Ptolemy Phiscon (VII)

VII. PTOLEMY PHISCON, or Fatguts, otherwise call’d Euergetes or the Benefactor, Son of Ptolemy Epiphanes, and Brother to Ptolemy Philomator, reign’d in the whole fifty-three Years, partly with his Brother and partly alone, from the Year 3859. He had great Contests with his Brother, which did not end ‘till the Death of Philometor. Cleopatra the Wife of this Prince, was desirous to preserve the Crown for her Son, against the Enterprizes of Physcon, who attempted to become Master of it; and Onias the Jew, the Founder of the Temple Onion, undertook the Defence of the Queen and the young Prince, and brought a small Army to Alexandria. Physcon prepared to march against him, and at the same Joseph. cont. App. l. 2. p. 1064.time resolved to expose all the Jews of Alexandria to be squeezed to Pieces under the Feet of the Elephants. But God brought it about in Favour of the Jews, that the Elephants having been made drunk on purpose, turn’d their Fury against their Managers, of whom they flew several. Physcon himself saw a Man with a terrible and threatning Countenance, that forbid him to do any Harm to the Hebrews; and one of his most beloved Concubines, whose Name by some is call’d Ithaca, by others Irene, interceding with him to spare the Jews, he pardon’d them upon her Request, and repair’d all the Mischief he had done to them. Josephus adds, that even to his Time the Jews of Alexandria yearly celebrated the Day of this Deliverance; but it is very probable that this Historian has not distinguish’d Physcon from Philopator, and that he has put under the former what happen’d under the latter. For we have already seen under Philopator a History very like this, of the Jews that were to be exposed to the Elephants.

Physcon being desirous to terminate the Differences he had with his Sister Cleopatra, the Sister and Wife of his Brother Philometor, made a Proposal of Marriage to her; which being concluded upon,¹ Physcon was received into Alexandria, and acknowledged as King. But being willing to secure the Kingdom, he put the young Prince, his Nephew, to death, as he was in the Arms of his Mother, the very Day of their Marriage. a This Action made him extremely odious to the Egyptians, whom he still farther provok’d by all Sorts of Cruelties. He divorced Cleopatra, took the Daughter of this Princess to Wife after he had deflower’d her, kill’d his own eldest Son, lest the People of Alexandria should make him King in his Place, put to death another of his Sons that he had by Cleopatra, and to compleat his Cruelties, he cut off his Head, Feet, and Hands, and sent them in a close Basket to the Queen, the Mother of the young Prince, as a Present he made her on her Birth-day.² After all these Inhumanities Physcon died in Peace, after he had reign’d nine and twenty Years from the Death of his Brother, and left three Sons living. He bequeathed the Government of the Kingdom to Cleopatra his Sister and Wife, with Power to choose for King which of his three Sons she should judge fittest to reign. She first chose Alexander, the youngest of them, hoping to find him the most obedient to her Desires: But the People of Alexandria obliged her to take the eldest, Ptolemy Lathurus,³ who reign’d along with her for ten Years.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages