Aristomenes of Alyzia

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 Priest of Alexander in 204/3 BC. He supplanted Tlepolemus as regent in 201 BC. 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.

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