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THE KING'S LETTER TO THE MARSHAL D'ASFELDT.

"Cousin,

"I am fully sensible of the important service you have "done me in taking Philipsburgh. Nothing less than your courage and resolution could have surmounted the obsta"cles to that enterprise, occasioned by the inundations of the "Rhine. You have had the satisfaction to see your exam"ple inspire the officers and soldiers with the same sentiments. I caused an account to be sent me daily, of all the "transactions of that siege, and always observed, that the "ardour and patience of my troops increased in proportion "to the difficulties that arose, either from the swelling of the "floods, the presence of the enemy, or the fire of the place. "Every kind of success may be expected from so valiant a "nation; and I enjoin you to inform the general officers and others, and even the whole army, that I am highly satis"fied with them. You need not doubt my having the same "sentiments with regard to you; to assure you of which is "the sole motive of this letter; and (Cousin) 1 beseech the Almighty to have you in his holy keeping.

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"Versailles, July 23, 1734.”

I now return to the history. After Manlius had ended the speech repeated above, the army discovered, by their shouts, how impatiently they desired to be led against the enemy; and accordingly the consul entered their territories. The Gauls did not once suspect that the Romans would invade them, as their country lay so remote from them, and therefore were not prepared to oppose them. But notwithstanding this, they made a long and vigorous resistance. They laid wait for Manlius in defiles; disputed the passes with him; shut themselves up in their strongest fortresses, and retired to such eminences as they thought inaccessible. However, the consul, so far from being discouraged, followed, and forced them wherever he came. He attacked them separately, stormed their cities, and defeated them in several engagements. I shall not descend to particulars, which were of little importance, and consequently would only tire the reader. The Gauls were obliged at last to submit, and to confine themselves within the limits prescribed them.

By this victory, the Romans delivered the whole country from the perpetual terrors it was under from those Barbarians, who hitherto had done nothing but harass and plunder their neighbours. So happy a tranquillity was restored in this quarter, that the empire of the Romans was established there from the river Halys to Mount Taurus; and the kings of Syria were for ever excluded from all Asia Minor.

"We are told that Antiochus said, on this occasion, that he was highly obliged to the Romans for having freed him from the cares and troubles which the government of so vast an extent of country must necessarily have brought upon him.

c Fulvius, one of the consuls, returned to Rome, in order to preside in the assembly. The consulate was given to M. Valerius Messala, and C. Livius Salinator. The instant the assembly broke up, Fulvius returned to his own province. Himself and Manlius his colleague were continued in the command of the armies for a year, in quality of proconsuls. Manlius had repaired to Ephesus, to settle with the ten commissioners who had been appointed by the senate, the most important articles of their commission. The treaty of peace with Antiochus was confirmed, as also that which Manlius had concluded with the Gauls. Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, had been sentenced to pay the Romans six hundred talents (six hundred thousand crowns) for having assisted Antiochus; however, half this sum was abated at the request of Eumenes, who was to marry his daughter. Manlius made a present to Eumenes of all the elephants which Antiochus, according to the treaty, had delivered up to the Romans. He repassed into Europe with his forces, after having admitted the deputies of the several cities to audience, and settled the chief difficulties among them.

d Antiochus was very much puzzled how to raise the sum he was to pay the Romans. He made a progress through the eastern provinces, in order to levy the tribute which they owed him; and left the regency of Syria, during his absence, to Seleucus his son whom he had declared his presumptive heir. Being arrived in the province of Elymais, he was informed that there was a very considerable treasure in the temple of Jupiter Belus. This was a strong temptation to a prince who had little regard for religion, and was in extreme want of money. Accordingly, upon a false pretence that the inhabitants of that province had rebelled against him, he entered the temple in the dead of night, and carried off all the riches which had been kept there very religiously during a long series of years. However, the people, exasperated by this sacrilege, rebelled against him, and murdered him with all his followers. e Aurelius Victor says, that he was killed by some of his own officers, whom he had beaten one day when he was heated with liquor.

a Cic. Orat. pro. Dejot. n. 36. Val. Max. 1. iv. e. 1.

Antiochus magnus-dicere est solitus, Benigne sibi a populo Romano esse factum, quod nimis magna procuratione liberatus, modicis regni terminis utere

tur.

Cic.

c A. M. 3816.

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et A. M. 3817. Ant. J. C. 187. 2. Hieron, in Dan. cap. xi.

Diod. in Excerpt. p. 298. Justin. 1. xxxii. c. e De virisi llust, cap. liv.

This prince was highly worthy of praise for his humanity, clemency, and liberality. A decree, which we are told he enacted, whereby he gave his subjects permission, and even commanded them, not to obey his ordinances, in case they should be found to interfere with the laws, shows that he had a high regard for justice. Till the age of fifty he had behaved, on all occasions, with such bravery, prudence, and application, as had given success to all his enterprises, and acquired him the title of the Great. But from that time his wisdom, as well as application, had declined very much, and his affairs in proportion. His conduct in the war against the Romans; the little advantage he reaped. by, or rather his contempt for, the wise counsels of Hannibal; the ignominious peace he was obliged to accept: these circumstances sullied the glory of his former successes; and his death, occasioned by a wicked and sacrilegious enterprise, threw an indelible blot upon his name and memory.

The prophecies of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, from the 10th to the 19th verse, relate to the actions of this prince, and were fully accomplished.

