|
Ptolemy III (Ptolemy Euergetes)[tol´umE yOOUr´jitEz] Pronunciation Key, d. 221 B.C., king of ancient Egypt (246–221 B.C.), of the Macedonian dynasty, son of Ptolemy II and the first ArsinoE. He plunged immediately into a war with Syria, where his sister, Berenice, was trying to secure the throne for her son. Berenice and her son seem to have been murdered before Ptolemy could arrive, and Seleucus II held the throne, though the Egyptian king won a brilliant if impermanent victory. Egyptian fleets controlled most of the coasts of Asia Minor and E Greece, and the kingdom was enlarged by Ptolemy's marriage to Berenice, daughter and heiress of the king of Cyrene.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2009, Columbia
University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
|
