great gainers in ransoming themselves from these inconveniences, by some diminution of their liberty. It is true, the provinces sometimes suffered very much from the avarice of governors; but those were only transient evils, which had no long effects, and to which the goodness and jus tice of a worthy successor applied a speedy redress, and which after all were not comparable to the disorders with which the wars of the Athenians, Thebans, and Lacedæmonians, against each other, were attended, and still less to the violences and ravages occasioned by the insatiable avarice and barbarous cru elty of the tyrants in many cities and states. An evident proof of the wisdom of the princes in leaving their dominions to the Romans after their death, is, that their peo ple never exclaimed against that disposition, nor proceeded to any revolt of their own accord, to prevent its taking effect. I do not pretend to excuse the Romans entirely in this place, nor to justify their conduct in all things. I have sufficiently ob served the views of interest and political motives of their actions. I only say, that the Roman government, especially with regard to those who submitted voluntarily to them, was gen tle, humane, equitable, advantageous to the people, and the source of their peace and tranquillity. There were indeed private oppressors, who made the Roman people authorize the most flagrant injustice, of which we shall soon see an example: but there was always a considerable number of citizens zealous for the public good, who rose up against those violences, and declared loudly for justice. This happened in the affair of Cyprus, which it is now time to relate. Clodius*, who commanded a small fleet near Cilicia, was defeated and taken prisoner by the pirates of that coast, against whom he had been sent. He caused Ptolemy king of Cyprus, brother of Ptolemy Auletes, to be desired in his name to send him money to pay his ransom. That prince, who was a kind of prodigy in point of avarice, sent him only two talents. The pirates chose rather to release Clodius without ransom than to take so small a one. His thoughts were bent upon being revenged on that king as soon as possible. He had found means to get himself elected tribune of the people; an important office, which gave him great power. Clodius made use of it for the destruction of his enemy. He pretended that prince had no right to the king. dom of Cyprus, which had been left to the Roman people by the * A. M. 3946. Ant. J. C. 58. Strab. 1. iv. p. 684. will of Alexander, who died at Tyre. It was determined, in consequence, that the kingdom of Egypt, and that of Cyprus, which depended on it, appertained to the Romans in virtue of that donation; and Clodius accordingly obtained an order of the people to seize the kingdom of Cyprus, to depose Ptolemy, and to confiscate all his effects. To put so unjust an order in execution, he had credit and address enough to have the justest of the Romans elected; I mean Cato, whom he *removed from the republic, under the pretext of an honourable commission, that he might not find him an obstacle to the violent and criminal designs he meditated. Cato was therefore sent into the isle of Cyprus, to deprive a prince of his kingdom, who well deserved that affront, says an historian, for his many irregularities; as if a man's vices sufficiently authorized seizing all his fortunes. Cato, upon his arrival at Rhodes, sent to bid Ptolemy retire peaceably, and promised him, if he complied, to procure him the high-priesthood of the temple of Venus at Paphos, the revenues of which were sufficiently considerable for his honourable subsistence. Ptolemy rejected that proposal. He was not however in a condition to defend himself against the power of the Romans; but could not resolve, after having worn a crown so long, to live as a private person. Determined therefore to end his life and reign together, he embarked with all his treasures, and put to sea. His design was to have holes bored in the bottom of his ship, that it might sink with him and all his riches. But when he came to the execution of his purpose, though he persisted constantly in the resolution of dying himself, he had not the courage to include his innocent and well beloved treasures in his ruin; and thereby showed that he loved them better than he did himself, by title, king of Cyprus, but in fact the mean slave of his money. He returned to shore, and replaced his gold in his magazines, after which he poisoned himself, and left the whole to his enemies. Cato carri ed those treasures the following year to Rome. The sum was so large, that in the greatest triumphs the like had scarce been laid up in the public treasury. Plutarch makes it amount to almost 7000 talents, (1,050,0007. sterling.) Cato caused all Ptolemy's precious effects and moveables to be sold publicly; reserving only to himself a picture of Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, the sentiments of which sect he followed. The Roman people here take off the mask, and show themselves, not such as they had been in the glorious ages of the re * Plut. in Cat. p. 776. public, full of contempt for riches, and esteem for poverty, but as they were become, after gold and silver had entered Rome in triumph with their victorious generals. Never was any thing more capable of disgracing and reproaching