CHAPTER II--EGYPT UNDER PTOLEMY SOTER

_Ptolemy governs Egypt, overcomes Perdiccas, and founds a dynasty_.

Ptolemy Lagus was one of those who, at the death of Alexander, had

raised their voices against giving the whole of the conquered countries

to one king; he wished that they should have been shared equally among

the generals as independent kingdoms. In this he was overruled, and

he accepted his government as the lieutenant of the youthful Philip

Arridæus, though no doubt with the fixed purpose of making Egypt an

independent kingdom. On reaching Memphis, the seat of his government,

his whole thoughts were turned towards strengthening himself against

Perdiccas, who hoped to be obeyed, in the name of his young and

weak-minded king, by all his fellow generals.

The Greek and foreign mercenaries of which the army of Alexander was

made up, and who were faithful to his memory and to his family, had

little to guide them in the choice of which leader they should follow

to his distant province, beside the thought of where they should be

best treated; and Ptolemy’s high character for wisdom, generosity, and

warlike skill had gained many friends for him among the officers; they

saw that the wealth of Egypt would put it in his power to reward those

whose services were valuable to him; and hence crowds flocked to his

standard. On reaching their provinces, the Greek soldiers, whether

Spartans or Athenians, forgetting the glories of Thermopylæ and

Marathon, and proud of their wider conquests under the late king, always

called themselves Macedonians. They pleased themselves with the thought

that the whole of the conquered countries were still governed by

the brother of Alexander; and no one of his generals, in his wildest

thoughts of ambition, whether aiming, like Ptolemy, at founding a

kingdom, or, like Perdiccas, at the government of the world, was unwise

enough to throw off the title of lieutenant to Philip Arridæus, and to

forfeit the love of the Macedonian soldiers and his surest hold on their

loyalty.

The first act of Ptolemy was to put to death Cleomenes, who had been

made sub-governor of Egypt by the same council of generals which

had made Ptolemy governor. This act may have been called for by the

dishonesty and crooked dealing which Cleomenes had been guilty of in

collecting taxes; but, though the whole tenor of Ptolemy’s life would

seem to disprove the charge, we cannot but fear that he was in part

led to this deed because he looked upon Cleomenes as the friend of

Perdiccas, or because he could not trust him in his plans for making

himself king of Egypt.

From the very commencement of his government, Ptolemy prepared for the

war which he knew must follow a declaration of his designs. Perhaps

better than any other general of Alexander, he knew how to win the

favour of the people under his rule. The condition of the country

quickly improved under his mild administration. The growing seaport of

Alexandria was a good market for a country rich in natural produce, and,

above all, Egypt’s marvellously good geographical position stood her

in good stead in time of war. Surrounded nearly on all sides by desert

land, the few inhabitants, roving Bedouins, offered no danger. The land

of the Nile was accessible to an enemy in one direction only, along the

coast of Syria. This even teemed with difficulties. Transports there

could only be managed with the greatest ingenuity, and, in case of

defeat, retreat was almost impossible. On the other hand, the Egyptian

army, helped by all the advantages of a land irrigated on the canal

system, and which could be flooded at will, had only to act on the

defensive to be certain of victory. The country is perhaps more open to

an attack from the sea, but, by a moderately well-conducted defensive

movement, the enemy could be kept to the coast. Even the landing there

is scarcely possible, on account of the natural difficulties at the

mouth of the Nile. The one easy spot--Alexandria--was so well fortified

that an invader had but little chance of success.

About the time of Alexander’s death (and to some extent brought about by

this event), civil war broke out in Cyrenaica, in consequence of which

the followers of one party were forced out of the town of Cyrene. These

joined themselves with the exiles of the town of Barca, and together

sought help of foreigners. They placed themselves under the leadership

of the Spartan Thibron, formerly Alexander’s chancellor of the

exchequer. Begged by the exiled Cyrenians to help them, he now directed

his forces against Libya, fought a fierce battle, and took possession

of the harbour of Apollonia, two miles distant from the town. He then

besieged the town of Cyrene, and forced the Cyrenians at last to sue for

peace. They were obliged to make a payment of five hundred talents and

to take back the exiles. Messengers were sent by Thibron to incite

the other towns in Cyrenaica to join him and to help him conquer their

neighbour, Libya. Thibron’s followers were allowed to plunder, and this

led to quarrels, desertions, treacherous acts, and the recruiting of his

army from the Peloponnesus. After varying fortunes of war, in the

spring of 322 B. C., some of the Cyrenians fled to Egypt, and related to

Ptolemy what had occurred in Cyrenaica, begging him to help them back

to their homes. The suggestion was welcome to him, for victory would be

easy over these struggling factions. He sent a strong military and naval

force, under Ophelas, the Macedonian, to Cyrenaica in the summer. When

these were seen approaching, those exiles who had found refuge with

Thibron decided to join them. Their plan, however, was discovered, and

they were put to death. The leader of the rabble in Cyrene (fearful

for his own safety, now that the exiles who had fled to Egypt were

returning) made overtures of peace to Thibron, and joined with him to

repulse Ophelas. The latter worked with the utmost caution, sent an army

under Epicides of Olynth against Tancheira, whilst he himself marched

against Cyrene.

[Illustration: 036.jpg THE DÔM PALM.]

He met Thibron in a fierce fight. The latter was completely defeated and

fled towards Tancheira, where he hoped to find help, but instead fell

into Epicides’ hands. Thibron was given over to the people of Tancheira

for punishment. He was cruelly scourged, and then dragged to Apollonia,

where he was crucified. Ophelas, however, was not able to conquer the

Cyrenians until Ptolemy himself arrived with fresh troops, overpowered

the town and joined the province to his own satrapy.

The conquest of this Greek province was a gain equally for himself and

for the Greeks. He put an end to the horrible anarchy that prevailed

there, and proved himself their saviour as well as their conqueror. His

name was now an honoured one among all the Greeks. When it was rumoured

that war was likely to break out between Ptolemy and the royal party,

the Macedonians flocked to Alexandria, “every man ready to give all and

to sacrifice himself in order to help his friend.” A popular belief of

the day was that, although Ptolemy was known as the son of Lagos, he was

in reality the son of Philip, and indeed much in his manner resembled

the great founder of the Macedonian power. Amongst the successors of

Alexander, not one understood as well as he how to retain and increase

the power which he had won. He recognised, also, from the first, the

tendency of the age: the tendency to split up the kingdom into different

states; and he had made this the basis of his policy. It was under him

that the first state (in the new sense of the word) was founded. He was

the leader of the new movement that soon generated disunity, and to

this end he made a secret contract with Antipatros against the regent

Perdiccas. About this time also misunderstandings between the regent and

the rulers in the West began to take a serious aspect.

At a great meeting in Babylon in the summer of the year 323, it was

decided that the body of Alexander was to be taken with great solemnity

to the Temple of Amon, and that the equipping and guidance of the

funeral procession should be entrusted to Arridæus. At the end of the

year 323, the necessary preparations were finished. The gigantic

funeral car that was to carry the kingly bier had been decorated with

unparalleled magnificence. Without waiting for orders from the regent,

Arridæus started with the funeral procession from Babylon. Crowds from

far and near filled the streets, some curious to see the magnificent

sight, others eager to show this last token of respect to the dead king.

It was firmly believed amongst the Macedonians that the country in

which Alexander’s body had its last resting-place would become happy and

powerful above all countries. This prophecy was uttered by the old seer

Telmissus soon after the king’s death. Did Ptolemy have this belief, or

did he wish to make use of it? There were probably other reasons which

had caused him to enter into an understanding with Arridæus, and to

arrange with him that he was to start without orders from the regent.

He was afraid that Perdiccas, in order to add to the solemnity of the

procession, would himself accompany the body with the imperial army to

Egypt. Ptolemy felt that his position in the lands entrusted to his

care would be greatly weakened if a higher authority than himself could

appear there with a military force. Arridæus led the funeral train to

Damascus, as had been arranged before with Ptolemy. It was in vain that

Pole-mon (one of Perdiccas’ generals), who was in the neighbourhood,

went to meet him. He was able to obtain no aspect for the express order

of the regent. The funeral procession passed Damascus on its way to

Egypt. Ptolemy accompanied the body with his army as far as Syria. It

was then taken on to Memphis to rest there until it could be sheltered

by that beautiful sepulchre of the kings at Alexandria.

Arridæus’ action, in starting without permission, and the defiance of

Polemon’s order, were acts of open revolt against the higher authority

of the kingdom. Perdiccas called all loyal followers to the council

of war. Ptolemy, he said, had defied the order of the kings in his

behaviour concerning the funeral procession; and he had also given

shelter to the exiled satraps of Phrygia. He was prepared for war, which

he hoped to bring about. It was for them (the loyal ones) to uphold

the dignity of the kingdom. They must try to take him unawares, and to

overcome them individually. The question was, if the Egyptians or the

Macedonians ought to be first attacked. In the end, plans were carefully

concerted for an attack on Egypt and the protection of Europe. In the

early spring of B.C. 321, Perdiccas and his colleagues set out for

Egypt with the imperial army, ordering the fleet to follow, and leaving

Eumenes with skilled officers and troops in general command of Asia

Minor for the purpose of guarding the Hellespont.

At the Egyptian frontier, Perdiccas summoned the army together, that the

men themselves should give judgment in the case of the satrap of Egypt,

in the same way as in the preceding autumn they had given judgment in

the case of Antigones. He expected a decision which would enable him

to finish what he had already begun. The accusations were that he had

refused obedience to the kings, that he had fought against and overcome

the Greeks of Cyrenaica (who had received freedom from Alexander),

and that he had taken possession of the king’s body, and carried it to

Memphis.

According to the single account, which tells us of these proceedings,

Ptolemy himself appeared to conduct his own defence before the assembled

warriors. He had good reason for reckoning on the impression his

confidence in them would make upon them, and on the love that he knew

the Macedonians bore towards him. He knew, too, of the increasing

dislike of the imperial regent. His defence was heard with growing

approval, and the army’s judgment was “freedom.”

