Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

kingdom, where he purposed to pass the remainder of his life, he was in the march treacherously slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus, whom he had received with great kindness into his court on his flight thither, and there maintained him in a princely manner, and carried him with him in this expedition, with purpose, on having finished it with success, to have employed his forces for the restoring of him to his father's kingdom. But this wicked traitor, having no sense of gratitude for these favours, conspired against his benefactor, and basely murdered him. The manner of it is thus told. Seleucus having passed the Hellespont in his way to Macedonia, as he marched on from thence towards Lysimachia (a city which Lysimachus had built near the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonesus), he stopped at a place where he observed an old altar had been erected, and being told that it was called Argos, this made him very inquisitive about it. For he had been warned, it seems, by an oracle, to have a care of Argos, which he understood of the city of Argos in Peloponnesus. But while he was asking several questions about it, and how it came to be called by that name, the traitor came behind him, and thrust him through, and then getting the army to declare for him, seized the kingdom of Macedon. Those who were the soldiers and friends of Lysimachus, looking on him as a revenger of his death, on this account at first had a kind liking unto him, and stuck by him; but he soon gave reason to make them otherwise affected to him. For his sister Arsinoe with her children still surviving,' he thought himself not safe in the possession of Lysimachus's dominions, as long as any of his children remained alive; and therefore pretending to take Arsinoe to be his wife, and to adopt her two sons which she had by Lysimachus, and having by this means gotten them into his power, he murdered them both on the very feast of the nuptials; and after that, having stripped Arsinoe of all that she had, he sent her to Samothracia, into banishment, with two maids only to wait upon her. But Providence did not suffer all those wickednesses to go long unpunished.

Ceraunus slain by an irruption of the Gauls, under Belgius, into Macedonia, 279.-For the next year after,2 Ptolemy waging war against the Gauls, who had invaded Macedonia, he was taken prisoner in the battle, and afterwards, on being known, was torn by them in pieces, which was a death he sufficiently deserved. For what is above related of him fully shows him to have been a man of a most perfidious and wicked temper of mind; and the knowledge which his father had of this, no doubt, was that which most prevailed with him to exclude him from the succession of his crown, and settle it on his younger brother. After his death, Arsinoe retired into Egypt to Ptolemy Philadelphus her brother, who falling in love with her, after he had divorced another Arsinoe,3 the daughter of Lysimachus, whom he had married immediately on his first accession to the throne, took this sister of his to be his wife, according to the corrupt usage of the Persians and Egyptians, who from the time of Cambyses had these incestuous marriages in practice among them; and we have frequent instances of

1 Justin. lib. 24, c. 2. Justin. lib. 24, c. 5. Diodori Siculi, lib. 22.

3 Theocriti Scholiastes,

Memnonis Excerpta apud Photium, c. 15.

Memnonis Excerpta, c. 15. Pausanias in Phocicis. Ecloga
Pausanias in Atticis.

it among the Ptolemæan kings, as well as among those that succeeded Cyrus in the kingdom of Persia. How Cambyses first gave the ill example for it hath been afore related in the former part of this history. The reason why Ptolemy divorced Arsinoe his first wife was, he had convicted her of being in a plot against his life. For on the coming of Arsinoe the sister to him, Arsinoe the wife finding that he was fallen in love with her, and that she was thereon neglected, out of a furious jealousy and passion of revenge together, she entered into a conspiracy with Chrysippus her physician, and others, to cut him off. But the treason being discovered, she was thereon sent into Upper Egypt as far as the confines of Ethiopia, there to end her days in banishment, after she had brought him two sons and a daughter, the eldest of which was that Ptolemy who, by the name Euergetes, succeeded him in the throne. And after this removal of her was it that Ptolemy took the other Arsinoe, his sister, to be his wife in her stead. And although she was now past child-bearing, yet she had such charms to engage his affections, that he never took any other wife as long as he lived, and when she died did not long survive her. In the epistle which, according to Aristeas, Eleazar the high priest of the Jews wrote to him, she is named as his queen and his sister.

