made himself so much the abhorrence of the people, by his violent proceedings, that they would have left him neither life nor government, had not his brother snatched him from their resentment, by making himself mediator. That, at the time he was preserved from this danger, he thought himself too happy in reigning over the region allotted to him; and that both sides had ratified the treaty before the altar of the gods, and sworn to observe their agreement with each other. Quintus and Canuleius, who had negotiated the accommodation between the brothers, confirmed the truth of all Menethyllus advanced.

The senate, seeing that in fact the partition was not equal, artfully took advantage of the quarrel between the two brothers to diminish the strength of the kingdom of Egypt, by dividing it, and granted the younger what he demanded; for, such was then the policy of the Romans. Polybius makes this reflection. They made the quarrels and differences of princes the means of extending and strengthening their own power, and behaved in regard to them with so much address, that, whilst they acted solely from their own interest, the contending parties were however obliged to them. As therefore the great power of Egypt gave them reason to apprehend it would become too formidable if it fell into the hands of one sovereign who knew how to use it, they adjudged the isle of Cyprus to Physcon. Demetrius, who did not lose sight of the throne of Syria, and who, on his part, was interested that so powerful a prince as the king of Egypt should not continue in possession of the island of Cyprus, supported the demand of Physcon with all his influence. The Romans made T. Torquatus and Cn. Merula set out with the latter, to put him in possession of it.

During that prince's stay at Rome, he had often the opportunity of seeing Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and caused proposals of marriage to be made to her. But, as she was the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the widow of Tiberius Gracchus, who had been twice consul and censor, she rejected his offers, and believed it more honourable to be one of the first ladies of Rome than queen of Lybia with Phys

con.

Physcon set out from Rome with the two Roman ambassadors. Their plan was to concert an interview between the two brothers upon the frontier, and by means of a negotiation to bring them to that agreement which the senate had fixed. Philometor did not explain himself openly at first. He spun out the affair to as great a length as he could, upon different pretexts, endeavouring to gain time, and taking seeret measures against his brother. At length he declared a Plut. in Tib. Grac. p. 824.

plainly, that he was resolved to stand to the first treaty, and that he would make no other.

The Cyrenans, in the mean time, a informed of the ill conduct of Physcon during the time that he was in possession of the government at Alexandria, conceived so strong an aversion for him, that they resolved to keep him out of their country by force of arms. It was not doubted but Philometor had covertly taken pains to excite these disturbances. Physcon, who had been overthrown by the rebels in a battle, having almost lost all hope, sent two deputies with the Roman ambassadors on their return to Rome, with orders to lay his complaints against his brother before the senate, and to solicit their protection. The senate, offended at Philometor's refusal to evacuate the island of Cyprus, according to their decree, declared that there was no longer any amity and alliance between him and the Romans, and ordered his ambassadors to quit Rome in five days.

Physcon found means to re-establish himself in Cyrenaica, but made himself so generally hated by his subjects, through his ill conduct, that some of them fell upon him and wounded him in several places, and left him for dead upon the spot. He imputed this to his brother Philometor; and, when he was recovered of his wounds, undertook again a voyage to Rome. He there made his complaints against him to the senate, showed the scars of his wounds, and accused him of having employed the assassins from whom he received them. Though Philometor was the most humane of all princes, and could not be the least suspected of so black and barbarous an action, the senate, who were angry at his refusal to submit to the regulation they had made, in regard to the isle of Cyprus, gave ear to this false accusation with too much facility. They carried their prejudice so high against him, that they would not so much as hear what his ambassadors had to say in his defence. Orders were sent to them to quit Rome immediately. Besides which, the senate appointed five commissioners to conduct Physcon into Cyprus, and to put him in possession of that island, and wrote to all their allies near it to aid him for that purpose with all their troops.

Physcon, by this means, with an army which seemed to him sufficient for the execution of his design, landed in the island. Philometor, who had gone thither in person, defeated him, and obliged him to shut himself up in Lapitho, where he was soon invested, besieged, and at length taken, and put into the hands of the brother whom he had so cruelly injured. Philometor's exceeding goodness appeared upon this

a A. M. 3843. Ant. J. C. 161. Polyb. Legat. cxxxii. 1d. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 197. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 334. b A. M. 3847. Ant. J. C. 157.

occasion. After all that Physcon had done against him, it was expected, that, as he now had him in his power, he would make him sensible of his indignation and revenge. He forgave him every thing; and, not contented with pardoning his faults, he even restored him Lybia and Cyrenaica, and added farther some amends in lieu of the isle of Cyprus. That act of generosity put an end to the war between the two brothers. It was not renewed, and the Romans were ashamed of any longer opposing a prince of such extraordinary clemency. There is no reader who does not secretly pay the homage of esteem and admiration to so generous an action. Such inward sentiments, which are founded in nature, and anticipate all reflections, imply how great and noble it is to forget and pardon injuries, and what a meanness of soul there is in the resentment of the revengeful.

SECT. III.

Octavius, the Roman ambassador in Syria, is there killed. Death of Judas Maccabeus.