In spite of this the regent kept to the war. The decision of the troops

alienated him still more from them. The war with Egypt was contrary to

their wishes, and they murmured openly. Perdiccas sought to put down the

refractory spirit with a stern military hand, but the remonstrances

of his officers were in vain. He treated the first in the land in an

inconsiderate and despotic manner, removed the most deserving from their

command, and trusted himself alone. This same man, who had climbed the

path to greatness with so much foresight, self-command, energy, and

statesmanship, seemed now, the nearer he grew to the summit of his

ambition, to lose all clearness of sight and moderation, which traits

alone could help him to take this last and dangerous step. He had the

advantage of tried troops, the elephants of Alexander, and the fleet

under the command of his brother-in-law was near the mouth of the Nile;

but he had overstepped the mark.

Just at this time, the news reached him from Asia Minor that Eumenes had

conquered Neoptolemas, the governor of Armenia, who had taken the side

of Ptolemy.

With all the more hope, Perdiccas went to meet the enemy. He reached

Pelusium undisturbed. It was highly necessary that the army should

cross to the Pelusaic side of the Nile, for there were several secure

places there, which, if allowed to remain in the hands of the enemy,

would endanger the forward movement.

[Illustration: 040.jpg A SILHOUETTE ON THE NILE]

There were also plentiful supplies of provisions within the Delta,

whilst the way through the so-called Arabia was sparsely inhabited.

If he did not find the Egyptians there, Perdiccas would install himself

within one of the fortresses on that side, and thence conduct operations

against them, and, at the same time, remain in connection with his

fleet, on which he could fall back in case of need. To enable the

crossing to be accomplished as easily as possible, Perdiccas ordered the

cleaning out of an old and filled-in canal, that led up from the Nile.

The work was evidently begun without much thought, for the fact had not

been considered that, at the rising of the Nile, the canal would want

a much deeper bed than the present stream required. The canal had

only just been opened up, when the water rose with unusual force and

rapidity; the dam was completely destroyed, and many workers lost their

lives. During the disturbance, many officers and men left the camp and

hurried to Ptolemy. This was the beginning of the Egyptian war. The

desertion of so many important men made Perdiccas think seriously.

He summoned the officers of the army, spoke to them with much

condescension, gave presents to some, honoured others with promotion,

and begged them, for the sake of their honour and for the cause of their

kings, to fight their hardest against this rebel, and with the order to

hold their men in-readiness, he left them. The army was only told in the

evening, at the signal for starting, where they were to march. Perdiccas

feared, on account of the desertion that was taking place in his army,

that his march might be discovered by the enemy. They marched with great

speed through the night, and camped at last on the side of the river.

At daybreak, after the troops had rested, Perdiccas gave the order

to cross. First came the elephants, then the light infantry, next the

storming party with ladders, and lastly, the pick of the cavalry, who,

if the enemy should burst out during the storming, could easily drive

them back. Perdiccas hoped, if he could only get a firm footing on

that side of the river, to annihilate the Egyptian army easily with his

superior force. He was right in feeling that his Macedonian troops, when

face to face with the enemy, would forget their antipathy to him,

and think only of their military honour. When about half the army had

crossed, and just as the elephants were moving towards the fortress, the

enemy were seen hurrying thither with great speed; their trumpet-calls

and war-cries even were heard. They reached the fort before the

Macedonians, and withdrew into the shelter of its walls. Not discouraged

by this, the infantry stormed the fort. Ladders were placed against

the walls, the elephants driven forward, and palisades taken from their

backs to attack the ramparts.

Ptolemy, in the dress of a Macedonian soldier, stood on the wall

surrounded by a few selected men. He was first in the fight. From where

he stood he pierced with his lance the eyes of the leading elephant, and

stabbed the Indian on its back, and he wounded many and killed numbers

of the storming party. His officers and men fought with the greatest

spirit; the driver of the second elephant was killed and the infantry

were driven back.

Perdiccas led new troops to the attack, wishing to take the fortress at

all costs. By word and deed, Ptolemy urged on his men, who fought with

marvellous endurance. The dreadful battle waged the whole day; many were

killed and wounded; evening came on and nothing was decided. Perdiccas

ordered a retreat and returned to his camp.

In the middle of the night he again started with his army, hoping that

Ptolemy would stay in the fort with his troops, and that, after a trying

march of some miles up-stream, he (Perdiccas) would be able to cross the

river more easily. At daybreak he found himself opposite one of the many

islands of the Nile; it was large enough for the camp of a great army.

In spite of the difficulties of crossing, he decided to encamp his army

there. The water reached up to the soldiers’ knees, and it was with the

greatest difficulty that they kept their footing against the force

of the current. In order to break this current, Perdiccas ordered the

elephants into the river to stand up-stream to the left of the fording

party; he ordered the horsemen to stand at the other end to help those

across that were driven down by the current. Some had, with great

difficulty, managed to get across; others were still in the stream when

it was noticed that the water was becoming deeper; the heavily armed men

sank, and the elephants and horses stood deeper and deeper in the water.

A fearful panic seized the army. They called out that the enemy had

closed in the canals up-stream, and that the gods had destined bad

weather in the upper provinces, on account of which the river was

swollen. Those who understood saw that the bed of the river had become

deepened by the crossing of so great a cavalcade. It was impossible for

the remainder to cross or for those on the island to return. They were

completely cut off and were at the mercy of the enemy, who were already

seen approaching. There was nothing left but to order them to get back

as well as they could; lucky indeed were those who could swim, and had

sufficient strength to bring them across the broad expanse of water.

[Illustration: 044.jpg CROCODILES BASKING IN THE SUN]

Many saved themselves in this way. They came without weapons, worn out

and desperate, to the shore; others were drowned or eaten by crocodiles.

Some were carried down-stream, and reached the shore where the enemy

stood. Two thousand men were missing, many officers among them. The camp

of the Egyptians was situated on the other side, and they could be seen

helping the men in the water and burning logs of wood to show honour

to the dead. On this side of the river there was sad silence; each man

sought his comrade, or officer, and sought in vain. Food was scarce, and

there was no means of overcoming this dreadful state of affairs; night

came on, and curses and complaints were heard on all sides. The lives of

so many brave men had been sacrificed for nothing; it was bad enough to

lose the “honour of their arms,” but now, through the stupidity of their

leader, their lives had been lost, and to be swallowed by crocodiles was

now the distinguished death of Macedonian warriors. Many of the officers

went to the tent of the regent, and told him openly that he was the

cause of this calamity. Outside the tent the Macedonians yelled, beside

themselves with rage. About a hundred of the officers, headed by the

satrap Python, refused to share further responsibility, resigned their

commissions, and left the tent. The excitement grew intense. The troops,

in ungovernable rage, entered the regent’s tent and threw themselves

upon him. Antigonus struck the first blow, others followed, and, after

a desperate but short struggle, Perdiccas fell to the ground covered

with wounds.

Thus died Perdiccas, in the third year of his regency. His great idea,

the unity of the kingdom entrusted to his care, should have made him

worthy of more success had he given himself up to this idea with more

conscientiousness. Unfortunately, with growing power, he became

despotic and unjust. He was not great enough to become the successor of

Alexander, to be another “ruler of the world.” This last step, the one

which was to lead him to his long-coveted goal, led him instead to his

death.

Ptolemy soon heard the news, and the next morning he crossed the river

and came to the camp. He asked to be taken to the kings, presented them

and some of the nobles with gifts; was kind and considerate to all, and

was greeted with great joy. Then he called the troops together and spoke

to them. He told the Macedonians that it was only stern necessity that

caused him to take up arms against his old comrades. No man regretted

more than he the untimely death of so many heroes. Perdiccas was the

cause of this calamity; he had but received his just punishment. Now all

enmity was to be ended. He had saved as many as he could from death in

the water, and the corpses which the river had brought to the shore he

had buried with all honour; and finally he told them that he had given

orders for the immediate alleviation of the want which he knew was being

felt in the camp. His speech was received with loud cheers. He stood

there unhurt and admired before the Macedonians, who but a few hours

earlier had been his bitterest foes. Now they looked upon him as their

saviour; they all acknowledged him as the conqueror, and for the moment

he stood in unequivocal possession of that power for which Perdiccas

had worked so hard, and which he had so much abused. Who was now to

be Perdiccas’ successor, and to manage the kingdom in the name of the

kings? With one voice the people begged Ptolemy to undertake this task.

The foresight and presence of mind of the son of Lagus were not clouded

by the allurement of such an offer gained by his sudden change of

fortune. At this supreme moment he acted with consummate sagacity. He

divined that a refusal of the proffered honour would make him in reality

more powerful, although, at the moment, he would seem to be acting in an

unselfish manner. He recommended to the army, as a favour which he had

to bestow, those he thought worthy of his thanks; they were Python,

the Median strategist, who had taken the first decisive step against

Perdiccas; and Arridæus, who, in spite of Perdiccas’ orders, had taken

the body of the king to Egypt. These two were nominated regents with

loud cheers.

The Macedonian army, accordingly, chose Python and Arridæus as

guardians, and as rulers with unlimited power over the whole of

Alexander’s conquests; but, though none of the Greek generals who now

held Asia Minor, Syria, Babylonia, Thrace, or Egypt dared to acknowledge

it to the soldiers, yet in reality the power of the guardians was

limited to the little kingdom of Macedonia. With the death of Perdiccas,

and the withdrawal of his army, Phoenicia and Coele-Syria were left

unguarded, and almost without a master. In order that Egypt might take

an important part in the universal policy, Ptolemy felt he must possess

Syria, which would open up the way for him to the countries along the

Euphrates and the Tigris, and also the island of Cyprus, where he would

be near the coast of Asia Minor. He could not yet think of conquering

Cyprus, which had an important fleet. He felt that, if he annexed Syria,

either by diplomacy or by force, the organisation of the kingdom and the

territorial division of power would be changed in a tangible manner.

The Egyptian satraps already possessed some measure of authority, and he

could also depend upon the satrap of Syria joining him.

Perdiccas had bestowed this satrapy upon Laomedon, the Amphysolite,

who had taken no part in the great fight between Perdiccas and Ptolemy.

