"take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause "the reproach offered by him [Antiochus] to cease; with"out his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him." Antiochus, having put an end to the war of Colosyria and Palestine, sent his two sons, at the head of the land-army, to Sardis, whilst himself embarked on board the fleet, and sailed to the Ægean sea, where he took several islands, and extended his empire exceedingly on that side. However, "the. prince" of the people, whom he had insulted by making this invasion, that is, L. Scipio the Roman consul, "caused "the reproach to turn upon him;" by defeating him at Mount Sipylus and repulsing him from every part of Asia Minor. a" Then he shall turn his face towards the fort of his own "land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found." Antiochus, after his defeat, returned to Antioch, the capital of his kingdom, and the strongest fortress in it. He went soon after into the provinces of the Fast, in order to levy money to pay the Romans; but, having plundered the tem ple of Elymais, he there lost his life in a miserable manner. Such is the prophecy of Daniel relating to Antiochus, which I have explained in most places, according to the Hebrew text. I confess there may be some doubtful and obscure terms, which may be difficult to explain, and are variously interpreted by commentators; but is it possible for the substance of the prophecy to appear obscure and doubtful? Can any reasonable man, who makes use of his understanding, ascribe such a prediction, either to mere chance, or to the conjectures of human prudence and sagacity? Can any light but that which proceeds from GOD himself, penetrate, in this manner, into the darkness of futurity, and point out the events of it in so exact and circumstantial a manner Not to mention what is here said concerning Egypt, Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria, leaves two children behind him. The eldest reigns but three years, and does not perform any exploit worthy of being recorded; and, accordingly, the prophet does not take any notice of him. The youngest is Antiochus, surnamed the Great, from his great actions; and accordingly, our prophet gives an abstract of the principal circumstances of his life, his most important enterprises, and even the manner of his death. In it we see his expeditions into Cœlosyria and Phoenicia, several cities of which are besieged and taken by that monarch; his entrance into Jerusalem, which is laid waste by the stay his troops make in it; his conquest of a great many islands; the marriage of his daughter with the king of Egypt, which does not answer the design he had in view; his overthrow by the Roman con a Ver. 19. sul, his retreat to Antioch, and, lastly, his unfortunate end, These are, in a manner, the outlines of Antiochus's picture, which can be made to resemble none but himself. Is it to be supposed that the prophet drew those features without design and at random, in the picture he has left us of him? The facts, which denote the accomplishment of the prophecy, are all told by heathen authors, who lived many centuries after the prophet, and whose fidelity cannot be suspected. We must renounce, not only religion, but reason, to refuse to acknowledge, in such prophecies as these, the intervention of a Supreme Being, to whom all ages are present, and who governs the world with absolute power. son, SECT. IX. Seleucus Philopator succeeds Antiochus. Complaints against Philip. a Antiochus the Great dying, Seleucus Philopator, his eldest whom he had left in Antioch when he set out for the eastern provinces, succeeded him. But his reign was obscure and contemptible, occasioned by the misery to which the Romans had reduced that crown; and the exorbitant sum (a thousand talents annually) he was obliged to pay, during all his reign, by virtue of the treaty of peace concluded between the king his father and that people. Ptolemy Epiphanes at that time reigned in Egypt. Immediately upon his accession to the throne, he had sent an ambassador into Achaia, to renew the alliance which the king his father had formerly concluded with the Achæans. The latter accepted of this offer with joy; and accordingly sent, deputies to the king, Lycortas, father of Polybius the historian, and two other ambassadors. The alliance being renewed, Philopomen, who was at that time in office, inviting Ptolemy's ambassador to a banquet, the conversation turned upon that prince. In the praise which the ambassador bestowed upon him, he expatiated very much on his dexterity in the chace, his address in riding, and his vigour and activity in the exercise of his arms; and to give an example of what he asserted, he declared, that this prince, in a party of hunting, had killed, on horseback, a wild bull with one stroke of his javelin. The same year that Antiochus died, Cleopatra his daughter, queen of Egypt, had a son, who reigned after Epiphanes his father, and was called Ptolemy Philometor. The whole realm expressed great joy upon the birth of this prince. Cœlosyria and Palestine distinguished themselves above all a A. M. 3817. Ant. J. C. 187. Appian. in Syr. p. 16. 6 About 150,0001, c Polyb. in Leg. c. xxxvii. d Joseph, Antiq. lib. xii. c. 4. VOL. VII. D 66 the provinces, and the most considerable persons of those countries went to Alexandria upon that occasion with the most splendid equipages. Josephus, of whom I have spoken elsewhere, who was receiver-general of those provinces, being too old to take such a journey, sent his youngest son, Hyrcanus, in his stead, who was a young man of abundance of wit, and very engaging manners. The king and queen gave him a very favourable reception, and did him the honour of a place at their table. A buffoon, who used to divert the king with his jests, said to him; "Do but behold, sir, the quantity of bones before Hyrcanus, and your majesty may judge in what a manner his father gnaws your provinces. Those words made the king laugh; and he asked Hyrcanus how he came to have so great a number of bones before him. Your majesty need not wonder at that," replied he, "for "dogs eat both flesh and bones, as you see the rest of the persons at your table have done (pointing to them); but men are contented to eat the flesh, and leave the bones "like me." The mockers were mocked by that retort, and continued mute and confused.-When the day for making the presents arrived, as Hyrcanus had given out that he had only a five talents to present, it was expected that he would be very ill received by the king, and people diverted themselves with the thoughts of it beforehand. The greatest presents made by the rest did not exceed twenty talents. But Hyrcanus presented to the king an hundred boys, well shaped and finely dressed, whom he had brought, each of them bringing a talent as an offering; and to the queen as many girls in magnificent habits, each with a like present for that princess. The whole court was amazed at such uncommon and surprising magnificence; and the king and queen dismissed Hyrcanus with the highest marks of their favour and esteem. 