@lvxferre @procrastitron As it happens, "Ptolemaois" is how the name is written in at least German, Swedish and Finnish, so speakers of those languages (Swedish and Finnish myself) likely pronounce it most correctly?
Never really understood why English insists of weirdly dropping the final bits of Greek and Latin names ("Plutarch" vs "Plutarkhos", "Justinian" vs "Justinianus" etc)
@PugJesus Fun, except that Alexei is not a German name. Not very likely that a Stasi official (or neighbour volunteering on surveillance duty) would have been called Alexei. Alex on the other hand is a German name.
That just sounds like a misconception that the German Democratic Republic would have been administered by "the Soviets". Sure, the USSR had lots of influence ("Von der Sowjetunion lernen heißt siegen lernen" etc), but the Stasi was staffed by East Germans.
Yes, I am fun at parties.
@lvxferre No need to be sorry, lovely and very readable write-up. Quality content!