Ptolemy the Biographer°

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PTOLEMY THE BIOGRAPHER°

PTOLEMY THE BIOGRAPHER °, brother of *Nicholas of Damascus. Like his brother, Ptolemy was a highly esteemed member of the literary circle which surrounded Herod i. After Herod's death, he sided with Antipas (Jos., Ant. 17:225; Wars 2:21). A fragment of a work about Herod stating that the Idumaeans were Phoenician and Syrian in origin and were forcibly converted to Judaism (cf. Jos., Ant. 18:257–8) has been ascribed to him by Reinach (Textes, 88–89) but it may possibly belong to another Ptolemy.