Ptolemy

Family: Ptolemaic · Role: king of Egypt · First appears: Julius Caesar 35

At Alexandria, in winter, Ptolemy faced Julius Caesar as an enemy in a dangerous war, with Caesar seeing treacherous designs against his life. Caesar overcame him, placed Egypt in the hands of Ptolemy and his sister Cleopatra, and later extracted nearly six thousand talents from Ptolemy for himself and Pompey: “and squeezed out of Ptolemy alone near six thousand talents, in the name of himself and Pompey.”

In the account of Caligula, Ptolemy is identified as the son of Juba, the grandson of Mark Antony through Selene, and Caligula’s cousin. Caligula later rewarded Ptolemy, Macro, and Ennia with violent deaths, and suddenly put Ptolemy to death at a theatre after the splendour of his purple robe drew the spectators’ attention: “he suddenly put to death, for no other reason, but because he observed that upon entering the theatre, at a public exhibition, he attracted the eyes of all the spectators, by the splendour of his purple robe.”

Caligula is also recorded as sending a centurion’s order to depart for Ostia with a letter to Ptolemy in Mauritania. In former times, Rabirius Posthumus followed Ptolemy to Alexandria to secure payment of a debt and was prosecuted for treason.