vices fufficiently authorised the feizing of all his for

tunes.

Cato (u), upon his arrival at Rhodes, fent to bid Ptolemy retire peaceably; and promifed him, if he complied, to procure him the high-priesthood of the temple of Venus at Paphos, the revenues of which were fufficiently confiderable for his honourable subfiftence. Ptolemy rejected that propofal. He was not however in a condition to defend himself against the power of the Romans; but could not refolve, after having worn a crown so long, to live as a private perfon. Determined therefore to end his life and reign together, he imbarked with all his treasures, and put to fea. His defign was to have holes bored in the bottom of his fhip, that it might fink with him. and all his riches. But when he came to the execution of his purpofe, though he perfifted conftantly in the refolution of dying himself, he had not the courage to include his innocent and well-beloved treasures in his ruin and thereby fhewed, that he loved them better than he did himself; by title, King of Cyprus, but in fact the mean flave of his money He returned to shore, and replaced his gold in his magazines; after which he poifoned himself, and left the whole to his enemies. Cato carried those treasures the following year to Rome. The fum was fo large, that in the greatest triumphs the like had fcarce been laid up in the public treafury. Plutarch makes it amount to almoft seven thousand talents, (one million and fifty thousand pounds fterling.) Cato caufed all Ptolemy's precious effects and moveables to be fold publicly, referving only to himself a picture of Zeno, the founder of the Stoicks, the fentiments of which fect be followed.

The Roman people here take off the mafk, and fhew themselves not fuch as they had been in the glorious

(u) Plut. in Cato. p. 776.

Proculdubio hie non poffedit divitias, fed a divitiis poffeflus eft; titulo rex infula, animo pecuniæ miferabile mancipium.

rious ages of the republic, full of contempt for riches and esteem for poverty, but as they were become after gold and filver had entered Rome in triumph with their victorious generals. Never was any thing more capable of difgracing and reproaching the Romans than this laft action. "The Roman people," fays Cicero, "inftead of making it their honour and "almost a duty, as formerly, to re-establish the kings "their enemies, whom they had conquered, upon "their thrones, now fee a king, their ally, or at least 66 a conftant friend to the republic, who had never "done them any wrong, of whom neither the fe"nate nor any of our generals had ever the least "complaint, who enjoyed the dominions left him. "by his ancestors in tranquillity, plundered on a sud"den without any formality, and all his effects fold

by auction almost before his eyes, by order of the "fame Roman people. This," continues Cicero, "fhews other kings, upon what they are to rely for "their fecurity; from this fatal example they learn, "that amongst us there needs only the fecret in"trigue of fome feditious tribune, for depriving them "of their thrones, and plundering them at the fame "time of all their fortunes *."

What I am most amazed at is, that Cato, the justest and most upright man of those times, (but what was the moft fhining virtue and juftice of the Pagans!) fhould lend his name and fervices in fo noVOL. IX. torious

B b

Ptolemæus, rex, fi nondum focius at non hoftis, pacatus, qu'etus, fretus imperio populi Rom. regno paterno atque avito regali tio perfruebatur. De hoc nihil cogitante, nihil fufpicante, eft rog. tum, ut fedens cum purpura et fceptro et illis infignibus regiis, praconi publico fubjiceretur, et imperante populo Rom. qui etiam victis bello regibus regna reddere confuevit, rex amicus, nulla injuria commemorata, nullis repetitis rebus, cum bonis omnibus publicareturCyprius mifer, qui femper focius, femper amicus, fuit; de quo nulla unquam fufpicio durior aut ad fenatum, aut ad imperatores noftres allata eft vivus (ut aiunt) eft et videns, cum victu et veftitu fuo, publicatus. En cur cæteri reges ftabilem effe fuam fortunam arbitrentur, cum hoc illius funefti anni perdito exemplo videant, per tribunum aliquem fe fortunis fpoliari (pofle) et regno omni nudari. Cic. orat. pro. Sexto. n. 57.

torious an injuftice. Cicero, who had reafons for fparing him, and dared not blame his conduct openly, fhews however, in the fame difcourfe I have now cited, but in an artful and delicate manner, and by way of excufing him, how much he had difhonoured himself by that action.

During Cato's ftay at Rhodes, Ptolemy Auletes, King of Egypt, and brother to him of Cyprus, came thither to him. I referve for the following book the hiftory of that prince, which merits a par ticular attention.

BOOK

BOOK THE TWENTIETH.

T

HE twentieth book is divided into three articles, which are all abridgements: the first

of the hiftory of the Jews, from the reign of Ariftobulus to that of Herod the great; the fecond, of the hiftory of the Parthians, from the eftablishment of that empire to the defeat of Craffus ; the third, of the hiftory of the kings of Cappadocia, to the annexing of that kingdom to the Roman empire.

I.

ARTICLE. Abrigement of the history of the Jews, from Ariftobulus, fon of Hyrcanus, who first, affumed the rank of king, to the reign of Herod the great, the Idu

maan.

A

S the hiftory of the Jews is often intermixed with that of the kings of Syria and Egypt, I having taken care, as occafion offered, to relate of it what was moft neceffary and fuitable to my fubject. I fhall add here what remains of that hiftory to the reign of Herod the great. The hiftorian Jofephus, who is in every man's hands, will fatisfy the curiofity of fuch as are defirous of being more fully informed in it. Dean Prideaux, whom I have used here, may be alfo confulted to the fame effect.

SECT. I. Reign of Ariftobulus I. which lafted two

years.

H YRCANUS, high-prie ft and prince of the Jews (x),

had left five fons at his death. The first was Ariltobulus, the fecond Antigonus, the third AlexBb 2

ander

(x) A. M. 3898. Ant. J. C. 106. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 19. &c. de bell. Jud. 1. 3.

ander Jannæus; the fourth's name is unknown; the fifth was called Abfalom.

Ariftobulus, as the eldeft, fucceeded his father in the high-priesthood and temporal fovereignty. As foon as he faw himself well established, he affumed the diadem and title of King, which none of thofe who had governed Judæa from the Babylonish captivity had done befides himself. The conjuncture feemed favourable for that defign. The kings of Syria and Egypt, who were alone capable of oppofing it, were weak princes, involved in domeftic troubles and civil wars, little fecure upon the throne, and not maintaining themselves long in the poffeffion of it, He knew the Romans were much inclined to autho rife the difinembering and dividing the dominions of the Grecian kings, in order to weaken and keep them low in comparison with themfelves. Befides, it was natural for Aristobulus to take the advantage of the victories and acquifitions made by his ancestors, who had given an affured and uninterrupted establishment to the Jewish nation, and enabled it to fupport the dignity of a king amongst its neighbours.

Ariftobulus's mother, in virtue of Hyrcanus's will, pretended to the government; but Ariftobulus was the ftrongeft, and put her in prifon, where he caufed her to be starved to death. For his brothers, as he very much loved Antigonus the eldest of them, he gave him at first a fhare in the government; but fome fmall time after, upon a falfe accufation, put him tọ death. He confined the other three in prifon during his life.

When Ariftobulus had fully poffeffed himself of the authority his father had enjoyed (y), he entered into a war with the Ituræans; and after having fubjected the greatest part of them, he obliged them to embrace Judaifm, as Hyrcanus had the Idumæans fome years before. He gave them the alternative, either to

be

(y) A. M. 3898. Ant. J. C. 106. Jofeph. Antiq. xiii. 19. Id. de bull. Jud. 1. 3.