BOOK EIGHTEENTH. THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER'S SUCCESSORS, CONTINUED. PLAN. THIS chapter includes twenty-four years, during which Ptolemy Epiphanes reigned in Egypt. In this interval the Romans engage in war; first against Philip king of Macedon, over whom they gain a famous victory; and then against Antiochus, king of Syria, who also is defeated, and forced to sue for peace. At the same time, feuds and divisions break out between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, and the famous Philopamen dies, CHAPTER I. INCLUDING THE REIGN OF PTOLEMY EPIPHANES. SECTION I.—PTOLEMY EPIPHANES SUCCEEDS PHILOPATER IN EGYPT. TROUBLES WHICH SOON FOLLOW. I RELATED in the preceding book, how Ptolemy Philopator, worn out with riots and excesses, had come to his end, after having reigned seventeen years. As the only persons present when that monarch expired, were Agathocles, his sister, and their creatures, they concealed his death as long as possible from the public, in order that they might have time to carry off all the money, jewels, and other valuable effects in the palace. They also formed a plan to maintain the authority they had enjoyed under the late king, by usurping the regency during the minority of his son, named Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was then but five years old. They imagined that this might easily be done, if they could but take off Tlepolemus, who had succeeded Sosibes in the ministry; and accordingly, they concerted measures to despatch him.* At last they informed the public of the king's death. Immediately av great council of the Macedonianst was assembled, in which Agathocles and Agathoclea were present. Agathocles, after shedding abundance of tears, began by imploring their protection for the young king, whom he held in his arms. He told them that his royal father, in his expiring moments, had committed him to the care of Agathoclea, whom he pointed out to them; and had recommended him to the fidelity of the Macedonians. That for this reason, he had come to implore their assistance against Tlepolemus, who, as he was well informed, designed to usurp the crown. He added, that he had brought witnesses expressly to prove his treason, and at the same time offered to produce them. He imagined, that, by this weak artifice, Tlepolemus would be immediately despatched, and that, consequently, he might easily obtain the regency; but the artifice was too gross, and the people immediately swore the destruction of Agathocles, his sister, and all their creatures. This last attempt recalling to their remembrance their other crimes, A. M. 3800. Ant. J. C. 204. Justin. 1. xxx. c. 2. Polyb. 1. xv, p. 712-720. Polybius gives this name to the Alexandrians, who descended from the Macedonians, and the posterity of the founders of Alexandria, or to those to whom the same privileges had been granted. all the inhabitants of Alexandria rose against them. The young king was taken out of their hands, and seated on the throne in Hippodrome. After which, Agathocles, his sister, and Einanthe his mother, were brought before the king, and all three put to death as by his order. The populace exposed their dead bodies to all the indignities possible; dragging them through the streets, and tearing them to pieces. All their relations and creatures met with the same treatment, and not one of them was spared; the usual and just end of those unworthy favourites, who abuse the confidence of their sovereign to oppress the people, and who never punish those who resemble themselves. Philammon, the assassin who had been hired to murder Arsinoe, having returned from Cyrene to Alexandria, two or three days before this tumult broke out, the ladies of honour of that unfortunate queen had immediate notice of it, and, taking this opportunity which the distractions of the city gave them, they resolved to revenge the death of their mistress. Accordingly, they broke open the door of the house where he was, and killed him with clubs and stones. The care of the king's person, till otherwise provided for, was given to Sosibes, son to him who had governed during the last three reigns. History does not inform us whether he was still alive; but it is certain that he lived to a great age, as he passed more than sixty years in the administration. No minister was ever more cunning or more corrupt than this Sosibes. He made no scruple of committing the blackest crimes, provided they conduced to his ends. Polybius imputes to him the murder of Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, and of Arsinoe daughter of that Lysimachus; of Magas son of Ptolemy, and of Berenice daughter of Magas; of Berenice mother to Ptolemy Philopator; of Cleomenes king of Sparta; and lastly, of Arsinoe daughter of Berenice.