1.9.1 The one called Philometor is eighth in descent from Ptolemy son of Lagos, and his surname was given him in sarcastic mockery [khleuasmos], for we know of none of the kings who was so hated by his mother. Although he was the eldest of her children she would not allow him to be called to the throne, but prevailed on his father before the call came to send him to Cyprus. Among the reasons assigned for Kleopatra’s enmity towards her son is her expectation that Alexander the younger of her sons would prove more subservient, and this consideration induced her to urge the Egyptians to choose Alexander as king.

1.9.2 When the people [plēthos] offered opposition, she dispatched Alexander for the second time to Cyprus, ostensibly as general, but really because she wished by this means to make Ptolemy more afraid of her. Finally she covered with wounds those eunuchs she thought were best disposed [toward her, and thus least likely to object], and she presented them to the people [plēthos], pretending that she was the victim of Ptolemy’s machinations, and that he had treated the eunuchs in such a fashion. The people of Alexandria rushed to kill Ptolemy, and when he escaped on board a ship, made Alexander, who returned from Cyprus, their king.

1.9.3 Retribution for the exile of Ptolemy came upon Kleopatra, for she was put to death by Alexander, whom she herself had made to be king of the Egyptians. When the deed was discovered, and Alexander fled in fear of the citizens, Ptolemy returned and for the second time assumed control of Egypt. He made war against the Thebans, who had revolted, reduced them two years after the revolt, and treated them so cruelly that they were left not even a memorializing [hupomnēma] of their former prosperity, which had so grown that they once surpassed in wealth the richest of the Greeks [Hellēnes], even the sanctuary [hieron] of Delphi and the people of Orkhomenos. Shortly after this Ptolemy met with his appointed fate [moira], and the Athenians, who had been benefited by him in many ways, which I need not stop to relate, set up a bronze [statue] of him and of Berenikē, his only legitimate child.

1.9.4 Next in line after the Egyptians are set up the statues of Philip and of his son Alexander. The events of their lives were too important to make digressive remarks [parerga] in what is another story. In the case of the Egyptians, they had their tokens of gratitude bestowed upon them because the honor [tīmē] they received was genuine and because they were benefactors, but it was rather the sycophancy [kolakeiā] of the people [plēthos] that resulted in tokens of gratitude to Philip and Alexander, since they set up a [statue of] Lysimakhos also not so much out of goodwill [eunoiā] as because they thought it would serve their immediate ends.

1.9.5 This Lysimakhos was a Macedonian by birth and one of Alexander’s bodyguards [doruphoroi], whom Alexander once in anger shut up in a chamber with a lion, and afterwards found that he had overpowered the beast. Henceforth he always treated him with respect, and honored him as much as the noblest Macedonians. After the death of Alexander, Lysimakhos ruled those of the Thracians, who are neighbors of the Macedonians, who had been under the sway of Alexander and before him of Philip. These would comprise but a small part of Thrace. If populations be compared with populations no people except the Celts are more numerous than the Thracians taken all together, and for this reason no one before the Romans reduced the whole Thracian population. But the Romans have subdued all Thrace, and they also hold such Celtic territory as is worth possessing, but they have intentionally overlooked the parts that they consider useless through excessive cold or barrenness.

1.9.6 Then Lysimakhos made war against his neighbors, first the Odrysai, secondly the Getai and their king Dromikhaites. Engaging with men not unversed in warfare and far his superiors in number, he himself escaped from a position of extreme danger, but his son Agathokles, who was serving with him then for the first time, was taken prisoner by the Getai. Lysimakhos met with other reverses afterwards, and attaching great importance to the capture of his son made peace with Dromikhaites, yielding to the king of the Getai the parts of his empire beyond the Istros, and, chiefly under compulsion, giving him his daughter in marriage. Others say that not Agathokles but Lysimakhos himself was taken prisoner, regaining his liberty when Agathokles made a treaty with the king of the Getai on his behalf. On his return he married to Agathokles Lysandra, the daughter of Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and of Eurydikē.

1.9.7 He also crossed with a fleet to Asia (Minor) and helped to overthrow the empire [arkhē] of Antigonos.^* And he founded the modern city of Ephesos, extending as far as the coast, bringing to it as settlers people of Lebedos and Kolophon, after destroying their cities, so that the iambic poet Phoenix composed-a-lament [thrēneîn] for the capture of Kolophon. Mermesianax, the one who wrote [graphein] elegies [elegeia], was, I think, no longer living, otherwise he too would certainly have been moved by the taking of Kolophon to make-a-lament [oduresthai]. Lysimakhos also went to war with Pyrrhos-son-of-Aiakidēs. Waiting for his departure from Epeiros—Pyrrhos was of a very roving disposition—he ravaged Epeiros until he reached the royal tombs [thēkai].

1.9.8 The next parts of the story are not credible [pista] to me, but Hieronymos of Kardia writes [graphein] that he [= Lysimachus] destroyed the tombs [thēkai] and cast out the bones of the corpses. But this Hieronymos has a reputation generally of being biased against all the kings [basileîs] except for Antigonos, and of being unfairly partial towards him. As to the treatment of the tombs [taphoi] of the people of Epeiros, it is perfectly plain that it was malice that made him record that a Macedonian destroyed the tombs [thēkai] of the dead. Besides, Lysimakhos was surely aware that they were the ancestors not of Pyrrhos only but also of Alexander. In fact, Alexander was a native of Epeiros and descended from the lineage of the Aiakidai on his mother’s side, and the subsequent alliance between Pyrrhos and Lysimakhos proves that even as enemies they were not irreconcilable. Possibly Hieronymos had grievances against Lysimakhos, especially for his destroying the city of the people of Kardia and founding Lysimakheia in its stead on the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonesus.