#Ptolemy

[lejay-the-impossible]

The memory of Ptolemy

[pompomnium]

Ptolemy&Nat＋Bart Ptolemy and Nat give me the impression of the sun and the moon, warm and cold colors. The colors of their skin and costumes also contrast with each other. They are polar opposites. But they are both stubborn and make the same choice in the end. They seem to be opposites, but they are surprisingly similar. I like this contrast between them.

[nemfrog]

Geocentric advocacy. Astronomy : a popular handbook. c. 1913.

Internet Archive

[winter-wise]

"It's been 2,129 years since Ptolemy died. He was fourteen. Eight world empires have risen up and fallen away since that day, and I still carry his face. Who do you think is the lucky one?"

biting tearing rending climbing up the wall

[porksoda-07]

[nero-draco]

[narinick]

The Hanged Man

Ptolemy gave me a small salute, then his head fell back gently against the wall… All light around me vanished, my consciousness departed; the Other Place pulled me away. Furiously, against my will, I accepted Ptolemy's last gift.

[mapsontheweb]

The world according to Herodotus, Erathosthenes, and Ptolemy; work by Eckart Olshausen

[jeannereames]

Forgive me if this is a very elementary question (inspired after watching your TikToks!!) but… I’ve always been curious: what exactly was the role of a secretary in the Macedonian court such that Eumenes could wield so much power and influence, especially during the Successor Wars? Like, to the point that the Chilliarch, the second-in-command to the king himself, would have beef with him? I guess when I think of a secretary, I envision the more stereotypical modern version of them, which is like an executive assistant, or the front desk receptionist, or a customer service agent, which obviously seems to be anachronistic. But I’m just struggling to comprehend what would have made Eumenes, or the role he occupied, such a controversial figure.

First, let me point to an important book by my colleague, Ed(ward M.) Anson, Eumenes of Cardia: a Greek among Macedonians (2nd ed., 2015). It’s a quite excellent discussion of Eumenes’s career, and was actually Ed’s dissertation topic. I reckon, like me, he waited a long while before turning the dissertation into a monograph (even the 1st edition). Alas, it’s expensive. Even I don’t own a copy, as I have access to the university library’s. But I do recommend that folks interested request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Even smaller public libraries offer that service, although you might have to pay a (relatively) small shipping fee.

So, Eumenes is an interesting character in many ways. As you suggest, “secretary” gives the wrong impression. The word in Greek is grammateus, and it can mean any sort of scribe, clerk, records keeper…or the official in charge of the whole royal office: official correspondence, what letters the king actually saw, the keeping of the Royal Journal and other state records, etc., etc. A hugely influential position, his might be closer to what we’d call, in the US, the Chief of Staff.

In my opinion, that was the heart of Eumenes’s dislike of Hephaistion. I said it in my dissertation and still think it’s true. When Hephaistion was made Chiliarch, that put him above Eumenes in administration around Alexander. The Chief of Staff got demoted…and didn’t like it. It’s from Susa onward that the two men seem to clash—at least twice that we know about. (I differ with Ed on this; he thinks it was about personalities while I think it was more political- and status- driven.)

That Eumenes was loyal to Alexander—and the Argead family—isn’t in question. But it wasn’t just Hephaistion he had trouble with. We know he also didn’t like Antipatros—one reason he sided with Perdikkas, even when (his friend) Krateros joined Antipatros. He also had a long-standing family beef with Hekataios of Kardia, and later hated Kassandros (as the son of Antipatros). But he seems to have got on with Olympias and Kleopatra—who he tried to get Perdikkas to marry. Perdikkas took his advice and divorced Antipatros’s daughter Nikaia, which eventually led to his downfall. One can’t escape the sense that Eumenes was touchy. Then again, as I’ve said before, they all were. And he had to put up with being constantly looked down on both as a “mere secretary” and as a Greek among Macedonians. He advanced on Alexander’s favor…which probably made others jealous of him. In fact, I think that’s one reason he took Hephaistion’s promotion hard. He’d worked hard for Chief of Staff, and didn’t like Hephaistion butting in. And if Hephaistion was also of Greek descent (as I’ve argued), both may have had a sense that there was room only for one. Or at least Eumenes may have thought so.

Men in his position weren’t normally entrusted with military commands, but he proved to be surprisingly good and, according to Ed, probably had more army assignments during Alexander’s lifetime than he’s credited with. (He was allied with Ptolemy’s enemy, Perdikkas, remember and Ptolemy was Arrian’s chief military source.) When Perdikkas was elevated to Hephaistion’s position, Eumenes took Perdikkas’s old command, and later, was himself Chilliarch. The infantry seems to have liked/trusted him, and later, he was quite successful at securing Cappadocia. In fact, during the early Diadochi wars, it was his stratagem that defeated Krateros’ army and got him killed (perhaps to his own regret, although I think Plutarch exaggerated that account). He also fought—one-on-one—against Neoptolemos … another of Alexander’s officers he couldn’t stand. And beat him. Neoptolemos was a demonstrated military commander.