* It is surprising that, notwithstanding a conduct of so much inhumanity and cruelty in his administration, he should support himself so long, and at last come to a peaceable end. Antiochus king of Syria, and Philip king of Macedon, during the whole reign of Ptolemy Philopator, had discovered the strongest zeal for the interest of that monarch, and were ready to assist him on all occasions. Yet no sooner was he dead, leaving behind him an infant, whom the laws of humanity and justice enjoined them not to disturb in the possession of his father's kingdom, than they immediately joined in a criminal alliance, and excited each other to take off the lawful heir, and divide his dominions between them. Philip was to have Caria, Libya, Cyrenaica, and Egypt; and Antiochus all the rest. With this view, the latter entered Cœlosyria, and Palestine; and, in less than two campaigns, made an entire conquest of those two provinces, with all their cities and dependencies. Their guilt, says Polybius, would not have been quite so glaring, had they, like tyrants, endeavoured to gloss over their crimes with some specious pretence; but so far from doing this, their injustice and cruelty were so barefaced, that to them was applied what has been observed of fishes that the large ones, though of the same species, prey on the lesser. One would be tempted, continues the same author, at seeing the most sacred laws of society so openly violated, to accuse Providence of being indifferent and insensible to the most horrid crimes. But it fully justified its conduct, by punishing those two kings according to their deserts; and made such an example of them, as ought in all succeeding ages to deter others from following their example. For while they were meditating to dispossess a weak and helpless infant of his kingdom, by piecemeal, Providence raised up the Romans against them, who entirely subverted the kingdoms of Philip and Antiochus, and reduced their successors to almost as great calamities, as those with which they intended to crush the infant king.t Polyb. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 64. ↑ A. M 3801. Ant. J. C. 203. Polyb 1. iii. p. 159. Id. 1. xv. p. 707 et 708. 9 During that time, Philip was engaged in a war against the Rhodians, over whom he gained an inconsiderable advantage, in a naval engagement near the island of Lade, opposite the city of Miletus.* The next year he invaded Attalus, and advanced as far as Pergamus, the capital of his kingdom. But all his efforts in assaulting the city being to no purpose, he turned his rage and fury against the gods; and not satisfied with burning their temples, he demolished statues, broke to pieces their altars, and even pulled up the stones from their foundations, that not the least vestiges of them might remain.† He was not more successful against the Rhodians. Having already fought them with but indifferent success, he ventured a second battle off the island of Chio. Attalus had united his fleet to that of the Rhodians, and Philip was defeated with considerable loss. There were killed, in his army, three thousand Macedonians, and six thousand allies; and two thousand Macedonians and confederates, with seven hundred Egyptians, were taken prisoners. The Rhodians lost but sixty men, and Attalus seventy. Philip ascribed all the glory of this engagement to himself, and that, for two reasons: the first was, that having repulsed Attalus to the shore, he had taken that prince's ship; and the second, that having cast anchor near the promontory of Argennum, he had stopped even among the wrecks of his enemies. But though he assumed the best air he could, he was sensible of his great loss, and could neither conceal it from others nor himself. This prince had never lost so great a number of men, either by sea or land, in one day. He was highly afflicted on account of it, and it visibly damped his natural vivacity. The ill success of this battle did not abate Philip's courage. The character of that prince was, to be unshaken in his resolutions; and not to be dejected by disappointments, but to overcome difficulties by inflexible constancy and perseverance; and, accordingly, he continued the war with fresh bravery. I am not certain that we may not date at this period the cruelties which Philip exercised over the Cianians; a barbarity he is often reproached with, the particulars of which, have unhappily been lost. Cios, whose inhabitants were called Cianians, was a small city of Bithynia. The man who was governor of it had been raised to that post by the Etolians, who at that time were in alliance with Philip. We find that he besieged it at the request of his son-in-law, Prusias, king of Bithynia, who pretended to have received some insult from it. The city in all probability was taken by storm. A great number of the inhabitants suffered the most cruel torments; the rest were reduced to a