Philammon (murderer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philammon ( Greek  Φιλάμμων ; † 202 BC ) was a murderer at the court of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt .

After in the summer of 204 BC BC King Ptolemy IV had died, this was due to the immaturity of his son Ptolemy V by his widow Arsinoë III. and the court ministers Sosibios and Agathocles kept secret from the public. Because the two ministers saw the chance to take over the reign themselves, they decided to remove Arsinoë. Philammon, who was apparently one of her followers, committed the murder on her behalf.

After the regent Agathocles in 203 BC. - Sosibios himself had died in the meantime - had officially announced the death of the royal couple, he installed Philammon as governor of the Cyrenaica . Since word of the queen's violent demise had spread at the same time, the regent wanted to know that the assassin was far from court. He was called by Polybius with the title Libyárches ( Λιβυάρ allerdingsης ), but his actual official title is likely to have been Strategos . His area of ​​office included all land areas west of the Nile , but not the cities there. Philammon made a mistake in 202 BC. BC returned to Alexandria three days before the popular uprising against Agathocles . The mob lynched him along with his wife and son.

literature

  • Willy Peremans, Edmond Van't Dack, L. Mooren, W. Swinnen: Prosopographia Ptolemaica . Volume 6: La Cour, les relations internationales et les possessions extérieures, la vie culturelle. N ° s 14479-17250. Publications universitaires de Louvain, Louvain 1968, no.15082.
  • Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period: 332-30 BC Chr.Beck , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 477, note 26.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Polybios : Historíai. 15, 25, 12 ( English translation ).
  2. ^ Hermann Bengtson : The Hellenistic World Culture. Steiner-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 3-515-05004-3 , p. 101.
  3. ↑ Polybios: Historíai. 15, 33, 11-12 ( English translation ).
personal data
SURNAME Philammon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Φιλάμμων
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Governor of the Ptolemies in Cyrenaica, murderer of Arsinoë III.
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 202 BC Chr.