A bust of Ptolemy of Mauretania. He was the last ruler of the fused Numidian and Ptolemaic dynasties. His ancestors included the Numidian King Masinissa and Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter, successor of Alexander the Great. He was the grandson of Cleopatra. Caligula executed him in 40AD.
For many of the ancients whose names we know millennia after they lived, it seems the price of their fame/infamy was an early, violent death.
I'll take obscurity in ripe old age, please.
That was certainly the fate of many. Ptolemy may have been partially the victim of his own success. He was pretty wealthy and Caligula, apparently, became enraged by the quality of his robe on his visit to Rome. That may, of course, have been a convenient pretext for his subsequent actions.
Thanks Leslie. I really appreciate your interest in them. The history within them is pretty momentous and the cultural legacy of some of the people involved, most notable Sophonisba, has been substantial. There's a little more about some of the people, events and locations in them at robedmunds.net
