[11] Ptolemaeus, surnamed Soter, the Preserver, but more commonly known as the Son of Lagus, a Macedonian of low birth. Ptolemy’s mother, Arsinoe, had been a concubine of Philip of Macedon, for which reason it was generally believed that Ptolemy was the offspring of that king. Ptolemy was one of the earliest friends of Alexander before his accession to the throne, and accompanied him throughout his campaigns, being one of his most skilful generals and most intimate friends. On the division of the empire after Alexander’s death, Ptolemy obtained the kingdom of Egypt, which he transmitted to his descendants. After a distinguished reign of thirty-eight years, he abdicated the throne to his youngest son, Ptolemy Philadelphus. He survived this event two years, and died B.C. 283. He was a liberal patron of literature and the arts, and wrote a history of the wars of Alexander, which is one of the chief authorities on which Arrian composed his narrative. For his beneficence, see Aelian (_Varia Historia_, xiii. 12). Not only Arrian, but Plutarch and Strabo, derived much information from Ptolemy’s work, which is highly commended by Athenæus. [12] Aristobulus of Potidaea, a town in Macedonia, which was afterwards called Cassandrea, served under Alexander, and wrote a history of his wars, which, like that of Ptolemy, was sometimes more panegyrical than the facts warranted. Neither of these histories has survived, but they served Arrian as the groundwork for the composition of his own narrative. Lucian in his treatise, _Quomodo historia sit conscribenda_, ch. 12, accuses Aristobulus of inventing marvellous tales of Alexander’s valour for the sake of flattery. Plutarch based his _Life of Alexander_ chiefly on the work of this writer. We learn from Lucian (_Macrobioi_, c. 22), that Aristobulus wrote his history at the advanced age of eighty-four. He was employed by Alexander to superintend the restoration of Cyrus’s tomb (_Arrian_, vi. 30). [13] ἀναλέγομαι in the sense of reading through = ἀναγιγνώσκειν, is found only in the later writers, Arrian, Plutarch, Dion, Callimachus, etc. [14] B.C. 336. He was murdered by a young noble named Pausanias, who stabbed him at the festival which he was holding to celebrate the marriage of his daughter with Alexander, king of Epirus. It was suspected that both Olympias and her son Alexander were implicated in the plot. At the time of his assassination Philip was just about to start on an expedition against Persia, which his son afterwards so successfully carried out. See Plutarch (_Alex._, 10); _Diod._, xix. 93, 94; Aristotle (_Polit._, v. 8, 10). [15] It was the custom of the Athenians to name the years from the president of the college of nine archons at Athens, who were elected annually. The Attic writers adopted this method of determining dates. See Smith’s _Dictionary of Antiquities_.