Demetrius thinking to gather up some remains of his shattered fortune, returned to Greece, where several cities still continued devoted to him; and when he had disposed his affairs in the best order he was able, he left the government of those places to his son Antigonus; and assembling all the troops he could raise in that country, which amounted to between ten and eleven thousand men, he embarked for Asia, with a resolution to try whether despair would not bring forth good fortune. Eurydice, the sister of his late wife Phila, received him at Miletus, where she lived with the Princess Ptolemais, her daughter by Ptolemy, whose marriage with Demetrius had been agreed upon by the mediation of Seleucus.— Eurydice accordingly presented the princess to him, and this alliance gave birth to Demetrius, who afterwards reigned in Cyrene.

P Demetrius, immediately after the celebration of his nuptials, entered Caria and Lydia, where he took several places from Lysimachus, and considerably augmented his forces; and at length made himself master of Sardis; but, as soon as Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, appeared at the head of an army, he abandoned all his conquests, and marched into the East. His design in taking this route was to surprise Armenia and Media; but Agathocles, who followed him close, cut off his provisions and forage so effectually, that a sickness spread through his army, and weakened it extremely; and when he at last made an attempt to march over mount Taurus, with the small remains of his troops, he found all the passes guarded by the enemies, which obliged him to fall back to Tarsus in Cilicia.

From thence he represented to Seleucus, to whom that city belonged, the melancholy situation of his affairs, and intreated him, in a very moving manner, to afford him the necessary subsistence for himself

Plut. in Demetr. p. 912-915.

Seleucus was

and the remainder of his troops. touched with compassion at first, and dispatched or ders to his lieutenants, to furnish him with all he should want. But when remonstrances, were afterwards made to him upon the valour and abilities of Demetrius, his genius for resource and stratagem,, and his intrepidity in the execution of his designs, whenever the least opportunity for acting presented, itself; he thought it impossible to re-instate a prince of that character, without incurring many disadvantages himself. For which reason, instead of continuing to support him, he resolved upon his de struction, and immediately placed himself at the head of a numerous army, with an intention to, attack him. Demetrius, who had received intelli gence of these measures, posted his troops in those parts of mount Taurus, where he imagined it would be very difficult to force them, and sent to Seleucus a second time, to implore his permission to pass into the East, in order to establish himself in some country belonging to the Barbarians, where he might end his days in tranquillity: but if he should not be inclined to grant him that favour, he intreated him to allow him to take up his winter quarters in his do minions; and begged that prince not to expose him, by driving him from thence, to famine, and the ri gours of the season, as that would be delivering him up defenceless to the discretion of his enemies.

Seleucus was so prejudiced against the design which Demetrius had formed against the East, that this proposal only tended to increase his diffidence; and he consented to nothing more, than his taking winterquarters in Cataonia, a province adjacent to Cappadocia, during the two severest months of that season; after which he was immediately to evacuate that country. Seleucus, during this negociation, had placed strong guards at all the passes from Cilicia into Syria, which obliged Demetrius to have recourse to arms, in order to disengage himself. He accordingly made such a vigorous attack on the troops who guarded the

passes in the mountains, that he dislodged them from thence, and opened himself a passage into Syria, which he immediately entered.

His own courage, and the hopes of his soldiers, reviving from this success, he took all possible measures for making a last effort for the re-establishment of his affairs; but he had the misfortune to be suddenly seized with a severe distemper, which disconcerted all his measures. During the forty days that he continued sick, most of his soldiers deserted; and when he at last recovered his health, so as to be capable of action, he found himself reduced to the desperate necessity of attempting to surprise Seleucus in his camp by night, with the handful of men who still continued in his service, A deserter gave Seleucus intelligence of this design, time enough to prevent its effect; and the desertion of Demetrius's troops increased upon this disappointment. He then endeavoured, as his last resource, to regain the mountains, and join his fleet; but he found the passes so well guarded, that he was obliged to conceal himself in the woods; from whence he was soon dislodged by hunger, and compelled to surrender himself to Seleucus, who caused him to be conducted under a strong guard to the Chersonesus of Syria near Laodicea, where he was detained prisoner, He, however, was allowed the liberty of a park for hunting, and all the conveniences of life in abundance.

