BOOK TWENTY-THIRD. THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. PLAN. THIS book contains the history of thirty-five years, from the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy Auletes, to the death of Cleopatra, with which ended the kingdom of Egypt; that is to say, from the year of the world 3939, to 3974. SECTION I. PTOLEMY AULETES HAD BEEN PLACED UPON THE THRONE OF EGYPT IN THE ROOM OF ALEXANDER. We have seen in what manner Ptolemy Auletes ascended the throne of Egypt. Alexander, his predecessor, upon his being expelled by his subjects, withdrew to Tyre, where he died some time after. As he left no issue, nor any other legitimate prince of the blood-royal, he made the Roman people his heirs. The senate, for the reasons I have repeated elsewhere, did not judge it proper at that time to take possession of the dominions left them by Alexander's will; but to show that they did not renounce their right, they resolved to call in part of the inheritance, and sent deputies to Tyre to demand a sum of money left there by that king at his death.* The pretensions of the Roman people were under no restrictions; and it had been a very insecure establishment to possess a state, to which they believed they had so just a claim, unless some means were found to make them renounce it. All the kings of Egypt had been friends and allies of Rome. To get himself declared an ally by the Romans, was a certain means of his being authentically acknowledged king of Egypt by them. But, the more important that qualification was to him, so much the greater was the difficulty for him to obtain it. The will of his predecessor was still fresh in the memory of every one, and as princes are seldom pardoned for defects which do not suit their condition, though they are often spared for those that are much more injurious, the surname of "Player on the Flute," which he had drawn upon himself, had ranked him as low in the esteem of the Romans, as he had been, before, in that of the Egyptians. He did not, however, despair of success in his undertakings. All the methods which he took for the attainment of his end, were a long time ineffectual; and it is likely they would always have been so, if Cæsar had never been consul. That ambitious spirit, who believed all means and expedients just which conduced to his ends, being immensely in debt, and finding that king disposed to merit by money what he could not obtain by right, sold him the alliance of Rome at as dear a price as he was willing to buy it; and received for the purchase, as well for himself as for Pompey, whose credit was necessary to him for obtaining the consent of the people, nearly six thousand talents, at which price he was declared the friend and ally of the Roman people.† * A. M. 3939. Ant. J. C. 65. ↑ Sueton. in Jul. Cæs. c. 54. Dion. Cass. I. xxxix. p. 97. Strab. 1. xvii. P. 796. Though that prince's yearly revenues were twice the amount of this sum, he could not immediately raise the money, without exceedingly over-taxing his subjects. They were already highly discontented by his not claiming the isle of Cyprus as an ancient appendage of Egypt; and in case of refusal, declaring war against the Romans. In this disposition, the extraordinary imposts he was obliged to exact, having finally exasperated them, they rose with so much violence that he was forced to fly for the security of his life. He concealed his route so well, that the Egyptians either believed or feigned to believe, that he had perished. They declared Berenice, the eldest of his three daughters, queen, though he had two sons, because they were both much younger than she.* Ptolemy, however, having landed at the isle of Rhodes, which was in his way to Rome, was informed that Cato, who after his death was called Cato of Utica. was also arrived there some time before. That prince being glad of the opportunity to confer with him upon his own affairs, sent immediately to let him know of his arrival, expecting that he would come immediately to visit him. We may see here an instance of Roman grandeur, or rather haughtiness. Cato ordered him to be told, that if he had any thing to say to him, he might come to him if he thought fit. Cato did not vouchsafe so much as to rise, when Ptolemy entered his chamber, and saluting him only as a common man, bade him sit down. The king, though in some confusion upon this reception, could not but admire how so much haughtiness and state could unite in the same person with the simplicity and modesty that appeared in his habit and all his equipage. But he was very much surprised, when, upon explaining himself, Cato blamed him in direct terms, for quitting the finest kingdom in the world, to expose himself to the pride and insatiable avarice of the Roman grandees, and to suffer a thousand indignities. He did not scruple to tell him, that though he should sell all Egypt, he would not have sufficient to satisfy their avidity. He advised him therefore to return to Egypt, and reconcile himself with his subjects; adding, that he was ready to accompany him thither, and offering him his mediation and good offices.