Ptolemy Keraunus

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Ptolemaios Keraunos ( Greek  Πτολεμαῖος Κεραυνός ["lightning"]; * around 320 BC; † February 279 BC ) was king of Macedonia from 281 to 279 BC. He was the eldest son of the Egyptian king Ptolemy I and Eurydice .

Life

Originally intended as heir to the throne of Ptolemy I, he was at the instigation of his third wife Berenike I , who Ptolemy I in 317 BC. Had married in favor of their own son Ptolemy, who 285 BC. Was raised to co-regent and 282 BC. When Ptolemy II came to rule over Egypt, it was ousted. No later than 285 BC. BC Ptolemy Keraunos then left the Egyptian court with his mother Eurydice, who was thus finally cast out. He presumably fled first to the court of Lysimachus , who ruled over Thrace and Macedonia, from there probably after the murder of his brother-in-law Agathocles , the son of Lysimachus, 283/82 BC. To Seleucus I.

Between the two Diadochs Lysimachos and Seleukos there was a dispute over Asia Minor , which Ptolemy Keraunos cleverly exploited for his own purposes. First Seleukos won the battle of Kurupedion in 281 BC. About Lysimachus, who fell in battle. When Seleucus tried to gain a foothold in Thrace and Macedonia, he was defeated by Ptolemy Keraunos in August / September 281 BC. Murdered BC. Ptolemy Keraunos was proclaimed immediately afterwards in the Thracian capital Lysimacheia as the successor of Lysimachos as king of Thrace and Macedonia. In a sea ​​battle he defeated the fleet of Antigonus II Gonatas , son of Demetrios I Poliorketes , and was able to bring Macedonia under his control after making peace with Seleucus' son and successor Antiochus I and the Epirotic ruler Pyrrhos I.

Ptolemy Keraunos married Lysimachos' widow, his own half-sister Arsinoë II , the eldest daughter of his stepmother Berenike. He had two of Arsinoë's three sons from his first marriage killed; the eldest, also called Ptolemy, managed to escape. Arsinoë himself then fled to Egypt and married Ptolemy II.

After a short reign, Ptolemaios Keraunos became involved in armed conflicts with invading Celts under Bolgius . The Macedonian king joined the Celts in February 279 BC. After he had rejected an offer of help from the Dardans , countered with too weak forces; his reinforcement may have been deliberately delayed to harm him. Ptolemy Keraunos was captured in battle, beheaded and his army destroyed.

Short-term successors on the Macedonian throne were Keraunos' brother Meleager and then Antipater II , a nephew of Cassander . Only the strategist Sosthenes , who renounced the title of king, was able to fight back the Celts.

literature

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predecessor Office successor
Lysimachus King of Macedonia
281–279 BC Chr. 		Meleager
Lysimachus King of Thrace
281-279 BC Chr. 		Macedonian rule collapses and several Thracian and Celtic minor kingdoms are established
personal data
SURNAME Ptolemy Keraunus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Macedonia
DATE OF BIRTH around 320 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH February 279 BC Chr.