him with lodgings, nor received him with those ceremonies which were usual in this case, telling him, that this was not from any neglect of theirs, but merely that his coming was so sudden and private, that they knew not of it till his arrival. And then, having exhorted him to lay aside his sordid habit, and ask a day to be publicly heard concerning the matter he came thither about, they, by some of their body, conducted him to lodgings suiting his royal dignity, and appointed one of their treasurers there to attend him, and provide him with all things fitting at the public charge, as long as he should stay in Rome. And when he had a day of audience, and made known his case, they immediately decreed his restoration, and sent Quintus and Canuleius, two of their body, ambassadors with him to Alexandria, there to see it executed; who, on their arrival thither, compounded the matter between the two brothers,d by assigning to Physcon the country of Libya and Cyrene, and to Philometor Egypt and Cyprus, there to reign apart, without interfering with each other in the government. An. 162. Cn. Octavius, Sp. Lucretius, and L. Aurelius, the Roman ambassadors abovementioned, being Judas Mac- come into Syria, and finding that the king cabæus 5. had more ships in his navy, and more elephants in his army, than the treaty made with Antiochus the Great, after the battle of Mount Sipylus, allowed him to have, they caused those ships to be burned, and those elephants to be slain, that exceeded the number allowed, and settled all other things there according as they thought would best be for the Roman interest; which many not being able to bear, and great heart-burning and discontents being thereby caused among the people, one of them, called Leptines, out of a more than ordinary indignation which he had conceived hereat, fell upon Octavius, while he was anointing himself in the gymnasium at Laodicea, and there slew him. This Octavius had been a little before consul of Rome, and was the f first that brought d Polyb. legat. 113, 114, p. 291, 293. Epit. Livii, lib. 46. Zonor. lib. 2. e Appian. in Syriacis. Polyb. legat. 114, p. 944, and legat. 122, p. 954. Ciceronis Philippic. 9. f Cicero, ibid. that dignity into his family. From him was descended Octavius Cæsar, who, under the name of Augustus, was afterwards made emperor of Rome. Lysias was thought underhand to have excited this act. However, as soon as it was done, he took care that ambassadors were sent to Rome, to purge the king with the senate from having had any hand in it. But the senate, after having heard those ambassadors, sent them away without giving them any answer, seeming thereby to express their resentments for the murder of their ambassador by an angry silence, and to reserve their judgment as to the authors of it to a future inquiry. Demetrius, thinking this murder of Octavius might so far have alienated the senate from Eupator, as that they would no longer for his sake retard his dismission, & addressed himself the second time to them for it. Apollonius, a young nobleman of Syria, who was bred up with him, and son to that Apolloniush who was governour of Cole-Syria and Phoenicia in the reign of Seleucus Philopater, advised him to this address, contrary to the advice of his other friends, whose opinion it was, that he had nothing else to do for his getting away but to make his escape as privately as he could. And the second repulse which he had from the senate (for they, still having the same reason for their interest to detain him, persisted still in the same resolution so to do) soon convinced him, that this last was the only course he had to take for his return into his own country, and the recovering of the crown which was there due unto him. And Polybius the historian, who was then at Rome, and with whom Demetrius consulted in all this matter, earnestly pressed him to the attempt. Whereon having, by the help of Menithyllus of Alabanda, hired passage in a Carthaginian ship, then lying at Ostia, and bound for Tyre, he sent most of his retinue, with his hunting equipage to Anagnia, making shew of following them the next day thither to divert himself in that country for some time in hunting. But, as soon as he was risen from supper, getting privately that night to Ostia, he there g Polyb. legat. 114, p. 943. Appian. in Syriacis. Justin. lib. 4, c. 33. h 1 Maccab. ii, 3, 5. went on board the Carthaginian ship, and, causing it forthwith to set sail, made his escape therein. For, it being thought that he had been at the place where he had appointed his hunting, it was the fourth day after he had sailed from Ostia before his escape was known at Rome; and, when on the fifth day the senate was met about it, they computed, that by that time he had passed the straits of Messina, and got on from thence in his voyage too far to be overtaken, and therefore took no further notice of it. Only some few days after, they appointed Tiberius Gracchus, L. Lentulus, and Servilius Glaucias, their ambassadors, to pass into Syria, to observe what effect the return of Demetrius into that country would there produce. The occasion which brought Menithyllus of Alabanda to Rome at this time, was an embassy on which he was thither sent by Ptolemy Philometor to defend his cause before the senate against Physcon his brother: for Physcon, not being contented with the share allotted him in the partition