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Document Details : Title: The Hellenistic Rulers and their Poets Subtitle: Silencing Dangerous Critics? Author(s): WEBER, G. Journal: Ancient Society Volume: 29 Date: 1998-1999 Pages: 147-174 DOI: 10.2143/AS.29.0.630055 Abstract : The beginning of the reign of Ptolemy VII Euergetes II in the year 145 BC following the death of his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor was described in a very negative way by ancient authors. According to Athenaeus Ptolemy who ruled over Egypt... received from the Alexandrians appropriately the name of Malefactor. For he murdered many of the Alexandrians; not a few he sent into exile, and filled the islands and towns with men who had grown up with his brother — philologians, philosophers, mathematicians, musicians, painters, athletic trainers, physicians, and many other men of skill in their profession. It is true that anecdotal tradition, as we find it here, is mostly of tendentious origin, «but the course of the events suggests that the gossip-mongers had more than enough genuine material to work with». |
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