by the rust and wear of the brass itself, and the purloinings and embezzlements of men, amounted to seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds weight.

Toward the end of this yeary died Ptolemy Euergetes, king of Egypt, after he had reigned over that kingdom twenty-five years. He was the last king of that race that governed himself with any temper or virtue, all that after succeeded being monsters of luxury and vice. After having made peace with Syria, he mostly applied himself to the enlarging of his dominions southward; and he extended them a great way down the Red sea, making himself master of all the coasts of it, both on the Arabian as well as on the Ethiopian side, even down to the straits through which it dischargeth itself into the Southern ocean.

An. 221.

pater 1,

On his death, he was succeeded by Ptolemy Philopater his son, a most profligate and vicious Ptol. Philo young prince. He was supposed to have made away with his father by poison; and he had not been long on the throne ere he added to that parricide the murder of his mother, and of Magas his brother; and a little after followed the death of Cleomenes king of Sparta, occasioned by the same measures of wickedness and barbarity. Hef having been vanquished and driven out of Greece by Antigonus, king of Macedon, fled to Ptolemy Euergetes, and was kindly received by him: but that king a little after dying, he had not that favour from his successor. However, being looked upon as a person of great wisdom and sagacity, Sosibius, who was Philopater's chief minister of state, thought fit to communicate to him his master's design of cutting off Magas his brother, and to ask his advice about it; which Cleomenes having dissuaded him from, and given some reasons for it which much displeased Sosibius, occasion was taken,

y Polybius, lib. 2, p. 155 Justin. lib. 29, c. 1. Plutarch. in Cleomene. Ptolemæus Astronomus in Canone.

z Strabo, lib. 17, p. 796.

a Monumentum Adulitanum.

b Ptolemæus Astronomus in Canone. Eusebius in Chronico.

c Plutarchus in Cleomene.

d Justin. lib 29, c. 1
e Piutarchus in Cleomene.
f Plutarchus in Cleomene.

Strabo, ibid. Polybius, lib. 5, p. 380, 381.

Polybius, lib. 5, p. 380, 382.
Polybius, lib. 5.

from another matter, to cast him into prison: from whence having gotten loose, and gathered his friends and followers together, who came with him from Sparta, he took the advantage of Ptolemy's being absent from Alexandria, to call and excite the people to assume their liberty, and free themselves from the tyranny which they were then under: but, not succeeding in this attempt, he slew himself in the streets of the city, as did also all the rest that were with him. Plutarch, in his life of Cleomenes, hath given us a full narrative of this matter; and so also hath Polybius in the fifth book of his history.

Antiochuss taking the advantage of Euergetes' death, and the succession of so voluptuous and profligate a prince after him, thought it a proper time for him to attempt the recovery of Syria; and Hermias his prime minister pressed hard for his going in person to this war, contrary to the opinion of Epigenes his general; who thought it chiefly concerned him to suppress the rebellion of Alexander and Molon in the East; and therefore advised him to march immediately in person with the main of his army for the subduing of those rebels, before they should gather greater strength in the revolted provinces against him. But the opinion of Hermias taking place, Antiochus marched towards Cole-Syria with one part of his army, and sent Zeno and Theodotus Hermiolius, two of his generals, with the other to suppress the rebels. While he was on his march towards Cole-Syria, being arrived at Seleucia near Zeugma, there was brought thither to him Laodice, the daughter of Mithridates king of Pontus, to be his wife, which caused his stay for some time in that place to celebrate the nuptials. But the joy of his marriage was soon interrupted by ill news from the East; for his generals being there overpowered by the joint forces of Alexander and Molon, were forced to retire and leave them masters of the field. Hereon Antiochus, inclining to the advice given by Epigenes, resolved to desist from his expedition in Cole-Syria,

g Polybius, lib 5, p. 387. Justin. lib. 30, c. 1.

h Polybius, lib. 5,. p. 388.

