Portrait of Ptolemy II or III

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This portrait head portrays either Ptolemy II or III, crafted around 250-220 BC. Ptolemy II Philadelphus reigned as king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 to 246 BCE. He was the son of Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the Great who founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom after Alexander's death, and queen Berenice I, originally from Macedon in northern Greece. During Ptolemy II's reign, the material and literary splendor of the Alexandrian court reached its peak. He supported the Museum and Library of Alexandria. He erected a commemorative stele, the Great Mendes Stela. He also led the Ptolemaic Kingdom against the rival Seleucid Empire in the first of a series of Syrian Wars that saw periodic territorial changes between the two powers in West Asia.