Ptolemy now informed him that he wished to possess his satrapy, but was

ready to compensate him with a sum of money. Laomedon refused this offer

with scorn. Thereupon, an army under Nicanor, one of the “friends” of

Ptolemy, marched into Palestine. Jerusalem was the only place that

held out against the Egyptian army; but Nicanor, says the historian

Agathareides, seeing that on every seventh day the garrison withdrew

from the walls, chose that day for the assault, and thus gained the

city. Without further opposition the Egyptians marched onwards. At

last he met Laomedon, took him prisoner, and brought him back to Egypt.

Egyptian sentries now guarded the strongholds of the country; Egyptian

ships took the towns along the coast. A great number of the Jews were

transported to Alexandria; they received the rights of citizenship

there.

[Illustration: 049.jpg A THEBAN BELLE]

Without altering local conditions, Syria gradually came under the sway

of the Egyptian satraps. Laomedon found means of escaping from Egypt;

he fled to Alcetas in Caria, who had just withdrawn himself to the

mountainous regions of Pisida, thence to begin the decisive war against

Antigonus.

[Illustration: 049b.jpg Prayer to Isis]

Painted by Alexander Cabanel

In the earlier times of Egyptian history, when navigation was less easy,

and when seas separated kingdoms instead of joining them, the Thebaid

enjoyed, under the Koptic kings, the trading wealth which followed the

stream of its great river, the longest piece of inland navigation

then known; but, with the improvement in navigation and ship-building,

countries began to feel their strength in the timber of their forests

and the number of their harbours; and, as timber and sea-coast were

equally unknown in the Thebaid, that country fell as Lower Egypt rose;

the wealth which before centred in Thebes was then found in the ports

of the Delta, where the barges of the Nile met the ships of the

Mediterranean. What used to be Egypt was an inland kingdom, surrounded by

the desert; but Egypt under Ptolemy was country on the sea-coast; and,

on the conquest of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, he was master of the

forests of Lebanon and Antilibanus, and stretched his coast from Cyrene

to Antioch, a distance of twelve hundred miles. The wise and mild plans

which were laid down by Alexander for the government of Egypt when a

province were easily followed by Ptolemy when it became his own kingdom.

The Greek soldiers lived in their garrisons or in Alexandria under the

Macedonian laws, while the Egyptian laws were administered by their own

priests, who were upheld in all the rights of their order and in their

freedom from land-tax. The temples of Phtah, of Amon-Ra, and the other

gods of the country were not only kept open, but were repaired and even

built at the cost of the king; the religion of the people, and not that

of their rulers, was made the established religion of the state. On

the death of the god Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, the chief of the

animals which were kept and fed at the cost of the several cities, and

who had died of old age soon after Ptolemy came to Egypt, he spent the

sum of fifty talents, or $42,500, on its funeral; and the priests, who

had not forgotten that Cambyses, their former conqueror, had wounded the

Apis of his day with his own sword, must have been highly pleased with

this mark of his care for them. The burial-place for the bulls is an

arched gallery tunnelled into the hill behind Memphis for more than two

thousand feet, with a row of cells on each side of it. In every cell is

a huge granite sarcophagus, within which were placed the remains of a

bull that had once been the Apis of its day, which, after having for

perhaps twenty years received the honours of a god, was there buried

with more than kingly state. The cell was then walled up, and ornamented

on the outside with various tablets in honour of the deceased

animal, which were placed in these dark passages by the piety of his

worshippers. The priests of Thebes were now at liberty to cut out from

their monuments the names of usurping gods, and to restore those that

had been before cut out. They also rebuilt the inner room, or the holy

of holies, in the great temple of Karnak.

It had been overthrown by the Persians in wantonness, or in hatred

of the Egyptian religion; and the priests now put upon it the name of

Philip Arridæus, for whom Ptolemy was nominally governing Egypt.

[Illustration: 052.jpg TOMBS OF THE SACRED BULLS]

The Egyptians, who during the last two centuries had sometimes seen

their temples plundered and their trade crushed by the grasping tyranny

of the Persian satraps, and had at other times been almost as much hurt

by their own vain struggles for freedom, now found themselves in the

quiet enjoyment of good laws, with a prosperity which promised soon to

equal that of the reigns of Necho or Amasis. It is true that they had

not regained their independence and political liberty; that, as compared

with the Greeks, they felt themselves an inferior race, and that they

only enjoyed their civil rights during the pleasure of a Greek autocrat;

but then it is to be remembered that the native rulers with whom Ptolemy

was compared were the kings of Lower Egypt, who, like himself, were

surrounded by Greek mercenaries, and who never rested their power on the

broad base of national pride and love of country; and that nobody

could have hoped to see a Theban king arise to bring back the days

of Thûtmosis and Ramses. Thebes was every day sinking in wealth and

strength; and its race of hereditary soldiers, proud in the recollection

of former glory, who had, after centuries of struggles, been forced

to receive laws from Memphis, perhaps yielded obedience to a Greek

conqueror with less pain than they did formerly to their own vassals of

Lower Egypt.

Ptolemy’s government was in form nearly the same in Alexandria as in the

rest of Egypt, but in reality it was wholly different. His sway over the

Egyptians was supported by Greek force, but over the Greeks it rested

on the broad base of public opinion. Every Greek had the privilege of

bearing arms, and of meeting in the gymnasium in public assembly, to

explain a grievance, and petition for its redress. The citizens and

the soldiers were the same body of men; they at the same time held the

force, and had the spirit to use it. But they had no senate, no body

of nobles, no political constitution which might save their freedom in

after generations from the ambitious grasp of the sovereign, or from

their own degeneracy. While claiming to be equal among themselves they

were making themselves slaves; and though at present the government so

entirely bore the stamp of their own will that they might fancy they

enjoyed a democracy, yet history teaches us that the simple paternal

form of government never fails to become sooner or later a cruel

tyranny. The building of Alexandria must be held the master-stroke of

policy by which Egypt was kept in obedience. Here, and afterwards in

a few other cities, such as Ptolemais in the Thebaid and Parembole in

Nubia, the Greeks lived without insulting or troubling the Egyptians,

and by their numbers held the country like so many troops in garrison.

It was a wise policy to make no greater change than necessary in

the kingdom, and to leave the Egyptians under their own laws and

magistrates, and in the enjoyment of their own religion; and yet it was

necessary to have the country garrisoned with Greeks, whose presence in

the old cities could not but be extremely galling to the Egyptians. This

was done by means of these new Greek cities, where the power by which

Egypt was governed was stronger by being united, and less hateful by

being out of sight. Seldom or never was so great a monarchy founded with

so little force and so little crime.

Ptolemy, however, did not attempt the difficult task of uniting the two

races, and of treating the conquered and the conquerors as entitled to

the same privileges. From the time of Necho and Psammetichus, many of

the Greeks who settled in Egypt intermarried with the natives, and very

much laid aside their own habits; and sometimes their offspring, after

a generation or two, became wholly Egyptian. By the Greek laws the

children of these mixed marriages were declared to be barbarians; not

Greeks but Egyptians, and were brought up accordingly. They left the

worship of Jupiter and Juno for that of Isis and Osiris, and perhaps the

more readily for the greater earnestness with which the Egyptian gods

were worshipped. We now trace their descendants by the form of their

skulls, even into the priestly families; and of one hundred mummies

covered with hieroglyphics, taken up from the catacombs near Thebes,

about twenty show a European origin, while of those from the tombs

near Memphis, seventy out of every hundred have lost their Koptic

peculiarities. It is easy to foresee that an important change would

have been wrought in the character of the people and in their political

institutions, if the Greek laws had been humane and wise enough to grant

to the children of mixed marriages the privileges, the education, and

thereby the moral feelings of the more favoured parent; and it is not

too much to suppose, if the Greek law of marriage had been altered by

Ptolemy, that within three centuries above half the nation would have

spoken the Greek language, and boasted of its Greek origin.

[Illustration: 055.jpg THE GOD SERAPIS]

The stimulus given by Ptolemy Soter to the culture of the age has been

already mentioned. The founding of the famous museum and library

of Alexandria may be, perhaps, regarded as the rounding-off of his

political plans for the consolidation of his kingdom. Alexandria became,

in fact, not only a centre of commerce and government, but also the

intellectual capital of the Greeks. But for this supreme importance of

the city, it is doubtful whether the descendants of Ptolemy Lagus could

have continued to rule the Valley of the Nile.

In return for the literature which Greece then gave to Egypt, she gained

the knowledge of papyrus, a tall rush which grows wild near the sources

of the Nile, and was then cultivated in the Egyptian marshes. Before

that time books had been written on linen, wax, bark, or the leaves of

trees; and public records on stone, brass, or lead: but the knowledge of

papyrus was felt by all men of letters like the invention of printing

in modern Europe. Books were then known by many for the first time,

and very little else was afterwards used in Greece or Rome; for, when

parchment was made about two centuries later, it was too costly to be

used as long as papyrus was within reach. Copies were multiplied on

frail strips of this plant, and it was found that mere thoughts, when

worth preserving, were less liable to be destroyed by time than temples

and palaces of the hardest stone.

[Illustration: 056.jpb MANUSCRIPT ON PAPYRUS; HIEROGLYPHICS, THEBES]

While Egypt, under Ptolemy, was thus enjoying the advantages of its

insulated position, and cultivating the arts of peace, the other

provinces were being harassed by the unceasing wars of Alexander’s

generals, who were aiming, like Ptolemy, at raising their own power.

Many changes had taken place among them in the short space of eight

years which had passed since the death of Alexander. Philip Arridæus,

in whose name the provinces had been governed, had been put to death;

Antigonus was master of Asia Minor, with a kingdom more powerful though

not so easily guarded as Egypt; Cassander held Macedonia, and had the

care of the young Alexander Ægus, who was then called the heir to the

whole of his father’s wide conquests, and whose life, like that of

Arridæus, was soon to end with his minority; Lysimachus was trying

to form a kingdom in Thrace; and Seleucus had for a brief period held

Babylonia.

