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$Title{Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Sections I And II.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Rollin, Charles}
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$Subject{syria
rome
upon
antiochus
egypt
himself
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jews
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}
$Date{1731}
$Log{See Table 1*0431701.tab
}
Title:       Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Book:        Chapter IX.
Author:      Rollin, Charles
Date:        1731

Sections I And II.

     It seems that after the subjugation of Macedonia and Greece to the
Romans, our history, confined for the future to two principal kingdoms, those
of Egypt and Syria, should become more clear and intelligible than ever.  I
am, however, obliged to own, that it will be more obscure and perplexed than
it has been hitherto, especially in regard to the kingdom of Syria; in which
several kings not only succeeded one another in a short space, but sometimes
reigned jointly, and at the same time, to the number of three or four; which
occasions a confusion difficult to unravel,and from which I find it hard to
extricate myself.  This induces me to prefix in this place the names,
succession, and duration of the reigns of the kings of Egypt and Syria.  This
small chronological abridgment may contribute to cast some light upon facts,
which are exceedingly complex, and serve as a clew to guide the reader in a
kind of labyrinth, where the most clear- sighted will have occasion for
assistance.  It enlarges the work a little, but it may be passed over, and
recourse be had to it only when it is necessary to be set right: I insert it
here with that view.

     This third article contains the space of one hundred years for the
kingdom of Egypt, from the twentieth year of Ptolemy Philometer, to the
expulsion of Ptolemy Auletes from the throne; that is, from the year of the
world 3845, to 3946.

     As to the kingdom of Syria, the same article contains almost the space of
one hundred years from Antiochus Eupator to Antiochus Asiaticus, under whom
Syria became a province of the Roman empire; that is from the year of the
world 3840, to the year 3939.

[See Table 1: Chronological Abridgment Of The History Of The Kings Of Egypt
And Syria.]

Antiochus Eupator Succeeds To The Kingdom Of Syria.

Celebrated Victories of Judas Maccabeus.

     We have long lost sight of the histories of the kings of Syria, and of
Egypt, which are generally closely connected with each other.  I am now about
to resume the thread of them, which will not be again interrupted.

     Antiochus, surnamed Eupator, aged only nineteen, succeeded his father
Antiochus Epiphanes in the kingdom of Syria.  The latter, at his death, sent
for Philip, his favorite, who had been brought up with him.  He gave him the
regency of the kingdom, during his son's minority, and put his crown, signet,
and all the other marks of the royal dignity, into his hands; recommending to
him, above all things, to employ his whole care in educating his son in such a
manner as was most proper to instruct him in the art of reigning. ^420

[Footnote 420: A. M. 3840.  Ant. J. C. 164.  Appian. in Syr. p. 117 I. Maccab.
vi. 17.  II. Maccab. ix. 29, et x. 18.  Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 14.]

     Philip, on his arrival at Antioch, found that another had usurped the
employment which the late king had confided to him.  Lysias, upon the first
advice of the death of Epiphanes, had placed his son Antiochus upon the
throne, whose governor he was, and had taken upon himself, with the
guardianship, the reigns of the government, without any regard to the king's
regulation at his death.  Philip knew well that he was not at that time in a
condition to dispute it with him, and retired into Egypt, in hopes of finding,
at that court, the assistance he wanted for the repossession of his right, and
the expulsion of the usurper.

     About the same time Ptolemy Macron, governor of Coelosyria and Palestine,
who had been till then inimical to the Jews, suddenly became their friend,
moved, as the Scripture says, with the crying injustice which had been
committed in regard to them.  He put a stop to the rigor of the persecution
against them, and employed all his influence to obtain peace for them.  By his
conduct he gave his enemies an opportunity of injuring him.  They prejudiced
the king against him, by representing him perpetually as a traitor, because he
had in reality betrayed the interests of his first master, Ptolemy Philometer,
king of Egypt, who had entrusted him with the government of the island of
Cyprus, and had given up that island to Antiochus Epiphanes, on entering into
his service.  For, however advantageous the treason might be, the traitor, as
is usual, was hated.  At length, by their clamor and cabals, he was deprived
of his government, which was given to Lysias; no other post or pension being
conferred on him to support his dignity.  He had not force of mind enough to
bear his downfall, and poisoned himself; an end he had well deserved for his
treason, and the part he had taken in the cruel persecution of the Jews.

