vouring to avoid a foreign war, drew one upon himself in the centre of his own dominions.

a Antiochus, after having concluded a peace with Ptolemy, devoted his whole attention to the war against Achæus, and made all the preparations necessary for taking the field. At last he passed Mount Taurus, and entered Asia Minor with an intention to subdue it. Here he concluded a treaty with Attalus king of Pergamus, by virtue of which they united their forces against their common enemy. They attacked him with so much vigour, that he abandoned the open country to them, and shut himself up in Sardis, to which Antiochus laying siege, Achæus held it out above a year. He often made sallies, and a great many battles were fought under the walls of the city. At last, by a stratagem of Ligoras, one of Antiochus's commanders, Sardis was taken; Achæus retired into the citadel, where he defended himself till he was delivered up by two traitorous Cretans. This fact confirms the truth of the proverb, which said that the "Cretans were liars and knaves"."

c Ptolemy Philopator had made a treaty with Achæus, and was very sorry for his being so closely blocked up in the castle of Sardis; and therefore commanded Sosibes to relieve him at any rate whatsoever. There was then in Ptolemy's court a very cunning Cretan, Bolis by name, who had lived a considerable time at Sardis. Sosibes consulted this man, and asked whether he could not think of some method for Achæus's escape. The Cretan desired time to consider of it; and returning to Sosibes, offered to undertake it, and explained to him the manner in which he intended to proceed. He told him, that he had an intimate friend, who was also his near relation, Cambylus by name, a captain in the Cretan troops in Antiochus's service; that he commanded at that time in a fort behind the castle of Sardis, and that he would prevail with him to let Achæus escape that way. His project being approved, he was sent with the utmost speed to Sardis to put it in execution, and ten talents were given him to defray his expenses, and a much more considerable sum promised him in case he succeeded. After his arrival, he communicates the affair to Cambylus, when those two miscreants agree (for their greater advantage) to go and reveal their design to Antiochus. They offered that prince, as they themselves had determined, to play their parts so well, as that, instead of procuring Achæus's escape, they would bring him to him, upon condition of receiving a considerable reward, to be divided among them, as well as the ten talents which Bolis had already received.

a A. M. 2788. Ant. J. C. 216. Polyb. 1. v. p. 444.

ὁ Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψευεται, κακὰ θήρια, St. Paul. Epist. ad Tit. i. 12. é Polyb. 1. viii. p. 522-531.

d Ten thousand French crowns.

❝ Antiochus was overjoyed at this proposal, and promised them a reward that sufficed to engage them to do him that important service. Upon this, Bolis, by Cambylus's assistance, easily got admission into the castle, where the credentials he produced from Sosibes, and some other of Achæus's friends, gained him the entire confidence of that ill-fated prince. Accordingly he trusted himself to those two wretches, who, the instant he was out of the castle, seized and delivered him to Antiochus. This king caused him to be immediately beheaded, and thereby put an end to that war of Asia; for the moment those who still sustained the siege heard of Achaus's death, they surrendered; and a little after, all the other places in the provinces of Asia did the same.

Rebels very seldom come to a good end; and though the perfidy of such traitors strikes us with horror, and raises our indignation, we are not inclined to pity the unhappy fate of Achæus, who had made himself deserving of it by his infidelity to his sovereign.

It was about this time that the discontent of the Egyptians against Philopator began to break out. According to Polybius, it occasioned a civil war; but neither himself nor any other author gives us the particulars of it.

с

We also read in Livy, that the Romans some time after sent deputies to Ptolemy and Cleopatra (doubtless the same queen who before was called Arsinoe), to renew their ancient friendship and alliance with Egypt. These carried, as a present to the king, a robe and purple tunic, with an ivory d chair; and to the queen an embroidered robe, and a purple scarf. Such kind of presents show the happy simplicity which in those ages prevailed among the Romans.

e

Philopater had at that time by Arsinoe, his wife and sister, a son called Ptolemy Epiphanes, who succeeded him at five years of age.

