and grandeur eclipsed by that measure, could not suf fer it. To render herself again absolute mistress of the government of Syria, she resolved to rid herself of Grypus, as she had already done of his brother Seleucus, and to give the crown to another of her sons by Antiochus Sidetes, under whom, being an infant, she was in hopes of possessing the royal authority for many years, and of taking such measures as might establish her in it during her life. This wicked woman prepared a poisoned draught for that purpose, which she presented to Grypus one day as he returned very hot from some exercise. But that prince having been apprised of her design, desired her first, by way of respect, to drink the cup herself, and upon her obstinate refusal to do it, having called in some witnesses, he gave her to understand, that the only means she had to clear herself of the suspicions conceived against her, waş to drink the liquor she had presented to him. That unhappy woman, who found herself without evasion or resource, swallowed the draught. The poison took effect immediately, and delivered Syria from a monster, who, by her unheard-of crimes, had been so long the scourge of the state. She had been the wife of three kings of Syria, and the mother of four. She had occasioned the death of two of her husbands, and as to her children, she had murdered one with her own hands, and would haye destroyed Grypus by the poison which he made her drink herself. That prince afterwards applied himself with success to the affairs of the public, and reigned several years in peace and tranquillity, till his brother Antiochus of Cyzicum occasioned the troubles we shall relate hereafter.

*The three kings of Syria, who had been her husbands, were Alexander Bala, Demetrius Nicator, and Antiochus Sidetes. Her four sons were Antiochus, by Alexander Bala; Seleucus and Antiochus Grypus, by Demetrius; and Antiochus the Cyzi cenian, by Antiochus Sidetes.

t.

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

SECT. VI. Ptolemy Lathyrus succeeds Physcon. War between Grypus and his brother Antiochus of Cyzicum, for the kingdom of Syria. Hyrcanus fortifies himself in Judæa. His death. Aristobulus succeeds him, and assumes the title of king. He is succeeded by Alexander Jannæus. Cleopatra drives Lathyrus out of Egypt, and places Alexander his youngest brother on the throne in his stead. War between that princess and her sons. Death of Grypus. Ptolemy Apion leaves the kingdom of Cyrenaica to the Romans. Continuation of the wars in Syria and Egypt. The Syrians choose Tigranes king Lathyrus is re-established upon the throne of Egypt. He dies. Alexander his nephew succeeds him. Nicomedes king of Bithynia, makes the Roman people his heirs.

a

The first

A. M.

Ant. J. C.

PHYSCON at his death left three sons. named Apion, was a natural son, whom he had by 3887. 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 ever of his two sons she should think fit to choose. Cleo

m

Porphyr. in Græc. Euseb. Scal. Hieron. in Dan, ix.

a Justin. 1. xxxix. c. 4, 5. Appian. in Mithrid, sub finem & in Syr. p. 132. Strab. 1. xvii. p. 795. Plin. l. i. c. 67. & 1. vi. c. 30. Porphyr. in Græc. Euseb. Scalig. Joseph. Autiq. 1. xiii. c. 18. Diod. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 385.

117.

A. M.

patra believing that Alexander would be the most complaisant, resolved to choose him; but the people would not suffer the eldest to lose his birth-right, and obliged the queen to recal him from Cyprus, whither she had caused him to be banished by his father, and to associate him with her on the throne. Before she would suffer him to take possession of the crown, she obliged him to repudiate his eldest sister Cleopatra, whom he passionately loved, and to take Selene, his youngest sister, for whom he had no inclination. Dispositions of this kind promise no very pacific reign.

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 was but a kind of nick-name, nobody dared to give it him in his own time.

Antiochus Grypus, king of Syria, was making 3890. preparations for invading Judea, when a civil war Ant. J. C. broke out to employ him, which was fomented by

114.

Antiochus of Cyzicum, his brother by the mother's side. He was the son of Antiochus Sidetes, and born whilst Demetrius was prisoner amongst the Parthians. When Demetrius returned, and repossessed himself of his dominions after the death of Antiochus Sidetes, his mother, out of regard to his safety, had sent him to Cyzicum, a city situate upon the Propontis, in Mysia 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, wished to have him poisoned. His design was discovered, and the Cyzicenian was compelled to take up arms in his own defence, and to endeavour to make good his pretensions to the crown of Syria.

Adlugos signifies a kind of pea, called in Latin cicer, from which came the surname of Cicero. Lathyrus must have had some very visible mark of this sort upon his face, or the name

had been inconsistent.

army for

3891. Aut. J.C. 113.

Cleopatra, whom Lathyrus had been obliged to A. M. repudiate, finding herself at her own disposal, married the Cyzicenian. She brought him an* her dowry, to assist 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 in that place, where he fancied she would be secure, and went himself to raise new troops for the re-inforcement of his army.

But Grypus immediately laid siege to the city, and took it. Tryphena, his wife, was very earnest with him to put Cleopatra his prisoner into her hands. Though her sister by father and mother, she was so excessively enraged at her for having married their enemy, and giving him an army against them, that she resolved to deprive her of life. Cleopatra had taken refuge in one of the temples of Antioch, a sanctuary, which was held inviolable; Grypus would not shew a complaisance for his wife, which he saw would be attended with fatal effects from the violence of her rage. He alledged to her the sanctity of the asylum where her sister 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 ancestors had been engaged, it had never been known, that after victory, any cruelty had been exercised against the women, especially against so near a relation. That Cleopatra was her sister, and his near † relation. That therefore he desired her to speak no more of her to him, because he could by no means consent

We find in the latter editions of Justin the following words: exercitum Grypi sollicitatum, velut dotalem, ad maritum deducit; which shows, that Cleopatra, having succeeded in corrupting part of Grypus's army, carried it to her husband. Several edi tions read Cypri instead of Grypi, which would imply, that Cleopatra had an army in Cyprus.

Her father Physcon was the uncle of Cleopatra, Grypus's mother.

A. M.

to her being treated with any severities. Tryphena, far from acquiescing in his reasons, became more violent through sentiments of jealousy; imagining, that it was not through compassion, but love, that her husband thus took the part of that unfortunate princess. She therefore sent soldiers into the temple, who could not tear her in any other manner from the altar, than by cutting off her hands with which she embraced it. Cleopatra expired, uttering a thousand curses against the parricides who were the authors of her death, and imploring the god, in whose sight so barbarous a cruelty was committed, to avenge her upon them.

However, the other Cleopatra, the common mother of the two sisters, did not seem to be affected at all, with either the fate of the one or the crime of the other. Her heart, which was solely susceptible of ambition, was so taken up with the desire of reigning, that she had no other thoughts than of the means of supporting herself in Egypt, and of retaining an absolute authority in her own hands during her life. To strengthen herself the better, she gave the kingdom of Cyprus to Alexander her youngest son, in order to draw from him the assistance for which she might have occasion, in case Lathyrus should ever dispute the authority she was determined to keep.

The death of Cleopatra in Syria did not long re3892. main unpunished. The Cyzicenian returned at the Ant. J C. head of a new army to give his brother battle a second time, defeated him, and took Tryphena, upon whom he inflicted the torments which her cruelty to her sister had well deserved.

112.

A. M.

3893. Ant. J.C. 111.

Grypus was obliged to abandon Syria to the victor. He retired to Aspendus in Pamphylia, which occasioned his being sometimes called in history the Aspendian, but returned a year after into Švria, and re-possessed himself of it. The two brothers at

* Sed quanto Grypus abnuit, tanto soror muliebri pertinació accenditur, rata non miscricordiæ hoc verba, sci amoris esse. JUSTIN.