1

Antiochus Soter succeeds Seleucus Nicator in the Syrian empire.— On the death of Seleucus, Antiochus, surnamed Soter, his son by Apama, the daughter of Artabazus a Persian lady, succeeded him in the empire of Asia, and reigned over it nineteen years. As soon as he had heard of his father's death, and secured himself of his dominions in the East where he then was, he sent Patrocles,2 one of his generals, with an army over Mount Taurus into Lesser Asia, to take care of his affairs in those parts. On his first arrival he marched against the Heracleans, a colony of the Greeks lying on the Euxine Sea, in the country of Pontus, and then a potent state. But matters between them being made up by a treaty, he turned all his force against the Bithynians, and invaded that country; but being drawn into a snare by a stratagem of the enemy's, he and his whole army were there all cut off to a man. Zipates was then king of Bithynia,3 an aged prince that had reigned there fortyeight years, and was then seventy-six years old, who being overborne with the joy of this victory, soon after died, leaving behind him four sons, the eldest of which was Nicomedes, who, succeeding him in the kingdom, to secure himself the better in it, forthwith caused two of his brothers to be cut off; but the youngest, called also Zipates from his father's name, escaping his power, seized on some parts of his father's dominions, and there maintained a long war with his brother. From this Nicomedes were descended the Bithynian kings, of whom we find so frequent mention in the Roman histories. At the same time that he had war with his brother," being threatened with another from Antiochus, who was preparing a great army to be revenged of him for the death of Patrocles and the loss of his army with him, he called in the Gauls to his assistance, and on this occasion was it that the Gauls first passed into Lesser Asia. The whole history of this expedition of those barbarous people into those parts is thus related.

! Appian. in Syriacis. Eusebii Chronicon.

3 Ibil. c. 21.

• Memnonis Excerpta, c. 16. Ibid. c. 18. Livius, lib. 38.

Memnon. cap. 19-21. Livius, lib. 38. Justin. lib. 25, cap. 2.

Gauls, under Belgius, vanquished and expelled from Macedonia by Sosthenes. In the beginning of this year, it being, as Polybius tell us,1 the next year after Pyrrhus' first passing into Italy, the Gauls being overstocked at home, sent out a vast number of their people to seek for new habitations. These dividing themselves into three companies, took three several ways. The first company, under the command of Brennus and Acichorius, marched into Pannonia, the country now called Hungary. The second, under the command of Cerethrius, went into Thrace ; and the third, under the command of Belgius, invaded Illyrium and Macedonia; and by these last was it that Ptolemy Ceraunus was slain. But after this victory, they having dispersed themselves to plunder the country, Sosthenes, a Macedonian, getting forces together, took the advantage of this disorder to fall upon them; and having cut off great numbers of them, forced the rest to retreat out of the country; whereon Brennus and his company came into Macedonia in their stead. This Brennus (being of the same name with him that some ages before sacked Rome) was the chief author of this expedition, and therefore was one of the prime leaders in it. On his hearing of the first success of Belgius, and the great prey which he had got by it, he envied him the plunder of so rich a country, and therefore resolved to hasten thither, to take a part in it; which resolution, after his hearing of the defeat of Belgius, he was much more eagerly excited to, out of a desire of being revenged for it. What became of Belgius and his companions is not said, there being after this no more mention made of either. It is most likely he was slain in the overthrow given him by Sosthenes, and that his company after that joined themselves to those that followed Brennus. But however this matter was, Brennus and Acichorius, leaving Pannonia, marched with one hundred and fifty thousand foot, and one thousand five hundred horse, into Illyrium, in order to pass from thence into Macedonia and Greece. But there a sedition happening in the army, twenty thousand of their men deserted from them, and under the command of Leonorius and Lutarius, two prime leaders in this expedition, marched into Thrace, and there joining those whom Cerethius had led there before, seized on Byzantium and the western coasts of the Propontis, and there made all the adjacent parts tributary to them.

Second irruption of Gauls under Brennus and Acichorius: its unsuccessful termination, 278.-However, Brennus and Acichorius were not discouraged by this desertion from proceeding in their intended expedition, but having by new recruits raised among the Illyrians, as well as by others sent them from Gallia, made up their army to the number of one hundred and fifty-two thousand foot, and sixty-one thousand two hundred horse, marched directly with them into Macedonia, and having there overborne Sosthenes with their great numbers, and ravaged the whole country, passed on to the Straits of Thermopyla, to enter through them into Greece. But on their coming thither, they were stopped for some time by the forces which they found the Grecians had posted there for the guard and defence of that pass, till they were shown

1 Lib. i. p. 6

Pausanias in Phocicis. Justin. lib. 24, 25. Memnonis Excerpta apud Photium. Ecloga Diodori Siculi, lib. 22. Livius, lib. 38. Cailimachi Hymnus in Delum, et Scholiastes ad eundem. Suidas in laλára. From these authorities is collected all that is said under this and the following years, of the inundation of these barbarous people, made at this time upon Greece, Macedon, Thrace, and the adjacent countries.

