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also no less industrious in proclaiming Ptolemy king, that they might not seem to be dejected at their defeat, or be thought to entertain the less esteem and affection for their prince. Lysimachus and Seleucus soon followed their example, the one in Thrace, and the other in Babylon, and the provinces of the east; and assumed the title of king, in their several dominions, after they had for so many years usurped the supreme authority there, without presuming to take this title upon them till that time, which was about eighteen years after the death of Alexander. Cassander alone, though he was treated as a king by the others, in their discourse and letters to him, continued to write his, in his usual manner, and without affixing any addition to his name.

Plutarch observes, that this new title not only occasioned these princes to augment their train, and pompous appearance, but also caused them to assume airs of pomp and loftiness, and inspired them with such haughty impressions as they had never manifested till then; as if this appellation had suddenly exalted them into a species of beings different from the rest of mankind.

▾ Seleucus had greatly increased his power in the oriental provinces, during the transactions we have been describing; for, after he had killed Nicanor in a battle, whom Antigonus had sent against him, he not only established himself in the possession of Media, Assyria, and Babylon, but reduced Persia, Bactriana, Hyrcania, and all the provinces on this side the Indus, which had formerly been conquered by Alexander.

▾ A. M. 3699. Ant. J. C. 305. Appian. in Syr. p. 122, 123. Justin. 1. xv. c. 4.

W

Antigonus, on his side, to improve the victory his son had obtained in Cyprus, assembled an army of one hundred thousand men in Syria, with an intention to invade Egypt. He flattered himself, that conquest would infallibly attend his arms, and that he should divest Ptolemy of that kingdom, with as much ease as he had taken Cyprus from him. Whilst he was conducting this great army by land, Demetrius followed him with his fleet, which coasted along the shores to Gaza, where the father and son concerted the measures each of them were to pursue. The pilots advised them to wait till the setting of the pleiades, and defer their departure only for eight days, because the sea was then very tempestuous: but the impatience of Antigonus to surprise Ptolemy, before his preparations were completed, caused him to disregard that salutary advice. 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 neither the one nor the other succeeded in his expedition. The fleet of Demetrius sustained great damage by violent storms; and Ptolemy had taken such effectual precautions to secure the mouths of the Nile, as rendered it impracticable to Demetrius to land his troops. Antigonus, on the other hand, having employed all his efforts to cross the deserts that lay between Palestine and Egypt, had much greater difficulties still to surmount, and found it impossible to pass the first arm of the Nile in his march, such judicious orders had been given by Ptolemy, and so advantageously were his troops posted at all the passes

w Diod. 1. xx. p. 304-306. Plut. in Demetr. p. 896, 897.

and avenues; but, what was still more afflictive to An. tigonus than all the rest, his soldiers daily deserted from him in great numbers.

Ptolemy had sent out boats on several parts of the river where the enemies resorted for water, and caused it to be proclaimed on his part, from those vessels, that every deserter from their troops should receive from him two minæ, and every officer a talent, So considerable a recompense soon allured great numbers to receive it, especially the troops in the pay of Antigonus; nor were they prevailed upon by money alone, as their inclinations to serve Ptolemy were much stronger than their notives to continue under Antigonus, whom they considered as an old man difficult to be pleased, imperious, morose, and severe; whereas Ptolemy rendered himself amiable, by his gentle disposition and engaging behaviour to all who approached him.

Antigonus, after he had hovered to no effect on the frontiers of Egypt, and even till his provisions began to fail him, became sensible of his inability to enter Egypt; that his army decreased every day by sickness and desertion; and that it was impossible for him to subsist his remaining troops any longer in that country; was obliged to return into Syria, in a very shameful manner, after having lost, in this unfortunate expedition, a great number of his land forces, and abundance of his ships,

Ptolemy, having offered a sacrifice to the gods, in gratitude for the protection they had granted him, sent to acquaint Lysimachus, Cassander, and Seleucus, with the happy event of that campaign, and to renew the alliance between them, against the common enemy. This was the last attack he had to sustain for the crown

of Egypt, and it greatly contributed to fix it upon his head, in consequence of the prudent measures he pursued. Ptolemy, the astronomer, therefore, fixed the commencement of his reign at this period, and afterwards points out the several years of its duration, in his chronological canon. He begins the epocha on the seventh of November, and nineteen years after the death of Alexander the Great.

SECTION VIII.

DEMETRIUS BESIEGES RHODES.

PROTOGENES SPARED DURING

THE SIEGE.

ANTIGONUS* was almost eighty years of age at that time, and as he had then contracted a gross habit of body, and consequently was but little qualified for the activity of a military life, he made use of his son's services, who, by the experience he had already acquired, and the success which attended him, transacted the most important affairs with great ability. The father, for this reason, was not offended at his expensive luxury and intemperance; for Demetrius, during peace, abandoned himself to the greatest excesses of all kinds, without the least regard to decorum. In times of war, indeed, he acted a very different part; he was then a quite different man, vigilant, active, laborious, and invincible to fatigues. Whether he gave into pleasure, or applied to serious affairs, he entirely devoted himself to the one or the other; and for the time he engaged in either, was incapable of moderation. He had an inventive genius; and it may be

A. M. 3700. Ant. J. C. 304. Diod. 1. xx. p. 819-885, et 817-825. Plut. in Demetr. p. 897, 898.

justly said, that curiosity, and a fine turn of mind for the sciences, were inseparable from him. He never employed his natural industry in frivolous and insignificant amusements, like many other kings, some of whom, as Plutarch observes, valued themselves for their expertness in playing on instruments; others in painting, and some in their dexterity in the turner's art, with an hundred other qualities of private men, but not one of a prince. His application to the mechanic arts had something great and truly royal in it; his galleys, with five benches of oars, were the admiration of his enemies, who beheld them sailing along their coasts; and his engines, called Helepoles, were a surprising spectacle to those whom he besieged. "They were exceedingly useful to him in the war with Rhodes, with the conduct of which his father had charged him at the time we are now speaking of.

Among the islands called Sporades, Rhodes held the first rank, as well for the fertility of its soil, as the safety of its ports and roads, which, on that account, were resorted to by great numbers of trading ships from all parts. It then formed a small, but very powerful state, whose friendship was courted by all princes, and who was studious, on its own part to oblige them, by observing an exact neutrality, and carefully declining any declaration in favour of one against another, in the wars that arose in those times. As the inhabitants were limited to a little island, all their power flowed from their riches, and their riches from their commerce, which it was their capital interest to preserve as free as possible, with the Mediterranean states, which all contributed to their prosperity. The Rhodians, by per

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