into the sea, that he might, in case of defeat, be able to assist those who might be obliged to save themselves by swimming. After this, he sailed into the sea with 180 galleys, and charged the fleet of Ptolemy with so much impetuosity that he broke the line of battle. Ptolemy, finding his defeat inevitable, had recourse to flight, and the eight galleys that accompanied him were all that escaped.

The train and baggage of Ptolemy, together with his wives, friends, and domestics, provisions, arms, money, and machines of war, on board the store-ships which lay at anchor, were seized by Demetrius, who caused them to be carried to his camp. These prisoners, however, he afterwards returned without ransom, and he caused the slain to be interred in a magnificent manner. With so much more generosity, says Justin, was war carried on in those days than we find transactions now among friends. At this period, indeed, conquerors seemed to vie with each other in acts of this kind. How much more nobly would they have acted had they forgiven each others' wrongs, and respected each others' rights, so as to have refused drawing the sword from the scabbard, and meeting in the deadly strife! How much more happiness would they have known, had the law of love ruled their actions! In silent eloquence nature declares that all beside man fulfil the works of love and joy; and why should he fabricate a sword to stab his peace, and why cherish the snake revenge in his bosom? Reason cries out against it, and our best feelings recoil at the idea of war; but human depravity shows itself to be deaf to the voice of nature and of reason.

In this year it was that Ptolemy, with the other successors of Alexander, first assumed the title of king; he must, therefore, be now spoken of as the king of Egypt.

At the

In the first year of Ptolemy's reign, B. c. 305, Antigonus made great preparations for the invasion of Egypt. With this intention he assembled an army of 100,000 men in Syria, which he conducted by land; and Demetrius followed him with his fleet, which coasted along the shore to Gaza. time they arrived at Gaza, the sea was very tempestuous, and the pilots advised them to wait till the setting of the Pleiades, or about eight days; but Antigonus, impatient to surprise Ptolemy, while he was unprepared to meet him, disregarded this advice, and marched forward. Demetrius was ordered to make a descent in one of the mouths of the Nile, whilst Antigonus was to endeavour to open a passage by land into the heart of the country. But their designs proved abortive.

The fleet of Demetrius sustained much damage from storms; and Ptolemy had taken such precaution to secure the mouth of the Nile as to render it impossible for him to land his troops. Antigonus, also, had endured many hardships in crossing the deserts that lie between Palestine and Egypt, and he had much greater difficulties to surmount than Demetrius, so that he was not able to pass the first arm of the Nile that lay in his march. Ptolemy, moreover, bribed a great number of the followers of Antigonus to desert from him; so that, after hovering on the frontiers of Egypt to no purpose, he was compelled to return into Syria.

This was the last attack which Ptolemy had to sustain for the crown of Egypt, and the result greatly contributed to confirm it to him. Ptolemy the astronomer, therefore, fixes the commencement of his reign at this period, and afterwards points out the several years of its duration in his Chronological Canon.

In the year B. c. 304, Ptolemy sent an army to aid the Rhodians, who were besieged by Demetrius, by whose prowess they were saved from apparent destruction. To testify their gratitude to him for this assistance, they consecrated a grove to him, after they had consulted the oracle of Jupiter Amon, to give the action an air of solemnity. They erected also a magnificent edifice within it to his honour. This was a sumptuous portico, continued along each side of the square which encompassed the grove, containing a space of about 1,000 yards. This portico was called the Ptolemæon.

Nor did their gratitude stop here; it led them, indeed, into acts of the grossest impiety. They paid divine honours to him in the Ptolemæon, and in order to perpetuate the memory of their deliverer in this war, they gave him the appellation of Soter, which signifies "a saviour;" thus giving to Iman what is due to God alone.

It is by the term Soter that historians usually distinguish Ptolemy Lagus from the other Ptolemies who succeeded him on the throne of Egypt.

In the year B. c. 302, a confederacy was formed between Cassander of Macedonia, Lysimachus of Thrace, Seleucus governor of Babylon, and Ptolemy king of Egypt, against Antigonus and Demetrius, whom they defeated at Ipsus in Phrygia, in the following year, at which time Antigonus was slain. The result of this battle was, a new division of the Macedonian empire, fulfilling prophecy, (Dan. viii.,) wherein four kings are emblematically described under the figure of

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four horns. In this division, Egypt, Libya, Colo-Syria, and Palestine, were confirmed to Ptolemy.

Little more is recorded of Ptolemy save that he regained Cyprus, B. c. 295; and that he renewed the league with Lysimachus and Seleucus B. c. 287, in which they likewise engaged Pyrrhus king of Epirus, in order to frustrate the designs which Demetrius entertained of regaining the empire of his father in Asia, which they did effectually.

