were divided among generals whose names are now but little known. Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, was placed at the head of the cavalry of the allies, which was a post of great importance; and Cassander, the son of Antipater, commanded the companies of guards. The Upper Asia, which extends almost to India, and even India also, were left in the possession of those who had been appointed governors of those countries by Alexander.

Thus the whole empire was placed under the Grecians, and this noble race generally maintained their power till deprived of it by the iron rod of Rome. This fact sufficiently accounts for the very wide diffusion of the Grecian language, and for its hold over the nations being so powerful that it was not supplanted by the Romans, notwithstanding of the might and absoluteness of their dominions. And this grand result of the established power of Grecia was adapted to produce incalculable good or evil to the nations; but that the good preponderated, no wise observer of human society doubts, if he has carefully perceived and compared the civil, moral, and religious state of the western world in the successive centuries, with its state in preceding ages.

The lives and actions of some of the captains appointed over the provinces occupy few or no pages of history, because they were tranquil or uninteresting in their features. The sanguinary contests of a few others, in their struggles for existence, independence, or empire, we shall pass over or advert to slightly, when they appear to have had little or no immediate influence on the interests of the Jews or of the true religion. Indeed, of the successors of Alexander in the third empire, we will have chiefly to fix our attention on those who governed Syria and Egypt.

CHAPTER XI.

THE CONTEST FOR THE UNITY OF THE GRECIAN EMPIRE.

THE supremacy of Heaven and the impotency of man have been seldom more conspicuously demonstrated than they were by the result of the numerous schemes and deeds of few of the officers and captains of Alexander to confirm and perpetuate the unity or integrity of the empire which he had founded. Its division into four kingdoms or sovereign powers, ordained by the King of kings and Lord of lords, had been described by Daniel under the symbol of a ram with four horns, three centuries before the conqueror had appeared; and the prevention of the growth and maturity of these horus was far beyond the wisdom and power of mankind. Many and deep were the thoughts and purposes, and mighty and marvellous the efforts of man; but the objects accomplished by them are frequently the most remote, and sometimes almost altogether different from those which he desired and expected. They are, however, completely regulated or controlled to fulfil His design whose couns I shall stand, and who will do all his pleasure."

The Grecian States, with the exception of Thebes, were scarcely certain of the death of Alexander, when, stimulated by their orators, especially by Demosthenes, they unanimously resolved to attempt

their emancipation from the Macedonian yoke. Though successful in their first combats with the army of Antipater, the viceroy of Macedon, yet their dissensions soon enabled that able general to accept of peace on the most humiliating terms. The weight of his displeasure fell on the orators, and Demosthenes, to escape an ig. nominious death, destroyed himself by poison.

Perdiccas, animated as much, if not more, by ambition than loyalty, determined to reduce to obedience all the governors who seemed inclined to act independent of the authority which he exercised in name of the two kings, Aridæus and Roxana's child, called Alexander. The opponents whose power most alarmed him were Antipater and Ptolemy. The former assumed that the right to protect the kings belonged exclusively to him, because the deceased king had appointed him viceroy of Macedon; and the latter had conducted the government of Egypt, which had been committed to him, more like an independent prince than a governor.

Eumenes, who had been the secretary of Alexander the Great, was celebrated at once for wisdom in the cabinet and for skill and valour on the field of battle, and perhaps of all the servants of the conqueror he was his most, if not the only, disinterested and unalterable friend. Perdiccas wisely sought and readily obtained his assistance to support the royal cause. In the partition of the empire, Cappadocia and Pamphilia had been assigned to Eumenes; but these countries had not been conquered by Alexander. This Perdiccas, however, speedily effected, and, adding to them Caria, Lycia, and Phrygia, left Eumenes to defend Asia Minor against the army of Antipater, and proceeded with great force through Syria to Egypt.

Fabulous report makes Ptolemy a son of Philip, the father of Alexander; but the fact is, that his father, Lagus, a Macedonian, appears to have been a favourite servant of his sovereign. His son was one of the eminent men of an age distinguished by the number of persons of extraordinary endowments. He was one of Alexander's chief favourites, and not less esteemed by the soldiers. If we may believe Arian, he wrote an interesting life of his master. From the time that he became governor of Egypt, the wisdom and justice of his administration secured him the hearts of the natives, and the admiration and confidence of all who witnessed it, and multitudes of Greeks and other people gladly entered his service and settled in his dominions. The efficiency of his army was much promoted by the respect which he showed for the memory of his late sovereign. Almost two years elapsed before the governors agreed as to the place where the remains of Alexander should be interred. Preference was at length given to the temple of JupiterAmmon. On learning that the company appointed to convey the corpse from the East were on their journey, Ptolemy, who felt his recent and great obligations to the king, purposed to testify his gratitude. He accordingly set out with a numerous guard of his best troops, in order to meet the procession, and advanced as far as Syria. When he had joined the attendants on the funeral, he prevented them from interring the corpse in the temple of JupiterAmmon, as they had proposed. It was therefore deposited, first in the city of Memphis, and from thence was conveyed to Alexandria. Ptolemy raised a magnificent temple to the memory of this me

