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great dignity, remarkable for his wisdom, eloquence, and knowledge of the history and laws of his country. His influence with the king was considerable, and hence to him the Jews partly ascribed the favours which were conferred on them by Ptolemy and

his successor.

Another of these Jews, named Mosollam, was one of the horsemen appointed to guide the army, in their journey to the Red Sea. "He was a person of great courage, of a strong body, and by all allowed to be the most skilful archer that was either among the Greeks or barbarians. Now this man, as people were in great numbers passing along the road, and a certain augur was observing an augury by a bird, and requiring them all to stand still, inquired what they staid for. Hereupon the augur showed them the bird from whence he took his augury, and told him that if the bird staid where he was, they ought all to stand still; but that if he got up, and flew onward, they must go forward; but that if he flew backward, they must retire again. Mosollam made no reply, but drew his bow, and shot at the bird, and hit him, and killed him; and as the augur and some others were very angry, and wished imprecations upon him, he answered them thus :-Why are you so mad as to take this most unhappy bird into your hands? for how can this bird give us any true information concerning our march, who could not foresee how to save himself? for had he been able to foreknow what was future, he would not have come to this place, but would have been afraid lest Mosollam the Jew would shoot at him, and kill him."

While Antigonus was in Syria, Seleucus, by the assistance of less than two thousand men, whom he received from Ptolemy, and the Macedonians who occupied the fortress of Carrhæ, or Haran, in Mesopotamia, whom he persuaded to join him on his march to the East, recovered Babylon. His appearance before that city was hailed by the citizens. They gratefully remembered the mildness, justice, equity, and humanity of his conduct, and gladly received him. His army was quickly augmented, and enabled him to defeat the force led against him by Nicanor, who governed Media for Antigonus, and to conquer Media, Susiana, and the adjacent provinces. Having thus acquired great power he returned to Babylon, B.C. 311, a memorable event in the history of the East; for this commences the era of the Seleucides, received by all the people of the East, as well Pagans as Jews, Christians, and Mahomedans. The Jews called it the Era of Contracts, because, when they were subjected to the government of the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were obliged to insert it into the dates of their contracts and other civil writings. The Arabians style it the Era of Bicornus, intimating Seleucus thereby, according to some authors, who declare that the sculptors represented him with two horns of an ox on his head, because this prince was so strong, that he could seize that animal by the horns and stop him short in his full career. The two books of the Macabees call it the Era of the Greeks, and use it in their dates, with this difference however, that the first of these books represents it as beginning in the spring, the other, in the autumn of the same year. The thirtyone years of the reign ascribed to Seleucus, begin at this period. Antigonus in vain attempted to conquer the Nabathæan Arabs. Their capital was strongly situated, as we have noticed in the Pocket

Biblical Dictionary. It defied his power, and he was pleased to prevail on them to agree to a treaty of peace, favourable to their in

terests.

News from Nicanor disclosed the critical state of his affairs; and he instantly sent Demetrius to the East, with one part of his army, and proceeded with the other to Asia Minor. Seleucus being in Media when Demetrius arrivedat Babylon, he easily captured the city. But he was soon obliged to desert it to join his father's army, before he had obtained possession of one of the fortresses on the Euphrates. He plundered the city, and increased the hatred which the people cherished against his father's oppressive government.

His presence in Asia Minor occasioned a treaty of peace, which confirmed Ptolemy in the government of the countries originally given him, and assigned to Lysimachus Thrace, to Cassander Macedon, till Alexander, son of Roxana, was of age to reign, and to Antigonus, all Asia. Greece was declared free, and Polysperchon acknowledged successor to Antipater, who, at his death, had appointed him guardian of the royal family. He called to his aid Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, who was not less ambitious than revengeful. Polysperchon, to secure himself the sovereignty of Greece, took the life of Barsina, one of the wives of Alexander, and her only son Hercules. Olympias put to death king Aridæus, called Philip, and his queen Eurydice. Cassander murdered Roxana and her son; and Cleopatra, the sister of Alexander, and the last heir of the crown of Macedon, was cut off by Antigonus. Thus the principal persons of the race of the great conqueror were extirpated, and his captains were at liberty to contend among themselves for the empire. Nor were they slow, notwithstanding their treaty of peace, to lay waste the empire in the hope of personal or family aggrandisement.

