PTOLEMY VIII.  Soter II. or Lathyrus, "Vetch."  The son of Ptolemy Physcon, whom he succeeded B.C. 117.  He reigned at first jointly with his mother Cleopatra Cocce who induced him to divorce his sister Cleopatra, and to marry his other sister Selene, hoping thereby to cause internal dissentions in Egypt, and to place her younger son Ptolemy Alexander on the throne.  Soon after this Ptolemy Lathyrus was compelled to admit Alexander to a share in the crown, and therefore made him king of Cyrpus.  Ptolemy Apion, his half brother, then seized the throne of Cyrene, and the kingdom of Egypt was broken up by a number of contending armies and fraternal enemies.  Lathyrus assisted Antiochus Cyzicenus to contest the dominion of Syria, instigated thereto by his wife Cleopatra, the divorced queen of Ptolemy himself, and his mother Cleopatra Cocce assisting Antiochus Gryphus, and placing her own army under the command of two Jews, Chelcias and Ananias, led to an outbreak in Alexandria, wherein Lathyrus was deposed, his second wife Selene and her two children taken from him, and himself driven into exile into Cyprus, B.C. 107.  Ptolemy Alexander was next recalled to govern Egypt, but soon quarrelling with his mother he put her to death.  For this crime another outbreak of the people drove Alexander into exile, and restored Ptolemy again, B.C. 89; he reigned but a short time afterwards, dying in the next year.  The famous temple of Contra Latopolis was erected in this reign.  He conquered the city of Thebes, which had revolted from his authority, and in so doing destroyed more of the ancient temples than had hiterhto been done by the Assyrians or the Persians.  Lathyrus was so named from a wart like a vetch seed upon his face.
    PTOLEMY XI.  Neus Dionysus or Auletes, "The Piper."  An illegitimate son of Ptolemy Lathyrus.  On the assassination of Ptolemy Alexander II., the people having no nearer of kin to the deceased sovereign raised him to the throne, but from the first day of his reign he gave himself up to pleasures and debauchery, valuing more his skill in flute playing (hence his surname) than in kingcraft, and therefore the Romans refused to acknowledge him, but at the same time left him alone.  The first twenty-four years of the reign of Auletes are not recorded in history; after some time however, Ptolemy his brother, who was king of Cyprus, was dispossessed of his kingdom by the Romans, whereupon the Egyptians urged Auletes to take up his cause.  Being however too weka to do so with any probability of success, he refused, and was driven by his subjects into exile, B.C. 58.  He next went to Rome for help, and the Senate restored him to the crown again in B.C. 56, five years after which he died, leaving the Roman influence paramount in Egypt.  In his reign were begun the great temples of Denderah and Esneh in Upper Egypt.
    PTOLEMY XII.  The eldest son of Ptolemy Auletes, whom he succeeded B.C. 51.  By the will of his father he married his elder sister Cleopatra VI., the most famous or infamous of her race, and began to rule under the direction of Pompey, the dictator.  The power of Pompey had however fallen when Auletes died, and so Photinus the Eunuch, the governor of Egypt, induced the young king to reign alone, and to dispossess his sister wife.  On this Cleopatra fled into Syria, and raising an army, came back to Egypt and regained her share of the throne, B.C. 49.  About this time, Pompey flying to Egypt for protection, was put to death by Ptolemy and his advisers, and the dictator Julius Caesar was welcomed to settle the kingdom between the brother and sister, whose armies were preparing for a decisive battle.  The Romans were unable to reconcile the competitors, and in the war which ensued, the fleet, the museums, and the library were destroyed.  Cleopatra in the mean time had won over Caesar to her side, and in another naval engagement, in which the fleet of Caesar was strengthened by the army of Mithridates, king of Pergamus, Ptolemy was drowned, and first Arsinöe, then Cleopatra, and finally Cleopatra and her infant son Caesarion, were declared sovereigns of Egypt, B.C. 47.
    PTOLEMY XIII.  A younger son of Ptolemy Auletes.  On the death of his brother Ptolemy, B.C. 47, he was declared joint sovereign of Egypt with his brother's wife Cleopatra, he being then eleven years old.  He was a mere instrument in the hands of Caesar and Cleopatra, whom he, as was the custom of the Ptolemaic kings, also married.  He visited Rome and was well received there, but on his reaching the age of fifteen, at which period he could have claimed to be of age, he was poisoned by his sister wife, B.C. 44.
    PTOLEMY.  A Greco-Egyptian priest of officer, the father of Eirene, the priestess of the goddess Arsinöe Philopater under Ptolemy V. (An Archaic Dictionary, Cooper, 1876).