CHAP. III.

Ptolemy Auletes at Rome, and acknowledged king of Egypt.... Unpopular in his government.... Clodius attempts to violate Casar's wife.... Auletes is driven from Egypt, and afterwards restored.... The battle of Pharsalia.... Pompey's death, and Cæsar's transactions in Egypt.... Cæsar returns to Rome, and is put to death.

B. C.

65.

IN

IN the meantime an illegitimate son of Ptolemy Lathyrus was invited to be king of Egypt, and he is distinguished by the surname of Auletes, because he played skilfully upon the flute. It was now an object for the kings of Egypt to have the approbation and support of the Roman people; but the sanction of that republic was peculiarly requisite for Auletes, because his claim to the throne of Egypt was not ascertained by legitimate birth. Julius

Cæsar was now in high possession of power at Rome, and being extravagant, as well as ambitious, he was in want of money, and deep in debt. By the influence of bribes, Ptolemy Auletes found access to Cæsar, and, with the concurrence of Pompey, he was declared to be the friend and ally of the Roman people.

The money which he paid, and promised, as the price of Roman friendship, was the cause of heavy contributions on the people of Egypt; and these burthensome exactions, together with the profligacy of his character, roused the hatred of his subjects. As he refused to assert the right of Egypt to the island of Cyprus, and durst not remonstrate on that subject to the Roman people, the Egyptians surrounded his palace, and would have put him to death if he had not secretly made his escape. In his flight to Rome, he embarked for the

Dio. Cass. lib. xxxviii, p. 196.

island of Rhodes, and there he met the celebrated Cato. That venerable man had long struggled against the corruptions of his country, and he dissuaded Auletes from going to Rome.

He hinted at the neglect which a king in adversity might be compelled to endure; he assured him that the whole. riches of Egypt would not be sufficient for the avaricious demands of the republican leaders; and he earnestly advised him to return home. It would be easier, he maintained, and more honourable, to redress the grievances of his country, and thereby endeavour to regain the affections of his people, than to sue with submission and uncertainty at the court of Rome. The valuable sums which had already been demanded, to procure him the acknowledgment of the senate, were sufficient to shew what might be expected, if they granted him aid to recover his kingdom."

d Liv. brev. 104.

The presence of Cato in Rhodes was a strong proof of the violence and injustice of Rome. He was destined to Cyprus by the appointment of the senate to depose the king of that island, who was the brother of Ptolemy Auletes himself. Their claim to that possession was founded upon the will of the late king of Egypt, which they had renounced in all its parts, except, as we have seen, the personal effects of that prince. But, if followed up to its ut most extent, it included the kingdom of Egypt also, and involved, of course, the interests of him who wished for the aid of the Roman people.

But the renewed pretensions toward Cyprus were occasioned by the conduct of Pub. Clodius. He was a young nobleman of dissolute manners, who renounced the claims of his birth, and was adopted into the family of a plebeian, that he might pursue the measures of his licentious ambition. He was chosen tribune of the people, and, from that

situation of power, he resolved to hurl vengeance upon the king of Cyprus. Clodius, in one of his inconsiderate rambles, was taken by pirates, and he sent to Cyprus for money to purchase his liberty, but the king of that island advanced him only a trifling sum, and from that moment Clodius was his foe. His resolution was to deprive the king of his government, and strip him of every thing valuable. Cato refused to undertake so unjust and cruel a task, but Clodius forced him to comply. He had two purposes to serve by compelling Cato to go in the character of prætor to Cyprus. He hoped thereby to have a colour of equity given to the unwarrantable transaction of seizing that island, for Cato was deemed the most upright man at Rome, and, in his absence too, Clodius expected to meet with less resistance in pursuing his wicked designs against Cicero.

But his own folly and wickedness were the true sources of the evils which