At length, B. c. 285, Ptolemy Soter, after a reign of twenty years in Egypt with the title of king, and of nearly thirtynine from the death of Alexander, was desirous of transmit ting the throne to Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of his sons by Berenice. The ruling motive for so doing, appears to have been, to prevent contentions about the throne. Ptolemy had several children by his other wives, and among them, 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 when his father should be deceased. But Berenice, who came into Egypt merely to accompany Eurydice, at the time of her espousals with Ptolemy, had so charmed him with her beauty, that he married her, and so great was her ascendancy over him, that she obtained the crown for her son, in preference to all the rest. In order, therefore, to prevent contentions after his death, he resolved to have Ptolemy Philadelphus crowned while yet he himself was living. At the same time, he resigned his dominions to him, declaring that it was more glo rious to create than to be a king.

Ptolemy Soter died B. c. 283, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, He was one of the most able and worthy men of his race, and he left behind him an example of prudence, justice, and clemency, which his successors rarely imitated. During the time he governed Egypt, he raised it to such a height of grandeur and power, as rendered it superior to other kingdoms. He retained upon the throne the same fondness for simplicity of manners, and the same aversion to ostentation, as he displayed when he first ascended it. He was accessible to his subjects to a degree of familiarity. He fre quently visited them at their own houses, and when he entertained them himself, he considered it no disgrace to borrow articles of gold and silver plate from the rich, and to acknow. ledge that he had little of his own. Plutarch says, that when some persons represented to him that the regal dignity required an air of opulence, his answer was, that the true gran

deur of a king consisted in enriching others, not in being rich himself. Ptolemy seems also to have been a man of enlightened mind, and to have made himself acquainted with polite literature. Arrian records that he compiled the life of Alexander, which was greatly esteemed by the ancients, but which has not reached the moderns.

PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS.

On ascending the throne of Egypt, this prince entertained the people with the most splendid festival recorded in the pages of ancient history, and which gives a clear idea of the opulence and idolatry of Egypt at this period.

This pompous solemnity continued a whole day, and was conducted through the extent of the city of Alexandria. It was divided into several parts, and formed a variety of processions. Thus the gods had each of them a distinct cavalcade, the decorations of which were descriptive of their his tory. That of Bacchus, a portion of which we give as related by Athenæus, will convey an idea of the magnificence (if so it may be called) of the rest.

This procession began with a troop of Sileni, some habited in purple, others in robes of a deep red: their employment was to keep off the crowd, and clear the way for the pageant. Next to the Sileni, came a band of satyrs, composed of twenty in two ranks, each carrying a gilded lamp.

These were succeeded by Victories, with golden wings, carrying vases nine feet in height, partly gilded and partly adorned with the leaves of ivy, in which perfumes were burning. Their habits were embroidered with figures of animals, and were covered with gold.

After these, came a double altar, nine feet in height, and covered with a luxuriant foliage of ivy, intermixed with ornaments of gold. It was also beautified with a golden crown, made in imitation of vine leaves, and adorned with white fillets.

A hundred and twenty youths advanced next, clothed in purple vests, each of them bearing a golden vase of incense, myrrh, and saffron.

These were followed by forty satyrs, wearing crowns of gold which represented the leaves of ivy, and in the right hand of each was another crown of the same metal, adorned with vine leaves. Their habits were diversified with a va riety of colours.

In the rear of these marched two Sileni, arrayed in purple mantles and white drawers; one of them wore a kind of hat, and carried a golden caduceus in his hand; the other had a trumpet. Between these two was a man six feet in height, masked, and habited like a tragedian. This man carried a golden cornucopia, and was distinguished by the appellation of The Year.

This person preceded a beautiful woman, as tall as himself, dressed in a magnificent manner, and glittering with gold. She held in one hand a crown composed of the leaves of the peach-tree, and in the other a branch of the palm. She was called Penteteris, a word signifying the space of five years, because at the expiration of every fourth year, the feast of Bacchus was celebrated at the beginning of the next, which was the fifth.

The next in the procession were the genii of the four seasons, wearing characteristic ornaments, and supporting the golden vases of odours, adorned with ivy leaves. In the midst of these genii was a square altar of gold.

A band of satyrs next appeared wearing golden crowns, fashioned like the leaves of ivy, and arrayed in red habits. Some bore vessels filled with wine, others carried drinking cups.

Immediately after these came Philiscus, the poet and priest of Bacchus, attended by comedians, musicians, dancers, and other persons of that class.

Two tripods were carried next as prizes for the victors at the athletic combats and exercises. One of these tripods, being thirteen feet and a half in height, was intended for the youths; the other, which was eighteen feet high, was designed for the men.

A car, which had four wheels, was twenty-one feet in length, and twelve in breadth, and was drawn by 180 men, followed next. In this car was a figure representing Bacchus, fifteen feet in height, in the attitude of performing libations with a large cup of gold. He was arrayed in a robe of brocaded purple, which flowed down to his feet. Over this was a transparent vest of a saffron colour, and above that a large purple mantle embroidered with gold. Before him was a large vessel of gold formed in the Lacedemonian fashion, and forming fifteen measures, called in the Greek, metretes. This was accompanied with a golden tripod, on which were placed a golden vase of odours, and two golden cups full of cinnamon and saffron. Bacchus was seated un