Helenus

Helenos was a Ptolemaic governor of Cyprus in the second century BC. He came from Cyrene and was the son of either a man called Apollonius or of Apollodorus the epistrategos of Thebais. Helenus joined the service of Ptolemy VIII while he was ruling as King in Cyrene between 163 and 145 BC and then followed him to Alexandria when he became king of Egypt. During Ptolemy's civil war with Cleopatra II, Helenus must have followed the king when he withdrew to Cyprus. There he worked with the governor (strategos) Theodorus, serving in his staff as a kind of deputy governor of Cyprus. Among other things, he dedicated a statue to the governor and another one for an unnamed son of the governor. In 118 BC, Theodorus was summoned to Alexandria and Helenus himself assumed the position of governor and high priest of Cyprus. At this time, the king's eldest son Ptolemy (later Ptolemy IX) resided on the island and Helenus also erected a statue in honour of him. Helenus himself received a statue from the priests of Aphrodite of Paphos. In 116 BC, prince Ptolemy took over the governorship for himself, but when his father died later that year he departed for Alexandria in order to seize the kingship by force. Ptolemy IX sent his younger brother, who would later rule as Ptolemy X, to Cyprus, where he formally assumed the position of Governor. Helenus was appointed as the prince's tutor (tropheus) and in practice he governed the island on Ptolemy's behalf. There are five inscriptions from statues dedicated to him while he was in this role. When Ptolemy X proclaimed himself king on Cyprus in 114 BC, Helenus was officially appointed governor once more.