and behaved in regard to them with so much address, that whilst they acted solely from their own interest, the contending parties were however obliged to them. As therefore the great power of Egypt gave them reason to apprehend, it would become too formidable if it fell into the hands of one sovereign who knew how to use it, they adjudged the isle of Cyprus to Physcon. Demetrius, who did not lose sight of the throne of Syria, and whose interest in that view it was, that so powerful a prince as the king of Egypt, should not continue in possession of the island of Cyprus, supported the demand of Physcon with his whole credit. The Romans made T. Torquatus, and Cn. Merula set out with the latter, to put him in possession of it.

¡ During that prince's stay in Rome, he had often the opportunity of seeing Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and caused proposals of marriage to be made to her. But being the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the widow of Tiberius Gracchus, who had been twice consul and censor, she rejected his offers, and believed it more honourable to be one of the first ladies of Rome, than queen of Libya with Physcon.

Physcon set out from Rome with the two Roman ambassadors. Their plan was to concert an interview between the two brothers upon the frontier, and to bring them into an accommodation by the method of treaty, according to the senate's instructions. Philometer did not explain himself openly at first. He spun out the affair to as great a length as he could, upon different pretexts, with design of making use of the time in taking secret measures against his brother.

Plut. in Tib. Grac. p. 824.

At length he declared plainly, that he was resolved to stand to the first treaty, and that he would make no other.

*The Cyreneans, in the mean time, informed of the ill conduct of Physcon, during his being possessed of the government at Alexandria, conceived so strong an aversion for him, that they resolved to keep him out of their country by force of arms. It was not doubted but Philometer had taken pains underhand to excite those troubles. Physcon, who had been overthrown by the rebels in a battle, having almost lost all hope, sent two deputies with the Roman ambassadors back to Rome, with orders to lay his complaints against his brother before the senate, and to solicit their protection. The senate, offended at Philometer's refusal to evacuate the island of Cyprus, according to their decree, declared the amity and alliance between him and the Romans void, and ordered his ambassadors to quit Rome in five days.

Physcon found means to reestablish himself in Cyrenaica, but made himself so generally hated by his subjects, through his ill conduct, that some of them fell upon him, wounded him in several places, and left him for dead upon the spot. He ascribed this to his brother Philometer; and when he was recovered of his wounds, undertook again a voyage to Rome. He there made his complaints against him to the senate, showed the scars of his wounds, and accused him of having employed the assassins from whom he received them. Though Philometer was the most humane of

* A. M. 3843. Ant. J. C. 161. Polyb. Leg. c. xxxii. Id. in Excerpt Vales. p. 197. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 334.

all princes, and could not be the least suspected of so black and barbarous an action, the senate, who were angry at his refusal to submit to the regulation they had made in regard to the isle of Cyprus, gave ear to this false accusation with too much facility. They carried their prejudice so high against him, that they would not so much as hear what his ambassadors had to say in his defence. Orders were sent them to quit Rome immediately. Besides which, the senate appointed. five commissioners to conduct Physcon into Cyprus, and to put him in possession of that island, and wrote to all their allies near it to aid him for that purpose with all their troops.

Physcon, by this means, with an army which seemed to him sufficient for the execution of his design, landed in the island. Philometer, who had gone thither in person, beat him, and obliged him to shut himself up in Lapitho, where he was soon invested, besieged, and at length taken, and put into the hands of a brother he had so cruelly injured. Philometer's exceeding goodness appeared upon this occasion. After all Physcon had done against him, it was ex. pected, that having him in his power, he would make him sensible of his indignation and revenge. He pardoned him every thing; and, not contented to forgive him his faults, he even restored him Lybia and Cyrenaica, and added further some amends in lieu of the isle of Cyprus. That act of generosity put an end to the war between the two brothers. It was not renewed, and the Romans were ashamed of opposing any longer a prince of such extraordinary clemency. There is

A. M. 3847. Ant. J. C. 157.

no reader who does not secretly pay the homage of esteem and admiration to so generous an action. Such inward sentiments which arise from nature, and prevent reflections, imply how great and noble it is to forget and pardon injuries, and what a meanness of soul there is in the resentment of the revengeful.

SECTION III.

@CTAVIUS, THE ROMAN AMBASSADOR IN SYRIA, IS THERE KILLED. DEATH OF JUDAS MACCABEUS.

"WE have seen that the principal object of the commission of the three Roman ambassadors, Cn. Octavius, Sp. Lucretius, and L. Aurelius, who went first into Egypt, was to go into Syria, in order to regulate the affairs of that nation. When they arrived there, they found the king had more ships and elephants than had been stipulated by the treaty made with Antiochus the Great, after the battle of Sipylus. They caused the ships to be burned, and the elephants to be killed, which exceeded the number stated in that treaty, and disposed all things else in such a manner as they thought most to the advantage of the Romans. This treatment seemed insupportable, and exasperated the people against them. A person, named Leptinus, was so incensed at it, that in his rage he fell upon Octavius" whilst he was bathing, and killed him.

A. M. 3842. Ant. J. C. 162. Appian. in Syr. p. 117. Polyb. Leg. exiv, et cxxii. Cicer. Philip. ix. n. 4, 5. Justin. 1. xxxiv. c. 3.

This Octavius had been consul some years before, and was the first of his family who had attained that honour. Cic. Philip. ix. n. 4. Octavius, who became emperor, so well known under the name of Augustus, was of the same family with this Octavius, but of another branch, into which the consular dignity had never entered.

It was suspected that Lysias, the regent of the kingdom, had secretly a hand in this assassination. Ambassadors were immediately sent to Rome, to justify the king, and to protest that he had no share in that action. The senate sent them back without giving them any answer, to signify, by that silence, their indig! nation for the murder committed the upon person of Octavius, of which they reserved the examination and punishment to themselves. In the mean time, to do honour to his memory, they erected a statue to him among those of the great men who had lost their lives in defence of their country.

Demetrius believed, that the disgust of the Romans against Eupater was a favourable conjuncture, of which it was proper for him to take the advantage, and addressed himself a second time to the senate, to obtain their permission to return into Syria. He took this step contrary to the opinion of the greatest part of his friends, who advised him to make his escape without saying any thing. The event soon showed him how much they were in the right. As the senate had always the same motives of interest for keeping him at Rome as at first, he received the same answer, and had the mortification of a second denial. He had then recourse to the first advice of his friends; and Polyb ius, the historian, who was at Rome, was one of those who pressed him, with the utmost warmth, to put it in immediate execution, with secrecy. He took his advice. After concerting all his measures, he left Rome under pretence of a hunting match, went to Ostia, and embarked with a small train in a Carthaginian vessel,