Ptolemy bore no part in the wars which brought about these changes,

beyond being once or twice called upon to send troops to guard his

province of Cole-Syria.

[Illustration: 057.jpg Alexander adoring Horus]

But Antigonus, in his ambitious efforts to stretch his power over all

the provinces, had by force or by treachery driven Seleucus out of

Babylon, and forced him to seek Egypt for safety, where Ptolemy received

him with the kindness and good policy which had before gained so many

friends. No arguments of Seleucus were wanting to persuade Ptolemy that

Antigonus was dreaming of universal conquest, and that his next attack

would be upon Egypt. He therefore sent ambassadors to make treaties of

alliance with Cassander and Lysimachus, who readily joined him against

the common enemy.

The large fleet and army which Antigonus got together for the invasion

of Egypt proved his opinion of the strength and skill of Ptolemy. All

Syria, except one or two cities, laid down its arms before him on his

approach. But he found that the whole of the fleet had been already

removed to the ports of Egypt, and he ordered Phoenicia to furnish him

with eight thousand shipbuilders and carpenters, to build galleys from

the forests of Lebanon and Antilibanus, and ordered Syria to send four

hundred and fifty thousand medimni, or nearly three millions of bushels

of wheat, for the use of his army within the year. By these means he

raised his fleet to two hundred and forty-three long galleys or ships of

war.

Ptolemy was for a short time called off from the war in Syria by a

rising in Cyrene. The Cyrenians, who clung to their Doric love of

freedom, and were latterly smarting at its loss, had taken arms and were

besieging the Egyptian, or, as they would have called themselves, the

Macedonian garrison, who had shut themselves up in the citadel. He at

first sent messengers to order the Cyrenians to return to their duty;

but his orders were not listened to; the rebels no doubt thought

themselves safe, as his armies seemed more wanted on the eastern

frontier; his messengers were put to death, and the siege of the citadel

pushed forward with all possible speed. On this he sent a large land

force, followed by a fleet, in order to crush the revolt at a single

blow; and the ringleaders were brought to Alexandria in chains. Magas, a

son of Queen Berenicê and stepson of Ptolemy, was then made governor of

Cyrene.

When this trouble at home was put an end to, Ptolemy crossed over to

Cyprus to punish the kings of the little states on that island for

having joined Antigonus. For now that the fate of empires was to be

settled by naval battles the friendship of Cyprus became very important

to the neighbouring states. The large and safe harbours gave to this

island a great value in the naval warfare between Egypt, Phoenicia, and

Asia Minor. Alexander had given it as his opinion that the command

of the sea went with the island of Cyprus. When he held Asia Minor he

called Cyprus the key to Egypt; and with still greater reason might

Ptolemy, looking from Egypt, think that island the key to Phoenicia.

Accordingly he landed there with so large a force that he met with no

resistance. He added Cyprus to the rest of his dominions: he banished

the kings, and made Nicocreon governor of the whole island.

From Cyprus, Ptolemy landed with his army in Upper Syria, as the

northern part of that country was called, while the part nearer to

Palestine was called Coele-Syria. Here he took the towns of Posideion

and Potami-Caron, and then marching hastily into Asia Minor he took

Malms, a city of Cilicia. Having rewarded his soldiers with the booty

there seized, he again embarked and returned to Alexandria. This inroad

seems to have been meant to draw off the enemy from Coele-Syria; and it

had the wished-for effect, for Demetrius, who commanded the forces of

his father Antigonus in that quarter, marched northward to the relief

of Cilicia, but he did not arrive there till Ptolemy’s fleet was already

under sail for its return journey to Egypt.

Ptolemy, on reaching Alexandria, set his army in motion towards

Pelusium, on its way to Palestine. His forces were eighteen thousand

foot and four thousand horse, part Macedonians, as the Greeks living in

Egypt were always called, and part mercenaries, followed by a crowd of

Egyptians, of whom some were armed for battle, and some were to take

care of the baggage. He had twenty-two thousand Greeks, and was met at

Gaza by the young Demetrius with an army of eleven thousand foot and

twenty-three hundred horse, followed by forty-three elephants and a

body of light-armed barbarians, who, like the Egyptians in the army of

Ptolemy, were not counted. But the youthful courage of Demetrius was no

match for the cool skill and larger army of Ptolemy; the elephants were

easily stopped by iron hurdles, and the Egyptian army, after gaining a

complete victory, entered Gaza, while Demetrius fled to Azotus. Ptolemy,

in his victory, showed a generosity unknown in modern warfare; he not

only gave leave to the conquered army to bury their dead, but sent back

the whole of the royal baggage which had fallen into his hands, and also

those personal friends of Demetrius who were found among the prisoners;

that is to say, all those who wished to depart, as the larger part of

these Greek armies were equally ready to fight on either side.

By this victory the whole of Phoenicia was again joined to Egypt, and

Seleucus regained Babylonia. There, by following the example of Ptolemy

in his good treatment of the people, and in leaving them their own laws

and religion, he founded a monarchy, and gave his name to a race of

kings which rivalled even the Lagidæ. He raised up again for a short

time the throne of Nebuchadnezzar. But it was only for a short time. The

Chal-dees and Assyrians now yielded the first rank to the Greeks who

had settled among them; and the Greeks were more numerous in the Syrian

portion of his empire. Accordingly Seleucus built a new capital on

the river Orontes, and named it Antioch after his father. Babylon then

yielded the same obedience to this new Greek city that Memphis paid

to Alexandria. Assyria and Babylonia became subject provinces; and

the successors of Seleucus, who came to be known as Selucids, styled

themselves not kings of Babylon but of Syria.

When Antigonus, who was in Phrygia on the other side of his kingdom,

heard that his son Demetrius had been beaten at Gaza, he marched with

all his forces to give battle to Ptolemy. He soon crossed Mount Taurus,

the lofty range which divides Asia Minor from Syria and Mesopotamia, and

joined his camp to that of his son in Upper Syria. But Ptolemy had gone

through life without ever making a hazardous move; not indeed without

ever suffering a loss, but without ever fighting a battle when its loss

would have ruined him, and he did not choose to risk his kingdom against

the far larger forces of Antigonus. Therefore, with the advice of his

council of generals, he levelled the fortifications of Acre, Joppa,

Samaria, and Gaza, and withdrew his forces and treasure into Egypt,

leaving the desert between himself and the army of Antigonus.

Antigonus could not safely attempt to march through the desert in the

face of Ptolemy’s army. He had, therefore, first, either to conquer or

gain the friendship of the Nabatæans, a warlike race of Arabs, who held

the north of Arabia; and then he might march by Petra, Mount Sinai, and

the coast of the Red Sea, without being in want of water for his army.

The Nabatæans were the tribe at an earlier time called Edomites. But

they lost that name when they carried it to the southern portion of

Judæa, then called Idumæa; for when the Jews regained Idumæa, they

called these Edomites of the desert Nebaoth or Nabatæans. The Nabatæns

professed neutrality between Antigonus and Ptolemy, the two contending

powers; but the mild temper of Ptolemy had so far gained their

friendship that the haughty Antigonus, though he did not refuse their

pledges of peace, secretly made up his mind to conquer them. Petra, the

city of the Nabatæans, is in a narrow valley between steep overhanging

rocks, so difficult of approach that a handful of men could guard it

against the largest army. Not more than two horsemen can ride abreast

through the chasm in the rock by which it is entered from the east,

while the other entrance from the west is down a hillside too steep for

a loaded camel.

[Illustration: 062.jpg ON THE COAST OF THE RED SEA]

The Eastern proverb reminds us that “Water is the chief thing;” and

a large stream within the valley, in addition to the strength of the

fortress, made it a favourite resting-place for caravans, which, whether

they were coming from Tyre or Jerusalem, were forced to pass by this

city in their way to the Incense Country of Arabia Felix, or to the

Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, and for other caravans from Egypt to Dedam

on the Persian Gulf. These warlike Arabs seem to have received a toll

from the caravans, and they held their rocky fastness unconquered by

the great nations which surrounded them. Their temples and tombs were

cut out of the live rock, and hence the city was by the Jews named

Selah, (the rock), and by the Greeks named Petra, from which last the

country was sometimes called Arabia Petræa.

Antigonus heard that the Nabatæans had left Petra less guarded than

usual, and had gone to a neighbouring fair, probably to meet a caravan

from the south, and to receive spices in exchange for the woollen goods

from Tyre. He therefore sent forward four thousand light-armed foot and

six hundred horse, who overpowered the guard and seized the city. The

Arabs, when they heard of what had happened, returned in the night,

surrounded the place, came upon the Greeks from above, by paths known

only to themselves, and overcame them with such slaughter that, out of

the four thousand six hundred men, only fifty returned to Antigonus to

tell the tale.

The Nabatæans then sent to Antigonus to complain of this crafty attack

being made upon Petra after they had received from him a promise of

friendship. He endeavoured to put them off their guard by disowning the

acts of his general; he sent them home with promises of peace, but at

the same time sent forward his son Demetrius, with four thousand horse

and four thousand foot, to take revenge upon them, and again seize their

city. But the Arabs were this time upon their guard; the nature of

the place was as unfavourable to the Greek arms and warfare as it was

favourable to the Arabs; and these eight thousand men, the flower of the

army, under brave Demetrius, were unable to force their way through the

narrow pass into this remarkable city.

Had Antigonus been master of the sea, he might perhaps have marched

through the desert along the coast of the Mediterranean to Pelusium,

with his fleet to wait upon his army, as Perdiccas had done. But

without this, the only way that he could enter Egypt was through the

neighbourhood of Petra, and then along the same path which the Jews are

supposed to have followed; and the stop thus put upon the invasion of

Egypt by this little city shows us the strength of Ptolemy’s eastern

frontier. Antigonus then led his army northward, leaving the kingdom of

Egypt unattacked.

