Category:Ptolemy IV Philopator (subject)

Ptolemy IV Philopator was King of Egypt, from 221 BCE to 205 BCE.

Overview

Ptolemy IV Philopator was the son and successor of Ptolemy III Euergetes. He was the fourth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Under his reign, the decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom began. Until he lived, however, he was able to repel the attacks of the Sleucid King Antiochus III the Great, whom he defeated in the battle of Raphia in 217 BCE.

Ptolemy IV Philopator and the Jews

As king of Egypt, Ptolemy IV ruled over the land of Israel.

According to 3 Maccabees, Ptolemy IV visited Jerusalem in the aftermath of the battle of Raphia and then in Alexandria was protagonist of a persecution against the local Jewish population. His order of extermination could not be carried out only because of divine intervention.

Ptolemy IV Philopator in Second Temple sources

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

Ant XII 3:3 -- Now it happened that in the reign of Antiochus the Great, who ruled over all Asia, that the Jews, as well as the inhabitants of Celesyria, suffered greatly, and their land was sorely harassed; for while he was at war with Ptolemy [IV] Philopater, and with his son, who was called Epiphanes, it fell out that these nations were equally sufferers, both when he was beaten, and when he beat the others: so that they were very like to a ship in a storm, which is tossed by the waves on both sides; and just thus were they in their situation in the middle between Antiochus's prosperity and its change to adversity.

3 Maccabees

Ptolemy IV Philopator in Scholarship

Ptolemy IV Philopator in Fiction

Related categories

External links

• Wikipedia