بطليموس الثاني
Under the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the city was for a while called "Ptolemais Euergétis" (). Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) renamed the city "Arsinoë" and the whole nome after the name of his sister-wife Arsinoe II (316–270 or 268), who was deified after her death as part of the Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great, the official religion of the kingdom. Ptolemy II Philadelphus also established a town at the edge of Faiyum named "Philadelphia". It was laid out in a regular grid plan to resemble a typical Greek city, with private dwellings, palaces, baths and a theatre.