† Ptolemy, upon this discourse, recovered as out of a dream, and having maturely considered what the wise Roman had told him, perceived the error he had committed in quitting his kingdom, and entertained thoughts of returning to it. But the friends he had with him, being gained by Pompey to make him go to Rome, from what motives may readily be conjectured, dissuaded him from following Cato's good counsel. He had sufficient time to repent it, when he found himself in that proud city, reduced to solicit his business from gate to gate, like a private person. Cæsar, upon whom his principal hopes were founded, was not at Rome; he was at that time making war in Gaul. But Pompey, who was there, gave him an apartment in his house, and omitted nothing to serve him. Besides the money he had received from that prince, in conjunction with Cæsar, Ptolemy had formerly cultivated his friendship by various services which he had rendered him during the war with Mithridates, and had maintained eight thousand horse for him in that of Judea. Having therefore made his complaint to the senate of the rebellion of his subjects, he demanded that they should oblige them to return to their obedience, as the Romans were engaged to do by the alliance granted him. Pompey's factions obtained him their compliance. The consul Lentulus, to whom Cilicia, separated from Egypt only by the coast of Syria, had fallen by lot, was charged with the re-establishment of Ptolemy upon the throne.‡ But before his consulship expired, the Egyptians, having been informed that their king was not dead, as they believed, and that he was gone to Rome, sent thither a solemn embassy, to justify the revolt before the senate. That em bassy consisted of more than one hundred persons, of whom the chief was a * A. M. 3946. Ant. J. C. 58. Dion. Cass. 1. xxxix. p. 97, 98. 48-50. Id. pro Cæl. n. 25, 24. Plin. l. xxxiii. c. 10. Plut. in Cato, Utic. p. 776. celebrated philosopher named Dion, who had many influential friends at Rome. Ptolemy having received advice of this, found means to destroy most of those ambassadors, either by poison or the sword, and so much intimidated those whom he could neither corrupt nor kill, that they were afraid either to acquit themselves of their commission, or to demand justice for so many murders. But as all the world knew this cruelty, it made him as highly odious as he was before contemptible; and his immense profusions, in gaining the poorest and self-interested senators, became so public, that nothing else was talked of throughout the city.* So notorious a contempt of the laws, and such an excess of audacity, excited the indignation of all persons of integrity in the senate. M. Favonious, the Stoic philosopher, was the first in it who declared himself against Ptolemy. Upon his request it was resolved, that Dion should be ordered to attend, in order to their knowing the truth from his own mouth. But the king's party, composed of that of Pompey and Lentulus, of such as he had corrupted with money, and of those who had lent him sums to corrupt others, acted so openly in his favour, that Dion did not dare to appear; and Ptolemy, having caused him also to be killed some short time after, though he who did the murder was accused juridically, the king was discharged of it, upon maintaining that he had just cause for the action. Whether that prince thought that nothing farther at Rome demanded his presence, or apprehended receiving some affront, hated as he was, if he continued there any longer, he set out from thence some few days after, and retired to Ephesus, into the temple of the goddess, to wait there the decision of his destiny. His affair made more noise than ever at Rome. One of the tribunes of the people, named C. Cato, an active enterprising young man, who was not wanting in eloquence, declared himself, in frequent harangues, against Ptolemy and Lentulus, and was hearkened to by the people, with singular pleasure and extraordinary applause. In order to put a new scheme in motion, he waited till the new consuls were elected, and as soon as Lentulus had quitted that office, he proposed to the people an oracle of the Sibyl's, which imported, "If a king of Egypt, having occasion for aid, applies to you, you shall not refuse him your amity; but you shall not give him any troops; for if you do, you will suffer and hazard much."† The usual form was to communicate this kind of oracles first to the senate, in order that it might be examined whether they were proper to be divulged. But Cato, apprehending that the king's faction might occasion the passing a resolution there to suppress this, which was so opposite to that prince, immediately presented the priests, with whom the sacred books were deposited, to the people, and obliged them, by the authority which his office as tribune gave him, to expose what they had found in them to the public, without demanding the senate's opinion. This was a new stroke of thunder to Ptolemy and Lentulus. The words of the Sibyl were too express not to make all the impression upon the vulgar which their enemies desired: so that Lentulus, whose consulship had expired, not being willing to receive the affront to his face, of having the senate's decree revoked, by which he was appointed to reinstate Ptolemy, set out immediately for his province in quality of