This retreat was followed by a treaty of peace between these generals,

by which it was agreed that each should keep the country that he then

held; that Cassan-der should govern Macedonia until Alexander Ægus, the

son of Alexander the Great, should be of age; that Lysimachus should

keep Thrace, Ptolemy Egypt, and Antigonus Asia Minor and Palestine; and

each wishing to be looked upon as the friend of the soldiers by whom

his power was upheld, and the whole of these wide conquests kept in awe,

added the very unnecessary article, that the Greeks living in each of

these countries should be governed according to their own laws.

All the provinces held by these generals became more or less Greek

kingdoms, yet in no one did so many Greeks settle as in Lower Egypt.

Though the rest of Egypt was governed by Egyptian laws and judges, the

city of Alexandria was under Macedonian law. It did not form part of the

nome of Hermopolites in which it was built. It scarcely formed a part of

Egypt, but was a Greek state in its neighbourhood, holding the Egyptians

in a state of slavery. In that city no Egyptian could live without

feeling himself of a conquered race. He was not admitted to the

privileges of Macedonian citizenship, while they were at once granted to

every Greek, and soon to every Jew, who would settle there.

By the treaty just spoken of, Ptolemy, in the thirteenth year after the

death of Alexander, was left undisputed master of Egypt. During these

years he had not only gained the love of the Egyptians and Alexandrians

by his wise and just government, but had won their respect as a general

by the skill with which he had kept the war at a distance. He had lost

and won battles in Syria, in Asia Minor, in the island of Cyprus, and at

sea; but since Perdiccas marched against him, before he had a force to

defend himself with, no foreign army had drunk the sacred waters of the

Nile.

It was under the government of Ptolemy that the wonders of Upper Egypt

were first seen by any Greeks who had leisure, a love of knowledge, and

enough of literature, to examine carefully and to describe what they

saw. Loose and highly coloured accounts of the wealth of Thebes

had reached Greece even before the time of Homer, and again through

Herodotus and other travellers in the Delta; but nothing was certainly

known of it till it was visited by Hecatæus of Abdera, who, among other

works, wrote a history of the Hyperborean or northern nations, and also

a history, or rather a description of Egypt, part of which we now read

in the pages of Dio-dorus Siculus. When he travelled in Upper Egypt,

Thebes, though still a populous city, was more thought of by the

antiquary than by the statesman. Its wealth, however, was still great;

and when, under the just government of Ptolemy, it was no longer

necessary for the priests to hide their treasures, it was found that the

temples still held the very large sum of three hundred talents of gold,

and two thousand three hundred talents of silver, or above five million

dollars, which had escaped the plundering hands of the Persian satraps.

Many of the Theban tombs, which are sets of rooms tunnelled into the

hills on the Libyan side of the Nile, had even then been opened to

gratify the curiosity of the learned or the greediness of the conqueror.

Forty-seven royal tombs were mentioned in the records of the priests,

of which the entrances had been covered up with earth, and hidden in

the sloping sides of the hills, in the hope that they might remain

undisturbed and unplundered, and might keep safe the embalmed bodies

of the kings till they should rise again at the end of the world; and

seventeen of these had already been found out and broken open. Hecatæus

was told that the other tombs had been before destroyed; and we owe it,

perhaps, to this mistake that they remained unopened for more than two

thousand years longer, to reward the searches of modern travellers, and

to unfold to us the history of their builders.

The Memnonium, the great palace of Ramses II., was then standing; and

though it had been plundered by the Persians, the building itself was

unhurt. Its massive walls had scarcely felt the wear of the centuries

which had rolled over them. Hecataaus measured its rooms, its

courtyards, and its avenue of sphinxes; and by his measurements we can

now distinguish its ruins from those of the other palaces of Thebes. One

of its rooms, perhaps after the days of its builder, had been fitted up

as a library, and held the histories and records of the priests; but the

golden zodiac, or circle, on which were engraved the days of the year,

with the celestial bodies seen to rise at sunrise and set at sunset,

by which each day was known, had been taken away by Cambyses. Hecataaus

also saw the three other palace-temples of Thebes, which we now call

by the names of the villages in which they stand, namely, of Luxor, of

Karnak, and of Medinet-Habu. But the Greeks, in their accounts of

Egypt, have sadly puzzled us by their careless alteration of names from

similarity of sound. To Miamun Ramses, they gave the common Greek name

Memnon; and the city of Hahiroth they called Heroopolis, as if it meant

the _city of heroes_. The capital of Upper Egypt, which was called The

City, as a capital is often called, or in Koptic, _Tape or Thabou_, they

named Thebes, and in their mythology they confounded it with Thebes in

Bootia. The city of the god Kneph they called Canopus, and said it

was so named after the pilot of Menelaus. The hill of Toorah opposite

Memphis they called the Trojan mountain. One of the oldest cities in

Egypt, This, or with the prefix for city, Abouthis, they called Abydos,

and then said that it was colonised by Milesians from Abydos in Asia.

In the same careless way have the Greeks given us an account of the

Egyptian gods. They thought them the same as their own, though with new

faces; and, instead of describing their qualities, they have in the main

contented themselves with translating their names.

If Ptolemy did not make his government as much feared by the half-armed

Ethiopians as it was by the well-disciplined Europeans, it must have

been because the Thebans wished to guard their own frontier rather than

because his troops were always wanted against a more powerful enemy; but

the inroads of the Ethiopians were so far from being checked that the

country to the south of Thebes was unsafe for travellers, and no Greek

was able to reach Syênê and the lower cataracts during his reign. The

trade through Ethiopia was wholly stopped, and the caravans went from

Thebes to Cosseir to meet the ships which brought the goods of Arabia

and India from the opposite coast of the Red Sea.

In the wars between Egypt and Asia Minor, in which Palestine had the

misfortune to be the prize struggled for and the debatable land on which

the battles were fought, the Jews were often made to smart under

the stern pride of Antigonus, and to rejoice at the milder temper

of Ptolemy. The Egyptians of the Delta and the Jews had always been

friends; and hence, when Ptolemy promised to treat the Jews with the

same kindness as the Greeks, and more than the Egyptians, and held out

all the rights of Macedonian citizenship to those who would settle in

his rising city of Alexandria, he was followed by crowds of industrious

traders, manufacturers, and men of letters. They chose to live in Egypt

in peace and wealth, rather than to stay in Palestine in the daily fear

of having their houses sacked and burnt at every fresh quarrel between

Ptolemy and Antigonus. In Alexandria, a suburb by the sea, on the east

side of the city, was allotted for their use, which was afterwards

included within the fortifications, and thus made a fifth ward of the

Lagid metropolis.

No sooner was the peace agreed upon between the four generals, who were

the most powerful kings in the known world, than Cassander, who held

Macedonia, put to death both the Queen Roxana and her son, the young

Alexander Ægus, then thirteen years old, in whose name these generals

had each governed his kingdom with unlimited sway, and who was then of

an age that the soldiers, the givers of all power, were already

planning to make him the real King of Macedonia and of his father’s wide

conquests.

The Macedonian phalanx, which formed the pride and sinews of every

army, were equally held by their deep-rooted loyalty to the memory of

Alexander, whether they were fighting for Ptolemy or for Antigonus, and

equally thought that they were guarding a province for his heir; and it

was through fear of loosening their hold upon the faithfulness of these

their best troops that Ptolemy and his rivals alike chose to govern

their kingdoms under the unpretending title of lieutenants of the King

of Macedonia. Hence, upon the death of Alexander Ægus, there was a

throne, or at least a state prison, left empty for a new claimant.

Polysperchon, an old general of Alexander’s army, then thought that he

saw a way to turn Cassander out of Macedonia, by the help of Hercules,

the natural son of Alexander by Barce; and, having proclaimed him king,

he led him with a strong army against Cassander. But Polysperchon wanted

either courage or means for what he had undertaken, and he soon yielded

to the bribes of Cassander and put Hercules to death.

The cities on the southern coast of Asia Minor yielded to Antigonus

obedience as slight as the ties which held them to one another. The

cities of Pamphylia and Cilicia, in their habits as in their situation,

were nearer the Syrians, and famous for their shipping. They all enjoyed

a full share of the trade and piracy of those seas, and were a tempting

prize to Ptolemy. The treaty of peace between the generals never

lessened their jealousy nor wholly stopped the warfare, and the

next year Ptolemy, finding that his troops could hardly keep their

possessions in Cilicia, carried over an army in person to attack the

forces of Antigonus in Lycia. He landed at Phaselis, the frontier town

of Pamphylia, and, having carried that by storm, he moved westward along

the coast of Lycia. He made himself master of Xanthus, the capital,

which was garrisoned by the troops of Antigonus; and then of Caunus, a

strong place on the coast of Caria, with two citadels, one of which he

gained by force and the other by surrender. He then sailed to the island

of Cos, which he gained by the treachery of Ptolemy, the nephew of

Antigonus, who held it for his uncle, but who went over to the Egyptian

king with all his forces. By this success he gained the whole southern

coast of Asia Minor.

The brother and two children of Alexander having been in their turns,

as we have seen, murdered by their guardians, Cleopatra, his sister, and

Thessalonica, his niece, were alone left alive of the royal family

of Macedonia. Almost every one of the generals had already courted a

marriage with Cleopatra, which had either been refused by herself or

hindered by his rivals; and lastly Ptolemy, now that by the death of her

nephews she brought kingdoms, or the love of the Macedonian mercenaries,

which was worth more than kingdoms, as her dower, sent to ask her hand

in marriage. This offer was accepted by Cleopatra; but, on her journey

from Sardis, the capital of Lydia, to Egypt, on her way to join her

future husband, she was put to death by Antigonus. The niece was put

to death a few years later. Thus every one who was of the family of

Alexander paid the forfeit of life for that honour, and these two deaths

ended the Macedonian dynasty with a double tragedy.

