Dositheus (son of Drimylos)
Dositheos ( Greek Δωσίθεος ; 3rd century BC), son of Drimylos, was a civil servant of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt .
Dositheos was a native Jew ( τὸ γένος Ἰουδαίος ), who, however, as apostate turned away from his fatherly belief and placed himself in the service of King Ptolemy IV . He saved him on the eve of the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. The life when he slept in the royal tent and put an assassin to flight.
In addition to the Old Testament tradition, Dositheos is also known from six contemporary papyri . You can see from them that he was already in 240 BC. To King Ptolemy III. served as one of the two heads of the royal secretariat, which he held in 225/224 BC. Accompanied on a trip through Egypt. During the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Ptolemy III. (223/222 BC) Dositheos finally officiated as the priest of Alexander, the "brother and sister gods " and the "benefactor gods" , which represented the highest religious dignity in Hellenistic Egypt.
literature
- Victor A. Tcherikover, Alexander Fuks: Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum. (CPJud), Vol. I, 1957, No. 127a-e, pp. 230-236.
- WHM Liesker, AM Tromp: Two Ptolemaic papyri from the Viennese papyrus collection. In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy. Vol. 66, 1986, pp. 79-89.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Third Book of the Maccabees . Vol. 1, 3. Theodoto's failed assassination attempt on Ptolemy IV is also described in Polybius (5, 81).
- ↑ CPJud , Vol I, 127a-c.
- ↑ CPJud , Vol. I, 127d-e; P. Vindob. Size 40588. In: WHM Liesker, AM Tromp: Two Ptolemaic papyri from the Viennese papyrus collection. Pp. 82-86.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dositheos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Δωσίθεος |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | State servant of the Ptolemies, priest of Alexander |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 3rd century BC Chr. |