the same way over the mountains by which the forces of Xerxes had passed before; whereon the guards retiring to avoid being surrounded, Brennus marched on with the gross of the army towards Delphos, to plunder the temple in that city of the vast riches which were there laid up, ordering Acichorius to follow after with the remainder. But there he met with a wonderful defeat. For on his approaching the place, there happened a terrible storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, which destroyed great numbers of his men, and at the same time there was as terrible an earthquake, which, rending the mountains in pieces, threw down whole rocks upon them, which overwhelmed them by hundreds at a time; by which the whole army being dismayed, they were the following night seized with such a panic fear, that every man supposing him that was next to him to be a Grecian enemy, they fell upon each other, so that before there was daylight enough to make them see the mistake, one-half of the army had destroyed the other. By all this the Greeks, who were now come together from all parts to defend their temple, being much animated, fell furiously on them; and, although now Acichorius was come up with Brennus, yet both their forces together could not stand the assault, but great numbers of them were slain, and great numbers were wounded; and among these last was Brennus himself, who had received several wounds, and although none of them were mortal, yet seeing all now lost, and the whole expedition which he had been the author of thus ending in a dismal ruin, he was so confounded at the miscarriage, that he resolved not to outlive it; and therefore calling to him as many of the chief leaders as could be got together amidst that calamitous hurry, he advised them to slay all the wounded, and with the remainder make as good a retreat backward as they could; and then having guzzled down as much wine as he could drink, he ran himself through and died. After his death, Acichorius, taking on him the chief command, made as good a retreat as he could towards Thermopyla, in order to repass those straits, and carry back what remained of this broken army into their own country; but being to make a long march thither all the way through enemies' countries, they were, as they passed, so distressed for want of provisions, which they were everywhere to fight for, so incommoded at night by lodging mostly upon the ground in a winter season, and in such manner harassed and fallen upon wherever they came by the people of those · countries through which they passed, that what with famine, cold, and sickness, and what with the sword of their enemies, they were all cut off and destroyed; so that of the numerous company which did first set out on this expedition, not as much as one man escaped the calamitous fate of miserably perishing in it. Thus was God pleased in a very extraordinary manner to execute his vengeance upon those sacrilegious wretches, for the sake of religion in general, how false and idolatrous soever that particular religion was, for which that temple at Delphos was erected. For to believe a religion true, and offer sacrilegious violence to the places consecrated to the devotions of that religion, is absolute impiety, and a sin against all religion; and there are many instances of very signal judgments with which God hath punished it, even among the worst of heathens and infidels; much more may they expect it, who, having the truth of God established among them, shall become guilty thereof.

Remnant of the Gauls pass into Asia Minor and settle in Galatia, 277.-In the interim, Leonorius and Lutarius, parting from the other Gauls, who had settled themselves on the Propontis, marched down to the Hellespont, and seizing on Lysimachia, made themselves masters of all the Thracian Chersonesus; but there another sedition arising among them, the two commanders parted their forces and separated from each other; Lutarius continuing on the Hellespont, and Leonorius with the greater number returning again to Byzantium from whence he came. But afterwards [in B. C. 277], Leonorius passing the Bosphorus, and Lutarius the Hellespont, into Asia, they both there again united their forces by a new confederacy, and jointly entered into the service of Nicomedes king of Bithynia, who having, by their assistance, the year following conquered Zipates his brother, and fixed himself thereby in the thorough possession of all his father's dominions, he assigned them that part of Lesser Asia to dwell in, which from them was afterwards called by some Gallo-Græcia, and by others Galatia; which last name afterwards obtaining above the other, those people, instead of Gauls, were there called Galatians, and from them were descended those Galatians to whom St. Paul wrote one of his canonical epistles. The rest of those Gauls that remained in Thrace afterwards making war upon Antigonus Gonatas, who, on the death of Sosthenes, reigned in Macedonia, they were almost all cut off and destroyed by him. The few that escaped either passed into Asia, and there joined themselves to their countrymen in Galatia, or else scattered themselves in other parts, where they were no more heard of. And thus ended this terrible inundation of those barbarous people, which threatened Macedonia, and all Greece, with no less than an absolute destruction. III. GREEK TRANSLATIONS OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES, B. C. 277. Kings of Syria-Antiochus Soter, 279. High priests of the Jews-Eleazar, 291.

:

Year of the execution of the Septuagint, according to Archbishop Usher. -Within the compass of this year [B. C. 277] Archbishop Usher 1 placeth the making of that Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures which we call the Septuagint. And here all else must place it who with him believe that history to be genuine which is written of it under the name of Aristeas, and will hold what is consistent with it herein for according to that author they cannot place it later, because then it would not fall within the time of Eleazar, who is therein said to have been the high priest of the Jews that sent the seventy-two elders to Alexandria to make this translation, for he died about the beginning of the next year after: and they cannot place it sooner, because then it would be before Ptolemy Philadelphus married Arsinoe his sister, whom Eleazar in his epistle, which that author makes him to have written to this prince, calls his queen and his sister.

Historical review of the different accounts of the Septuagint translation. Without entering into long critical discourses concerning this translation, I shall first historically relate the different accounts which are given of it, and then, as briefly as I can, lay down that which appears to me to be the truth of this whole matter.

1 In Annalibus sub A. M. 3727.

« AnteriorContinuar »