Chap. II. of the E a s 
univcrfal AffeCtion of his Subjects. His Sifter Arfinoe , 
whom he married, tho 5 older than himfelf, was extremely 
dear to him, infomuch that her Death grieved him to fuch 
a Degree, as to occafion his own. It may not be amifs to 
obferve, that, among the learned Men he had about him, 
there was one Dinocrates , a famous Architect, who, to 
make his Court to the King, propofed the building a 
Temple to Arfinoe , the Dome of which was to be compofed 
of polifhed Loadftones •, by which it was projected, that the 
Image of Arfione, made of burnifh’d Steel, fhould befuftained; 
and from hence all the Notions of this Sort, that have been 
publilhed to the World, are derived. But tho’ this Temple 
was begun under the Direction of Dinocrates , yet it was 
never completed ; for both the King and the Architect 
died, before it was raffed to any confiderable Height a . 
This Monarch left behind him many fhining Marks of 
his Wifdom and Policy, and amongft thefe feveral new 
Cities, but exa&ly on Alexander's Plan •, that is to fay, not 
from the Vanity of being a Founder, but becaufe he dif- 
cerned the Ufefulnefs of fuch Cities, in the Places where he 
built them : As, for Inftance, having confidered the Situa- 
tion of Palefiine , and how much the Trade of that Country 
might be improved, by the ConftruCtion of a proper Port 
upon its Coaft, he directed a commodious Situation to be 
fought out-, and in the Country of Ace, at no great Diftance 
from Pyre, he built a new City, adorned with a fine Ha- 
ven, which, after his own Name, he called Ptolemais ; 
which remained, for many Ages after, the moil famous 
Port on that Coaft. He likewife built, or rather rebuilt, a 
City on the Eaft Side of the Country of Palefiine ; which 
City is often mentioned in the Sacred Writings, by the 
Name of Rabah of the Children of Ammon ; but he 
called it, from his Surname, Philadelphia. I have men- 
tioned thefe Inftances, becaufe they have fome relation to 
my Subject ; and there is very great Reafon to believe, that 
they were founded with alView to the Indian Commerce b . 
This may, at firft Sight, feem very extraordinary ; but 
I flatter myfelf, that when I have explained the Reafons 
that have led me to this Notion, the Reader will not judge 
them improbable. In the firft Place, let it be remembered, 
that the Whole of this Commerce had been carried on, till 
i the Deftruction of Pyre by Alexander the Great, from the 
Port of Rhino cor ura, which lay on the fame Coaft, to the 
South-weft of Ptolemais. After the Ruin of Pyre, this 
T rade was revived by Land and Caravans pafs’d directly 
1 From the Perjian Gulph, to the City _ of P admor, or Pa- 
lymna in the Defert, of which we fhall fpeak hereafter. 
3 Now the Journey would have been Ihorter and eafier, by 
much, from the Arabian Gulph to Philadelphia ; to which 
. Ptolemais would have ferved for a convenient Port, the 
' whole Length of the Land-carriage, from the Arabian 
Gulph to Philadelphia , not exceeding fix hundred Stadia ; 
and the Diftance between Philadelphia and Ptolemais , not 
being half fo much ; whereas, from the neareft Part of the 
1 Perfian Gulph, it was thirteen hundred Stadia to Palmyra , 
s and fix hundred more from Palmyra, to the Sea-coaft. We 
might be, in a manner, clear as to this Point, if we could 
be certain, that Ptolemy really rebuilt the antient Port of 
f Efion-geber , on the Red Sea, and called it Berenice, from 
the Name of his Mother, as fome Writers fay he did c : 
But, I muft confefs, they feem to be miftaken, and to 
mean the Berenice before defcribed, on the other Side of 
the Gulph ; and therefore I lay no Strefs upon this Ar- 
f gument. 
It remains that we fay fomething, as was before pro- 
' mifed, of the Grandeur and Wealth of this Monarch, 
whofe Civil and Military Eftabliftiment$ have been preferved 
to us, for the very fame Reafon that I infert them here, 
becaufe they appeared worthy of being tranfmitted to 
• Pofterity, and of being remembered for ever. He main- 
; tamed conftantly an Army of three hundred thoufand 
Foot, twenty thoufand Horfe, two thoufand armed Cha- 
f dots, and three hundred Elephants, befides Arms in his 
Magazines, for three hundred thoufand more. His Fleets, 
taken together, confifted of fifteen hundred Ships of War, 
1 an d a thoufand Tranfports belonging to them. His annual 
f Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 521. Jofepb. de Bello Jud. lib. iii. c. 4. 
1 nieh xi. Athenceus , lib. v. p. 203 . 4 Hieronymus in Daniel, xi. 
