kings, would always regard the throne as vacant, whilst filled only by a princess; and that they would not fail to offer it to any prince that should set up for it. She therefore caused her other fon, Antiochus, to return from Athens, whither she had sent him for his education, and ordered him to be declared king as foon as he arrived. But that was no more than an empty title. She gave him no share in the affairs of government; and as that prince was very young, being no more than twenty years of age, he fuffered her to govern for fome time with patience enough. To diftinguish him from the other princes of the name of Antiochus, he was generally called by the furname of * Grypus, taken from his great nofe. Jofephus calls him Philometor; but that prince in his medals took the title of Epiphanes.

(p) Zebina having well established himself after the death of Demetrius Nicator, in the poffeffion of part of the Syrian empire, Phyfcon, who looked upon him as his creature, infifted upon his doing him homage for it. Zebina refused, in direct terms, to comply with that demand. Phyfcon refolved to throw him down, as he had fet him up; and having accommodated all differences with his niece Cleopatra, he fent a confiderable army to the affiftance of Grypus, and gave him his daughter Tryphena in marriage. Grypus, by the means of this aid, defeated Zebina, and obliged him to retire to Antioch. The latter formed a defign of plundering the temple of Jupiter, to defray the expences of the war. Upon its being difcovered, the inhabitants rofe, and drove him out of the city. He wandered fome time about the country, from place to place, but was taken at last, and put to death.

(4) After the defeat and death of Zebina, Antiochus Grypus, believing himself of fufficient years, refolved to take the government upon himself. The ambitious Cleopatra, who faw her power diminished, and grandeur eclipfed by that means, could not fuffer it. To render herfelf

(p) A. M. 3882. Ant. J. C. 22. (9) A. M. 3884. Ant. J. C. 120. Iguals, in Greek fignifies a man with an aqualine nofe.

felf abfolute mistress of the government of Syria again, fhe refolved to rid herself of Grypus, as the had already done of his brother Seleucus, and to give the crown to another of her fons by Antiochus Sidetes, under whom, being an infant, fhe was in hopes of poffeffing the royal authority for many years, and of taking fuch measures as might eftablith her in it during her life. This wicked woman prepared a poifoned draught for that purpofe, which the prefented to Grypus one day as he returned very hot from fome exercife. But that prince having been apprised of her defign, defired her first, by way of respect, to drink the cup herfelf; and upon her obstinate refufal to do it, having called in fome witneffes, he her to understand, that the only means he had to gave clear herself of the fufpicion conceived of her, was to drink the liquor fhe had prefented to him. That unhappy woman, who found herfelf without evafion or refource, fwallowed the draught. The poifon had its effect immediately, and delivered Syria from a monster, who, by her unheard-of crimes, had been fo long the fcourge of the ftate. She had been the wife of three* kings of Syria, and the mother of four. She had occa-fioned the death of two of her husbands; and as to her children, she had murdered one with her own hands, and would have deftroyed Grypus by the poifon he made her drink herself. That prince afterwards applied himfelf with success to the affairs of the public, and reigned feveral years in peace and tranquillity, till his brother Antiochus of Cyzicum occafioned the troubles we fhall relate hereafter.

Ptolemy Phyfcon, king of Egypt (r), after having reigned twenty-nine years from the death of his brother Philometor, died at laft in Alexandria. No reign was ever more tyrannical, nor abounded with more crimes, than his..

(r) A. M. 3887. Ant. J. C. 117. Porphyr. in Græc. Eufeb. Scal. Hicron. in Dan. ix.

*The three kings of Syria, who had been her husbands, were Alexander Bala, Demetrius Nicator, and Antiochus Sidetes. Her four ons were, Antiochus, by Alexander Bala; Scieucus and Antiochus Gry us, by Demetrius; and Antiochus the Cyzicenian, by Antiochus Sidetes.

SECT. VI. PTOLEMY LATHYRUS fucceeds PHYSCON. War between GRYPUS and his brother ANTIOCHUS of Cyzicum, for the kingdom of Syria. HYRCANUS fortifies himself in fudea. His death. ARISTOBULUS fucceeds him, and affumes the title of king. He is fucceeded by ALEXANDER JANNEUS. CLEOPATRA drives LATHYRUS out of Egypt, and places ALEXANDER, his youngeft brother, on the throne in his ftead. War between' that princess and her fons. Death of GRYPUS. PTCLEMY APION leaves the kingdom of Cyrenaica to the Romans. Continuation of the wars in Syria and Egypt. The Syrians choofe TYGRANES king. LATHYRUS is re-eftcblifhed upon the throne of Egypt. He dies. ALEXANDER, his nephew, fucceeds him. NICOMEDES, king of Bithynia, makes the Roman people his heirs.

PHY

HYSCON (s), at his death, left three fons. The firft, named-Apion, was a natural fon, whom he had by a concubine. The two others were legitimate, and the children of his niece Cleopatra, whom he married, after having repudiated her mother. The eldest was called Lathyrus, and the other Alexander.

