Die demotischen Inschriften 54, pointed out that there was no evidence for this, since all the associations of the stele are with Karnak. The natural conjecture is that he was a Theban strategos, but he is not included in the current lists. Reviewing the four possible dates for CCG 31137:
a) The governors of the Thebaid listed by Mooren around 164/3 are: (050) Hieronymos, attested in either 170/69 or 165/4, (051) [Unknown] c. 168, probably the same as Hieronymos, and (052) Apoll[?onius] attested in the period before Boethos. Thus, there appears to be room to insert the Lysimachus of CCG 31137, SuggenhV or AdelfoV (= sn nsw), between Hieronymos and Apoll[?onius] in 164/3. However, very early on in this year, some time after Thoth 21 (=23 October 164), when UPZ 1.110 records both Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII as being present in Alexandria, Ptolemy VI fled Alexandria to Rome to seek help against his brother, and he returned to sole rule some time before Pharmouthi 29 = 29 May 163. Since CCG 31137 was erected in Tybi, the reference to the "rulers" would have to be understood as referring to the joint rule of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra II. But Cleopatra II is otherwise unattested during this period, so it is unlikely that Lysimachus can be dated to this time.
b) Mooren gives (058) Phommous as the governor of the Thebaid between 115 and at least 20 Tybi year 7 of Cleopatra III/Ptolemy IX = 6 February 110 (UPZ 2.192). Hence Lysimachus is very unlikely to have been governor of the Thebaid at this time.
c) There is a gap in the list of governors of the Thebaid between (059) Platon, last recorded in 88, and (060) Hephaistion, recorded as the predecessor of (061) Callimachus, first documented in 62. While Lysimachus could be placed in this gap in year 7 of Ptolemy XII = 75/4, it seems unlikely since Cleopatra V appears not to have been an active participant in the government, even though formally included in dating formulae.
d) Mooren gives the governor of the Thebaid in 47/6 as (061) Callimachus, who is documented from 62 to some time between 44 and 39; thus we have no room for a Lysimachus at this time.
Hence, it seems unlikely that Lysimachus of CCG 31137 was a governor of the Thebaid. Since the other datable examplse of the title sn nsw are all late Ptolemaic in date, this Lysimachus should probably be dated to the first century, despite the apparently anachronistic name. Ý
[5] Polybius 15.25.2. It is generally assumed that Lysimachus was a victim of the general purge that Sosibius undertook for Ptolemy IV at this time. However, M. Holleaux (REA 15 (1912) 370, repr. in Études d'épigraphie et d'histoire grecques III 47), in arguing that Ptolemy IV's minister Sosibius first rose to prominence under Ptolemy III, also suggested that he might have been responsible for disposing of Lysimachus under that king. He makes three arguments: (1) that Polybius does not explicitly associate the murder of Lysimachus with those of Magas and Berenice II which occurred at this time, which seems surprising, therefore it might well have occurred some other time; (2) that Ptolemy IV had no reason to get rid of his uncle, who would be too old to figure as a likely threat to the throne; and (3) that Lysimachus is not included in the family members of Ptolemy III listed in the exedra of Thermos. But, as to (1), it may well be that Lysimachus, as an old man (c. 60), was simply not as prominent as member of the family as the king's brother and mother (one might also note that the king's two other brothers are not named, but surely perished at this time if they were not already dead, as did many of their supporters according to Polybius); as to (2), who knows who a paranoid autocrat will see as a threat and why? and Sosibius may have seen Lysimachus as one even if Ptolemy IV did not; and as to (3) the family members listed are Ptolemy's wife and children, why should his collateral relatives be included even if living? While it is true that Lysimachus' death date is not proven, the traditional date seems the best estimate until new evidence emerges. Ý
[6] A. Wilhelm, GGA 160 (1898) 201, 210 suggested on loose chronological grounds that Ptolemy (II) of Telmessos was the son of this Lysimachus. The Telmessan family tree has since been clarified with the identification of his father Lysimachus as the son of Ptolemy (I) of Telmessos. M. Holleaux, JHS 42 (1921) 183 adduced the additional argument that if Wilhelm was correct then this Ptolemy of Telmessos was the next heir in line before the birth of Ptolemy V and during the latter's minority, yet he not only survived Ptolemy IV's purge of his relatives but was left alone in Telmessos and was in no way associated with the regencies for that king. Ý
Update Notes:
10 Feb 2002: Added individual trees
18 Feb 2002: Split into individual entry
18 May 2003: Added Xrefs to the Lacus Curtius edition
of Polybius
7 July 2004: Updated discussion of CCG 31137 -- a date
of 163 doesn't work after all, whatever he was strategos of.
11 Mar 2005: Added Greek transcription, link to Bevan
26 Aug 2006: Link and correct ref to Holleaux BCH 30 paper
13 Sep 2006: Link to online Polyaenus
Website © Chris Bennett, 2001-2006 -- All rights reserved