Egypt under the Sates, Persians, and Ptolemies

THE CHARACTER OF PTOLEMY IV. 247
generally were furious at the murder of Arsinoe (b.c.
210), which either Sosibius or Agathocles, or both, had
been allowed to carry out by the king.
Ancient writers generally agree in denouncing the life
and conduct of Ptolemy IV., and they describe him as a
sot, a sensualist, and a debauchee, and Strabo goes so
far as to class him with Ptolemy VII. Eupator, and
Ptolemy XIII. Auletes (xvii. 1, § 11), whose evil lives
are notorious. On the other hand, the man who could
dedicate to Homer a temple wherein the poet was
worshipped as a god, and lead his phalanx into battle as
he did on the day of Eaphia, and appreciate the
Egyptian religion to such an extent as to cause the
"Judgment Scene" of the Booh of the Bead to be
sculptured on the wall of his temple at Der al-Medineh,
does not deserve wholly the evil reputation with which
he has been accredited. A thoroughly vicious king-
would not have spent money on the building of Greek
and Egyptian temples, still less would he have main-
tained the Alexandrian Library. A great many of the
reports of the king's wickedness seem to have been
due to the Jews of Alexandria. According to the
Third Book of Maccabees, as soon as the Jews of
Jerusalem heard of his victory at Eaphia they sent
messengers to offer him their congratulations ; after
this he visited Jerusalem and was greatly impressed
with the dignity and beauty of the temple, and offered
up sacrifices therein. He next expressed a wish to go
"into the Holy of Holies, and when the high priest