Rational government was neither understood nor valued by the Greeks, while they boasted that they alone sought freedom, as if it were the chief good. The most eminent rulers, who imposed salutary restraints on their passions, forfeited their favour; and those who flattered their vanity and promoted their licentiousness were secure of their confidence and applause. These characteristics of the Greeks were never more conspicuous than intheir reception of Demetrius, son of Antigonus. Athens had been governed ten years by Demetrius Phalerius, in the name of Cassander. Under his administration, they had enjoyed uninterrupted peace, prosperity, and happiness and their gratitude apparently overflowed. They had raised statues to his honour, equal in number to the days of the year. Secretly, however, they longed to be free; nothing pleased them but a lawless democracy. Hence, when Demetrius arrived with a fleet, and proclaimed that his father had sent him to restore the Greeks to liberty, and expel from their garrisons the Macedonians, that they might resume their ancient form of government and laws, in extacy of joy they proclaimed him their protector and benefactor. Having expelled the troops of the garrison, and reestablished democracy, the Athenians were enthusiastic in his praise; ; and conferred on him and his father the title of king, and honoured them as tutelar deities, and offered sacrifices to him as a god. Their conduct was not more contemptible than his was infamous. Inflated by success, he gave himself up to the

greatest excess of sensual indulgence. His violent and impetuous passions carried him beyond the habits of the beasts of the earth. Though the vilest sensualist, his intellectual talents were great, and his skill in war was surpassed by few. These were completely exhibited by the most splendid and dazzling exploits at Cyprus and Rhodes. His father's joy was boundless on receiving the news of his victory over the fleet of Ptolemy. He instantly proclaimed himself a king, and conferred on his son the same title, and sent him a rich crown. Speedily their rivals, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Seleucus were known by the same appellation.

To improve this victory, Antigonus attempted the conquest of Egypt, and failed, with the loss of a considerable part of his army, and many of his ships. This was the last time that Ptolemy was in danger of losing his crown. The wise and prudent manner in which he had defended it, fixed it on his head. This induced Ptolemy the astronomer to regard this period as the commencement of his chronological canon. "He begins the Epocha on the seventh of November, nineteen years after the death of Alexander the Great."

The ambitious schemes which Antigonus and his son unceasingly pursued roused the fears of the other kings, and convinced them of the necessity of uniting to arrest them in their bold career. They accordingly agreed, B.C. 302, to combine all their energies against them. Cassander and Lysimachus invaded Asia-Minor, and reduced a number of the provinces; Ptolemy recovered Cola-Syria, Judea, and all Phenicia, except Tyre and Sidon; and Seleucus joined Lysimachus to oppose Antigonus and Demetrius, who had marched into Phrygia. Near Ipsus, a city of that province, was fought the dreadful and sanguinary battle in which Antigonus lost his life; this was followed by the final division of the empire among the four confederated kings. Ptolemy was announced king of Egypt, Lybia, Arabia, Colo-Syria, Judea, and Phenicia ; Cassander, king of Macedon and Greece; Lysimachus, king of Thrace, Bithynia, and other provinces beyond the Hellespont; and Seleucus, king of Syria, and all the countries extending eastward from the Euphrates to the Indus.

Thus were fully accomplished the predictions of Dan. vii. 6 ; viii. 5-8, 20-22. Rollin justly remarks that "other divisions were made before this period, but they were only of provinces, which were consigned to governors, under the brother and son of Alexander, and none but the last was the regal partition. Those prophecies, therefore, are to be understood of this alone; for they evidently represent these four successors of Alexander in the quality of four kings; four stood up for it. But not one of Alexander's successors obtained the regal dignity till about three years before the last division of the empire. And even this dignity was at first precarious, as being assumed by each of the several parties, merely by his own authority, and not acknowledged by any of the rest. Whereas, after the battle of Ipsus, the treaty made between the four confederates, when they had defeated their adversary, and divested him of his dominions, assigned each of them their dominions under the appellation of so many kingdoms, and authorised and acknowledged them as kings and sovereigns, independent of any superior power." The accuracy and distinctness of the prophetic word truly pro.

claim the perfect knowledge, wisdom, and boundless power of its Divine Author. "With how much certainty and exactness, even amidst the variety of these revolutions, and a chaos of singular events, does he determine each particular circumstance, and fix the number of the several successors! How expressly has he pointed out that their nation was to be the Grecian; described the countries they were to possess; measured the duration of their empires, and the extent of their power, inferior to that of Alexander! in a word, with what lively colours has he drawn the characters of those princes, and specified their alliances, treaties, treachery, marriages, and success! Can any one possibly ascribe to chance, or human foresight, so many circumstantial predictions, which at the time of their being announced, were so remote from probability? and may we not evidently discover in them the character and traces of the Divinity, to whom all ages are present in one view, and who alone determines at his will the fate of all the kingdoms and empires of

the world?"