narch, and rendered him all the honours which were usually paid to demi-gods and heroes by Pagan antiquity. This generous conduct of the governor of Egypt induced many of the veterans of the army of Alexander, and not a few of his friends, to resort to Egypt. He therefore found it no difficulty to fortify this kingdom and fully prepare to repel the threatened attack of Perdiccas.

Indeed many who accompanied that leader, no sooner arrived in Egypt, than they deserted and joined the troops opposed to him. All these things proved fatal to his views and his life. For having rashly resolved to make his army pass an arm of the Nile, which formed an island near Memphis, in passing he lost two thousand men, half of whom were drowned, and the remainder devoured by crocodiles. The Macedonians were exasperated to such a degree of fury, when they saw themselves exposed to such unnecessary dangers, that they mutinied against him; in consequence of which he was abandoned by a hundred of his principal officers, of whom Pithon was the most considerable, and was assassinated in his tent, with most of his intimate friends.

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The government of Ptolemy extended over Lybia and Cyrenaica on the one extremity of Egypt, and on the other, over parts of Arabia. Through the latter country, he was exposed to invasion, and considered himself insecure without the possession of Syria, Judea, and Phenicia. He was particularly solicitous to command the latter region, because it would afford him opportunity and means to conquer the fine island of Cyprus. Laomedon, one of Alexander's captains, had received Syria, and the adjacent regions for his share of the empire; and for a few years was permitted to govern them peace. Having declined to accept from Ptolemy an immense sum of money for his right to the government, he was soon deprived of it by force. An Egyptian army, under Nicanor invaded Syria, defeated the troops of Laomedon, and took him prisoner; and the coast was subdued by a fleet, commanded by Ptolemy, in person. All the inhabitants submitted to him except the Jews, who, as on former occasions, pleaded that they dared not violate their oath to their governor while he was alive. Jerusalem was one of the strongest cities from its position, and it was well fortified. Josephus gives a most improbable account of its capture by the hypocrisy of Ptolemy. Pretending great zeal for the God of Israel, he persuaded them to permit him to enter the city on a sabbath, that he might offer sacrifice. The Jews were accustomed to spend the sacred day in rest from all secular works; and therefore the few attendants of the rulers of Egypt, easily seized the city. But, according to Agatharchidas, a Grecian historian, it was taken by assault, on a sabbath, because the Jews would not perform any work on that day, not even to save their lives. This erroneous view of the Divine institution of the sabbath, we find prevailed among them till the time of Matthias, and is a striking indication of the rise of that mode of interpreting Scripture, which characterised the sect of the Pharisees, who regarded the letter rather than the spirit of the Divine law.

Ptolemy carried many of the people of Samaria and Judea captives into Egypt. But Josephus is scarcely consistent with himself, when he says that he ruled over the Jews in a cruel manner; and that, nevertheless, many of them voluntarily emigrated to Egypt. It is, however, possible that he may have treated them at first with

great severity; but it is certain that his general conduct towards them was just and generous. Josephus indeed says, that, reflecting on the fidelity of the Jews to Darius and Alexander, he granted the captives settled in Alexandria equal privileges with the Greeks, and distributed many others into garrisons. The number of the Jewish captives was, it is said, one hundred thousand, the majority of whom were sent to Alexandria, some to Lybia and Cyrenaica, and thirty thousand placed in the army. If we add these to those carried by Alexander into Egypt, the Jews must have been already numerous in that kingdom. These carried with them their aversion to idols, and zeal for the True God; and, at no distant period, we shall see them in possession of a copy of the sacred writings, in the language of their conquerors, which became the prevailing language of the civilized world. And though not a few of them were seduced from the purity of the faith in Divine Revelation, yet very many persevered in the public profession of it all the period that Alexandria remained the rival of Rome in wealth and literature, and the chief commercial city on the globe. [See the brief description of Alexandria in the Pocket Biblical Dictionary.] Have we not, therefore, a remarkable manifestation of the wisdom and benevolence of Deity, in the time selected by him for the removal of such numbers of the Jews to Egypt, and especially to its metropolis? Tyre had ceased to be the centre of the intercourse of mankind; and Judea was, for a long time, the scene of the strife, contention, and wars of the rival powers of Egypt and Syria. Consequently, it was not now the most favourable spot for men of all nations to contemplate the heavenly light, however much they might desire to behold it; and it was rendered more accessible to all races and all ranks, by being placed in Alexandria, than it would have been in any other spot in the whole world; for this city was much more generally known and resorted to, for at least two centuries, than even Rome itself.