     Judas Maccabeus at this time signalized his valor by several considerable
victories over the enemies of the people of God, who continually made an
implacable war against him.  The short time that Antiochus Epiphanes survived
the favorable inclination he had expressed for the Jews, would not allow him
to revoke, in form, his decree for obliging them to change their religion.
The court of Syria, which always considered the Jews, as rebels desirous of
throwing off its yoke, and had great interests in making so powerful a
neighboring people submit, had no regard to some transient demonstrations of
the dying prince's favor to them.  They always persisted in the same
principles of policy, and continued to look upon that nation as an enemy,
whose sole view was to shake off their chains, and support themselves in
liberty of conscience with regard to religion.  Such were the dispositions of
Syria in regard to the Jews. ^421

[Footnote 421: I. Maccab. v. 1-68.  II. Maccab. x. 14-38.]

     Demetrius, son of Seleucus Philopator, who, from the year his father
died, had remained a hostage at Rome, was in his twenty-third year when he was
informed of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, and the accession of his son
Eupator to the crown, which he pretended to be his right as the son of the
eldest brother of Epiphanes.  He proposed to the senate his re- establishment
upon his father's throne; and to engage them in it, he represented, that
having been bred up at Rome, he should always regard it as his native country,
the senators as his fathers, and their sons as his brothers.  The senate had
more regard for the interests of the republic, than the rights of Demetrius,
and thought it more advantageous for the Romans, that there should be a king
in his minority upon the throne of Syria, than a prince like Demetrius, who
might at length become formidable to them.  They therefore made a decree to
confirm Eupator, and sent Cn. Octavius, Sp. Lucretius, and L. Aurelius, in the
character of ambassadors, into Syria, to regulate all things conformably to
the treaty made with Antiochus the Great.  The same ambassadors had
instructions to accommodate, if possible, the differences between the two
kings of Egypt. ^422

[Footnote 422: A. M. 3918.  Ant. J. C. 163.  Polyb. Legat. cvii.  Justin. l.
xxxiv. c. 3.  Appian. in Syr. p. 117.]

     Lysias, terrified by the victories of Judas Maccabeus, formed an army of
eighty thousand foot, and took with him all the cavalry of the kingdom, with
eighty elephants; at the head of all these forces he marched into Judea, with
the resolution to settle strange inhabitants who worshipped idols in
Jerusalem.  He opened the campaign with the siege of Bethsura, a fortress
between Idumaea and Jerusalem.  Judas Maccabeus, and all the people, prayed to
the Lord, with tears in their eyes, to send his angel for the preservation of
Israel.  Full of confidence in God, they took the field.  When they marched
all together, with assured courage, out of Jerusalem, there appeared a
horseman marching before them.  His habit was white, with arms of gold, and he
held a lance in his hand.  That sight filled them with new ardor.  They threw
themselves upon the enemy like lions, killed twelve thousand six hundred men,
and obliged the rest to fly, most of them wounded, and without arms. ^423

[Footnote 423: II. Maccab. ix. 1-32, x. 1-7, xiii. 1-24.  I. Maccab. v. 65-
68, vi. 19-63.  Joseph. Antiq. lib. xii.]

     After this check, Lysias, weary of so unsuccessful a war, and, as the
Scripture says, "believing the Jews invincible, when supported by the aid of
the Almighty God," made a treaty with Judas and the Jewish nation, which
Antiochus ratified.  One of the articles of this peace was that the decree of
Antiochus Epiphanes, which obliged the Jews to conform to the religion of the
Greeks, should be revoked and cancelled, and that they should be at liberty to
live in all places according to their own laws. ^424

[Footnote 424: Ibid. xi. 13.]