& Philopator, from the time of the signal victory which he had obtained over Antiochus, had abandoned himself to pleasures and excesses of every kind. Agathoclea his concubine, Agathocles the brother of that woman, and their mother, go

a A. M. 3789. Ant. J. C. 215. c A. M. 3794. Ant. J. C. 210.

b Polyb. I. v. p. 444

Liv. l. xxvii, c. 4.

d This was allowed in Rome to none but the highest officers in the state. e A. M. 3795. Ant. J. C. 209 Justin. l. xxx. c. 4.

f Justin calls her Eurydice. In case he is not mistaken, this queen had three names, Arsinoe, Cleopatra, and Eurydice. But Cleopatra was a name common to the queens of Egypt, as that of Ptolemy was to the kings. As Archbishop Usher places the adventure of Hyrcanus the Jew at the birth of Ptolemy Epiphanes. I had inserted it there in the first edition of this work. But as Josephus, from whom it is taken says, that it happened in the reign of Seleucus the son of Antiochus the Great, I have transferred it to that time, as Dean Prideaux does also; that is to say, to the birth of Ptolemy Philometor, 187 years before Jesus Christ.

g A. M. 3797. Ant. J. C. 207. Justin. 1. xxx. c. 1. & 2. Polyb. in Excerpt. Vales. 1. xv. xvi.

verned him entirely. He spent all his time in gaming, drinking, and the most infamous irregularities. His nights were passed in debauches, and his days in feasts and dissolute revels. Forgetting entirely the duties and character of a king, instead of applying himself to the affairs of state, he valued himself upon presiding in concerts, and his skill in playing upon instruments. The a women disposed of every thing. They conferred all employments and governments; and no one had less authority in the kingdom than the prince himself Sosibes, an old, artful minister, who had been in office during three reigns, was at the helm, and his great experience had made him very capable of the administration; not indeed entirely in the manner he desired, but as the favourites would permit him to act; and he was so wicked, as to pay a blind obedience to the most unjust commands of a corrupt prince and his unworthy minions.

Arsinoe, the king's sister and wife, had no power or authority at court; the favourites and the prime minister did not show her the least respect. On the other side, the queen was not patient enough to suffer every thing without murmuring; and they at last grew weary of her complaints. The king, and those who governed him, commanded Sosibes to rid them of her. He obeyed, and employed for that purpose one Philammon, who, without doubt, did not want experience in such cruel and barbarous assassinations.

This last action, added to so many more of the most flagrant nature, displeased the people so much, that Sosibes was obliged, before the king's death, to quit his employment. He was succeded by Tlepolemus, a young man of quality, who had signalized himself in the army, by his valour and conduct. He had all the voices in a grand council held for the purpose of choosing a prime minister. Sosibes resigned to him the king's seal which was the badge of his office. Tlepolemus performed the several functions of it, and governed all the affairs of the kingdom during the king's life. But though this was not long, he discovered but too plainly that he had not all the qualifications necessary for supporting so great an employment. He had neither the experience, ability, nor application of his predecessor. As he had the administration of all the finances, and disposed of all the honours and dignities of the state, and all payments passed through his hands, every body, as is usual, was assiduous in making their court to him. He was extremely liberal; but then his bounty was bestowed without choice or discernment, and almost solely on those who shared in his parties of pleaThe extravagant flatteries of those who were for ever

sure.

a Tribunatus, præfecturas, et ducatus mulieres ordinabant; nec quisquam in regno suo minus, quam ipse rex poterat. Justin. 6 Liv, 1. xxvii c. 4.

crowding about his person, made him fancy his talents superior to those of all other men. He assumed haughty airs, abandoned himself to luxury and profusion, and at last grew insupportable to all the world.

The wars of the East have made me suspend the relation of the affairs that happened in Greece during their continuance; we now return to them.

SECT. II.

The Etolians declare against the Achæans. Battle of Caphya. Unhappy death of Cleomenes.