proconsul. He was not deceived. Some days after, one of the new consuls, named Marcellinus, the declared enemy of Pompey, having proposed the oracle to the senate, it was decreed that regard should be had to it, and that it appeared dangerous for the commonwealth to re-establish the king of Egypt by force. We must not believe there was any person in the senate so simple, or rather so stupid, as to have any faith in such an oracle. No one doubted, but that it had been contrived for the present conjuncture, and was the work of some secret intrigue of policy. But it had been published and approved in the assembly of the people, credulous and superstitious to excess; and the senate could pass no other judgment upon it. * A. M. 3947. Ant. J. C. 57. VCL. IV. 25 t A. M. 3948. Aut. J. C. 56. This new incident obliged Ptolemy to change his measures. Seeing that Lentulus had too many enemies at Rome, he abandoned the decree, by which he had been commissioned for his re-establishment, and demanding, by Ammonius his ambassador, whom he had left at Rome, that Pompey should be appointed to execute the same commission; because it not being possible to execute it with open force, upon account of the oracle, he rightly judged, that it was necessary to substitute in the room of force, a person of great authority; and Pompey was at that time at the highest pitch of his glory, from his success in having destroyed Mithridates, the greatest and most powerful king Asia had seen since Alexander. The affair was deliberated upon in the senate, and debated with great animation by the different parties that rose up in it. The difference of opinions caused several sittings to be lost without any determination.* Cicero never abandoned the interest of Lentulus, his intimate friend, who, during his consulship, had infinitely contributed to his being recalled from banishment. But what means was there to render him any service, in the condition in which things stood? And what could that proconsul do against a great kingdom, without using the force of arms, which was expressly forbidden by the oracle? In this manner thought people of little wit and subtlety, that were not used to consider things in different lights. The oracle only prohibited giving the king any troops for his re-establishment. Could not Lentulus have left him in some place near the frontiers, and went, however, with a good army to besiege Alexandria? After he had taken it, he might have returned, leaving a strong garrison in the place, and then sent the king thither, who would have found all things disposed for his reception, without violence or troops. This was Cicero's advice; to confirm which, I shall repeat his own words, taken from a letter written by him at that time to Lentulus. "You are the best judge," says he, "as you are master of Cilicia and Cyprus, of what you can undertake and effect. If it seems practicable for you to take Alexandria, and possess yourself of the rest of Egypt, it is without doubt both for your own and the honour of the commonwealth, that you should go thither with your fleet and army, leaving the king at Ptolemais, or in some other neighbouring place, in order that, after you have appeased the revolt, and left good garrisons where necessary, that prince may safely return thither. In this manner you will reinstate him, according to the senate's first decree, and he be restored without troops, which our zealots assure us is the sense of the Sibyl." Would one believe that a grave magistrate, in an affair so important as that in the present question, should be capable of an evasion, which appears so little consistent with the integrity and probity upon which Cicero valued himself? It was because he reckoned the oracle only pretended to be the Sibyl's, as indeed it was, that is to say, a mere contrivance and imposture. Lentulus, stopped by the difficulties of that enterprise, which were great and real, was afraid to engage in it, and took the advice Cicero gave him in the conclusion of his letter, where he represented, "that all the world would judge of his conduct from the event: that therefore he had only to take his measures so well, as to assure his success, and that otherwise he would do better not to undertake it."I Gabinus, who commanded in Syria in the quality of proconsul, was less apprehensive and cautious. Though every proconsul was prohibited by an express law to quit his province, or declare any war whatever, even upon the nearest border, without an express order of the senate, he had marched to the aid of Mithridates, prince of Parthia, who had been expelled from Media by the king his brother, which kingdom had fallen to him by division. He had already passed the Euphrates with his army for that purpose, when Ptolemy joined him with letters from Pompey, their common friend and patron, who had very lately Cic. ad Famil. 1. 1. epist. 7. Ita fore ut per te restituatur, quemadmodum initio senatus censuit ; et sine multitudine reducatur, quemadmodum homines, religiosi Sibyllæ placere dixerunt. Ex eventu homines de tuo consilio esse judicaturos, videmus. Nos quidem hoc sentimus; si explora tum tibi sit, posse te illius regno potiri, non esse cunctandum: sin dubium, non esse conandum. |