Description of Greece

These are the Athenian eponymoi who belong to the ancients. And of later date than these they have tribes named after the following, Attalus[*](This king of Pergamus visited Athens in 200 B.C. in the company of the Roman ambassadors, and was treated with every mark of respect by the Athenians.) the Mysian and Ptolemy the Egyptian,[*](It is uncertain to which of the many kings of Egypt called by this name Pausanias refers.) and within my own time the emperor Hadrian[*](117-138 A.D.), who was extremely religious in the respect he paid to the deity and contributed very much to the happiness of his various subjects. He never voluntarily entered upon a war, but he reduced the Hebrews beyond Syria, who had rebelled.[*](132 A.D.) As for the sanctuaries of the gods that in some cases he built from the beginning, in others adorned with offerings and furniture, and the bounties he gave to Greek cities, and sometimes even to foreigners who asked him, all these acts are inscribed in his honor in the sanctuary at Athens common to all the gods.

But as to the history of Attalus and Ptolemy, it is more ancient in point of time, so that tradition no longer remains, and those who lived with these kings for the purpose of chronicling their deeds fell into neglect even before tradition failed. Where fore it occurred to me to narrate their deeds also, and how the sovereignty of Egypt, of the Mysians and of the neighboring peoples fell into the hands of their fathers.

[*](The account which follows deals with the troubled period which came after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The generals Antigonus, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander quarrelled over the division of the empire.) The Macedonians consider Ptolemy to be the son of Philip, the son of Amyntas, though putatively the son of Lagus, asserting that his mother was with child when she was married to Lagus by Philip. And among the distinguished acts of Ptolemy in Asia they mention that it was he who, of Alexander's companions, was foremost in succoring him when in danger among the Oxydracae. After the death of Alexander[*](323 B.C.), by withstanding those who would have conferred all his empire upon Aridaeus, the son of Philip, he became chiefly responsible for the division of the various nations into the kingdoms.