     This peace was not of long duration.  The neighboring people were too
much the enemies of the Jews to leave them long in repose.  Timotheus, one of
the king's generals, assembled all his forces, and raised an army of one
hundred and twenty thousand foot, without including the horse, which amounted
to twenty-five thousand.  Judas, full of confidence in the God of armies,
marched against him with troops far inferior in numbers.  He attacked and
defeated him.  Timotheus lost thirty thousand men in this battle, and saved
himself with great difficulty.  This defeat was followed by many advantages on
the side of Judas, which proved that God alone is the source of valor,
intrepidity, and success in war.  He showed this in the most sensible manner,
by the evident and singular protection which he gave to a people, of whom he
was in a peculiar manner the guide and director.

     A new army was raised of one hundred thousand foot, with twenty thousand
horse, thirty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots of war. The king, in
person, with Lysias, the regent of the kingdom, put themselves at the head of
it, and entered Judea.  Judas, relying on the omnipotence of God, the Creator
of the universe, and having exhorted his troops to fight to the last, marched
and posted himself in front of the king's camp.  After having given his troops
for the word of battle, "the Victory of God," he chose the bravest men of his
army, and with them attacked the king's quarters in the night.  They killed
four thousand men, and retired, after having filled his whole camp with
confusion and dismay.

     Though the king knew from thence the extraordinary valor of the Jews, he
did not doubt that they would be overpowered at length by the number of his
troops and elephants.  He therefore resolved to come to a general battle with
them.  Judas, without being intimidated by the terrible preparations for it,
advanced with his army and gave the king battle, in which the Jews killed a
great number of the enemy.  Eleazer, a Jew, seeing an elephant larger than the
rest, covered with the king's arms, and believing the king was upon it,
sacrificed himself to preserve the people, and to acquire immortal fame.  He
forced his way boldly to the elephant, through the line of battle, killing and
over-throwing all that opposed him. Then placing himself under the belly of
the beast, he pierced it in such a manner that it fell and crushed him to
death beneath it.

     Judas, however, and his troops, fought with extraordinary resolution. But
at length, exhausted by the fatigue, and no longer able to support the weight
of the enemy, they chose to retire.  The king followed them, and besieged the
fortress of Bethsura, which after a long and vigorous defence was obliged, for
want of provisions, to surrender by capitulation.

     From thence Antiochus marched against Jerusalem, and besieged the temple.
Those who defended it were reduced to the same extremities with the garrison
of Bethsura, and would, like them, have been obliged to surrender, if
Providence had not relieved them by an unforeseen accident. I have observed
that Philip had retired into Egypt, in hopes of finding assistance there
against Lysias.  But the divisions which arose between the two brothers, who
reigned jointly, as has been said elsewhere, soon undeceived him.  Finding
that he had nothing to expect from that quarter, he returned into the east,
assembled some troops of Medes and Persians, and taking advantage of the
king's absence upon his expedition against Judea, he seized the capital of the
empire.  Upon that news, Lysias thought it necessary to make peace with the
Jews, in order to turn his arms against his rival in Syria.  The peace was
accordingly concluded upon very advantageous and honorable conditions.
Antiochus swore to observe it, and was admitted to enter the fortifications of
the temple, with the sight of which he was so much terrified, that, contrary
to his faith given, and the oath he had sworn in regard to the peace, he
caused them to be demolished before he set out at Syria.  The sudden return of
Antiochus drove Philip out of Antioch, and put an end to his short regency,
and soon after, to his life.

     The troubles occasioned by the division between the two Ptolemies, which
we have just now mentioned, rose so high, that the Roman senate gave orders to
the ambassadors they had sent into Syria to proceed to Alexandria, and to use
all their endeavors to reconcile them.  Before they arrived there, Physcon,
the youngest, surnamed Evergetes, had already expelled his brother Philometer.
The latter embarked for Italy, and landed at Brundusium.  From thence he went
the rest of the way to Rome on foot, very ill dressed, and with few followers,
and demanded of the senate the necessary aid for replacing him on the throne.
^425

[Footnote 425: A. M. 3842.  Ant. J. C. 162.  Porphyr. in Cr. Eus.  Scalig. p.
60, et 68.  Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 322.  Val. Max. l. v. c. 1. Polyb.
Legat. 113.  Epit. Liv. l. 46.]

     As soon as Demetrius, son of Seleucus Philopator, king of Syria, who was
still a hostage at Rome, was apprised of the unhappy condition to which that
fugitive prince was reduced, he caused royal robes and an equipage to be got
ready for him, that he might appear in Rome as a king, and went to meet him
with all he had ordered to be prepared for his use.  He found him twenty-six
miles, that is, at nine or ten leagues' distance from Rome. Ptolemy expressed
great gratitude to him for his goodness, and the honor he did him; but did not
think proper to accept his present, nor permit him to attend him the rest of
his journey.  He finished it on foot, and with the same attendants and habit
he had worn till then.  In that manner he entered Rome, and took up his
lodging with a painter of Alexandria, who had but a very small house.  His
design by all these circumstances, was to express the misery he was reduced
to, and the better to move the compassion of the Romans.

     When the senate were informed of his arrival, they sent to desire he
would come to them; and to excuse their not having prepared a house for his
reception, and that he had not been paid the honors at his entry with which it
was the custom to treat princes of his rank, they assured him that it was
neither for want of consideration for his person, nor out of neglect, but
because his coming had surprised them, and had been kept so secret, that they
were not apprised of it till after he had entered Rome. Afterwards, having
desired him to relinquish the habit he wore, and to demand an audience of the
senate, in order to explain the occasion of his voyage, he was conducted by
some of the senators to a house suitable to his birth; and orders were given
to the quaestors and treasurers to see him served and supplied, at the expense
of the public, with all things necessary during his residence at Rome.

     When they gave him audience, and he had represented his condition to the
Romans, they immediately resolved to re-establish him; and deputed two of the
senators, with the character of ambassadors, to go with him to Alexandria, and
cause their decree to be put in execution.  They reconducted him accordingly,
and succeeded in negotiating an accommodation between the two brothers.
Libya, and the province of Cyrene, were given to Physcon; Philometer had Egypt
and the isle of Cyprus, and each of them was declared independent of the other
in the dominions assigned to them.  The treaty and agreement were confirmed
with the customary oaths and sacrifices.

     But oaths and sacrifices had long been, with the generality of princes,
no more than simple ceremonies and mere forms, by which they did not think
themselves bound in the least.  And this way of thinking is but too common.
Soon after, the youngest of the two kings, dissatisfied with the partition
which had been made, went in person to complain of it to the senate.  He
demanded that the treaty of partition should be annulled, and that he should
be restored to the possession of the isle of Cyprus.  He alleged that he had
been forced, by the necessity of the times, to comply with the former
proposals, and that, though Cyprus should be granted him, his part would still
be far from equal to his brother's.  Menethyllus, whom the elder had deputed
to Rome, made it appear that Physcon held not only Libya and Cyrenaica, but
his life also, from the goodness of his brother; that he had made himself so
much the abhorrence of the people, by his violent proceedings, that they would
have left him neither life nor government, had not his brother snatched him
from their resentment, by making himself mediator.  That at the time he was
preserved from this danger, he thought himself too happy in reigning over the
region allotted to him; and that both sides had ratified the treaty before the
altar of the gods, and sworn to observe their agreement with each other.
Quintius and Canuleius, who had negotiated the accommodation between the
brothers, confirmed the truth of all that Menethyllus advanced.

     The senate, seeing that the partition was not actually equal, artfully
took advantage of the quarrel between the two brothers, to diminish the
strength of the kingdom of Egypt by dividing it, and granted the younger what
he demanded: for such was then the policy of the Romans.  Polybius makes this
reflection.  They made the quarrels and differences of princes the means of
extending and strengthening their own power, and behaved in regard to them
with so much address, that while they acted solely from their own interest,
the contending parties were still obliged to them.  As the great power of
Egypt gave them reason to apprehend it would become too formidable if it fell
into the hands of one sovereign, who knew how to use it, they adjudged the
isle of Cyprus to Physcon.  Demetrius, who did not lose sight of the throne of
Syria, and whose interest in that view it was, that so powerful a prince as
the king of Egypt should not continue in possession of the island of Cyprus,
supported the demand of Physcon with all his power.  The Romans sent T.
Torquatus and Cn. Merula, with the latter, to put him in possession of it.

     During that prince's stay at Rome, he had often the opportunity of seeing
Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and caused proposals of marriage to be
made to her.  But, being the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the widow of
Tiberius Gracchus, who had been twice consul and censor, she rejected his
offers, and thought it more honorable to be one of the first ladies of Rome,
than queen of Libya, with Physcon. ^426

[Footnote 426: Plut. in Vib. Grac. p. 824.]

     Physcon set out from Rome with the two Roman ambassadors.  Their plan was
to concert an interview between the two brothers upon the frontier, and to
bring them to an accommodation by means of a treaty, according to the senate's
instructions.  Philometer did not explain himself openly at first. He
protracted the affair as long as possible, upon different pretexts, with a
design of making use of the time in taking secret measures against his
brother.  At length he declared plainly that he was resolved to stand to the
first treaty, and that he would make no other.

     The Cyrenaeans, in the mean time, informed of the ill conduct of Physcon,
during his being possessed of the government at Alexandria, conceived so
strong an aversion for him, that they resolved to keep him out of their
country by force of arms.  It was not doubted, that Philometer had taken pains
secretly to excite those troubles.  Physcon, who had been overthrown by the
rebels in a battle, having almost lost all hope, sent two deputies with the
Roman ambassadors back to Rome, with orders to lay his complaints against his
brother before the senate, and to solicit their protection.  The senate,
offended at Philometer's refusal to evacuate the island of Cyprus, according
to their decree, declared the amity and alliance between him and the Romans
void, and ordered his ambassadors to quit Rome in five days. ^427

[Footnote 427: A. M. 3843.  Ant. J. C. 161.  Polyb. Legat. cxxxii.  Id. in
Excerpt. Vales, p. 197.  Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 334.]

     Physcon found means to re-establish himself in Cyrenaica, but made
himself so generally hated by his subjects, through his ill conduct, that some
of them fell upon him, and wounded him in several places, and left him for
dead upon the spot.  He ascribed this to his brother Philometer; and when he
recovered from his wounds, again undertook a voyage to Rome.  He there made
his complaints against him to the senate, showing the scars of his wounds, and
accused him of having employed the assassins from whom he received them.
Though Philometer was the most humane of all princes, and could not be the
least suspected of so black and barbarous an action, the senate, who were
angry at his refusal to submit to the regulation they had made in regard to
the isle of Cyprus, gave ear to this false accusation with too much facility.
They carried their prejudice so high against him, that they would not so much
as hear what his ambassadors had to say in his defence.  Orders were sent them
to quit Rome immediately.  Besides which, the senate appointed five
commissioners, to conduct Physcon into Cyprus, and to put him in possession of
that island, and wrote to all their allies near it, to aid him for that
purpose with all their troops.

     Physcon by this means, with an army which seemed to him sufficient for
the execution of his design, landed in the island.  Philometer, who had gone
thither in person, beat him, and obliged him to shut himself up in Lapitho,
where he was soon invested, besieged, and at length taken, and put into the
hands of a brother he had so cruelly injured.  Philometer's exceeding goodness
appeared on this occasion.  After all that Physcon had done against him, it
was expected that, having him in his power, he would make him sensible of his
indignation and revenge.  He pardoned him every thing; and, not contented with
forgiving him his faults, he even restored him Libya and Cyrenaica, and also
added some amends in lieu of the isle of Cyprus.  That act of generosity put
an end to the war between the two brothers.  It was not renewed, and the
Romans were ashamed of opposing any longer a prince of such extraordinary
clemency. ^428 There is no reader who does not secretly pay homage of esteem
and admiration to so generous an action.  Such inward sentiments, which rise
from nature and prevent reflections, imply how great and noble it is to forget
and pardon injuries, and what a meanness of soul there is in the resentment of
the revengeful.

[Footnote 428: A. M. 3847.  Ant. J. C. 157.]