s friends when he asked
any number of them to dine with him in return, saying that it was the
part of a king to enrich others rather than to be rich himself. Before
he took the title of king, he styled himself, and was styled by friendly
states, by the simple name of Ptolemy the Macedonian; and during the
whole of his reign he was as far from being overbearing in his behaviour
as from being kinglike in his dress and household. Once when he wished
to laugh at a boasting antiquary, he asked him, what he knew could not
be answered, who was the father of Peleus; and the other let his wit so
far get the better of his prudence as in return to ask the king, who had
perhaps never heard the name of his own grandfather, if he knew who was
the father of Lagus. But Ptolemy took no further notice of this than to
remark that if a king cannot bear rude answers he ought not to ask rude
questions.

An answer which Ptolemy once made to a soothsayer might almost be taken
as the proverb which had guided him through life. When his soldiers met
with an anchor in one of their marches, and were disheartened on being
told by the soothsayer that it was a proof that they ought to stop where
they then were, the king restored their courage by remarking, that an
anchor was an omen of safety, not of delay.

Ptolemy's first children were by Thais, the noted courtesan, but they
were not thought legitimate. Leontiscus, the eldest, we afterwards hear
of fighting bravely against Demetrius; of the second, named Lagus after
his grandfather, we hear nothing.

He then married Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, by whom he had
several children. The eldest son, Ptolemy, was named Ceraunus, _the
Thunderer_, and was banished by his father from Alexandria. In his
distress he fled to Seleucus, by whom he was kindly received; but after
the death of Ptolemy Soter he basely plotted against Seleucus and
put him to death. He then defeated in battle Antigonus, the son of
Demetrius, and got possession of Macedonia for a short time. He married
his half-sister Arsinoe, and put her children to death; and was soon
afterwards put to death himself by the Gauls, who were either fighting
against him or were mercenaries in his own army. Another son of Ptolemy
and Eurydice was put to death by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for plotting
against his throne, to which, as the elder brother, he might have
thought himself the best entitled. Their daughter Lysander married
Agathocles, the son