Eumenes, indignant on learning the proceedings of Ptolemy, would have marched into Syria, aud would, perhaps, have spoiled him of all his recent acquisitions, had he not been compelled to defend himself against a more powerful rival. Antiochus, originally appointed governor of several provinces of Asia Minor, had acquired absolute authority over all that country, and aspired to universal empire. His army, consisting of seventy thousand men and thirty elephants, was more powerful than any that could be brought against him. But Eumenes was superior to him in wisdom and every virtue which ennobles'a chief, and perhaps to all the generals of his age. The struggle between these captains was fierce, and the issue for some time doubtful; and Antiochus owed his triumph over his rival to success in overcoming the fidelity of the army of his opponent, rather than to the power of his arms. Having conquered the chief supporter of the royal family, he assumed the sovereignty of the empire, and disposed of the eastern provinces according to his pleasure. He removed some governors, to exalt in their places persons in whom he had confidence. Pithon, governor of Media, and Antigonus, general of the Argyraspides or Silvershields, the reputedly invincible band of Alexander, he put to death. Seleucus, governor of Babylon, was likewise minuted down in his list of proscriptions; but he found means to escape the danger, and threw

himself under the protection of Ptolemy king of Egypt. As for the Argyraspides, who had betrayed Eumenes, he sent them into Arachosia, the remotest province in the empire, and ordered Syburtius, who governed there, to take such measures as might destroy them all, and that not one of them might ever return to Greece. The just horror he conceived at the infamous manner in which they be trayed their general, contributed not a little to this resolution, though he enjoyed the fruit of their treason without the least scruple or remorse; but a motive, still more prevalent, determined him chiefly to this proceeding. These soldiers were mutinous, untractable, licentious, and averse to all obedience; their example, therefore, was capable of corrupting the other troops, and even of destroying him, by a new instance of treachery; he therefore was resolved to exterminate them without hesitation.

The formidable power and ambitious schemes of Antiochus alarmed the other most powerful governors of the empire; and Ptolemy, Lysimachus of Thrace, and Cassander, son of Antipater of Macedon, united to oppose him. The treasures which he procured in Babylon and Susa, enabled him to raise a powerful army, which he led into Syria and Phenicia, with the intention of seizing the fleet of Ptolemy, and making himself master of the sea. In this he, however, failed; and it was with difficulty that he captured the seaports. That he might contend against the fleets of his rivals, he formed alliances with Cyprus, Rhodes, and other maritime places, and employed several thousand men to build vessels in various ports of Syria. The defence of that country, and the preservation of a fleet, he entrusted to his son Demetrius, who early discovered himself superior to his father in the qualities which command public esteem, and not less skilful and bold in war.

From Syria, Antigonus advanced to Asia Minor, which had been invaded by Cassander, who was supported by his allies. While engaged with them, Ptolemy had conquered the largest portion of Cyprus, and recovered Phenicia, Judea, and Colo-Syria, after a most sanguinary combat with Demetrius at Gaza. But the victor enjoyed his triumph only a short time, for his army, sent under Cilles to reduce Syria, was defeated by Demetrius; and immediately on his father receiving information of the victory, he marched into Syria to support him.

Ptolemy, convinced that he was not prepared to repel their united forces, demolished the fortifications of Acre, Joppa, Samaria, and Gaza, and returned with much of the riches and many of the inhabitants, particularly Jews, into Egypt. These followed the ruler of Egypt, not as captives, but from choice, for the advantages which he promised them more than compensated for absence from a country taken possession of by one whom they had more reason to fear than love. Of the Jewish captives or emigrants who joined the army of Ptolemy, at this or at a former period, in their return to Egypt, Josephus relates, on the authority of Hecateus, two anecdotes. This person, he says, was a native of Abdara, and a philosopher who first enjoyed the friendship of Alexander, and, after his death, that of Ptolemy, whom he accompanied into Judea. He carefully investigated and wrote a full account of the laws and affairs of the Jews. Among the most distinguished of those of them who entered the service of Egypt, was Hezekiah. He was a person of