Idem, lib. 5, p. 389.

and march directly with all his forces into the East for the suppressing of this rebellion, before it should grow to any greater head. Butk Hermias persisting in his former opinion, for the sake of some private views of his own which he had therein, overbore all opposition to it, and prevailed with the king to send another general with more forces into the East, and proceed himself in his former intended expedition into Cole-Syria. The general sent into the East was Xinætas an Achæan, whose commission was to join the forces which were there before under the two former generals, and take upon him the chief command of the whole army. But he came off with worse success than those whom he succeeded: for passing the Tigris, he was there drawn into a snare, and circumvented by a stratagem of the enemy's, and he, and all the forces that passed with him, were cut off and destroyed; whereon the rebels made themselves masters of the province of Babylonia, and almost all Mesopotamia, without any opposition. In the interim Antiochus, proceeding in his expedition in Cole-Syria, penetrated as far as the valley which lieth between two ridges of the mountains called Libanus and Anti-Libanus; but there he found the passes of those mountains so well fortified, and such resistance made in them by Theodotus an Etolian, who was there governour for Ptolemy, that he was forced to retreat without making any further progress that way: and the ill news which he had by this time received of the loss of Xinætas and his army in the East hastened his return; for now being fully convinced that he had nothing else to do but to follow the advice which Epigenes had at first given him, and march in person against the rebels, and all else about him being of the same opinion, he fully resolved on it; and Hermias durst not say any more against it. But to be revenged on genes for thwarting his designs herein, he did, by forged letters, fix a plot of treason upon him, and caused him to be cut off for it. In the interim Antiochus, though the year was now far spent, passed the Euphrates, and having there joined his other forces,

k Polybius, lib. 5, p. 390.

m Idem, lib. 5, p. 390.

1 Idem, p. 391-393.
n Idem, p. 393, 394.

Epi

that he might be the nearer at hand for action the next spring, he put his army into winter quarters in those parts, and there waited the proper season for the beginning of the war.

An. 220.

pater 2.

And, as soon as that approached, he marched directly to the Tigris, and having passed that river, forced Molon to a battle, wherein he got such Ptol. Philoan entire victory over him, that the rebel, finding his cause absolutely lost, out of despair, slew himself. Alexander was then absent in Persia: but Nicolas, another brother, escaping from the battle, brought him the ill news thither; whereon they slew first their mother, then their wives and children, and lastly themselves, that so they might avoid falling into the hands of the conqueror. And thus ended this rebellion (as it is to be wished all rebellions might end) in a most calamitous destruction of all that were concerned in it.

After this victory? the remains of the conquered army submitted to the king, who, after a severe reprimand upon them for their rebellion, received them to pardon, and ordered them into Media, under the command of those whom he sent to regulate the affairs of that province; and then returning to Seleucia on the Tigris, there continued for some time, to give his orders for the resettling of his authority in the revolted provinces, and the reducing of all things again in them to their former order; which having effected by such proper instruments as he thought fit to employ herein, he marched against the Atropatians, a people inhabiting on the west of Media, in a country now called Georgia: Artabazes their king, being then a very old man, and grown decrepit with age, was so terrified on the approach of Antiochus with his victorious army, that he sent ambassadors to make his submission, and agreed to peace with him on his own terms.

By this time Hermias, through his insolence and haughty conduct, growing intolerable to his master, as well as to all else, Apollophanes the king's physi cian, who had at all times his ear on the occasions of

o Polybius, lib, 5, p. 395, 396, &c. q Polybius, p. 400.

p Idem, p. 398, 399.

r Idem, lib. 5, p. 400, 401.

his health, took the advantage of it to represent unto him the danger he was in from this minister, telling him, that it was time for him to look to himself, and take care that he did not meet with the same fate as his brother did in Phrygia, and be cut off by those he most confided in; that it was manifest Hermias was laying designs for himself; and that no time was any longer to be lost for the preventing of them. Antiochus who had the same sentiments with his physician, but had hitherto suppressed them, out of diffidence to whom to communicate them, very gladly received the proposal, and immediately entered on measures for the ridding himself of this odious and dangerous minister; and accordingly, as it had been concerted, having drawn him off from the army to accompany him on a walking abroad to take the air, as was pretended, for his health, as soon as he had thus decoyed him at a convenient distance from all that might give him any assistance, he ordered him to be cut off by those that attended him; which was much to the satisfaction of all the provinces of the Syrian empire: for he being a man of great cruelty, pride, and insolence, managed all things with severity and violence, bearing no contradiction to his sentiments, or opposition to any thing he would have done, or suffering any person or thing to stand in his way to what he intended; which drew on him a general odium every where. But no where was there a more signal instance of it, than at Apamea in Syria; for there they no sooner heard of his death, but they fell on his wife and children, whom he had left in that city, and stoned them all to death.

After this Antiochus having thus successfully managed his affairs in the East, and settled all the provin ces there under such governours as he thought he might best confide in, he marched back into Syria, and there put his army into winter quarters; and at Antioch spent the remaining part of the year in consulting with his ministers, and the officers of his army, about the operations of the next years' war.

For he had still two dangerous enterprises to undertake for the restoring of the Syrian empire; the s Idem, lib. 5.