Silver Tetradrachm Ptolemy II Philadelphos 285-246 BC Start Price USD 475.00 Current Price USD 475.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, October 06, 2008 End Time Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Location Georgia See more about 'Silver Tetradrachm Ptolemy II Philadelphos 285-246 BC ' Description Ptolemaic Kingdom. Ptolemy II Philadelphos                    285-246 B.C. AR Tetradrachm (26 mm, 13.99 g)Obverse: Diademed bust of Ptolemy I right, wearing aegis Reverse: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt; Club surmounted by monogram of Tyre in left field (ΤYΡ), ΛΓ (Lambda Gamma= date= year 33 = 253-2 BC)  and monogram in right field (ΜΔ); monogram between eagle's legs (ΗΡ).Minted in Tyre in 253-2 B.C. Ref: Sear, Greek Coins, Vol. 2, pp. 734-735Condition: VF/EF, fine patina, very rare. (Provenance: Ex-Heritage Auction Galleries)Ptolemaic Egypt under Ptolemy IIGreek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος, 309 BC–246 BC), was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BC to 246 BC. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and his wife Berenice. He had a half-brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who became king of Macedonia in 281 BC and died in the Gallic invasion of 280-279 BC. ReignHe began his reign as co-regent with his father Ptolemy I from 288 BC–285 BC, and maintained a splendid court in Alexandria.Egypt was involved in several wars during his reign. Magas of Cyrene opened war on his half-brother (274 BC), and the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter, desiring Coele-Syria with Judea, attacked soon after in the First Syrian War. Two or three years of war followed. Egypt's victories solidified the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the eastern Mediterranean; under Ptolemy II,  the Ptolemaic sphere of power extended over the Cyclades to Samothrace and the harbours and coast towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.The victory won by Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedonia, over the Egyptian fleet at Cos (between 258 BC and 256 BC) did not long interrupt Ptolemy's command of the Aegean Sea. In a Second Syrian War with the Seleucid kingdom, under Antiochus II Theos (after 260 BC), Ptolemy sustained losses on the seaboard of Asia Minor and agreed to a peace by which Antiochus married his daughter Berenice (c. 250 BC).Ptolemy's first wife, Arsinoë I, daughter of Lysimachus, was the mother of his legitimate children. After her repudiation, he married his full-sister Arsinoë II, the widow of Lysimachus, by an Egyptian custom abhorrent to Greek morality but exercised because of political  and dynastic reasons.CourtThe material and literary splendour of the Alexandrian court was at its height under Ptolemy II. Pomp and splendor flourished. Ptolemy deified his parents and his sister-wife, after her death (270 BC), as Philadelphus. This surname was used in later generations to distinguish Ptolemy II himself, but properly it belongs to Arsinoë only, not to the king.Ptolemy staged a procession in Alexandria in honor of Dionysus led by 24 chariots drawn by elephants and a procession of lions, leopards, panthers, camels, antelopes, wild assses, ostriches, a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros. According to scholars, most of the animals were in pairs - as many eight pairs of ostriches - and although the ordinary chariots were likely led by a single elephant, others which carried a 7 foot tall golden statue may have been led by four.Callimachus, keeper of the library, Theocritus, and a host of lesser poets, glorified the Ptolemaic family. Ptolemy himself was eager to increase the library and to patronize scientific research. He had exotic animals of far off lands sent to Alexandria. Although an enthusiast for Hellenic culture, he also adopted Egyptian religious concepts, which helped to bolster his image as a sovereign.The tradition preserved  which connects the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek with his patronage is probably overdrawn. However, Walter Kaiser says, "There can be little doubt that the Law was translated in Philadelphus's time since Greek quotations from Genesis and Exodus appear in Greek literature before 200 B.C. The language of the Septuagint is more like Egyptian Greek than it is like Jerusalemite Greek, according to some." The famous Library of Alexandria was founded by Ptolemy I Soter and expanded by his son Ptolemy II.Built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in the style of Aristotle's Lyceum, adjacent to and in service of the museum (a Greek Temple or "House of Muses", where we get the term "museum"), the Library comprised a peripatos walk, gardens, a room for shared dining, a reading room, lecture halls and meeting rooms. However, the exact layout is not known. This model's influence may still be seen today in the layout of university campuses. The library itself is known to have had an acquisitions department (possibly built near the stacks, or for utility closer to the harbour), and a cataloguing department. The hall contained shelves for the collections of scrolls (as the books were at this time on papyrus scrolls), known as bibliothekai. Carved into the wall above the shelves, a famous inscription read: The place of the cure of the soul. The first known library of its kind to gather a serious collection of books from beyond its country's borders, the Library at Alexandria was charged with collecting all the world's knowledge. It did so through an aggressive and well-funded royal mandate involving trips to the book fairs of  Rhodes and Athens.The Lighthouse of Alexandria built by Ptolemy II was a tower built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria to serve as that port's landmark, and later its lighthouse, Pharos.Combine shipping policy within a three day period:First item-- full shipping and/or insurance.Second item--50% off.Third and subsequent articles-- free. Place a Bid!