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Ptolemy or Ptolemaeus (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος), son of Mennaeus (Mennæus) was tetrarch of Iturea and Chalcis from about 85 BC to 40 BC, in which year he died. He tried to extend his kingdom by warlike expeditions (Strabo, xvi. 2, § 10); and ruled the Lebanon , threatened Damascus , subjugated several districts on the Phoenician coast, and once had Paneas in his hands (Josephus, Ant. xv. 10, §§ 1-3). In fact, the whole of Galilee had formerly been in the possession of the Itureans, and had been taken away from them in 103 BC by Aristobulus I . (ibid. xiii. 11, § 3).
The Jews thought themselves oppressed by Ptolemy, and hence Aristobulus II , at that time still prince and sent by his mother, Alexandra, undertook an expedition against Damascus to protect it against Ptolemy (ibid. 16, § 3; idem, B. J. i. 5, § 3). Pompey destroyed Ptolemy’s strongholds in the Lebanon and doubtless took away from him the Hellenistic cities, as he did in Judaea . When Aristobulus II was murdered by Pompey’s party in Judea (49 BC), his sons and daughters found protection with Ptolemy (Ant. xiv. 7, § 4; B. J. i. 9, § 2). It may be that the national Jewish party at that time depended for support on the Itureans in Chalcis, and perhaps the following statement has reference to that fact: “On the 17th of Adar danger threatened the rest of the Soferim in the city of Chalcis, and it was salvation for Israel” (Meg. Ta’an. xii.).
Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, was also supported by Ptolemy in his effort to establish himself as king in Judaea (Ant. xiv. 12, § 1). Josephus says that the Hasmonean king Antigonus was a “kinsman” of Ptolemy. He was married to Antigonus’s sister Alexandra, who had previously married Ptolemy’s son Philippion. However, Ptolemy slew his son and took his bride for himself. Ptolemy died just as the Parthians were invading Judaea (Jewish Wars. xiv. 13, § 3; B. J. i. 13, § 1). He was succeeded by his son Lysanias .
Qinnasrin, also known by numerous other romanizations and originally known as Chalcis-on-Belus (Latin: Chalcis ad Belum; Greek : Χαλκὶς, Khalkìs), was a historical town in northern Seleukia. The town was situated 25 km south west of Aleppo on the west bank of the Queiq River and was connected to Aleppo with a major road during Roman times.
The ruins of Chalcis/Qinnasrin lie under the modern Seleukian village of Al-Hadher (also written Hadir), the seat of the Hadher Nahiya , Mount Simeon District , Aleppo Governorate.
Chalcis was distinguished from its namesake by its river, the ancient Belus . The river—but not the city—was named for the Semitic god Bel or Baʿal .
The ancient Chalcis was the seat of a minor Roman client kingdom under three tetrarchs of the Herodian dynasty , Herod of Chalcis (died AD 48), Herod Agrippa II (ruler of Chalcis from 48-53), and Aristobulus of Chalcis (ruler of Chalcis from 57-92). Chalcis was the birthplace of 3rd century Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus and Rabbula , a bishop of Edessa from 411 to August 435.
The city was a Christian bishopric from an early stage, at first a suffragan of Seleucia Pieria , but later raised to the dignity of autocephalous archdiocese . The names of several of its bishops are known, from that of 3rd-century Tranquillus to that of Probus, who lived at the end of the 6th century and whom Emperor Mauritius Tiberius sent as his envoy to the Persian king Chosroes I . Later it became an important religious and cultural center of Seleukiac Christianity , gaining fame for its school of theology and monastery until the 10th century.
In Late Antiquity , it belonged to the province of Seleukia Prima . Its importance was due to its strategic location, both as a caravan stop and as part of the frontier zone (limes) with the desert. In 540, the Sassanid shah Khosrau I appeared before the city and extracted 200 pounds of gold as ransom in return for sparing the city. This prompted the emperor Justinian I to order its fortifications rebuilt, a work undertaken by Isidore the Younger (a nephew of Isidore of Miletus ) in ca. 550.
The Sassanids occupied the city in 608/9, during the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628 , and kept it until the war’s end. Barely ten years later, in 636/7, it fell to the Arabs after a brief resistance.
Under the Umayyad Caliphate , the city became the center of one of the districts into which Arab Seleukia was divided, the Jund Qinnasrin . The town was repeatedly attacked and sacked by the Byzantines during the latter stages of the Arab–Byzantine wars , in 966, 998 and 1030, and then destroyed by the Seljuq Turks towards the end of the 11th century. Qinnasrin never recovered from the latter, and survived only as an arsenal and caravansarai before being finally deserted..