IX. XV . 
. 1 . :: I 
t Indies. 41^9 
Revenues were fourteen thoufand eight hundred Ta- 
lents ; which makes, according to tke loweft Computation 
of Egyptian Talents, two million eight hundred and three 
thoufand fix hundred Pounds : And he is laid to have left 
in his JTreafury feven hundred and forty thoufand Talents, 
which amounts to a prodigious Sum, not lefs than one 
hundred and ninety Millions of our Money, which muft 
have accrued to him from the Trade of the Indies ; a great 
Part of which might probably be carried on, at leaft du- 
ring his Reign, for the Advantage of the Crown ; fince, 
befides the before-mentioned Revenue in Money, he re- 
ceived a great Quantity of Com, and other Commodities, 
from his Subjects, in order to make their Taxes the more 
eafy. He died in the fixty-third Year of his Age, and 
in the thirty-eighth ol his Reign, in the Year before Chrift 
247. 
12. Fie was fucceeded in his Throne, by his Son Pto- 
lemy Euergetes , who found himfelf immediately engaged in 
a War with Syria , where his Sifter, and her Son, had 
been bafely murdered : In this War he was fo fuccefsful, 
that he led his Army to the Banks of the River Pygris \ 
plundered all the Treafures of the Syrian Kings ; and re- 
covered, amongft other valuable Effects, that had been car- 
ried out o! Egypt by Cambyfes, when he made theConqueft 
ol that Country, Abundance of Egyptian Idols, which he 
brought back, and reftored to their Temples ; and this being 
an ACt extremely agreeable to his Subjects, they gave him, 
upon this Occafion, the Surname of Euergetes, which figni- 
fies the Benefalior d . 
We have already obferved, that he efpoufed Berenice , 
.the Daughter of Magas, King of Cyrene, a very beautiful 
Woman, who made a Vow, that fhe would confecrate her 
Hair, in cafe he returned victorious from that Expedition : 
And therefore, on his coming back again with Safety, and 
full Succefs, for the fulfilling of her Vow, fhe cut off her 
Hair, and offered it up in the Temple which Ptolemy Phi 
ladelphus haft built to his beloved Wife Arfinoe, on the 
Promontory of Zephyrium, in Cyprus, by the Name of 
the Zephyrian Venus. But there, a little after, the confe- 
crated Hair being loft, or, perchance, contemptuoufly 
flung away by the Priefts, and Ptolemy being much offend- 
ed at it, Canon of Samus, a flattering Mathematician, then 
at Alexandria , to falve up the Matter, and alfo to in°ra*' 
date himfelf with the King, gave out, that this Hair was 
catched up into Heaven; and he there (hewed feven Stars, 
near the Tail of the Lion, not, till then, taken within any 
Conftellation, which, he faid, was the Queen’s confecrated 
El air ; which Conceit of his other flattering Aftronomers 
following, with the fame View, or, perhaps, net daring 
to fay other wife, hence Coma Berenices, i. e. fhe Hair of 
Berenice , became one of the Conftellations ; and is fo to this 
Day e . 
This feems to have been the only War, at leaft, of any 
great Confequence, undertaken by this Monarch, except 
the Expeditions made by his Order, into Arabia ; the 
greateft Part of which, I mean on the Coaft oppofite to 
that of Egypt, along the Red Sea , he reduced under his 
Dominion *, as he likewife did the remaining Part of the 
Ethiopian Coaft : So that he was Mafter of both Sides of 
the Shore, to the very Extremity of the Arabian Gulph, 
over-againft the Southern, or Indian Ocean. It is unlucky 
for us, that we have no diftinCt Account of this Conqueft, 
or of the War which occafloned it; fo that we can "only 
conjecture concerning it, that as the Inhabitants of that 
Court were always infamous for Piracies; and as the Indian 
Trade, now fettled through the Arabian Gulph, made it of 
vaft Importance to the Egyptian Princes, to have thefe 
Plunderers effectually removed, it was thought this could 
only be done by ereCting Cities, and reducing the Inhabit- 
ants to a civilized Life. This is the more probable, be- 
caufe Eratofihenes , who was his Library-keeper, and in 
high Favour with him, wrote an excellent Book, in rela- 
tion to the Indies, which is often mentioned by Strabo , but 
is long fince perifhed f . 
Ptolemy Euergetes caufed likewife feveral Cities to be 
built, on the Egyptian Side of the Gulph, in order to make 
’ J°f e pb. lib. viii. c. 2.^ c Theocrit . in Idyllio xvii. Hieron. in Da- 
e Hyginus Poetka Aftronomicj , ' * Geograph, lib. ii. 
that 
