Ptolemy (son of Abubus)
Ptolemy | |
|---|---|
| Governor of the Jericho region of Israel | |
Ptolemy was the son of Abubus. He was appointed governor of the Jericho region of Israel by the Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes (reigned 138 to 129 BC) in the late second century BCE and married a daughter of Simon Maccabaeus (died 135 BC), military commander of the Maccabees and founder of Israel's Hasmonean dynasty. According to 1 Maccabees 16:11-24,[1] Ptolemy held a banquet for his father-in-law Simon and two of Simon's sons during which he had them all killed. He then attempted to have Simon's third son, John Hyrcanus, killed also, but failed.
Ptolemy is accused in Dante's Inferno with the sin of treachery.[2] His memory is perpetuated in Dante's Inferno as 'Ptolemaea', a place in hell designated for traitors against guests in their home.[3]
References[]
- ^ 1 Maccabees 16
- ^ Dianne Bergant (1992). The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament. Liturgical Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-8146-2210-0.
- ^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXIII.
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- Seleucid people in the books of the Maccabees
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