Ptolemaeus Apion
（
*Ptolemai=os *)Api/wn) king of Cyrene, was an illegitimate son of Ptolemy Physcon, king of Egypt, by his mistress Eirene. His father left him by his will the kingdom of the Cyrenaica, to which he appears to have succeeded without opposition, on the death of Physcon, B. C. 117. We know nothing of the events of his reign, but at his death in B. C. 96, he bequeathed his kingdom by his will to the Roman people.
The senate, however, refused to accept the legacy, and declared the cities of the Cyrenaica free. They were not reduced to the condition of a province till near thirty years afterwards; a circumstance which has given rise to much confusion, some of the later Roman writers having considered this latter date to be that of the death of Apion, and the accompanying bequest. Hence Sextus Rufus, Ammianus, and Hieronvmus were led to suppose that there were two kings of the name of Apion, an error in which they have been followed by Scaliger, Freinshemius, and other modern writers.
The subject has been satisfactorily examined by Valesius in his notes to Ammianus, and by Clinton. (
Just. 39.5; Liv.
Epit. lxx.; Jul. Obsequens, 100.109 ; Eutrop. vi. ll; Sex. Ruf. 100.13;
Amm. Marc. 22.16.24; and Vales.
ad loc. ; Hieronym.
in Euseb. Chron. Ol. 171. 1, and Ol. 178. 3; Clinton,
F. H. vol. iii. p. 389, note.)
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E.H.B]
