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compassion at her misfortune: in consequence of which they formed a confederacy, and sent a body of troops to Antioch for her relief. Her brother Ptolemy Evergetes was also as expeditious as possible to advance thither with a formidable army; but the unhappy Berenice and her children were dead before any of these auxiliary troops could arrive at the place where the siege had been carried on against her. When they therefore saw that all their endeavours to save the queen and her children were rendered ineffectual, they immediately determined to revenge her death in a remarkable manner. troops of Asia joined those of Egypt, and Ptolemy, who commanded them, was as successful as he could desire in the satisfaction of his just resentment. The criminal proceeding of Laodice, and of the king her son, who had made himself an accomplice in her barbarity, soon alienated the affection of the people from them; and Ptolemy not only caused Laodice to suffer death, but made himself master of all Syria and Cilicia; after which he passed the Euphrates, and conquered all the country as far as Babylon and the Tigris: and if the progress of his arms had not been interrupted by a sedition which obliged him to return to Egypt, he would certainly have subdued all the provinces of the Syrian empire. He, however, left Antiochus, one of his generals, to govern the provinces he had gained on this side of mount Taurus; and Xantippus was entrusted with those that lay beyond it; Ptolemy then marched back to Egypt, laden with the spoils he had acquired by his conquests.

This prince carried off forty thousand * talents of silver, with a prodigious quantity of gold and silver vessels, and two thousand five hundred statues, part of which were those Egyptian idols, that Cambyses, after his conquest of this kingdom, had sent into Persia. Ptolemy gained the hearts of his subjects

About six millions sterling.

by replacing those idols in their ancient temples, when he returned from this expedition: for the Egyptians, who were more devoted to their superstitious idolatry than all the rest of mankind, thought they could not sufficiently express their veneration and gratitude to a king, who had restored their gods to them in such a manner. Ptolemy derived from this action the title of Evergetes, which signifies a Benefactor, and is infinitely preferable to all appellations which conquerors have assumed from a false idea of glory. An epithet of this nature is the true characteristic of kings, whose solid greatness consists in the inclination and ability to improve the welfare of their subjects; and it were to be wished, that Ptolemy had merited this title by actions more wor thy of it.

All this was also accomplished exactly as the prophet Daniel had foretold, and we need only cite the text, to prove what we advance. [ " But out of

a branch of her root (intimating the king of the South, who was Ptolemy Evergetes, the son of Ptolemy Philadelphus) shall one stand up in his estate, who shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the North (Seleucus Callinicus) and shall deal against them, and shall prevail. And shall also carry captives into Egypt, their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver, and of gold, and he shall continue more years than the king of the North. So the king of the South shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land:" namely, into that of Egypt.

When Ptolemy Evergetes first set out on this expedition, his queen Berenice, who tenderly loved him, being apprehensive of the dangers to which he would be exposed in the war, made a vow to consecrate her hair, if he should happen to return in

* Dan. xi. 7.-9. "Hygini. Poet. Astron. 1. ii: Nonnus in Hist. Synag. Catullus de coma Beren.

142

safety. This was undoubtedly a sacrifice of the ornament she most esteemed; and when she at last saw him return with so much glory, the accomplishment of her promise was her immediate care; in order to which she caused her hair to be cut off, and then dedicated it to the gods, in the temple which Ptolemy Philadelphus had founded in honour to his beloved Arsinoe on Zephyriom, a promontory in Cyprus, under the name of the Zephyrian Venus. This consecrated hair being lost soon after by some unknown accident, Ptolemy was extremely offended with the priests for their negligence; upon which Conon of Samos, an artful courtier, and also a mathematician, being then at Alexandria, took upon him to affirm, that the locks of the queen's hair had been conveyed to heaven, and he pointed out seven stars near the lion's tail, which till then had never been part of any constellation; declaring, at the same time, that those were the hair of Berenice. Several other astronomers, either to make their court as well as Conon, or that they might not draw upon themselves the displeasure of Ptolemy, gave those stars the same name, which is still used to this day. Callimachus, who had been at the court of Philadelphus, composed a short poem on the hair of Berenice, which Catullus afterwards translated into Latin, which version is come down to us.