• The Ætolians, particularly in the time we are now speaking of, were become a very powerful people in Greece. Originally their territories extended from the river Achelous, to the strait of the gulf of Corinth, and to the country of the Locrians, surnamed Ozola. But in process of time they had possessed themselves of several cities in Acarnania, Thessaly, and other neighbouring countries. They led much the same life upon land as pirates do at sea, that is, they were perpetually engaged in plunder and rapine. Wholly bent on fucre, they did not consider any gain as infamous or unlawful; and were entire strangers to the laws of peace or war. They were very much inured to toils, and intrepid in battle. They signalised themselves particularly in the war against the Gauls, who made an irruption into Greece; and showed themselves zealous defenders of the public liberty against the Macedonians. The increase of their power had made them haughty and insolent. That haughtiness appeared in the answer they gave the Romans, when they sent ambassadors to order them not to infest Acarnania. They expressed, if we may believe Trogus Pompeius, or Justin his epitomiser, the highest contempt for Rome, which they said was in its origin a shameful receptacle of thieves and robbers, founded and built by a fratricide, and formed by an assemblage of women ravished from the arms of their parents. They added, that the Ætolians had always distinguished themselves in Greece, as much by their valour as their virtue and descent; that neither Philip nor Alexander his son had been formidable to them; and that at a time when the latter made the whole earth tremble, they had not been afraid to reject his edicts and injunctions. That therefore the Romans would do well to beware of provoking the Ætolians against them; a people whose arms had extirpated the Gauls, and despised the Macedonians. The reader may from this speech form a judgment of the Etolians, of whom much will be said in the sequel.

b

a Strab. 1 x. p. 450. Polyb. p. 331 et 746. Pausan, l. x. p. 650. 6 Justin. 1. xxviii, c, 2.

From the time that Cleomenes of Sparta had lost his kingdom, and Antigonus, by his victory at Selacia, had in some measure restored the peace of Greece, the inhabitants of Peloponnesus, who were tired by the first wars, and imagined that affairs would always continue on the same foot, had laid their arms aside, and totally neglected military discipline. The Ætolians meditated taking advantage of this indolence. Peace was insupportable to them, as it obliged them to subsist at their own expense, accustomed as they were to support themselves wholly by rapine. Antigonus had kept them in awe, and prevented them from infesting their neighbours; but after his death, despising Philip because of his youth, they marched into Peloponnesus sword in hand, and laid waste the territories of the Messenians. Aratus, exasperated at this perfidy and insolence, and seeing that Timoxenes, at that time captain-general of the Achæans, endeavoured to gain time, because his year was near expiring; as he was nominated to succeed him the following year, he took upon him the command five days before the due time, in order to march the sooner to the aid of the Messenians. b Accordingly, having assembled the Achæans, whose vigour and strength had suffered by repose and inactivity, he was defeated near Caphya, in a great battle fought there.

Aratus was charged with being the cause of this defeat, and not without some foundation. He endeavoured to prove that the loss of the battle imputed to him was not his fault. He declared, that, however this might be, if he had been wanting in any of the duties of an able commander, he asked pardon; and intreated that his actions might be examined with less rigour than indulgence. His humility, on this occasion, changed the minds of the whole assembly, whose a fury now turned against his accusers, and nothing was afterwards undertaken but by his advice. However, the re-. membrance of his defeat had exceedingly damped his courage; so that he behaved as a wise citizen, rather than as an able warrior; and though the Ætolians often gave him opportunities to distress them, he took no advantage of them, but suffered that people to lay waste the whole country almost with impunity.

The Achæans were therefore forced to apply to Macedonia again, and to call in king Philip to their assistance, in hopes that the affection he bore Aratus, and the confidence he had in him, would incline that monarch to favour them. And indeed Antigonus, at his last moments, had above_all things intreated Philip to keep well with Aratus; and to a Polyb. Liv. p. 272-292. Plut. in Arat, p. 1049,

b A. M. 3783. Ant. J. C. 234. VOL. VI.

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