<head>The Rival Ptolemies</head>At the time when the senate dispatched Opimius to make war on the Oxybi the younger Ptolemy came to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> and appearing before the senate accused his brother, asserting that he was responsible for the plot against himself.
Exhibiting the scars left by his wounds, and laying full stress besides in his speech on the atrocity of the deed, he pleaded for pity.
Neolaïdes and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Andromachus&groupId=330&placeId=640">Andromachus</a> also came as envoys from the elder king to defend him against these accusations, but the senate would not even listen to their defence, so much were they prepossessed by the younger brother\'s charges. Ordering these envoys to leave <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> at once,
they appointed five legates, headed by Gnaeus Merula and Lucius Thermus, to support the younger brother, and furnishing each of them with a quinquereme ordered them to re-establish Ptolemy in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cyprus&groupId=119&placeId=356">Cyprus</a>, writing to their allies in Greece and Asia to the effect that they had their permission to assist his return.
Walbank Commentary