state of captivity, which to them was worse than death; and the city was razed to the very foundations. This barbarity alienated the tolians from him, and particularly the Rhodians, who were allies and friends to the inhabitants of Cios. Polybius seems to ascribe its destruction to the imprudence of the Cianians themselves, who used to bestow all posts and preferments on their most worthless citizens; and to follow so blindly their pernicious opinions in every thing, as even to persecute those who ventured to oppose them. He adds, that a people who act in this manner plunge voluntarily into the greatest calamities; and that it is surprising they do not correct themselves in this respect by the experience of all ages; which shows, that the ruin of the most powerful states is solely owing to the ill choice of those to whom they confide either the command of their armies, or the administration of their political affairs.‡ Philip marched afterwards to Thrace and Chersonesus, were several cities surrendered voluntarily. Abydos, however, shut her gates against him, and even refused to hear the deputies he had sent, so that he was forced to besiege †A. M. 3802. A. M. 3803. Ant. J. C. 201. 475. Liv. 1. xxxi. n. 31. Strab. 1. Polyb. in Excerpt. p. 70 et 73. Ant. J. C. 202. Polyb. Ib. p. 66. Diod. Ib. p. 294. it. This city is in Asia, and stands on the narrowest part of the Hellespont, now called the Dardanelles, and opposite to the city of Sestos in Europe. The distance between these two cities was about two miles. The reader will suppose, that Abydos must have been a city of great importance, as it commanded the straits, and made those who were possessed of it, masters of the communication between the Euxine sea and the Archipelago. Nothing of what is generally practised, in the assaulting and defending of cities, was omitted in this siege. No place was ever defended with greater obstinacy, which might be said at length, on the side of the besieged, to have risen to fury and brutality. Confiding in their own strength, they repulsed, with the greatest vigour, the first approaches of the Macedonians. On the side next the sea, the machines of war no sooner came forward, than they were immediately either dismounted by the balistas, or consumed by fire. Even the ships, on which they were mounted, were in danger; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the besiegers saved them. On the land side, the Abydonians also defended themselves for some time with great courage, and did not despair even of defeating the enemy. But, finding that the outward wall was sapped, and that the Macedonians carried their mines under the inner one, which had been raised to supply the place of the other, they sent deputies to Philip, offering to surrender their city upon the following conditions that such forces as had been sent them by the Rhodians and king Attalus, should return to their respective sovereigns under his safe conduct; and that all free citizens should retire whenever they pleased, with the clothes they then had on. Philip answering, that the Abydonians had only to choose, whether they would surrender at discretion, or continue to defend themseles valiantly, the deputies retired. This advice being brought, the besieged, in transports of despair, assembled together, to consider what was to be done. They came to this resolution: first, that the slaves should be set at liberty, to animate them to defend the city with the utmost vigour secondly, that all the women should be shut up in the temple of Diana; and all the children, with their nurses, in the Gymnasium: that this being done, they then should bring into the great square all the gold and silver in the city, and carry all the rest of the valuable effects into the quadrireme of the Rhodians, and the trireme of the Cizycenians.* This resolution having passed unanimously, another assembly was called, in which they made choce of fifty of the wisest and most ancient of the citizens, but who at the same time had vigour enough left to execute what should have been determined; and they were made to take an oath, in presence of all the habitants, that the instant they saw the enemy master of the inner wall, they should kill the women and children, set fire to the two galleys, laden with their effects, and throw into the sea all the gold and silver which they had heaped together: then, sending for their priests, they took an oath either to conquer or die, sword in hand; and, after having sacrificed the victims, they obliged the priests and priestesses to pronounce, before the altar, the greatest curses on those who should break their oath. This being done, they left off countermining, and resolved, the instant the wall should fall, to fly to the breach, and fight to the last. Accordingly, the inner wall tumbling, the besieged, true to