So he seems to have defied the usual expectation of what a grammateus could do—and become. He was the highest ranking Greek in Alexander’s army, the only one to really rub shoulders with the Macedonian inner circle.

EDIT: I realized I forgot Nearchos. So Eumenes AND Nearchos were the two top-ranked Greeks at Alexander's court at his death. But if anything, Eumenes had edged Nearchos in place.

[yukisetsura]

Ptolemaeus

[tchai-castor]

One of my friends is a big fan of Lysimachus, so I drew the Diadochi with Alexander The Great. He posted it on reddit already atually, there were some comments on it, especially why Craterus is so short. Well, that's because I completely misjudged the height when I drew him. At a certain point I was done drawing all of them and I even already had base colors etc. and I noticed that Craterus was just floating around, he wasn't even touching the ground. So instead of elongating him with the select tool, I decided to just draw him a sort of stool, so it wouldn't be as obvious. So no he wasn't short in real life, I just miscalculated.

I actually drew this as a "strike a pose" concept, but someone said they look like a boyband and I actually like that better: Alexander and the Diodochs, performing on Queen levels is now by far one of my favorite things to think about.

[lejay-the-impossible]

My MOST RANDOM Bartimaeus theory that, if true, makes me respect Stroud's genius even more. So excuse me, but I need to get this out of my system.

Magicians hide their real names because if the spirit knows it, they will be able to repel all attacks of their master and thus remain safe from punishment even under bonds. Consequently, they could easily blurt out the magician's name to someone else or use it themselves to do away with their master. Therefore, magicians have to keep their true names secret, because otherwise they are literally at the mercy of their servants.

But then it dawned on me that the names of spirits are no less sacred, and the only reason why they are so cruelly exploited is because magicians KNOW their names. Without knowing the name of the spirit, you cannot summon it, but their names are in every book, for everyone to see. Spirits are unable to hide their names from magicians, and therefore are forced to endure their slavery.

And this is where it gets interesting. Because Ptolemy almost never called Bartimaeus by his true name. He came up with another name for him, affectionately calling him “Rekhyt” (which, if I remember right, seems to be translated from Egyptian as lapwing. This bird in Egypt was a symbol of slavery... And that’s partly why I’m so interested in rereading the third book, to find confirmation of this and reflect on why Ptolemy would call his best friend "Slave"). And I used to think that this was just a nickname that Ptolemy came up with for Bart as a friend's gesture, and called him that way to demonstrate his closeness and sincerity (which is most likely also true).

But now I think that it was also an attempt to show that he RESPECTS him and will NOT call him by his true name in front of everyone, thanks to which the spirits are so miserably exploited. I think this little detail adds a whole new level to their relationship and if Stroud thought of that... Well, thanks for shattering my heart once again, Mr British book man

[pompomnium]

I drew over 50 pages of a manga like this for a fan event in Japan. I can't post it on Tumblr due to capacity, but I will eventually put it on pixiv and other places(maybe).

“Were Ptolemy and Nathaniel similar?” That was the theme of manga.

I really love the character Nathaniel. He is not an obvious good guy like Ptolemy, nor does he have a strong sense of justice like Kitty (strictly speaking, I don't think Kitty has a strong sense of justice. She just hates lying to herself a lot. Her principle of action is always for her own satisfaction, not for others. But that's the beauty of Kitty. Of course). Nathaniel is a boy who was taught from an early age to hate spirits and learned that love and justice are useless when he lost Mrs. Underwood. But in the end he opened his heart to Kitty and overcame his hatred to love Bartimaeus. After all, he was also a boy who could throw himself away for the sake of others.

The most important thing for a human being is not to not make mistakes. It is to realize one's mistakes and try to correct them. Nathaniel was a boy who could do that; at PG he realized his mistake and regretted it, even though he was still a teenage boy. It is often not easy for even adults to admit their mistakes in life. So I really love and respect that part of Nathaniel. I also wonder what kind of person he would have been if he had grown up in a different environment. Well, but this piece is interesting because Nathaniel is such a twisted character. Haha. Well, I know I'm off subject, but I was drawing something like that in contrast to Ptolemy.

Well, I finished this manga and I will post more artworks in a while. Thank you for reading this far.

[chengchengj]

Ptolemy: Alexander, you need to- Alexander, tearing up: Hephaestion always used to call me Alexander. Ptolemy: Because it's your goddamn name.

[winter-wise]

Bartimaeus in the Ring of Solomon is just so fresh-faced compared to the Bartimaeus we know. His essence aches but he's still strong. He's half the age he was when we first met him. The tragedy of Ptolemy is still in his future.

He's so happy.

It just makes me wonder... because the closest Bartimaeus ever came to knowing a human like Ptolemy was a sort of awkward combination of Kitty and Nathaniel (the idealism of one and the skill of the other and the trust of both), but they could not match Ptolemy, Nathaniel's dead, Kitty might die young as a result of undergoing Ptolemy's Gate, and where does that leave Bartimaeus?

Because we never see how he is after Nathaniel's death, and I can't believe that the grief wasn't there.

[porksoda-07]

Doodles