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a "But his sons (of the king of the North) shall be stirred 46 up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one (Antiochus the Great) shall certainly come and over"flow, and pass through: then shall he return and be stirred up even to his fortress." This king of the North was Seleucus Callinicus, who left behind him two sons, Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus, afterwards surnamed the Great. The former reigned but three years, and was succeeded by Antiochus his brother. The latter after having pacified the troubles of his kingdom, made war against Ptolemy Philopator, king of the South, that is of Egypt; dispossessed him of Colosyria, which was delivered to him by Theodotus, governor of that province; defeated Ptolemy's generals in the narrow passes near Berytus, and made himself master of part of Phoenicia. Ptolemy then endeavoured to amuse him by overtures of peace. The Hebrew is still more expresSive. "He (meaning Antiochus) shall come. He shall over"flow the enemy's country. He shall pass over Mount Li"banus. He shall halt, whilst overtures of peace are making him. He shall advance with ardour as far as the fortreses," that is, to the frontiers of Egypt. Ptolemy's victory is clearly pointed out in the following verses.

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"And the king of the South shall be moved with choler, "and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the 'king of the North: and he shall set forth a great multi66 tude, but the multitude shall be given into his hand." Ptolemy Philopator was an indolent, effeminate prince. It

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was necessary to excite and drag him, in a manner, out of his lethargy, in order to prevail with him to take up arms and repulse the enemy who were preparing to march into his country: provocatus. At last he put himself at the head of his troops; and by the valour and good conduct of his generals, obtained a signal victory over Antiochus at Raphia.

a" And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart "shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many ten thou"sands; but he shall not be strengthened by it." Antiochus lost upwards of ten thousand foot, and three hundred horse, and four thousand of his men were taken prisoners. Philopater having marched after his victory to Jerusalem, was so audacious as to attempt to enter the sanctuary, "his "heart shall be lifted up ;" and being returned to his kingdom, he behaved with the utmost pride towards the Jews, and treated them very cruelly. He might have dispossess. ed Antiochus of his dominions, had he taken a proper advantage of his glorious victory; but he contented himself with recovering Colosyria and Phoenicia, and again plunged into his former excesses; "but he shall not be strengthened by it."

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"For the king of the North shall return, and shall set "forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come (after certain years) with a great army, and "with much riches." Antiochus, after he had ended the war beyond the Euphrates, raised a great army in those provinces. Finding, fourteen years after the conclusion of the first war, that Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was then but five or six years of age, had succeeded Philopator his father; he united with Philip king of Macedon, in order to deprive the infant king of his throne. Having defeated Scopas at Panium, near the source of the river Jordan, he subjected the whole country which Philopator had conquered, by the victory he had gained at Raphia.

"And in those times there shall many stand up against "the king of the South." This prophecy was fulfilled by the league between the kings of Macedonia and Syria against the infant monarch of Egypt: by the conspiracy of Agathoeles and Agathoclea for the regency: and by that of Scopas, to dispossess him of his crown and life. "Also the robbers "of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, "but they shall fall." Several apostate Jews, to ingratiate themselves with the king of Egypt, complied with every thing he required of them, even in opposition to the sacred ordinances of the law, by which means they were in great favour with him, but their influence was not long-lived; for

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when Antiochus regained possession of Judea and Jerusalem, he either extirpated, or drove out of the country, all the partisans of Ptolemy. This subjection of the Jews to the sovereignty of the kings of Syria, prepared the way for the accomplishment of the prophecy, which denounced the calamities that Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the Great, was to bring upon this people; which occasioned a great number of them to "fall" into apostacy.

"So the king of the North shall come, and cast up a mount, "and take the most fenced cities, and the arms of the South "shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall "there be any strength to withstand. But he that cometh against him, shall do according to his own will, and none "shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious "land which by his hand shall be consumed." Antiochus, after having defeated the Egyptian army at Paneas, besieged and took, first Sidon, then Gaza, and afterwards all the cities of those provinces, notwithstanding the opposition made by the chosen troops which the king of Egypt had sent against him. "He did according to his own will," in Colosyria and Palestine, and nothing was able to withstand him. Pursuing his conquests in Palestine, he entered Judea, "that glorious," or, according to the Hebrew " that desirable land." He there established his authority; and strengthened it, by repulsing from the castle of Jerusalem the garrison which Scopas had thrown into it. This garrison being so well defended, that Antiochus was obliged to send for all his troops in order to force it; and the siege continuing a long time, the country was ruined and "consumed" by the stay the army was obliged to make in it.

"He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of "his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him: thus shall "he do, and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be "for him." Antiochus, seeing that the Romans undertook the defence of young Ptolemy Epiphanes, thought it would best suit his interest to lull the king asleep, by giving him his daughter in marriage, in order to "corrupt her," and excite her to betray her husband; but he was not successful in his design; for as soon as she was married to Ptolemy, she re nounced her father's interests, and embraced those of her husband. It was on this account that we see her joined with him in the embassy which was sent from Egypt to Rome, to congratulate the Romans on the victory which Acilius had gained over her father at Thermopyla.

e" After this he shall turn his face unto his isles, and shall

a Ver. 15.

b Ver. 16.

c Ver. 17.

d Legati ab Ptolemæo et Cleopatra, regibus Ægypti gratulantes quod Manius Acilius consul Antiochum regem Gracia expulisset, venerunt, hiv. 1. saavħ, n. 2

e Ver. 18.

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