We have seen that the principal object of the commission of the three Roman ambassadors, Cn. Octavius, Sp. Lucretius, and L. Aurelius, who went first into Egypt, was to go into Syria, in order to regulate the affairs of that nation. When they arrived there, they found the king had more ships and elephants than had been stipulated by the treaty made with Antiochus the Great after the battle of Sipylus. They caused the ships to burnt, and the elephants to be killed, which exceeded the number stated in that treaty, and regulated all other matters in such a manner as they thought most to the advantage of the Romans. This treatment seemed insupportable, and exasperated the people against them. A person named Leptines was so incensed at it, that in his rage he fell upon Octavius, whilst he was bathing, and killed him. It was suspected that Lysias, the regent of the kingdom, had secretly a hand in this assassination. Ambassadors were immediately sent to Rome, to justify the king, and to protest, that he had no share in the action. The senate sent them back without giving them any answer, to signify, by that silence, their indignation for the murder committed upon the person of Octavius, the examination and punishment of which they reserved to themselves. In the

a A. M. 3842. Ant. J. C. 162. Appian in Syr. p. 117. Polyb. Legat. Exiv. et exxii. Cicer Philip. ix. n. 4, 5. Justin, 1. xxxiv. e. 3.

b This Octavius bad been consul some years before, and was the first of his family who had attained that honour. Cic. Philip. ix. n. 4.-Octavius Cæsar, who became emperor, so well known under the name of Augustus, was of the same family with this Octavius, but of another branch, into which the consular dignity had never entered.

mean time, to do honour to his memory, they erected a statue to him amongst those of the great men, who had lost their lives in defence of their country.

Demetrius believed that the displeasure of the Romans against Eupator was a favourable conjuncture, of which it was proper for him to take the advantage, and addressed himself a second time to the senate, to obtain their permission to return into Syria. He took this step contrary to the opinion of the greatest part of his friends; who advised him to make his escape, without saying any thing. The event soon showed him how much they were in the right. As the senate had still the same motives of interest for keeping him at Rome as at first, he received the same answer, and had the mortification to experience a second denial. He had then recourse to the first advice of his friends; and Polybius, the historian, who was at Rome, was one of those who pressed him with the utmost warmth to put it in execution with secrecy and dispatch. He took his advice. After concerting all his measures, he left Rome under pretence of a hunting-match, went to Ostia, and embarked with a small train in a Carthaginian vessel bound for Tyre that waited for him ". It was three days before it was known at Rome, that he had stolen away. All that the senate could do was some days after to send Tib. Gracchus, L. Lentulus, and Servilius Glaucia, into Syria, to observe what effect the return of Demetrius would produce there.

Demetrius having landed at Tripoli, in Syria, a report spread that the senate had sent him to take possession of his dominions, and had resolved to support him in them. Eupator was immediately looked upon as a lost man, and every one abandoned him to join Demetrius. Eupator and Lysias, seized by their own troops, were delivered up to the new-comer, who ordered them to be put to death. Demetrius saw himself established by this means upon the throne without opposition, and with prodigious rapidity.

One of the first actions of his reign was to deliver the Babylonians from the tyranny of Timarchus and Heraclides, who had been the two great favourites of Antiochus Epiphanes. He had made the first governor, and the second treasurer, of that province. Timarchus having added rebellion to his other crimes, Demetrius caused him to be put to death. He contented himself with banishing the other. The Babylonians were so much rejoiced to see themselves freed from the oppression of those two brothers, that upon this occasion

a That ship was carrying to Tyre, according to custom, the first fruits of the lands and revenues of Carthage

61 Maccab. vii. viii. ix. et 2 Maccab. xiv. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xji. xiii. Appian. in Syr. p. 117. Justin. 1. xxxiv. c. 3.

they gave their deliverer the title of SOTER, or SAVIOUR, which he bore ever afterwards.

Alcimus, whom Antiochus Eupator had made high-priest of the Jews after the death of Menelaus, not being qualified to be admitted by them in that capacity, because he had profaned the sanctity of the priesthood by following the impious customs of the Greeks under Antiochus Epiphanes, gathered together all the apostate Jews, who had taken refuge at Antioch, after having been expelled Judæa, and, putting himself at their head, came to petition the new king to defend them from the oppressions of Judas and his brothers, venting a thousand calumnies against them. He accused them of having killed all persons of Demetrius's party who fell into their hands, and of having forced him, with all those in his company, to abandon their country, and seek their security elsewhere. Demetrius immediately ordered Bacchides, governor of Mesopotamia, to march into Judæa, at the head of an army, and, confirming Alcimus in his office, he joined him in commission with Bacchides, and charged them both with the care of this war. Judas rendered all the efforts of this first army ineffectual, as he did also those of a second, which was commanded by Nicanor. The latter, enraged at the last defeat of the troops of Syria, and indignant that a handful of men should make head against such numerous and warlike armies, and knowing that they placed their whole confidence of victory in the protection of the GOD of Israel, and in the promises made in the temple where he was honoured, had uttered a thousand blasphemies against the Almighty, and against his temple. He was soon punished for them. Judas engaged him in a bloody battle, and, of his army of 35,000 men, not one escaped to carry the news of the defeat to Antioch. The body of Nicanor was found amongst the dead. His head and right hand, which he had lifted up against the temple threatening to destroy it, were cut off and placed upon one of the towers of Jerusalem.

Judas, after this complete victory, having some relaxation, sent an embassy to Rome. He saw himself continually attacked by the whole forces of Syria, without being able to rely with good reason upon any treaty of peace. He had no aid to expect from the neighbouring nations, who, far from interesting themselves for the preservation of the Jewish people, in concert with the Syrians, entertained no thoughts but of extirpating them. He had been informed that the Romans, equally esteemed for their justice and valour, were always ready to support weak nations against the oppression of kings, whose power gave them umbrage. He therefore thought of making an alliance with that people, in order to support himself by their protection against the unjust enter