of the Egyptian empire between him and his brother, desired that, besides Libya and Cyrene, he might have Cyprus also assigned to him. And, when he could not obtain this of the ambassadors, he went himself to Rome, there to solicit the senate for it. When he appeared before the senate with his petition, Menithyllus made it out, that Physcon owed not only Libya and Cyrene, but his life also, to the favour and kindness of his brother. For he had made himself so odious to the people, by his many flagitious mal-administrations in the government, that they would have permitted him neither to reign nor live, had not Philometor interposed, to save him from their rage. And Quintus and Canuleius, who were the ambassadors that made the agreement between the two brothers, being then present in the senate, did there attest all this to be true; yet, notwithstanding, the senate, having more regard to their own interest than the justice of the cause, decreed Cyprus to be given to Physcon, because they thought Philometor would be too potent with that and Egypt together: and there i Polyb. legat. 113, p. 941, & legat. 117, p. 950. fore they appointed Titus Torquatus and Cneius Merula to go with him as their ambassadors for the putting him in possession of it, according as they had decreed. While Physcon was at Rome on this occasion, he courted Cornelia, the mother of Gracchi, desiring to have her for his queen: but, being the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the widow of Tiberius Gracchus, who had been twice consul, and once censor of Rome, she despised the offer, thinking it to be a greater honour to be one of the prime matrons of Rome, than to reign with Physcon in Libya and Cyrene. In the interim1 Demetrius, landing at Tripolis in Syria, made it believed, that he was sent by the Roman senate to take possession of the kingdom, and that he would be supported by them in it. Whereon Eupator's cause being in the general opinion given for lost, all deserted from him to Demetrius; and Eupator, and Lysias his tutor, being seized by their own soldiers, in order to be delivered up to the new comer, were by his order both put to death. And so without any further opposition he became thoroughly settled in the whole kingdom. m As soon as Demetrius was fixed on the throne, TM one of the first things he did was to deliver the Babylonians from the tyranny of Timarchus and Heraclides. These being the two great favourites of Antiochus Epiphanes, he made the first of them governour, and the other treasurer of that province. Timarchus having added rebellion to his other crimes, Demetrius caused him to be put to death, and the other he drove into banishment. This was so acceptable a deliverance to the Babylonians, whom these two brothers had most grievously oppressed, that they from hence called him Soter, that is, the Saviour; which name he ever afterward bore. Alcimus, who, on the death of Menelaus, was by Antiochus Eupator appointed high priest of the Jews, k Plutarch. in Tiberio Graccho. n 1 1 Maccab. vii, 1-4. 2 Maccab. xiv, 1, 2. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 16. Appianus in Syriacis. Justin. lib. 34, c. 3. m Appianus in Syriacis. n 2 Maccabees xiv, 3. VOL. III. 39 not being received by them, because he had polluted himself, by conforming to the ways of the Greeks in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, got together all the other apostate Jews, then living at Antioch, who had for their apostasy been expelled Judea, and went on the head of them to the new king, to pray his relief against Judas and his brethren, accusing them of slaying many of the king's friends, and driving others out of the country, as particularly they had them his petitioners, for no other reason, but that they had obeyed the royal edicts of Antiochus Epiphanes his uncle, who had reigned before him. And hereby he so exasperated Demetrius against Judas and the people with him, P that he forthwith ordered Bacchides, governour of Mesopotamia, with an army into Judea, and having confirmed Alcimus in the office of high priest, joined in the same commission with Bacchides for the carrying on of this war. On their first coming to Judea, they thought to have circumvented Judas and his brethren, and, by fair words, under the shew of making peace with them, to have drawn them into their power, and so have taken them. But they being aware of the fraud, kept out of their reach; which others not being so cautious of, fell into their snare, and being taken in it, were all destroyed by them; among whom were sixty of the Asidæans, and several of the scribes or doctors of their law. For being fond of having an high priest again settled among them, and thinking they could suffer no wrong from one that was of the sons of Aaron, they took his oath of peace, and trusted themselves with him. But he had no sooner gotten them within his power, but he put them all to death; with which the rest being terrified, durst no more confide in him. After this Bacchides returned to the king, leaving with Alcimus part of his forces, to secure him in the possession of the country; with which prevailing for a while, and drawing many deserters to him, he much disturbed the state of Israel. For the remedy whereof, Judas, after Bacchides was fully gone, com o 1 Maccab. vii, 5-7. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 16. г r 1 Maccab. ii, 23, 24. |