Whoever takes a retrospective view of the history of the many kingdoms or provinces of the Grecian empire, during the preceding twenty years, will observe that all the chief actors in the great events, almost unparalleled in number, were intelligent, and some of them highly cultivated Grecians. From this fact we may justly conclude that during this period the language, knowledge, and manners of Greece must have been more extensively spread than in any former or later period of the same duration. Thus was Divine providence sedulously employed in preparing the human race for the reception of the great truths which were to be com municated to them, chiefly through the medium of the Greek language, as the only and effectual instrument of emancipating mankind from the debasing thraldom of idolatry, spurious philosophy, worldly ambition, and sensual pleasures, that they might live and act worthy of the native dignity of their nature, and enjoy the hopes which elevate them to victors over all the immorality and wretchedness under which they had groaned for thousands of years.

CHAPTER XII.

THE REIGN OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS.

PTOLEMY, son of Lagus, governed Egypt nearly forty years, one half of which he was acknowledged its king. His reign was prosperous; he not only restored the kingdom from the ruinous state to which it had been reduced by many years of anarchy, intestine and foreign wars, but he perhaps also rendered it more truly illustrious than it had ever been. Its ancient monarchs had sought fame by the erection of structures of unparalleled magnitude, but of little utility, at the sacrifice of the comfort and lives of multitudes of their subjects, but he studied to perpetuate his name by works calculated to promote the present felicity of the community, and to secure the future greatness of the nation. Though he felt himself impelled, by the Regitated and troubled state of the Grecian empire, to engage often

in war, yet he almost uninterruptedly pursued the arts of peace and improvement. While he built not a few cities in which were combined the beauty of Greek, with the solidity of Egyptian architecture, he rebuilt many, repaired the canals and made them navigable, and encouraged agriculture. He improved ancient harbours, and formed new ones, and renovated the entire surface of the kingdom, especially that important division of it called the Delta. Through his energies, Alexandria was exalted above probably the highest expectations of its far-seeing founder; and on account of its vast population, commerce, wealth, and noble edifices, it was called the greatest city, the queen of the East." And his subjects hesitated not to call him Soter, a preserver; a title first given him by the Rhodians to express their grateful sense of the generous assist. ance which they received from him in their astonishing exertions in the successful,defence of their island against what all deemed the irresistible power of Demetrius, applied with consummate skill to conquer them.

Not one of the acts of Ptolemy Soter probably contributed more to advance his honour than his liberal patronage of science and literature. The celebrated library of Alexandria owed its existence to him; he valued knowledge, and, if we may credit authentic history, be excelled all who had lived before him in his efforts to diffuse it in society. The formation of the library was, it is said, first suggested by the learned and admired Demetrius Phalerius, who, when obliged to resign his office of chief ruler in Atheus, found a happy asylum in the court of Egypt.

Besides the countries of which Ptolemy was acknowledged sove reign after the death of Antigonus, he acquired, before he died, Ethiopia, all the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, Cyprus, and some of the Grecian islands. This perhaps resulted from his alliances with Seleucus, the Athenians, and others, which were chiefly occasioned by the ambitious projects of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus. Fertile in expedients, and unwearied in his efforts to regain the dominions of his father, he was unexpectedly fortunate enough to reduce Greece and Macedon; and, assuming the title of king, prepared an army and a larger fleet than any which had been since the time of Alexander, in order to invade and conquer Asia. The alliance of Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and the celebrated Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, frustrated his schemes; and he spent his last days in a state of captivity, sedulously watched, and courteously treated by Seleucus. Few or no princes of ancient times were blessed with children as distinguished as his were, by their respect and attachment to their parents, and to each other; and this pleasing feature of their character seemed hereditary in the race. It was strong in Antigonus Gonatus, son of Demetrius, who reigned several years in Greece after his father's death. On receiving intelligence of his captivity, he was overwhelmed in sorrow, and wrote to all the kings to obtain his release, offering himself as a hostage for him, and avowing himself ready to part with all his remaining dominions as the price of his liberty; and when Demetrius died, his ashes were transmitted in an urn to his affectionate son, who celebrated his funeral with great magnificence.

When one reflects on the vast extent and the position of the dominions of Ptolemy Soter, it is manifest that they were inore

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