the oath they had taken, fought in the breach with such unparalleled bravery, that though Philip had perpetually sustained, with fresh soldiers, those who had mounted to the assault, yet, when night separated the combatants, he was still doubtful with regard to the success of the siege. Such Abydonians as marched first to the breach, over the heaps of the slain, fought with fury; and not only made use of their swords, and javelins, but, after their arms were broken to pieces, or forced out of their hands, they rushed furiously upon the Macedonians, knocked down some, broke the sarissæ or long spears of others, and with the pieces, * Quadriremes were galleys with four benches of oars, and Triremes those with three. struck their faces, and such parts of their bodies as were uncovered, till they made them entirely despair of the event. When night had put an end to the slaughter, the breach was quite covered with the dead bodies of the Abydonians; and those who had escaped, were so greatly fatigued, and had received so many wounds, that they scarcely could support themselves. Things being brought to this dreadful extremity, two of the principal citizens, unable to execute the dreadful resolution that had been taken, and which at that time displayed itself to their imaginations in all its horror, agreed, that to save their wives and children, they should send to Philip, by daybreak, all their priests and priestesses, clothed in pontifical habits, to implore his mercy, and open their gates to him. Accordingly, next morning, the city, as had been agreed, was surrendered to Philip; during which, the greatest part of the Abydonians who survived, vented millions of imprecations against their fellow-citizens, and especially against the priests and priestesses, for delivering up to the enemy those whom they themselves had devoted to death with the most dreadful oaths. Philip marched into the city, and seized, without the least opposition, all the rich effects which the Abydonians had heaped together in one place. But now, he was greatly terrified with the spectacle he saw. Among these ill-fated citizens, whom despair had made so furious and distracted, some were strangling their wives and children, and others cutting them to pieces with their swords; some were running to murder them, others were plunging them into wells, while others were precipitating them from the tops of houses; in a word, death appeared in all its variety of horrors. Philip, pierced with grief, and seized with horror at this spectacle, stopped the soldiers, who were greedy of plunder, and published a declaration, importing, that he would allow three days to all who were resolved to lay violent hands on themselves He was in hopes, that during this interval they would change their resolution; but they had made their choice before. They thought it would be degenerating from those who had lost their lives in fighting for their country, should they survive them. The individuals of every family killed one another, and none escaped this murderous expedition, but those whose hands were tied, or were otherwise kept from destroying themselves. A short time before the city surrendered, an ambassador from the Romans to Philip arrived. This embassy was sent on various accounts which it will be necessary to explain. The fame and glory of this people had recently spread through all parts of the world, by the victory which Scipio gained over Hannibal in Africa, an event which so gloriously, with regard to the Romans, terminated the second Punic war.* The court of Egypt, being in so much danger from the union that had been formed between Philip and Antiochus against their infant king, had addressed the Romans for protection, and offered them the guardianship of the king, and the regency of the kingdom during his minority; declaring that the late monarch had desired it at his death. It was the interest of the Romans not to suffer the power of Philip and Antiochus to increase, by the addition of so many rich provinces, of which the empire of Egypt at that time consisted. It was not difficult to foresee that they would soon be engaged in war with those two princes, with one of whom they already had some differences, which threatened much greater. For these reasons they had not hesitated to accept the guar dianship, and had consequently appointed three deputies, who were ordered to acquaint the two kings with their resolution, and to enjoin them not to infest the dominions of their royal pupil, for that, otherwise they should be forced to declare war against them. Every reader will perceive, that declaring so generously in favour of an oppressed infant monarch, was making a just and noble use of their power. * A. M. 3803. ↑ Justin. 1. xxx. c. 2, 3. et l. xxxi. c. 1. Ant. J C. 201. Val. Max. 1. vi. c. 6. Liv. 1. xxxi. n. 1,2 et 18. |