Frequently identified as a child of Ptolemy
VI Philometor & Cleopatra
II who was briefly named co-ruler with his father & mother but was
eliminated by his uncle [Ptolemy
VIII Physcon] when he assumed the throne. The exact identity of this
boy king & even his existence have become, however, the focus of
scholarly debate, since both Ptolemy VI & Ptolemy VIII had other sons
named Ptolemy.
Neos Philopator's name appears on the
cultic list
of the deified Pharaohs [discovered in the 19th c.] between the names of the rival brothers,
Philometor [Ptolemy VI] & Physcon [Ptolemy VIII] but his
relationship to them is not specified. Scholars originally identified
him with the child of Philometor that classic historians [Justin,
Orosius & Josephus]
claim Physcon killed. But recent scholars have challenged that equation by
pointing out that those same historians do not identify that
murdered child as a co-ruler & evidence for such a co-regency is slim
& circumstantial. An alternate solution would be to identify the Neos
Philopator of the cultic list with the son who was born to Ptolemy VIII
during his coronation at Memphis [though that would not explain why his
name precedes that of his alleged father on the list of deified
kings]. Since no one identified as Neos Philopator appears to have ruled
independently, E. R. Bevan [The
House of Ptolemy] simply ignores him & reduces the
traditional numbering of successor Ptolemies by one.
References:
Josephus,
Apion 2.5.
Justin, Epitome
38.8.
Orosius, Against
the Pagans
5.10.
Other resources on line: