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merce has probably never been totally interrupted at any period since its commencement. That the coast of Africa had been navigated long before this, may be seen in the history of the Carthaginians, where it is stated that Hanno explored its western coasts, and, according to Dr. Vincent, as far as Quiloa on the southern coast.

The most essential duty of kings, and the most grateful pleasure they can enjoy, amidst the splendours of a throne, is to gain the love of mankind, by making their goverment desirable. This appears to have been the policy of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He was sensible that the only expedient for extending his dominions without any act of violence, was to multiply his subjects, and attach them to his government by their interest and inclination; to cause the land to be cultivated; to make arts and manufactures flourish; and to augment, by judicious measures, the power of a prince and his kingdom, whose strength, humanly speaking, consists in the multitude of his subjects. Hence it was, that so many from different nations transplanted themselves into Egypt during his reign, preferring a residence in a foreign land to their native soil. This is a favourable trait in the character of this prince, and cannot be too closely imitated by those who bear rule among the nations of the earth.

Ptolemy Philadelphus was succeeded in his kingdom by his eldest son,

PTOLEMY EUERGETES.

The first act of Ptolemy Euergetes, was to revenge the wrongs of his sister. This princess had been repudiated by Antiochus Theos as soon as he heard of the death of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Laodice and her children had been recalled to his court. Laodice caused Antiochus to be poisoned, and she concerted measures with Seleucus Callinicus, her son, who had ascended his father's throne, to destroy Berenice and her son also. But Berenice being informed of their design, escaped with her son to Daphne, where she shut herself up in the asylum built by Seleucus Nicator. Thither Ptolemy Euergetes hastened, but before he arrived, Berenice had been betrayed by the perfidy of those who besieged her in her place of retreat, and had been murdered, with her son, and all her Egyptian attendants, by order of Laodice.

The cities of Asia Minor, touched with pity at the misfortunes of Berenice, had also sent a body of troops to her relief.

These now joined those of Egypt, and Ptolemy, who com manded the whole army, made war upon Seleucus Callinicus. He soon had his revenge. The criminal proceeding of Laodice, and of Seleucus, had alienated the affection of the people from them; and Ptolemy not only caused Laodice to suffer death, but made himself master of all Syria and Cilicia; after which he passed the Euphrates, and conquered all the country as far as Babylon and the Tigris. If the progress of his arms had not been interrupted by a sedition, which obliged him to return to Egypt, it is probable he would have subdued all the provinces of the Syrian empire. He left Antiochus, one of the generals, to govern the provinces he had gained on this side of Mount Taurus, and Xanthippus was intrusted with those that lay beyond it. Ptolemy then marched back to Egypt laden with the spoils he had acquired by his conquests. These events occurred B. C. 246.

The spoils which Ptolemy collected in this expedition were 40,000 talents of silver, (about six million pounds sterling,) a large quantity of gold and silver vessels, and 2,500 statues. Part of these statues were Egyptian idols, which Cambyses, after his conquest of that kingdom, had transported into Persia; and Ptolemy gained the affections of his subjects by replacing them in their ancient temples. The Egyptians, Indeed, who were more devoted to their superstitious idolatry than the rest of mankind, thought they could not sufficiently express their gratitude and veneration to Ptolemy for the res toration of their gods. They gave him the title of Euergetes, which signifies "a benefactor," as a token of their gratitude; a tittle which it were to be wished he had merited by some nobler action than the perpetuating idolatry, since it is infinitely preferable to all appellations which conquerors have assumed from a false idea of glory.

It may here be observed, that all the facts that have been related proved an exact accomplishment of what the prophet Daniel had foretold. Foreseeing the result of the marriage of the "daughter of the south," with "the king of the north," as before noticed, he says of the former. "But she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times." He discovered that the issue of this princess, notwithstanding all the express precautions in the treaty for securing their succession to the crown, in the exclusion of the children by a former marriage, were so far from ascending

e throne, that they were entirely exterminated; and that e new queen herself was delivered up to her rival, who aused her to be destroyed with all her officers who had conucted her out of Egypt and Syria, and who, till then, had een her strength and support.

The prophet next describes the conquests of Euergetes: - But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate [her brother, Euergetes which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress [or the fenced cities] of he king of the north, and shall deal against them and shall prevail: and shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, [that is, the kingdom of Seleucus of the north,] and shall return into his own land," [into Egypt,] Dan. xi. 7—9.

The remarkable precision with which this prediction was accomplished cannot fail to strike every reader. Porphyry has, indeed, discerned the resemblance between the prediction and the accomplishment, and, strange to relate, at the expense of truth, he has asserted that the prophecy was written after the several events to which it refers had occurred; to such miserable artifices will the infidel resort, in order to falsify God's holy word. But all his endeavours are vain.

"All flesh is grass,

And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

Because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:

Surely the people is grass.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

But the word of our God shall stand for ever."-Isa. xl. 6-8.

To return to the narrative. When Ptolemy Euergetes set out on this expedition, his queen Berenice, being apprehensive of the dangers to which he would be exposed in the war, made a vow to consecrate her hair if he should return in safety. This was a sacrifice of no mean kind, since it was esteemed by all ancient nations before all other personal ornaments. Accordingly, when she saw him return, her first care was the accomplishment of her promise. She caused her hair to be cut off, and then dedicated it to the gods, in the temple which Ptolemy Philadelphus had founded in honour of his beloved Arsinoe, on Zephyrion, a promontory in Cyprus, under the name of the Zephyrian Venus. This consecrated hair was lost soon after, and Ptolemy was ex

tremely offended with the priests for their negligence: upon which Conon of Samos, who was then at Alexandria, being an artful courtier, took upon him to affirm that the locks of the queen's hair had been conveyed to heaven; and pointed out seven stars near the lion's tail, which till then had never formed part of any constellation; declaring, at the same time, that those were the hair of Berenice. Several other astronomers, either to make their court as well as Conon, or that they might not draw upon themselves the displeasure of Ptolemy, gave those stars the name of Berenice's hair, by which they are known to this day.

On his return from this expedition, Ptolemy passed through Jerusalem, where he offered a great number of sacrifices to the God of Israel, in order to render homage to him, for the victories he had obtained over the king of Syria; by which action he discovered his preference of the true God to all the idols of Egypt. Some have supposed that the prophecies of Daniel were shown to that prince, and that he might have concluded from thence, that his conquest and successes were owing to that God who had revealed them to his prophets. In the extremities to which Seleucus was reduced, he made application to his brother Antiochus, whom he promised to invest with the sovereignty of the provinces of Asia Minor, if he would act in concert with him against Ptolemy. This young prince was then at the head of an army in those provinces; and though he was but fourteen years of age, yet, according to Justin, he had all the ambition and malignity of mind that appear in maturer years. He immediately accepted the offers made to him, and advanced in quest of his brother; not with any intention to secure to him the enjoyment of his dominions, but to seize them for himself. The avidity of this young prince was, indeed, so great, that he acquired the surname of Hierax, which signifies "a kite," the peculiar characteristic of which bird is, that it is ready to seize upon every thing within the range of its flight.

This alliance occurred B. c. 244. The next year, Ptolemy receiving intelligence that Antiochus was preparing to act in concert with Seleucus against him, reconciled himself with the latter, and concluded a truce with him for ten years, that he might not be at war with both these princes at the same time.

From the time of his concluding the peace with Seleucus, he seems to have made it his principal care to extend his dominions to the south. Accordingly, before his death, he had

ended it the whole length of the Red Sea, as well along Arabian, as the Ethiopian coast, and even to the Straits of belmandel, which form a communication with the southern

ean.

Ptolemy devoted the time of peace to the cultivation of the ences in his dominions, and the enlargement of his faer's library at Alexandria; but as a proper collection of oks could not be made without a librarian, Euergetes, upon e death of Zenodotus, who had held the office from the ne of Ptolemy Soter, sent to Athens for Eratosthenes, the yrenian, who was then in great esteem for learning, and ho had been educated by Callimachus. Eratosthenes was man of universal learning; but none of his works have eached our days, except his catalogue of the kings of 'hebes, with the years of their respective reigns, from Menes, r Misraim, who first peopled Egypt after the deluge, to the Trojan war. This catalogue contains a succession of thirtyight kings, and is still to be seen in Syncellus.

In the year B. c. 233, the original manuscripts of Eschyus, Euripides, and Sophocles, were lent to Ptolemy Euergetes on a pledge of fifteen talents.

The same year, Onias, the high priest of the Jews, having neglected to send to Egypt the usual tribute of twenty talents, which his predecessors had always paid to the kings of that country, Ptolemy sent Athenion, one of his courtiers, to Jerusalem, to demand the payment of the arrears, which then amounted to a large sum; and to threaten the Jews, in case of refusal, with a body of troops, who should be commissioned to expel them from their country, and divide it among themselves. This caused great alarm at Jerusalem, and it was deemed necessary to send a deputation to the king, in the person of Joseph, the nephew of Onias, who, though in the prime of his youth, was universally esteemed for his prudence, probity, and justice. Athenion, during his continuance at Jerusalem, had conceived a great regard for his character, and as he set out for Egypt before him, he promised to render him all the good offices in his power with the king. Joseph followed him soon after. On his way

thither, he met with several of the most considerable persons of Colo-Syria and Palestine; who were also going to Egypt with an intention of offering terms for farming the great re venues of those provinces. As the equipage of Joseph was less magnificent than theirs, they treated him with disrespect, and considered him as a person of little note.. Joseph con

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