Ptolemy IV Philopator (
Greek: '''''', reigned
221-205 BC), son of
Ptolemy III and
Berenice II of Egypt was the fourth Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Egypt. Under the reign of Ptolemy IV, the decline of the
Ptolemaic kingdom began.
His reign was inaugurated by the murder of his mother, and he was always under the dominion of favourites, male and female, who indulged his vices and conducted the government as they pleased. Self-interest led his ministers to make serious preparations to meet the attacks of
Antiochus III the Great on
Coele-Syria including
Judea, and the great Egyptian victory of
Raphia (
217), where Ptolemy himself was present, secured the northern borders of the kingdom for the remainder of his reign.
The arming of
Egyptians in this campaign had a disturbing effect upon the native population of Egypt, leading to the secession of Upper Egypt under pharaohs
Harmachis (also known as
Hugronaphor) and
Ankmachis, (also known as
Chaonnophris) thus creating a kingdom that occupied much of the country and lasted nearly twenty years.
Philopator was devoted to orgiastic forms of religion and literary dilettantism. He built a temple to
Homer and composed a tragedy, to which his favourite
Agathocles added a commentary. He married (about
220 BC) his sister
Arsinoë III, but continued to be ruled by his mistress
Agathoclea, sister of Agathocles.
Ptolemy is said to have built a giant ship known as the
tessarakonteres ("forty"), a huge type of galley. The forty of its name may refer to its number of banks of oars. The only recorded instance of this type of vessel, in fact, is this showpiece galley built for Ptolemy IV, described by
Callixenus of Rhodes, writing in the 3rd century BCE, and by
Athenaeus in the 2nd century AD. Plutarch also mentions that Ptolemy Philopater owned this immense vessel in his Life of Demetrios. The current theory is that Ptolemy's ship was an oversize catamaran galley, measuring 128 m 420 ft.
Ptolemy IV is a major protagonist of the
apocryphal 3 Maccabees, which describes purported events following the Battle of Raphia, in both
Jerusalem and
Alexandria. 
rss feed