Ptolemy; 237 BC

237 BC

Year 237 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caudinus and Flaccus...

-died 234 ВС), king of Epirus

Epirus (ancient state)

Epirus was an ancient Greek state, located in the geographical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans. The homeland of the ancient Epirotes was bordered by the Aetolian League to the south, Thessalia and Macedonia to the east and Illyrian tribes to the north...

, was the second son of Alexander II

Alexander II of Epirus

Alexander II was a king of Epirus, and the son of Pyrrhus and Lanassa, the daughter of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles.-Reign:He succeeded his father as king in 272 BC, and continued the war which his father had begun with Antigonus II Gonatas, whom he succeeded in driving from the kingdom of Macedon...

, king of Epirus, and Olympias, grandson of the great Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became king of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...

 and brother of Phthia of Macedon. He was named in honor of his late uncle Ptolemy, a late brother of his parents. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his elder brother, Pyrrhus II of Epirus

Pyrrhus II of Epirus

Pyrrhus II was the son of Olympias II and Alexander II of Epirus. He was a brother of Ptolemy and Phthia of Macedon. He ruled as king of Epirus from 255 BC to 237 ВС...

, but reigned only a very short time, having set out on a military expedition, during the course of which he fell sick and died. Polyaenus

Polyaenus

Polyaenus or Polyenus vs. e]]; , "many proverbs") was a 2nd century Macedonian author, known best for his Stratagems in War , which has been preserved. The Suda calls him a rhetorician, and Polyaenus himself writes that he was accustomed to plead causes before the emperor...

, instead, tells us a different story and states that he was treasonably assassinated. The date of his reign cannot be fixed with certainty, but as he was contemporary with Demetrius II

Demetrius II of Macedon

Demetrius II Aetolicus son of Antigonus Gonatas and Phila, reigned as king of Macedonia from the winter of 239 to 229 BC. He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty and was born in 275 BC. There is a possibility that his father had already elevated to him to position of power equal to his own before his...

, king of Macedon

Macedon

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....

ia, it may be placed between 239 and 229 BC. He was succeeded by his niece Deidamia.