Ptolemais Theron (Ancient Greek:Πτολεμαῒς Θηρῶν[1] and Πτολεμαῒς ἡ τῶν θηρῶν[2]) ('Ptolemais of the Hunts') was a marketplace on the African side of theRed Sea,[3] whose location is now uncertain.[4]
According toStrabo (16.4.7), Ptolemais was founded as a base to support the hunting ofelephants by a certain Eumedes (Ancient Greek:Εὐμήδης), who had been sent there byPtolemy II Philadelphus, king ofPtolemaic Egypt.[3] Eumedes, "secretly enclosed a kind of peninsula with a ditch and a wall, and then, by courteous treatment of those who tried to hinder the work, actually won them over as friends instead of foes." (Strabo 16.4.7). Ptolemais was only one of a series of such elephant-hunting stations along the Red Sea coast of Africa,Adulis being perhaps originally another.Pliny the Elder (2.75.1)[5] andDiodorus Siculus (3.41.1)[6] also mention the hunting of the elephants.
The earlyPtolemies had seen the value ofwar elephants by the military strength of theSeleucids. Cut off from any possibility of acquiringIndian elephants, they founded and actively sought to capture them from the neighboring regions of Africa. Although these animals helped in theBattle of Raphia, they proved unstable and theAfrican species were intimidated by the Asian species, which led to the Egyptians eventually abandoning the use of these animals in war.
Unlike most of the stations the Ptolemies established to the south of their kingdom, Ptolemais had enough fertile land immediately around it to sustain it as a town. By the time thePeriplus of the Erythraean Sea was written (mid 1st century), it had clearly declined in importance. The writer notes that it had "no harbor, and can only be reached by small boats" (ch. 3).[7]
Ancient authorities are vague on the location of Ptolemais, and the site remains unidentified. ThePeriplus describes it as 3000stadia south of theMoskhophagoi, and 3000 stadia north ofAdulis, inside the regions ruled byZoskales, the king ofAksum;Pliny the Elder (N.H. 6.168) notes that Ptolemais was close to Lake Monoleus.G.W.B. Huntingford notes that Ptolemais has been identified both with the locales ofArqiqo andSuakin some 150 miles apart, and notes that Suakin lay at the end of an ancient caravan route that links it toBarbar on theNile. However, Stanley M. Burstein argues forTrinkitat (18.6788°N, 37.75°E), where he states that "classical architectural fragments" have been found.[8]
Ptolemais Theron is noted by Pliny as a place where shadows vanished under the noontime sun (meaning that the sun reached its zenith) 45 days before and 45 days after midsummer. Pliny claims that this gaveEratosthenes the idea about how to calculate the circumference of theEarth (N.H. 2.183, 6.168).
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