the Romans than this last action. "The Roman people," says Cicero, "instead of making it their honour, and almost their duty, as "formerly, to re-establish the kings their enemies, whom they "had conquered, upon their thrones, now see a king, their al"ly, or at least a constant friend to the republic, who had "never done them any wrong, of whom neither the senate nor "any of our generals had ever the least complaint, who en"joyed the dominions left him by his ancestors in tranquillity, "plundered on a sudden without any formality, and all his ef"fects sold by auction almost before his eyes, by order of the "same Roman people. This," continues Cicero, “shows other "kings upon what they are to rely for their security; from "this fatal example they learn, that amongst us there "needs only the secret intrigue of some seditious tribune, "for depriving them of their thrones, and plundering them at "the same 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 most shining virtue and justice of the pagans ?) should lend his name and service in so notorious an injustice. Cicero, who had reasons for sparing him, and dared not blame his conduct openly, shows, however, in the same discourse I have now cited, but in an artful and delicate manner, and by way of excusing him, how much he had dishonoured himself by that action. During Cato's stay at Rhodes, Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, and brother to him of Cyprus, came thither to him. I reserve for the following book the history of that prince, which merits a particular attention. THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER's SUCCESSORS CONTINUED. PLAN. The twentieth book is divided into three articles, which are all abridgments: the first, of the history of the Jews, from the reign of Aristobulus to that of Herod the Great ; the second, of the history of the Parthians, from the establishment of that empire to the defeat of Crassus; the third, of the history of the kings of Cappadocia to the annexing of that kingdom to the Roman empire. ARTICLE I. ABRIDGMENT OF THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS, FROM As the history of the Jews is often intermixed with that of the kings Syria and Egypt, I have taken care, as occasion offered, to relate of it what was most necessary and suitable to my subject. I shall add here what remains of that history to the reign of Herod the Great. The historian Josephus, who is in every one's hands, will satisfy the curiosity of such as are desirous of being more fully informed of it. Dean Prideaux, whom I have used here, may be also consulted to the same effect. SECTION I. REIGN OF ARISTOBULUS I. WHICH LASTED TWO YEARS. HYRCANUS, high priest and prince of the Jews*, had left five * A. M. 3898. Ant. J. C. 116. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 19, &c, Id. de Bel. Jud. 1. 3. Ff2 sons at his de... The first was Aristobulus, the second Antigonus, the third Vexander Jannæus; the fourth's name is unknown. The fifth was called Absalom. Aristobulus, as the eldest, succeeded his father in the highpriesthood and temporal sovereignty. As soon as he saw him. self well established, he assumed the diadem and title of king, which none of those who had governed Judæa from the Babylonish captivity, had done besides himself. The conjuncture seemed favourable for that design. The kings of Syria and Egypt who were alone capable of opposing it, were weak princes, involved in domestic troubles and civil wars, little secure upon the throne, and not maintaining themselves long in the possession of it. He knew the Romans were much inclined to authorize the dismembering and dividing the dominions of the Grecian kings, in order to weaken and keep them low in comparison to themselves. Besides, it was natural for Aristobulus to take the advantage of the victories and acquisitions made by his ancestors, who had given an assured and uninterrupted establishment of the Jewish nation, and enabled it to support the dignity of a king amongst its neighbours. Aristobulus' mother, in virtue of Hyrcanus' will, pretended to the government; but Aristobulus was the strongest, and put her in prison, where he caused 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 share in the government: but some small time after, upon a false accusation, put him to death. He confined the other three in prison during his life. When Aristobulus had fully possessed himself of the authority his father had enjoyed, * he entered into a war with the Ituræans, and after having subjected the greatest part of them, he obliged them to embrace Judaism, as Hyrcanus had the Idumæ ans some years before. He gave them the alterna. tive, either to be circumcised and profess the Jewish religion, or to quit their country, and seek a settlement else. where. They chose to stay and comply with what was required of them, and were incorporated with the Jews, both as to spirituals and temporals. This practice became a fundamental maxim with the Asmoneans. It shows that they had not a just idea of religion at that time, which does not impose itself by force, and which ought not to be received but voluntarily and by persuasion. Ituræa, inhabited by the people in question, was a part of Colosyria, on the north-east * A. M. 3898. Ant J. C. 106. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 19. Id, de Bel. Jud. 1. 3. |