When Antigonus received intelligence of his father's captivity, he was affected with the utmost sorrow; and wrote to all the Kings, and even to Seleucus himself, to obtain his release, offering, at the same time, his own person as an hostage for him, and consenting to part with all his remaining dominions, as the price of his liberty. Several cities, and a great number of princes, joined their solicitations in favour of the captive prince; but Lysimachus offered a large sum of money to Seleucus, provided he would cause his prisoner to be put to

death. The king of Syria was struck with horror at so barbarous and inhuman a proposal; and in order to grant a favour solicited from so many different quarters, he seemed only to wait the arrival of his son Antigonus, and Stratonice, that Demetrius might owe the obligation of his liberty to them.

In the mean time that unhappy prince supported his misfortunes with patience and magnanimity; and became at last so habituated to them, that they no longer seemed to affect him. He exercised himself in racing, walking, and hunting; and might have been infinitely more happy, had he made a true estimate of his condition, than whilst hurried over lands and seas by the phrenzy of ambition. For what other fruit do these pretended heroes, who are called conquerors, derive from all their labours and wars, and from all the dangers to which they expose themselves, than that of tormenting themselves, by rendering others miserable; and constantly turning their backs on tranquillity and happiness, which, if they may be believed, are the sole ends of all their motions? But Demetrius was gradually seized with melancholy; and no longer amused himself with his former exercises: he grew corpulent, and entirely abandoned himself to drinking and gaming at dice, to which he devoted whole days, undoubtedly endeavouring by these methods to banish the melancholy thoughts of his condition. When he had continued in his captivity for the space of three years, he was seized with a severe distemper, occasioned by his inactivity, and intemperance in eating and drinking, and died at the age of fifty-four years. His son Antigonus, to whom the urn, which inclosed the ashes of that prince, was transmitted, celebrated his funeral with great magnificence. We shall see, in the sequel of the present history, that this Antigonus, who was surnamed Gonatas, continued peaceable possessor of the kingdom of Macedonia; and the race of this prince enjoyed the crown for several

A. M.

285.

generations, in a direct line from father to son, till the reign of Perseus, who was the last of that family, and was divested of Macedonia by the Romans.

SECT. III. Ptolemy Soter resigns his kingdom to his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. The tower of Pharos built. The image of Serapis conveyed to Alexandria. The celebrated library founded in that city, with an academy of learned men. Demetrius Phalerens presides over both. Death of Ptolemy Soter.

PTOLEMY Soter, the son of Lagus, after a reign 3719. of twenty years in Egypt, with the title of King, Ant. J.C. and of near thirty-nine from the death of Alexander, was desirous of transmitting the throne to Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of his sons by Berenice. He had likewise several children by his other wives, and among those, Ptolemy, surnamed Ceraunus, or The Thunder; who being the son of Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, and the eldest of the male issue, considered the crown as his right, after the death of his father. But Berenice, who came into Egypt, merely to accompany Eurydice, at the time of her espousals with Ptolemy, so exceedingly charmed that prince with her beauty, that he married her; and so great was her ascendant over him, that she caused him to prefer her son to all his issue by the other queens. In order, therefore, to prevent all disputes and wars that might ensue after his death, which he was sensible could not be very remote, as he was then fourscore years of age; he resolved to have him crowned in his own life-time,

Justin. 1. xvi.

The word signifies, a lover of his brethren ; but Ptolemy reecived this surname, agreeably to a figure of speech called antiphrasis, because he charged two of his brothers with forming designs against his life, and then 'caused them to be destroyed. PAUSAN, I. i. p. 12.