He left the kingdom of Cyrenaica by will to Apion, and Egypt to his widow Cleopatra, and to which of his two fons fhe fhould think fit to choofe. Cleopatra, beHieving that Alexander would be the most complaifant, refolved to choofe; but the people would not fuffer the eldeft to lose his right of birth, and obliged the queen to recal him from Cyprus, whither fhe had caufed him to be banished by his father, and to affociate him with her on the throne. Before she would fuffer him to take poffeffion ot the crown, fhe obliged him to repudiate his eldest fifter Cleopatra, whom he paffionately loved, and to take Selena, his youngest fifter, for whom he had no inclination.

(s) A. M. 3587. Ant. J. C. 117. Juftin. 1. xxxix. c. 4, 5. Appian.in Mithrid. fub finem et in Syr. p. 132. Strab. 1. xvii. p. 795. Plin. l. ii. e. 67. et 1. vi. c. 30. Porphy. in Græc. Eute b. Scalig. Jofeph. Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 18. Diod. in Excerpt. Valef. p. 385.

inclination. Difpofitions of this kind promise no very pacific reign.

(t) At his coronation, he took the title of Soter. Some authors give him that of Philometor; but the generality. of historians distinguish him by the name of * Lathyrus. However, as that is but a kind of nick-name, nobody, dared to give it him in his own time.

Antiochus Grypus, king of Syria, was making prepa-rations for invading Judea, when a civil war broke out to employ him, fomented by Antiochus of Cyzicum, his brother by the mother's fide. He was the fon of Antiochus Sidetes, and born whilst Demetrius was prifoner amongst the Parthians. When Demetrius returned, and repoffeffed himself of his dominions after the death of Antiochus Sidetes, his mother, out of regard to his fafety, had fent him to Cyzicum, a city fituate upon the Propontis, in Myfia Minor, where he was educated by the care of a faithful eunuch, named Craterus, to whom she had entrusted him. From thence he was called the Cyzicenian. Grypus, to whom he gave umbrage, was for having him poifoned. His defign was discovered, and · the Cyzicenian was reduced to take up arms in his own defence, and to endeavour to make good his pretenfions to the crown of Syria..

(u) Cleopatra, whom Lathyrus had been obliged to repudiate, finding herself at her own disposal, married the Cyzicenian. She brought him an + army for her dowry, to affift him against his competitor. Their forces by that means being very near equal, the two brothers came to a battle, in which the Cyzicenian having the misfortune to be defeated, retired to Antioch. He left his wife for L 6 her

(t) A. M. 3839. Ant. J. C. 114. (u) A. M. 3891. Ant. J. C. 113, Labugos fignifies a kind of pea, called in Latin cicer, from which came the furname of Cicero. Lathyrus must have had some wery vifibie mark of this fort upon his face, or the name had been inconfiftent.

We find in the latter editions of Juftin the following words; exercitum Grypi folicitatum, velut dotalem, ad maritum deducit; whichfhows, that Cleopatra having fucceeded in corrupting part of Grypus's army, carried it to her husband. Several editions read Cypri, inftead of Grypi; which implies, that Cleopatra had an army in Cyprus.

her fecurity in that place, and went himself to raise new troops for the reinforcement of his army.

But Grypus immediately laid fiege to the city, and took it. Tryphena, his wife, was very earnest with him to put Cleopatra, his prifoner, into her hands. Though her fifter by father and mother, fhe was fo exceffively enraged at her for having married their enemy, and given him an army against them, that the refolved to deprive her of life. Cleopatra had taken refuge in a fanctuary, which was held inviolable; Grypus would not have a complaifance for his wife, which he faw would be attended with fatal effects from the violence of her rage. He alleged to her the fanctity of the afylum where her fifter had taken refuge; and represented, that her death would neither be of use to them, nor of prejudice to the Cyzicenian: That in all the civil or foreign wars, wherein his ancefters had been engaged, it had never been known, after victory, that any cruelty had been exercifed against the women, efpecially fo near relations : That Cleopatra was her fifter, and his near * relation : That therefore he defired her to fpeak no more of her to him, because he could by no means confent to her being treated with any feverities. Tryphena, far from giving into his reafons, became more violent, by conceiving jealoufy; and imagining, that it was not from the motive of compaffion, but love, that her husband took the part. of that unfortunate princess in such a manner, the therefore fent foldiers into the temple, who could not tear her in any other manner from the altar, than by cutting off her hands, with which the embraced it. Cleopatra ex-pired, uttering a thousand curfes againft the parricides who were the authors of her death, and imploring the god in whofe fight fo barbarous a cruelty was committed to avenge her. upon them.

However, the other Cleopatra, the common mother of the two fifters, did not seem to be affected at all, with either

Her father Phyfcon was the uncle of Cleopatra, Grypus's mother. Sed quanto Grypus abnnit tanto furor muliebri pertinacia accenditur, rata non mifericordiæ hæc verba, fed amoris effe. Juftin.