* Ptolemy, in his return from this expedition, passed through Jerusalem, where he offered a great number of sacrifices to the GOD of Israel, in order to render homage to him, for the victories he had obtained over the king of Syria; by which action he evidently discovered his preference of the true GOD to all the idols of Egypt. Perhaps the prophecies of Daniel were shown to that prince, and he might conclude, from what they contained, that all his conquests and successes were owing to that Gon

x Joseph. contr. Appian. 1. ii.

who had caused them to be foretold so exactly by his prophets.

y Seleucus had been detained for some time in his kingdom, by the apprehension of domestic troubles; but when he received intelligence that Ptolemy was returning to Egypt, he set sail with a considerable fleet, to reduce the revolted cities. His enterprise was, however, ineffectual; for, as soon as he advanced into the open sea, his whole navy was destroyed by a violent tempest; as if heaven itself, says Justin*, had made the winds and waves the ministers of his vengeance on this parricide. Seleucus, and some of his attendants, were almost the only persons who were saved, and it was with great difficulty that they escaped naked from the wreck. But this dreadful stroke, which seemed intended to overwhelm him, contributed, on the contrary, to the re-establishment of his affairs. The cities of Asia which had revolted, through the horror they conceived against him, after the murder of Berenice and her children, no sooner received intelligence of the great loss he had now sustained, than they imagined him sufficiently punished, and as their ha tred was then changed into compassion, they all declared for him anew.

This unexpected change having reinstated him in the greatest part of his dominions, he was industrious to raise another army to recover the rest. This effort, however, proved as unsuccessful as the former; his army was defeated by the forces of Ptolemy, who cut off the greatest part of his troops. He saved himself at Antioch, with the small number of men who were left him when he escaped from the shipwreck at sea: as if, says a certain historian, he had recovered his former power only to lose it a second time with the greater mortification, by a fatal vicissitude of fortune.

y Justin. 1. xxvii. e. 2.

Velut dis ipsis parricidium vindicantibus. .

+ Quasi ad ludibrium tantùm fortunæ natus esset, nec propter aliud pes regni recepisset, quàm ut amitteret. JUSTIN.

A. M. 3760.

Ant. J. C.

244.

After this second frustration of his affairs, the cities of Smyrna and Magnesia, in Asia Minor, were induced, by mere affection to Seleucus, to form a confederacy in his favour, by which they mutually stipulated to support him. They were greatly attached to his family, from whom they undoubtedly had received many extraordinary favours: they had even rendered divine honours to his father, Antiochus Theos, and also to Stratonice, the mother of this latter. Callinicus retained a grateful remembrance of the regard these cities had testified for his interest, and afterwards granted them several advantageous privileges. They caused the treaty we have mentioned to be engraven on a large column of marble, which still subsists, and is now in the area before the theatre at Oxford. This column was brought out of Asia, by Thomas Earl of Arundel, at the beginning of the reign of Charles the First, and with several other antique marbles, were presented to the university of Oxford by his grandson, Henry Duke of Norfolk, in the reign of Charles the Second. All the learned world ought to think themselves indebted to noblemen who are emulous to adorn and enrich universities in such a generous manner; and I wish the same zeal had been ever testified for that of Paris, the mother of all the rest, and whose antiquity and reputation, in conjunction with the abilities of her professors, and her attachment to the sacred persons of Kings, have rendered her worthy of being favoured in a peculiar manner by princes and great men. The establishment of a library in this illustrious seminary would be an immortal honour to the person who should lay the foundation of such a work.

Seleucus, in the extremities to which he was reduced, had made application to his brother Antiochus, whom he promised to invest with the sovereignty of the provinces of Asia Minor, provided he would join him with his troops, and act in concert with him. The young prince was then at the head

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