Ptolemy

Ptolemy (addressed in the letters as 'Ptolemaeus, the senator') is known only as a lay correspondent of the monastic writer Nilus of Ancyra, who addressed at least fifteen short letters of spiritual and scriptural instruction to him. His senatorial rank is implied by the way Nilus opens by praising the monks whom 'magnates and every rank in the world' take refuge with, casting Ptolemy as a man of worldly standing being directed toward humility and the religious life. The letters themselves are brief catechetical and exegetical pieces, treating such matters as the tradition of Golgotha, the spiritual meaning of circumcision (Genesis 17), the Creator known through creation by analogy to a lyre and its player, consolation drawn from God's mercy, a warning against unbridled temper, and a polemical aside against Eunomius and his claim that the divine essence can be comprehended. Apart from these letters and his rank as senator he is otherwise unattested, and is best placed simply as a layman within the early-fifth-century Ancyra (Galatia) milieu of Nilus.