The words Ptolemy and Cleopatra were in the Greek text, and it was not hard to find what were the combinations of characters that stood for these words in the Egyptian.

How concerned the Romans were to keep down Macedonia and its natural ally, the king of Syria, and how closely they associated themselves with the Egyptian policy directed to that object, is shown by the remarkable offer which after the end of the war with Carthage they made to king Ptolemy III.

2. The definite testimony of Hieronymus, who places the betrothal of the Syrian princess Cleopatra with Ptolemy Epiphanes in 556, taken in connection with the hints in Liv. xxxiii.

Were it not for the silence of Philo and Josephus, which I am unable to explain if the Wisdom of Solomon was written so long before Christ, I might perhaps incline to believe it composed shortly after, if not during, the persecution of the Jews in Egypt under Ptolemy Philopator.

From thence they came to the cape anciently called Prasum, which was considered by Ptolemy as the extremity of the southern regions, all beyond being unknown to the ancients.

In 4:13-16 and 10:16-17 there are apparent references to the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, who came to the throne of Egypt at the age of five, and whose court was famous for its dissoluteness and profligacy.

And he made war against Ptolemy, king of Egypt.

3:38-41] Now Lysias chose Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor, and Gorgias, influential men among the king's Friends, and with them sent forty thousand footmen and seven thousand horsemen to go into the land of Judah to destroy it, as the king had ordered.

Ptolemy Philometor, of Egypt, finally turned against Alexander Balas; and in 145 B.C. this strange adventurer was slain near Antioch by his own followers.

And when Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptolemy and his men rose up and took their weapons, and rushing in upon Simon in the banquet hall, they slew him and his two sons, and some of his servants.

Then Ptolemy wrote what had happened, and asked the king to send forces to aid him, and promised to hand over to him their country and the cities.

For when Ptolemy was distressed, he brought Hyrcanus's mother and his brothers and set them upon the wall and beat them with rods in the sight of all and threatened that unless Hyrcanus went away immediately, he would throw them down headlong.

In this year, therefore, Ptolemy was freed from being besieged.

His murderer was his son-in-law, a certain Ptolemy, who was governor of the Jordan Valley, the resources of which had been developed under Simon.

Instead of falling a victim to Ptolemy's plot, John at once went to Jerusalem where he was made the high priest and governor by the people.

Ptolemy, who was besieged in the castle of Dok, saved his miserable life only by shameless perfidy.

So Ptolemy complied with his proposals and gave them a place about twenty miles distant from Memphis.

Here, as the legitimate head of the Jewish high-priesthood, he was favorably received by Ptolemy and granted territory in the Nile Delta to the north of Memphis in which to rear a temple to Jehovah.

Ptolemy's object was to please his Jewish subjects and to attract others to the land of the Nile.

The tradition preserved by Josephus that the translation was made in seventy-two days by seventy-two scholars, sent from Jerusalem by Eleazar the high priest at the request of Ptolemy, is clearly unhistorical.

It is probable that the one historical fact underlying the tradition is that the work of translation was begun in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who may have encouraged his Jewish subjects in their undertaking.

Aristobulus, the teacher of Ptolemy Philometor, wrote an "Explanation of the Mosaic Laws," in which he anticipated, in many ways, the modern interpretation of the early traditions found in the opening books of the Old Testament.

War, I, 4:2] Now there was a battle between him and Ptolemy, who was called Lathyrus, who had taken the city of Asochis.

He indeed slew many of his enemies, but the victory rather inclined to Ptolemy.

But when this Ptolemy was pursued by his mother, Cleopatra, and retired into Egypt, Alexander besieged and took Gadara and Amathus, which was the strongest of all the fortresses that were beyond the Jordan, and the most valued of all the possessions of Theodorus, the son of Zeno, were therein.