Aristomenes of Alyzeia

Aristomenes of Alyzeia or Aristomenes the Acarnanian (Greek: Ἀριστομένης; born 3rd century BC; died 2nd century BC) was regent and chief minister of Egypt in the Ptolemaic period during the reign of the boy king Ptolemy V.

Aristomenes, son of Menneas, was a native of the city of Alyzeia in Acarnania, Greece. He migrated to Egypt some time after 216 BC and became regent in 201 BC, supplanting Tlepolemus. In 197/196 BC, when Ptolemy V at the age of 12 took personal control of the kingdom, Aristomenes remained chief minister; this was his role when the "Memphis Decree" (recorded on the Rosetta Stone) was issued in March 196. He fell from power, for unknown reasons, in 192 BC.

Sources

Primary sources

• Polybius, xv.25, 31

Secondary works

• Edwyn Bevan, The House of Ptolemy, Chapter 7, passim
• Walter Ameling, "Aristomenes [2]" in Der neue Pauly vol. 1 pp. 1115–1116