While Ptolemy was busy in helping the Greek cities of Asia to gain their

liberty, Menelaus, his brother and admiral, was almost driven out of

Cyprus by Demetrius. On this Ptolemy got together his fleet, to the

number of one hundred and forty long galleys and two hundred transports,

manned with not less than ten thousand men, and sailed with them to the

help of his brother. This fleet, under the command of Menelaus, was met

by Demetrius with the fleet of Antigonus, consisting of one hundred and

twelve long galleys and a number of transports; and the Egyptian fleet,

which had hitherto been master of the sea, was beaten near the city

of Salamis in Cyprus by the smaller fleet of Demetrius. This was the

heaviest loss that had ever befallen Ptolemy. Eighty long galleys were

sunk, and forty long galleys, with one hundred transports and eight

thousand men, were taken prisoners. He could no longer hope to keep

Cyprus, and he sailed hastily back to Egypt, leaving to Demetrius the

garrisons of the island as his prisoners, all of whom were enrolled in

the army of Antigonus, to the number of sixteen thousand foot and six

hundred horse.

This naval victory gave Demetrius the means of unburdening his proud

mind of a debt of gratitude to his enemy; and accordingly, remembering

what Ptolemy had done after the battle of Gaza, he sent back to Egypt,

unasked for and unransomed, those prisoners who were of high rank, that

is to say, all those who had any choice about which side they fought

for; and among them were Leontiscus, the son, and Menelaus, the brother,

of Ptolemy.

Antigonus was overjoyed with the news of his son’s victory. By lessening

the power of Ptolemy, it had done much to smooth his own path to the

sovereignty of Alexander’s empire, which was then left without an heir;

and he immediately took the title of king, and gave the same title to

his son Demetrius. In this he was followed by Ptolemy and the other

generals, but with this difference, that while Antigonus called himself

king of all the provinces, Ptolemy called himself King of Egypt; and

while Antigonus gained Syria and Cyprus, Ptolemy gained the friendship

of every other kingdom and of every free city in Greece; they all looked

upon him as their best ally against Antigonus, the common enemy.

The next year Antigonus mustered his forces in Coele-Syria, and got

ready for a second attack upon Egypt. He had more than eighty thousand

foot, accompanied with what was then the usual proportion of cavalry,

namely, eight thousand horse and eighty-three elephants. Demetrius

brought with him from Cyprus the fleet of one hundred and fifty long

galleys, and one hundred transports laden with stores and engines of

war. With this fleet, to which Ptolemy, after his late loss, had no

ships that he could oppose, Antigonus had no need to ask leave of the

Arabs of the little city of Petra to march through their passes; but he

led his army straight through the desert to Pelusium, while the ships of

burden kept close to the shore with the stores. The pride of Antigonus

would not let him follow the advice of the sailors, and wait eight days

till the north winds of the spring equinox had passed; and by this haste

many of his ships were wrecked on the coast, while others were driven

into the Nile and fell into the hands of Ptolemy. Antigonus himself,

marching with the land forces, found all the strong places well guarded

by the Egyptian army; and, being driven back at every point, discouraged

by the loss of his ships and by seeing whole bodies of his troops go

over to Ptolemy, he at last took the advice of his officers and led back

his army to Syria, while Ptolemy returned to Alexandria, to employ those

powers of mind in the works of peace which he had so successfully used

in his various wars.

Antigonus then turned the weight of his mighty kingdom against the

little island of Rhodes, which, though in sight of the coast of Asia

Minor, held itself independent of him, and in close friendship with

Ptolemy. The Dorian island of Rhodes had from the earliest dawn of

history held a high place among the states of Greece; and in all the

arts of civilised life, in painting, sculpture, letters, and commerce,

it had been lately rising in rank while the other free states had been

falling. Its maritime laws were so highly thought of that they were

copied by most other states, and, being afterwards adopted into the

Pandects of Justinian, they have in part become the law of modern

Europe. It was the only state in which Greek liberty then kept its

ground against the great empires of Alexander’s successors.

Against this little state Demetrius led two hundred long galleys and one

hundred and seventy transports, with more than forty thousand men. The

Greek world looked on with deep interest while the veterans of Antigonus

were again and again driven back from the walls of the blockaded city

by its brave and virtuous citizens; who, while their houses were burning

and their walls crumbling under the battering-ram, left the statues of

Antigonus and Demetrius standing unhurt in the market-place, saved by

their love of art and the remembrance of former kindness, which, with

a true greatness of mind, they would not let the cruelties of the siege

outweigh. The galleys of Ptolemy, though unable to keep at sea against

the larger fleet of Demetrius, often forced their way into the harbour

with the welcome supplies of grain. Month after month every stratagem

and machine which the ingenuity of Demetrius could invent were tried and

failed; and, after the siege had lasted more than a year, he was glad to

find an excuse for withdrawing his troops; and the Rhodians in their joy

hailed Ptolemy with the title of Soter or _saviour_. This name he ever

afterwards kept, though by the Greek writers he is more often called

Ptolemy the son of Lagus. If we search the history of the world for a

second instance of so small a state daring to withstand the armies of so

mighty an empire, we shall perhaps not find any one more remarkable than

that of the same island, when, seventeen hundred years afterwards, it

again drew upon itself the eyes of the world, while it beat off the

forces of the Ottoman empire under Mahomet II.; and, standing like a

rock in front of Christendom, it rolled back for years the tide of war,

till its walls were at last crumbled to a heap of ruins by Suleiman the

Great, after a siege of many months.

The next of Ptolemy’s conquests was Coele-Syria; and soon after this

the wars between these successors of Alexander were put an end to by

the death of Antigonus, whose overtowering ambition was among the

chief causes of quarrel. This happened at the great battle of Ipsus in

Phrygia, where they all met, with more than eighty thousand men in

each army. Antigonus, King of Asia Minor, was accompanied by his son

Demetrius, and by Pyrrhus, King of Epirus; and he was defeated by

Ptolemy, King of Egypt, Seleucus, King of Babylon, Lysimachus, King of

Thrace, and Cassander, King of Macedonia; and the old man lost his life

fighting bravely. After the battle Demetrius fled to Cyprus, and yielded

to the terms of peace which were imposed on him by the four allied

sovereigns. He sent his friend Pyrrhus as a hostage to Alexandria; and

there this young King of Epirus soon gained the friendship of Ptolemy

and afterwards his stepdaughter in marriage. Ptolemy was thus left

master of the whole of the southern coast of Asia Minor and Syria,

indeed of the whole coast of the eastern end of the Mediterranean, from

the island of Cos on the north to Cyrene on the south.

During these formidable wars with Antigonus, Ptolemy had never been

troubled with any serious rising of the conquered Egyptians; and perhaps

the wars may not have been without their use in strengthening his

throne. The first danger to a successful conqueror is from the avarice

and disappointment of his followers, who usually claim the kingdom as

their booty, and who think themselves wronged and their past services

forgotten if any limit is placed to their tyranny over the conquered.

But these foreign wars may have taught the Alexandrians that Ptolemy was

not strong enough to ill-treat the Egyptians, and may thus have saved

him from the indiscretion of his friends and from their reproaches for

ingratitude.

In the late war, the little Dorian island of Cos on the coast of Asia

Minor fell, as we have seen, under the power of Ptolemy. This island was

remarkable as being the first spot in Europe into which the manufacture

of silk was introduced, which it probably gained when under the power

of Persia before the overthrow of Darius. The luxury of the Egyptian

ladies, who affected to be overheated by any clothing that could conceal

their limbs, had long ago introduced a tight, thin dress which neither

our climate nor notions of modesty would allow, and for this dress,

silk, when it could be obtained, was much valued; and Pamphila of Cos

had the glory of having woven webs so transparent that the Egyptian

women were enabled to display their fair forms yet more openly by means

of this clothing.

[Illustration: 081.jpg ALEXANDRIAN LADY, ATTIRED IN BOMBYX SILK]

Cos continued always in the power of the Ptolemies, who used it as a

royal fortress, occasionally sending their treasures and their children

there as to a place of safety from Alexandrian rebellion; and there the

silk manufacture flourished in secret for two or three centuries.

When it ceased is unknown, as it was part of the merchants’ craft to

endeavour to keep each branch of trade to themselves, by concealing the

channel through which they obtained their supply of goods, and many of

the dresses which were sold in Rome under the emperors by the name of

Coan robes may have been brought from the East through Alexandria.

One of the most valuable gifts which Egypt owed to Ptolemy was its

coinage. Even Thebes, “where treasures were largest in the houses” never

was able to pass gold and silver from hand to hand without the trouble

of weighing, and the doubt as to the fineness of the metal. The Greek

merchants who crowded the markets of Canopus and Alexandria must have

filled Lower Egypt with the coins of the cities from whence they came,

all unlike one another in stamp and weight; but, while every little city

or even colony of Greece had its own coinage, Egypt had as yet very few

coins of its own. We are even doubtful whether we know by sight those

coined by the Persians In the early years of Ptolemy’s government

Ptolemy had issued a very few coins bearing the names of the young kings

in whose name he held the country, but he seems not to have coined any

quantity of money till after he had himself taken the title of king. His

coins are of gold, silver, and bronze, and are in a fine style of Greek

workmanship. Those of gold and silver bear on one side the portrait of

the king, without a beard, having the head bound with the royal diadem,

which, unlike the high priestly crown of the native Egyptian kings, or

the modern crown of gold and precious stones, is a plain riband tied in

a bow behind. On the other side they have the name of Ptolemy Soter, or

King Ptolemy, with an eagle standing upon a thunderbolt, which was only

another way of drawing the eagle and sun, the hieroglyphical characters

for the title Pharaoh.

[Illustration: 082.jpg EGYPTIAN COINAGE]

The gold coins of Egypt were probably made in Alexandria. The coins

are not of the same weight as those of Greece; but Ptolemy followed the

Egyptian standard of weight, which was that to which the Jewish shekel

was adjusted, and which was in use in the wealthy cities of Tyre and

Sidon and Beryttus. The drachma weighs fifty-five grains, making the

talent of silver worth about seven hundred and fifty dollars. Ptolemy’s

bronze coins have the head of Serapis or Jupiter in the place of that of

the king, as is also the case with those of his successors; but few of

these bronze pieces bear any marks from which we can learn the reign

in which they were coined. They are of better metal than those of other

countries, as the bronze is free from lead and has more tin in it. The

historian, in his very agreeable labours, should never lose sight of the

coins. They teach us by their workmanship the state of the arts, and by

their weight, number, and purity of metal, the wealth of the country.

