surprised, when, upon entering upon business, 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 und good offices for that purpose. 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, (one may easily guess with what views,) dissuaded him from following Cato's good advice. He had full time to repent it, when he found himself, in that proud city, reduced to solicit the magistrates upon bis business, from door to door, 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 which he had received from that prince, in conjunction with Caesar, Ptolemy had since cultivated his friendship by various services which he had rendered him during the war with Mithridates, and had maintained at his own charge 8000 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 faction obtained for him a compliance with his request. 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. A. M. 3947. But before his consulship expired, the Egyptians Ant. J. C. 57. 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 their revolt before the senate. That embassy consisted of more than 100 persons, at the head of whom was a celebrated philosopher, named Dion, who had considerable 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 *Dion. Cags. 1. xxxix. p. 97, 98. Plin. l. xxxiii. c. 10. Cic. ad Famil. 1. 1. ep. 1—1. Ed. in Piso. n. 48-50. Id. pro. Cal. n. 23, 24. he was before contemptible; and his immense profusion, in gaining the poorest and most 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 the persons of integrity in the senate. M. Favonius, the Stoic philosopher, was the first in it who declared himself against Ptolemy. Upon his motion, 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 in due form of law, the king was exculpated, upon maintaining that he had just cause for the action. Whether that prince thought that he had nothing farther to transact at Rome that 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, in fact, made more noise than ever at Rome. One of the tribunes of the people, named C. Cato, an active, enterprising young man, who did not want eloquence, declared himself, in fre quent harangues, against Ptolemy and Lentulus, and was hearkeued to by the people with singular pleasure and extraordinary applause. A. M. 3948. In order to put a new engine in motion, he Ant. J. C. 56. waited till the new consuls were elected; and as soon as Lentulus had quitted that office, he produced to the people an oracle of the Sibyl's, which ran thus: "If a king of Egypt, having occasion for aid, applies to you, you shall not refuse him your amity; but, however, you shall not give him any troops; for if yca do, you will suffer and hazard much." The usual form was to communicate this kind of oracles first to the senate, in order to examine 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 apposite 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 of tribune gave him, to lay what they had found in them before the public, without demanding the senate's opinion. This was a new thunder-stroke 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 was 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. Nobody doubted but that it had been expressly contrived for the present conjuncture, and was the work of some political intrigue. 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. 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 with his re-establishment, and demanded 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 judged, with reason, 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, occasioned by his success in having destroyed Mithridates, the greatest and most powerful king Asia had seen since Alexander. The affair was discussed in the senate, and debated with great vivacity by the different parties that rose up in it. The difference of opinions caused several sittings to be spent without any deter.. mination.* Cicero never quitted the interest of Lentulus, his intimate friend, who, during his consulship, had infinitely contributed to his recall from banishment. But what means were 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 force of arms, which was expressly forbidden by the oracle? In this manner, people of little wit and subtlety, that were not used to consider things in different lights, would have thought. 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 still go with a good army to besiege Alexandria? Af ter 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 *Cic. ad. Famil. 1. 1. epist. 7 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 honour, and that 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 strong garrisons where necessa. ry, that prince may safely return thither. In this manner, you will reinstate him, according to the senate's first decree; and he will be restored without troops, which our zealots assure us is the direction of the Sibyl." Would one believe that a grave magistrate, in an affair so important as that at present in 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 pretended oracle of the Sibyl to be * what 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." A. M. 3949. Gabinius, who commanded in Syria in the quality of proconsul, was less apprehensive and less cautious. Though every proconsul was prohibited by a positive law to quit his province, or declare any war whatsoever, even upon the nearest borderer, without an express order of the senate, he had marched to the aid of Mithridates, prince of Parthia, who had been expelled by the king, his brother, from Media, which kingdom had fallen Ant. J. C. 55. to his share. 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 been declared consul for the year ensuing. By those letters he conjured Gabinius to do his utmost in favour of the proDosals that prince should make him, with regard to his re-establishment in his kingdom. However dangerous that conduct might be, the authority of Pompey, and, still more, the hope of considerable gain, made Gabinius begin to waver. The pressing remonstrances of Antony, who sought occasions to signalize himself, and was besides inclined to please Ptolemy, whose entreaties flattered his ambition, fully determined him. This was the famous Mark Ita fore ut per te restituatur, quemadmodum initio senatus censuit; et sine multitudine reducatur, quemadmodum homines religiosi Sibyllæ placere dixerunt. † Ex eventu honiines de tuo consilio esse judicaturos, videmus-Nos quidem hoc senti. mus; si exploratum tibi sit, posse te illius regni potiri, non esse cunctandum; sin dubl win, non esse conandum. Appian. in Syr. p, 120, & in Parth. p. 134. Plut. in Anton. p. 916, 917. Antony, who afterwards formed the second triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus. Gabinius had engaged him to follow him into Syria, by giving him the command of his cavalry. The more dangerous the enterprise, the more Gabinius thought he had a right to make Ptolemy pay dear for it. The latter, who found no difficulty in agreeing to any terms, offered him for himself and the army 10,000 talents, or 1,500,000l. the greatest part to be advanced immediately in ready money, and the rest as soon as he should be reinstated. Gabinius accepted the offer without hesitation. Egypt had continued under the government of queen Berenice. As soon as she ascended the throne, the Egyptians had sent to of fer the crown, and Berenice, to Antiochus Asiaticus, in Syria, who, by his mother Selene's side, was the nearest heir male. The ambassadors found him dead, and returned; they brought an account that his brother Seleucus, surnamed Cybiosactes, was still alive. The same offers were made to him, which he accepted. He was a prince of mean and sordid inclinations, and had no thoughts but of amassing money. His first care was to cause the body of Alexander the Great to be put into a coffin of glass, in order to seize that of massy gold, in which it had lain untouched till then. This action, and many others of a like nature, having rendered him equally odious to his queen and subjects, she caused him to be strangled soon after. He was the last prince of the race of the Selucidæ. She afterwards espoused Archelaus, high-priest of Comana, in Pontus, who called himself the son of the great Mithridates, though in fact he was only the son of that prince's chief general. Gabinius, after having passed the Euphrates, and crossed Palestine, marched directly into Egypt. What was most to be feared in this war, was the way by which they must necessarily march to arrive at Pelusium; for they could not avoid passing plains, covered with sands of such a depth as was terrible to think on, and so parched, that there was not a single drop of water the whole length of the fens of Serbonis. Antony, who was sent before with the horse, not only seized the passes, but having taken Pelusium, the key of Egypt on that side, with the whole garrison, he made the way secure for the rest of the army, and gave his general great hopes of success in the expedition. The enemy derived considerable advantage from the desire of glory which influenced Antony. For Ptolemy had no sooner entered Pelusium, than, urged by the violence of his hate and resentment, he would have put all the Egyptians in it to the sword. But Antony, who rightly judged that that act of cruelty would disgrace himself, opposed it, and prevented Ptolemy from executing his design. In all the battles and encounters which immediately fol *Strab. 1. xii. p. 538. Cic. in Pison. n. 49, 50. Id. 1. xvii. p. 794-796. Dion. Cass. 1. xxxix. p. 115. 117. |