PTOLEMY II (PHILADELPHUS) : b. Cos, 309 B.c.; d. 247. He was raised to the throne during the lifetime of his father Ptolemy I. He concluded a treaty with Rome after the defeat of Pyrrhus, and continued faithful to his allies during the Carthaginian War. There was a chronic but uneventful war carried on during his reign with Syria. Toward the close of his reign it was terminated by the marriage of Ptolemy's daughter Bernice to Antiochus III. Either by the treaty or in the course of the war Ptolemy acquired Ccele-Syria and Phoenicia. He was also, in general, on hostile terms with Macedonia. But the chief care of Ptolemy was directed to the internal administration of his kingdom and the encouragement of commerce. He founded Arsinoe (on the site of Suez) to protect the navigation of the Red Sea and Bere nice on the Red Sea Coast, and from the latter place formed a road to Coptos on the Nile, by which the commerce of India and Arabia con tinued for ages to pass to Alexandria. The chief glory of Philadelphus was his munificence as a patron of science and literature. He raised
the institutions founded by his father to the highest degree of splendor and spared no pains to fill the library of Alexandria with all the treasures of ancient literature. Among archi tectural works of merit erected during his reign were the lighthouse on the island of Pharos, the Alexandrian Museum, and the royal bury ing-place. He founded numerous cities and colonies not only in Egypt, hut in Syria and Cilicia. He is supposed to have been the patron of Manetho in his Greek rendering of Egyptian history, and there is a tradition that it was at his instance that the Seventy made their trans lation of the Old Testament. During his rein the dominion of Egypt extended into Ethiopia, Arabia and Libya and embraced the provinces of Phoenicia and Ccele-Syria, besides extensive tracts in Asia Minor and the islands of the Mediterranean.