Ptolemy II Philadelphus
309 BCE–246 BCE · Ptolemaic-Roman · Alexandria
Ptolemy II Philadelphus was the Ptolemaic king under whom Alexandria reached its cultural zenith. The Library and Museum flourished as the foremost centre of Greek scholarship in the world, and the great Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders, was completed in his reign. By long tradition, preserved in the partly-legendary Letter of Aristeas, it was under Ptolemy II that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Torah, was made for the Library; the Letter is itself a partly legendary source, and the actual circumstances of the translation are debated. He married his sister Arsinoe II, the source of his epithet 'Philadelphus' ('Sibling-loving'). His reign is the high point of Ptolemaic Alexandria.
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Alexandria
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His royal capital, where the Library, Museum, and Pharos flourished.
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Ptolemy II Philadelphus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
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Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Ptolemy II Philadelphus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
Scientists
Mesopotamian world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Rulers world
- Ashoka the Great· 304 BCE–232 BCE
- Pyrrhus of Epirus· 319 BCE–272 BCE
- Bindusara· –273 BCE
- Demetrius I Poliorcetes· 337 BCE–283 BCE
- Seleucus I Nicator· 358 BCE–281 BCE
- Lysimachus· 360 BCE–281 BCE
- Qin Shi Huang· 259 BCE–210 BCE
- Attalus I of Pergamon· 269 BCE–197 BCE
- Emperor Gaozu of Han (Liu Bang)· 256 BCE–195 BCE
- Chandragupta Maurya· –297 BCE
- Hannibal Barca· 247 BCE–183 BCE
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