66 с Ptolemy, in the first year of his reign, governed in so auspicious a manner, as gained him universal approbation and applause because he followed, in all things, the advice of Aristomenes, who was another father to him; but afterwards the flattery of courtiers (that deadly poison to kings) prevailed over the wise counsels of that able minister. That prince shunned him, and began to give in to all the vices and failings of his father. Not being able to endure the liberty which Aristomenes frequently took of advising him to act more worthy of his high station, he dispatched him by poison. Having thus got rid of a troublesome censor, whose sight alone was importunate, from the tacit reproaches it seemed to make him, he abandoned himself entirely to his a About 7501. & About 30001. eA, M, 3820, Ant, J, C, 184. Diod in Excerpt. p. 294. vicious inclinations; plunged into excesses and disorders of every kind; followed no other guides in the administration of affairs, than his unbridled passions; and treated his subjects with the cruelty of a tyrant. The Egyptians, growing at last quite weary of the oppressions, and injustice to which they were daily exposed, began to cabal together, and to form associations against a king who oppressed them so grievously. Some persons of the highest quality having engaged in this conspiracy, they had already formed designs for deposing him, and were upon the point of putting them in execution. a To extricate himself from the difficulties in which he was now involved, he chose Polycrates for his prime minister, a man of great bravery as well as abilities, and who had the most consummate experience in affairs both of peace and war; for he had risen to the command of the army under his father, and had served in that quality in the battle of Raphia, on which occasion he had contributed very much to the victory. He was afterwards governor of the island of Cyprus; and happening to be in Alexandria when Scopas's conspiracy was discovered, the expedients he employed on that Occasion conduced very much to the preservation of the state. Ptolemy, by the assistance of this able minister, overcame the rebels. He obliged their chiefs, who were the principal lords of the country, to capitulate and submit on certain conditions. But, having seized their persons, he violated his promise; and, after having exercised various cruelties upon them, put them all to death. This perfidious conduct brought new troubles upon him, from which the abilities of Polycrates again extricated him. The Achæan league, at the time we are now speaking of, seems to have been very powerful, and in great consideration. We have seen that Ptolemy, a little after his accession to the throne, had been very solicitous to renew the ancient alliance with them. This he was also very desirous of in the latter end of his reign; and accordingly offered that republic six thousand shields, and two hundred talents of brass. His offer was accepted, and, in consequence of it, Lycortas and two other Achæans were deputed to him, to thank him for the présents, and to renew the alliance; and these returned soon after with Ptolemy's ambassador, in order to ratify the treaty. King Eumenes also sent an embassy for the same purpose, and offered an hundred and twenty talents (about twenty-one thousand pounds sterling) the interest of which was to be applied for the support of the members of the public council. Others came likewise from Seleucus, who, in the name of their sovereign, offered ten ships of war completely equip с a Polyb. in Excerpt. p. 113. A. M. 3821. Ant. J. C. 183. ped; and, at the same time, desired to have the ancient alliance with that prince renewed. The ambassador, whom Philopomen had sent to Rome to justify his conduct, was returned from thence, and desired to give an account of his commission. For these several reasons a great assembly was held. The first man that entered it was Nicodemus of Elea. He gave an account of what he had said in the senate of Rome, with regard to the affair of Sparta, and the answer which had been made him. It was judged by the replies, that the senate, in reality, were not pleased with the subversion of the government of Sparta, with the demolition of the walls of that city, nor with the massacre of the Spartans; but at the same time, that they did not annul any thing which had been enacted. And as no person happened to speak for or against the answers of the senate, no further mention was made of it at that time. But the same affair will be the subject of much debate in the sequel. The ambassadors of Eumenes were afterwards admitted to audience. After having renewed the alliance which had been formerly made with Attalus, that king's father; and proposed in Eumenes's name, the offer of an hundred and twenty talents; they expatiated largely on the great friendship and tender regard which their sovereign had always showed for the Achæans. When they had ended what they had to say, Apollonius of Sicyon rose up, and observed, that the present which the king of Pergamus offered, considered in itself, was worthy of the Achæans; but, if regard was had to the end which Eumenes proposed to himself by it, and the advantage he hoped to reap by his munificence, in that ease, the republic could not accept of this present without bringing upon itself everlasting infamy, and being guilty of the greatest of prevarications. "For, in a word," continued he, as the law forbids every individual, whether of the peo"ple or of the magistrates, to receive any gift from a king *6 upon any pretence whatsoever, the crime would be much greater, should the commonwealth, collectively, accept of "Eumenes's offers. That with regard to the infamy, it was "self-evident; for," says Apollonius, "what could reflect greater ignominy on a council, than to receive, annually, "from a king, money for its subsistence; and to assemble, in order to deliberate on public affairs, only as so many of "his pensioners, and in a manner rising from his table, after "having swallowed the a bait that concealed the hook? but "what dreadful consequences might not be expected from "such a custom, should it be established? Afterwards Pru"sias, excited by the example of Eumenes, would also be a Polybius by this expression would denote, that such a pension was a kind of bait that covered a hook, that is, the design which Eumenes had of making all those who composed the council his dependents. Καταπεπωκότας διονει δέλεαρ, |