Ptolemy Keraunos

Eldest son of Ptolemy I Soter by his second wife Eurydice (daughter of the regent Antipater), born c. 320 BC; by-name *Keraunos* / 'the Thunderbolt' (Memnon F8 §5; Paus. 1.16.2; the by-name fixed in his lifetime, the etymology disputed by the ancient grammarians). Disinherited in his father's last years in favour of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the son by the third wife Berenice; left Alexandria for the court of his sister Lysandra and her husband Agathocles at Sardis under Lysimachus, c. 285. After the execution of Agathocles in 283 at Arsinoe's instigation, fled with Lysandra to Seleucus and accompanied him on the campaign that ended with Lysimachus's death at Corupedium February 281. Crossed the Hellespont with Seleucus in the summer of 281 as a guest-friend; struck Seleucus down from behind near Lysimacheia and rode for the city to claim the Macedonian throne in person on the strength of his Argead-Ptolemaic descent (Memnon F8 §8 + Appian *Syr.* 62 + Justin 17.2). Acclaimed by the troops; held the kingship of Macedon for fifteen months. Killed in battle against the invading Galatians in spring 279, captured wounded and beheaded, the head displayed on a Galatian spear (Justin 24.5). His brief and violent reign is the immediate Macedonian dynastic chaos before Antigonus II Gonatas re-conquers the kingdom in 277.

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