They also teach dates, titles, and the places where they were struck;

and even in those cases where they seem to add little to what we learn

from other sources, they are still the living witnesses to which we

appeal, to prove the truth of the authors who have told us more.

[Illustration: 083.jpg COIN OF SOTER, WITH JUPITER]

The art of engraving coins did not flourish alone in Alexandria;

painters and sculptors flocked to Egypt to enjoy the favours of Ptolemy.

Apelles, indeed, whose paintings were thought by those who had seen

them to surpass any that had been before painted, or were likely to be

painted, had quarrelled with Ptolemy, who had known him well when he

was the friend and painter of Alexander. Once when he was at Alexandria,

somebody wickedly told him that he was invited to dine at the royal

table, and when Ptolemy asked who it was that had sent his unwelcome

guest, Apelles drew the face of the mischief-maker on the wall, and he

was known to all the court by the likeness. It was, perhaps, at one

of these dinners, at which Ptolemy enjoyed the society of the men of

letters, or perhaps when visiting the philosophers in their schools,

that he asked Euclid if he could not show him a shorter and easier way

to the higher truths of mathematics than that by which he led the pupils

in the Museum; and Euclid, as if to remind him of the royal roads of

Persia, which ran by the side of the highroads, but were kept clear and

free for the king’s own use, made him the well-known answer, that there

was no royal road to geometry.

Ptolemy lived in easy familiarity with the learned men of Alexandria;

and at another of these literary dinners, when Diodorus, the

rhetorician, who was thought to have been the inventor of the Dilemma,

was puzzled by a question put to him by Stilpo, the king in joke said

that his name should be Cronus, a god who had been laughed at in the

comedies. Indeed, he was so teased by Ptolemy for not being able to

answer it, that he got up and left the room. He afterwards wrote a book

upon the subject; but the ridicule was said to have embittered the rest

of his life. This was the person against whom Callimachus, some years

later, wrote a bitter epigram, beginning “Cronus is a wise man.”

Diodorus was of the sceptical school of philosophy, which, though not

far removed from the Cyrenaic school, was never popular in Alexandria.

Among other paradoxes he used to deny the existence of motion. He argued

that the motion was not in the place where the body moved from, nor in

the place that the body moved to, and that accordingly it did not exist

at all. Once he met with a violent fall which put his shoulder out of

joint, and he applied to Herophilus, the surgeon, to set it. Herophilus

began by asking him where the fall took place, whether in the place

where the shoulder was, or in the place where it fell to; but the

smarting philosopher begged him to begin by setting his limb, and they

would talk about the existence of motion after the operation.

Stilpo was at this time only on a visit to Ptolemy, for he had refused

his offer of money and a professorship in the Museum, and had chosen

to remain at Megara where he was the ornament of his birthplace. He

had been banished from Athens for speaking against their gods, and for

saying that the colossal Minerva was not the daughter of Jupiter, but of

Phidias, the sculptor. His name as a philosopher stood so high that when

Demetrius, in his late wars with Ptolemy, took the city of Megara by

storm, the conqueror bid spare the house of Stilpo, when temple and

tower went to the ground; and when Demetrius gave orders that Stilpo

should be repaid for what he had lost in the siege, the philosopher

proudly answered that he had lost nothing, and that he had no wealth but

his learning.

The historian Theopompus of Chios then came to Alexandria, and wrote an

account of the wars between the Egyptians and the Persians. It is now

lost, but it contained at least the events from the successful invasion

by Artaxerxes Longimanus till the unsuccessful invasion by Artaxerxes

Mnemon.

No men of learning in Alexandria were more famous than the physicians.

Erasistratus of Cos had the credit of having once cured Antiochus,

afterwards King of Syria. He was the grandson of Aristotle, and may

be called the father of the science of anatomy: his writings are often

quoted by Dioscorides. Antiochus in his youth had fallen deeply in love

with his young stepmother, and was pining away in silence and despair.

Erasistratus found out the cause of his illness, which was straightway

cured by Seleucus giving up his wife to his own son. This act strongly

points out the changed opinions of the world as to the matrimonial

relation; for it was then thought the father’s best title to the name

of Nicator; he had before conquered his enemies, but he then conquered

himself.

Erasistratus was the first who thought that a knowledge of anatomy

should be made a part of the healing art. Before his time surgery and

medicine had been deemed one and the same; they had both been studied by

the slow and uncertain steps of experience, unguided by theory. Many a

man who had been ill, whether through disease or wound, and had regained

his health, thought it his duty to Esculapius and to his neighbours to

write up in the temple of the god the nature of his ailings, and the

simples to which he fancied that he owed his cure. By copying these

loose but well-meant inscriptions of medical cases, Hippocrates had,

a century earlier, laid the foundations of the science; but nothing

further was added to it till Erasistratus, setting at nought the

prejudices in which he was born, began dissecting the human body in the

schools of Alexandria. There the mixing together of Greeks and Egyptians

had weakened those religious feelings of respect for the dead which are

usually shocked by anatomy; and this study flourished from the low

tone of the morality as much as from the encouragement which good sense

should grant to every search for knowledge.

Herophilus lived about the same time with Erasistratus, and was, like

him, famous for his knowledge of the anatomy of man. But so hateful was

this study in the eyes of many, that these anatomists were charged by

writers who ought to have known better, with the cruelty of cutting

men open when alive. They had few followers in the hated use of the

dissecting-knife. It was from their writings that Galen borrowed the

anatomical parts of his work; and thus it was to the dissections of

these two great men, helped indeed by opening the bodies of animals,

that the world owed almost the whole of its knowledge of the anatomy of

man, till the fifteenth century, when surgeons were again bold enough to

face the outcry of the mob, and to study the human body with the knife.

Hegesias of Cyrene was an early lecturer on philosophy at Alexandria.

His short and broken sentences are laughed at by Cicero, yet he was so

much listened to, when lecturing against the fear of death, and showing

that in quitting life we leave behind us more pains than pleasures, that

he was stopped by Ptolemy Soter through fear of his causing self-murder

among his hearers. He then wrote a book upon the same subject, for

though the state watched over the public teaching, it took no notice

of books; writing had not yet become the mightiest power on earth. The

miseries, however, of this world, which he so eloquently and feelingly

described in his lectures and writings, did not drive him to put an end

to his own life.

Philostephanus of Cyrene, the friend of Callimachus, was a naturalist

who wrote upon fishes, and is the first investigator that we hear of who

thought it desirable to limit his studies to one branch of the science

of natural history.

But Cyrene did not send all its great men to Alexandria. Plato had

studied mathematics there under Theodorus, and it had a school of its

own which gave its name to the Cyrenaic sect. The founder of this sect

was Aristippus, the pupil of Socrates who had missed the high honour of

being present at his death. He was the first philosopher who took money

from his pupils, and used to say that they valued their lessons more

for having to pay for them; but he was blamed by his brethren for

thus lowering the dignity of the teacher. He died several years before

Ptolemy Soter came into Egypt. The Cyrenaic sect thought happiness,

not goodness, was the end to be aimed at through life, and selfishness,

rather than kindness to others, the right spring of men’s actions. It

would hardly be fair to take their opinions from the mouths of their

enemies; and the dialogues of Socrates, with their founder, as told to

us by Xeno-phon, would prove a lower tone of morality than he is likely

to have held. The wish for happiness and the philosophical love of self,

which should lead to goodness, though a far worse rule of life than the

love of goodness for its own sake, which is the groundwork of religion,

was certainly far better than unguided passion and the love of to-day’s

pleasure. But often as this unsafe rule has been set up for our

guidance, there have always been found many to make use of it in a way

not meant by the teacher. The Cyrenaic sect soon fell into the disrepute

to which these principles were likely to lead it, and wholly ceased when

Epicurus taught the same opinions more philosophically, Anniceris of

Cyrene, though a follower of Aristippus, somewhat improved upon the

low-toned philosophy of his master. He granted that there were many

things worth our aim, which could not be brought within the narrow

bounds of what is useful. He did not overlook friendship, kindness,

honouring our parents, and serving our country; and he thought that a

wise man would undertake many labours which would bring him no return in

the things which were alone thought happiness.

The chair of philosophy at Cyrene was afterwards filled by Arete, the

daughter of Aristippus; for such were the hindrances in the way of

gaining knowledge, that few could be so well qualified to teach as the

philosopher’s daughter. Books were costly, and reading by no means

a cheap amusement. She was followed, after her death, by her son

Aristippus, who, having been brought up in his mother’s lecture-room,

was called, in order to distinguish him from his grandfather of the same

name, Metrodidactus, or _mother-taught_. History has not told us whether

he took the name himself in gratitude for the debt which he owed to this

learned lady, or whether it was given him by his pupils; but in either

case it was a sure way of giving to the mother the fame which was due to

her for the education of her son; for no one could fail to ask who was

the mother of Metrodidactus.

Theodorus, one of the pupils of Metrodidactus, though at one time

banished from Cyrene, rose to honour under Soter, and was sent by him as

ambassador to Lysimachus, He was called the Atheist by his enemies, and

the Divine by his friends, but we cannot now determine which title he

best deserved. It was then usual to call those atheists who questioned

the existence of the pagan gods; and we must not suppose that all who

suffered under that reproach denied that the world was governed by a

ruling providence. The disbeliever in the false religion of the many is

often the only real believer in a God. Theodorus was of the cold school

of philosophy, which was chiefly followed in Alexandria. It was earthly,

lifeless, and unpoetical, arising from the successful cultivation of

the physical sciences, not enough counteracted by the more ennobling

pursuits of poetry and the fine arts. Hence, while commerce and the arts

of production were carried to higher perfection than at any former

time, and science was made greatly to assist in the supply of our bodily

wants, the arts of civilisation, though by no means neglected, were

cultivated without any lofty aim, or any true knowledge of their

dignity.

