Ptolemasis and its Ancient Origins
By J. Brown - This image is available from the National Library of WalesYou can view this image in its original context on the NLW Catalogue, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73859614
Walter Savage Landor was an English activist and writer who lived from 1775-1864. He was critically acclaimed, though his generally popularity didn't reflect this. His writing spanned through four main areas: prose, lyric poetry, political writing (which included epigrams), and Latin. He was hailed as a 'poet's poet' by critics and was credited with inspiring W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, and others. In his writing, he had ancient Greek philosophers in conversation with contemporary writers in his Imaginary Conversations. In his activism, he expressed support for the unification of Italy, and against the British politician William Pitt, who was the last prime minister of Great Britain and the first of the United Kingdom. He was considered headstrong and hot-headed with a complete contempt for authority, leading to many misfortunes in his life. He was successfully sued for libel, often leaving him with political enemies who he mocked with his wit at the moment or later with a 'biting epithet'. He was likely portrayed in Charles Dickens' Bleak House as Lawrence Boythorn as someone who was 'harsh but good-hearted'. Growing up, he had to change schools due to his conflicts with school masters and was asked to not be around visitors by his parents. He was suspended from Trinity College, Oxford when he was 18 for a year when he 'fired a gun at the windows of a Tory whose late night revels disturbed him and for whom he had an aversion', but he refused to return and resulted in him leaving home until he was reconciled when he was 20 through the efforts of a friend of him. Most of his relationships were similarly tempestuous, including that with his wife Julia Thuillier.
By CristianChirita - Беляевъ, GPL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4211160
Ptolemais was a city in ancient Phoenicia, a port city in Canaaan, now known as Acre in the modern state of Israel. The Greeks called the city either Ake or Akre or Antiochia Ptolemais, which became its name after the conquest of Alexander the Great. After his death, it was simply called Ptolemais after the ascent of Ptolemy I Sater and became a part of Egypt. It was then called Akko by the Romans, then renamed Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis and was part of Roman Phoenicia. It was a center for the Roman army after the death of Herod the Great, then a center of Roman settlements, especially veterans as well as Phoenicians and Jews. It was the location of the first massacre of the Jews in 66 CE, which moved inland to Galilee. After the rule of Hadrian (117-138 CE), while the local languages phased out Latin in the area, the customs of the area remained Roman. In 351 CE, there was another Jewish rebellion and massacre under Constantius Gallus sparked by the Jewish majority rejecting Roman rule. It also held a role as an entry point in the Crusades in the 12th century, where its fall in 1291 ended the Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom.
In the poem, Landor begins by stating '[n]o city on the many peopled earth/Hath been the witness of such valiant deeds/As though hast, Ptolemais!' He lists those societies who have had 'valiant deeds' in Ptolemais, beginning by mentioning the Crusades and 'our lion-hearted king', then 'he who drove across/The torrid desert the (till then uncheckt)/Invader, from the realms of the Ptolemies/Ruled'. The next group mentions is 'the Cæsars followed in their train'. It is a lyrical recounting of some of the leaders of the societies that ruled over the city, though many are either glossed over or omitted.
You can read the poem here.