Iterum Ptolomaeus Physcon emergit, paulo ante libidinosae amentiae taeterrimum exemplum, idem inter praecipua crudelitatis indicia referendus: quid enim hoc facto truculentius? filium suum nomine Memphiten, quem ex Cleopatra, eadem sorore et uxore, sustulerat, liberalis formae, optimae spei puerum, in conspectu suo occidi iussit, protinusque caput eius et manus et pedes praecisos in cista chlamyde opertos pro munere natalicio matri misit, perinde quasi ipse cladis quam illi inferebat expers, ac non infelicior, quod in communi orbitate Cleopatram miserabilem cunctis, se invisum reddiderat.
Once more Ptolemy Physcon crops up, recently a foul example of lustful madness, but also to be mentioned among the prime revelations of cruelty. For what could be more brutal than this act of his? He had his acknowledged son by Cleopatra, both his sister and his wife, a handsome boy of the fairest promise, Memphites by name, put to death before his eyes and then sent his severed head and hands and feet covered with a mantle in a box as a birthday gift to his mother'as though he himself had no share in the calamity that he was inflicting upon her, as though he was not the more unhappy of the two in that in their common bereavement he had made Cleopatra an object of compassion to all, himself an object of hate.
final_alignments\Valerius_Memorable_Book9.json