Description of Greece

​The one called Philometor is the eighth descendant of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, but he obtained this surname by way of mockery. For we know of no other of the kings who was hated to such a degree by his mother, who, though he was the eldest of her children, would not allow him to be called to the rule, and previously had managed to have him sent to Cyprus by his father. For Cleopatra’s hostility towards her son, they tell other causes and also that she hoped that Alexander, the younger of her children, would be more obedient. And for this reason she tried to persuade the Egyptians to choose Alexander as king.

​But since the multitude opposed her, she sent Alexander for a second time to Cyprus, nominally as general, but in reality wishing to be more formidable to Ptolemy through him; and finally, having wounded those of the eunuchs whom she considered most loyal, she brought them before the multitude, pretending that she herself had been plotted against by Ptolemy, and that the eunuchs had suffered such things at his hands. The Alexandrians rushed as though to kill Ptolemy, but since he forestalled them by embarking on a ship, they made Alexander, who came from Cyprus, their king.

​But the justice for the exile of Ptolemy overtook Cleopatra, who died at the hands of Alexander, whom she herself had managed to make king of the Egyptians. When the deed was discovered, and Alexander fled through fear of the citizens, Ptolemy thus returned and held Egypt for the second time; and he made war on the rebellious Thebans, and having subdued them in the third year after the revolt, he afflicted them so that not even a memorial was left to the Thebans of their former prosperity, which had advanced to such a degree as to surpass in wealth the richest of the Greeks, both the sanctuary at Delphi and the Orchomenians. Now, not long after these events, his destined fate overtook Ptolemy; and the Athenians, having received many benefits from him which are not worth describing, set up bronze statues of both him and Berenice, who was the only legitimate one of his children.

​After the Egyptians, Philip and Alexander the son of Philip are placed; for these, their deeds were somehow too great to be a mere digression of another narrative. Now, for those from Egypt, the gifts were made with true honor and as to benefactors, but for Philip and Alexander, it was rather out of flattery of the multitude towards them, since they set up Lysimachus also, not so much out of goodwill as deeming him useful for the present circumstances.

​This Lysimachus was by race a Macedonian and a bodyguard of Alexander, whom Alexander once, in a fit of anger, shut up in a room together with a lion, but found him victorious over the beast; therefore, he continued to admire him in other respects and held him in honor equally with the noblest of the Macedonians. After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus ruled over those of the Thracians neighboring the Macedonians, over whom Alexander and even earlier Philip used to rule; and these would be no large part of the Thracian land. Of all mankind, there are none more numerous than the Thracians, except the Celts, if one compares them with any other single nation, and for this reason no one before the Romans has yet subdued Thracians as a whole; but to the Romans all Thrace is subject, and of the Celts, whatever part they consider useless because of the excessive cold and the poverty of the soil, they have voluntarily overlooked, but they hold the parts of them that are worth acquiring.