Ptolemy

Also known as: King Ptolemy · Family: Otho's faction · Role: astrologer and freedman · First appears: Histories I.21-25

Life events

• Ptolemy persuaded Otho that he would ascend the throne, intensifying Otho’s ambition.(Histories I.21-25)
  • With: Otho
  • “He now based his vague conjectures on the computations of Galba's age and Otho's youth, and persuaded him that he would ascend the throne. But, though the man had no real skill, Otho accepted the prophecy as if it was the finger of fate.”
• Ptolemy brought Timotheus from Eleusis to oversee religious ceremonies.(Histories IV.82-85 · 📍 Eleusis)
  • With: Timotheus
  • “he consulted an Athenian named Timotheus, a member of the Eumolpid clan, whom he had brought over from Eleusis to be overseer of religious ceremonies”
• Ptolemy ordered representatives to seek Serapis's image from Scydrothemis at Sinope.(Histories IV.82-85 · 📍 Sinope)
  • With: Scydrothemis
  • “He at once gave orders that representatives should be sent with presents to King Scydrothemis, who was then reigning at Sinope”
• Serapis's image arrived at Alexandria, where a temple was built for it.(Histories IV.82-85 · 📍 Alexandria)
  • “The god himself, it says, embarked unaided on one of the ships that lay beached on the shore, and by a miracle accomplished the long sea-journey and landed at Alexandria within three days. A temple worthy of so important a city was then built in the quarter called Rhacotis”

Histories I.21-25

• employer: Otho (Ptolemy is explicitly called Otho's master-servant subordinate.) “Nor was Ptolemy himself slow to incite his master to crime, to which it is only a short step from such ambitions.”
• enemies with Galba (Ptolemy is associated with preparing treason against Galba.) “He had long been courting the goodwill of the soldiers either in the hope of being adopted by Galba or to prepare the way for treason.”

Histories IV.82-85

• servant: Timotheus (Ptolemy brought Timotheus over to serve as overseer of religious ceremonies.) “As they had but little knowledge of Pontus or of foreign cults, he consulted an Athenian named Timotheus, a member of the Eumolpid clan, whom he had brought over from Eleusis to be overseer of religious ceremonies, and asked him what worship and what god could possibly be meant.”
• with Scydrothemis (Ptolemy sent representatives with a petition and presents to Scydrothemis.) “He at once gave orders that representatives should be sent with presents to King Scydrothemis, who was then reigning at Sinope, and on their departure he instructed them to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.”

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Extracted from the original text of Tacitus — The Histories & The Annals (Books I-VI) & Agricola. Made with Rho MD.