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he met Verres, the Roman prætor. Verres received him with every mark of friendship, and treated him in the highest stile of Roman splendour; but these professions of regard were to cover selfish and base designs. Antiochus had carried with him, to Rome, great profusion of riches, as well as costly jewels, and these excited the covetous desires of the Roman governor. Professing to admire their beauty and splendour, he got them into his possession by cunning, and detained them by force. The avaricious and blotted character of Verres appears from the glowing oration pronounced against him by Cicero, when he was accused by the Sicilians of venality and corruption.

But the countenance of the Roman people could not long protect Ptolemy Alexander in possession of his kingdom, for his crimes rendered him every day more hateful to his subjects, and at length

Cicer. in Verrem. lib. 4.

he fled from an insurrection which threatened his life. Pompey was at that time carrying on a war against Pontus, and to him he applied for succour. But the Roman general would not interfere with Egypt, as his commission from Rome had no reference to that country, and as his whole forces were necessary for opposing Mithridates. Upon this repulse, Ptolemy Alexander went to Tyre, and thence he made another application to the senate of Rome, but before an answer was returned, he paid the debt of nature.

Influenced by respect to the people of Rome, and prompted by hatred toward the Egyptians, he left his kingdom to the Roman senate. But while some of the persons in power were for accepting the gift, Cicero and other judicious observers strenuously resisted the proposal. They viewed it as a transaction which would engender evil, and must be fraught with imminent danger. Such then was the corrupt state of Rome, that every

new accession of dominion excited a general expectation of personal aggrandisement, and threatened the republic with the renewal of the Agrarian law. They had already received, by testament, Pergamus, Bithynia, Lybia, and Cyrene, and if persisting in that mode of acquiring property, they should add to the republic so valuable a kingdom as Egypt, they would create jealousies in the coun cils of independent nations, and be viewed as interfering with the natural suc cession of kings. By these and such like arguments, they waved their ac quired claim to the throne of Egypt, and only took possession of Alexander's personal effects."

b Cic. Orat. 17 & 18, contra Pullum.

CHAP. III.

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

B. C.

65.

N 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

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

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