[Illustration: 092.jpg THE CHARIOT OF ANTIPHILUS]

Antiphilus, who was born in Egypt and had studied painting under

Ctesidemus, rose to high rank as a painter in Alexandria. Among his

best-known pictures were the bearded Bacchus, the young Alexander, and

Hip-polytus, or rather his chariot-horses, frightened by the bull. His

boy, blowing up a fire with his mouth, was much praised for the mouth

of the boy, and for the light and shade of the room. His Ptolemy

hunting was also highly thought of. Antiphilus showed a mean jealousy

of Apelles, and accused him of joining in a plot against the king, for

which the painter narrowly escaped punishment; but Ptolemy, finding that

the charge was not true, sent Apelles a gift of one hundred talents to

make amends. The angry feelings of Apelles were by no means cooled by

this gift, but they boiled over in his great picture of Calumny. On the

right of the picture sat Ptolemy, holding out his hand to Calumny, who

was coming up to him. On each side of the king stood a woman who seemed

meant for Ignorance and Suspicion. Calumny was a beautiful maiden, but

with angry and deep-rooted malice in her face: in her left hand was a

lighted torch, and with her right she was dragging along by the hair

a young man, who was stretching forth his hands to heaven, and calling

upon the gods to bear witness that he was guiltless. Before her walked

Envy, a pale, hollow-eyed, diseased man, perhaps a portrait of

the accuser; and behind were two women, Craft and Deceit, who were

encouraging and supporting her. At a distance stood Repentance, in the

ragged, black garb of mourning, who was turning away her face for shame

as Truth came up to her.

Ptolemy Soter was plain in his manners, and scarcely surpassed his own

generals in the costliness of his way of life. He often dined and slept

at the houses of his friends; and his own house had so little of the

palace, that he borrowed dishes and tables of his friends when he asked

any number of them to dine with him in return, saying that it was the

part of a king to enrich others rather than to be rich himself. Before

he took the title of king, he styled himself, and was styled by friendly

states, by the simple name of Ptolemy the Macedonian; and during the

whole of his reign he was as far from being overbearing in his behaviour

as from being kinglike in his dress and household. Once when he wished

to laugh at a boasting antiquary, he asked him, what he knew could not

be answered, who was the father of Peleus; and the other let his wit so

far get the better of his prudence as in return to ask the king, who had

perhaps never heard the name of his own grandfather, if he knew who was

the father of Lagus. But Ptolemy took no further notice of this than to

remark that if a king cannot bear rude answers he ought not to ask rude

questions.

An answer which Ptolemy once made to a soothsayer might almost be taken

as the proverb which had guided him through life. When his soldiers met

with an anchor in one of their marches, and were disheartened on being

told by the soothsayer that it was a proof that they ought to stop where

they then were, the king restored their courage by remarking, that an

anchor was an omen of safety, not of delay.

Ptolemy’s first children were by Thais, the noted courtesan, but they

were not thought legitimate. Leontiscus, the eldest, we afterwards hear

of fighting bravely against Demetrius; of the second, named Lagus after

his grandfather, we hear nothing.

He then married Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, by whom he had

several children. The eldest son, Ptolemy, was named Ceraunus, _the

Thunderer_, and was banished by his father from Alexandria. In his

distress he fled to Seleucus, by whom he was kindly received; but after

the death of Ptolemy Soter he basely plotted against Seleucus and

put him to death. He then defeated in battle Antigonus, the son of

Demetrius, and got possession of Macedonia for a short time. He married

his half-sister Arsinoë, and put her children to death; and was soon

afterwards put to death himself by the Gauls, who were either fighting

against him or were mercenaries in his own army. Another son of Ptolemy

and Eurydice was put to death by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for plotting

against his throne, to which, as the elder brother, he might have

thought himself the best entitled. Their daughter Lysander married

Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus; but when Agathocles was put to death

by his father, she fled to Egypt with her children, and put herself

under Ptolemy’s care.

Ptolemy then, as we have seen, asked in marriage the hand of Cleopatra,

the sister of Alexander; but on her death he married Berenicê, a lady

who had come into Egypt with Eurydice, and had formed part of her

household. She was the widow of a man named Philip; and she had by her

first husband a son named Magas, whom Ptolemy made governor of Cyrene,

and a daughter, Antigone, whom Ptolemy gave in marriage to Pyrrhus when

that young king was living in Alexandria as hostage for Demetrius.

Berenicê’s mildness and goodness of heart were useful in softening her

husband’s severity. Once, when Ptolemy was unbending his mind at a game

of dice with her, one of his officers came up to his side, and began to

read over to him a list of criminals who had been condemned to death,

with their crimes, and to ask his pleasure on each.

[Illustration: 095.jpg BERENICE SOTER]

Ptolemy continued playing, and gave very little attention to the unhappy

tale; but Berenice’s feelings overcame the softness of her character,

and she took the paper out of the officer’s hand, and would not let him

finish reading it; saying it was very unbecoming in the king to treat

the matter so lightly, as if he thought no more of the loss of a life

than the loss of a throw.

With Berenicê Ptolemy spent the rest of his years without anything to

trouble the happiness of his family. He saw their elder son, Ptolemy,

whom we must call by the name which he took late in life, Philadelphus,

grow up everything that he could wish him to be; and, moved alike by his

love for the mother and by the good qualities of the son, he chose

him as his successor on the throne, instead of his eldest son, Ptolemy

Ceraunus, who had shown, by every act in his life, his unfitness for the

royal position.

His daughter Arsinoë married Lysimachus in his old age, and urged

him against his son, Agathocles, the husband of her own sister. She

afterwards married her half-brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus; and lastly became

the wife of her brother Philadelphus. Argzeus, the youngest son of

Ptolemy, was put to death by Philadelphus on a charge of treason. Of

his youngest daughter Philotera we know nothing, except that her brother

Philadelphus afterwards named a city on the coast of the Red Sea after

her.

After the last battle with Demetrius, Ptolemy had regained the island of

Cyprus and Cole-Syria, including Judæa; and his throne became stronger

as his life drew to an end. With a wisdom rare in kings and conquerors,

he had never let his ambition pass his means; he never aimed at

universal power; and he was led, both by his kind feelings and

wise policy, to befriend all those states which, like his own, were

threatened by that mad ambition in others.

His history of Alexander’s wars is lost, and we therefore cannot judge

of his merits as an author; but we may still point out with pleasure how

much his people gained from his love of letters; though indeed we do not

need the example of Ptolemy to show that learning and philosophy are as

much in place, and find as wide a field of usefulness, in governing

a kingdom as in the employments of the teacher, the lawyer, or the

physician, who so often claim them as their own.

His last public act, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, was ordered

by the same forbearance which had governed every part of his life.

Feeling the weight of years press heavily upon him, that he was less

able than formerly to bear the duties of his office, and wishing to see

his son firmly seated on the throne, he laid aside his diadem and

his title, and, without consulting either the army or the capital,

proclaimed Ptolemy, his son by Berenicê, king, and contented himself

with the modest rank of somatophylax, or satrap, to his successor. He

had used his power so justly that he was not afraid to lay it down;

and he has taught us how little of true greatness there is in rank by

showing how much more there is in resigning it. This is perhaps the most

successful instance known of a king, who had been used to be obeyed by

armies and by nations, willingly giving up his power when he found his

bodily strength no longer equal to it. Ptolemy Soter had the happiness

of having a son willing to follow in the track which he had laid down

for him, and of living to see the wisdom of his own laws proved by the

well-being of the kingdom under his son and successor.

But while we are watching the success of Ptolemy’s plans, and the rise

of this Greek monarchy at Alexandria, we cannot help being pained with

the thought that the Kopts of Upper Egypt are forgotten, and asking

whether it would not have been still better to have raised Thebes to

the place which it once held, and to have recalled the days of Ramses,

instead of trying what might seem the hopeless task of planting Greek

arts in Africa. But a review of this history will show that, as far as

human forethought can judge, this could not have been done. A people

whose religious opinions were fixed against all change, like the pillars

upon which they were carved, and whose philosophy had not noticed that

men’s minds were made to move forward, had no choice but to be left

behind and trampled on, as their more active neighbours marched onwards

in the path of improvement. If Thebes had fallen only on the conquest by

Cambyses, if the rebellions against the Persians had been those of Kopts

throwing off their chains and struggling for freedom, we might have

hoped to have seen Egypt, on the fall of Darius, again rise under kings

of the blood and language of the people; and we should have thought the

gilded and half-hid chains of the Ptolemies were little better than the

heavy yoke of the Persians. This, however, is very far from having been

the case. We first see the kings of Lower Egypt guarding their thrones

at Saïs by Greek soldiers; and then, that every struggle of Inarus, of

Nectanebo, and of Tachos, against the Persians, was only made by the

courage and arms of Greeks hired in the Delta by Egyptian gold. During

the three hundred years before Alexander was hailed by Egypt as its

deliverer, scarcely once had the Kopts, trusting to their own courage,

stood up in arms against either Persians or Greeks; and the country was

only then con-quered without a battle because the power and arms were

already in the hands of the Greeks; because in the mixed races of

the Delta the Greeks were so far the strongest, though not the most

numerous, that a Greek kingdom rose there with the same ease, and for

the same reasons, that an Arab kingdom rose in the same place nine

centuries later.

[Illustration: 098.jpg NIT, GODDESS OF SAIS.]

[Illustration: 099.jpg A CAT MUMMY]

Moral worth, national pride, love of country, and the better feelings of

clanship are the chief grounds upon which a great people can be raised.

These feelings are closely allied to self-denial, or a willingness on

the part of each man to give up much for the good of the whole. By this,

chiefly, public monuments are built, and citizens stand by one another

in battle; and these feelings were certainly strong in Upper Egypt

in the days of its greatness. But, when the throne was moved to Lower

Egypt, when the kingdom was governed by the kings of Saïs, and even

afterwards, when it was struggling against the Persians, these virtues

were wanting, and they trusted to foreign hirelings in their struggle

for freedom. The Delta was peopled by three races of men, Kopts, Greeks,

and Phoenicians, or Arabs; and even before the sceptre was given to the

Greeks by Alexander’s conquests, we have seen that the Kopts had lost

the virtues needed to hold it.

[Illustration: 100.jpg TAILPIECE]