E G 
noe. He bad alfo ifTue by bis other wives, Lenticus, La- 
gus, Irene, Ptolemais, and Lyfandra. 
Ceraunus finding himfelf difappointed in tire regal fuc- 
cefiion, quitted Egypt, and fled to the court of Seleucus 
Nicanor, where he was received in the mod affectionate 
manner, anu entertained with unbounded hofpitality : yet 
the ungrateful wretch confpired againft his benefactor, 
and treacheroufly murdered him. He then feized the king¬ 
dom of Macedon, which Seleucus had recently vvrefled 
from Lyfimachus ; but, as he could not expcdt to enjoy 
thefe dominions in peace while the queen and children of 
Lyfimachus were alive, he formed the horrid refolution 
of putting them to death, in order to free himfelf from 
any apprehenfions on their account. Arfinoe, the widow 
of Lyfimachus, though half-filter to the ufurper, was well 
acquainted with his cruel temper; and had therefore ab- 
fconded with her children, on the death of Seleucus. Ce¬ 
raunus, however, refolved that fo fine a woman fliould 
not efcape him ; and therefore feigning a paflion for Ar¬ 
finoe, he offered to efpoufe her, and to adopt her two 
children as his own. This propofal was at fit ft rejected, 
through dread of fome unhappy confequence ; but Ce¬ 
raunus, to obviate all fufpicion, repaired to a temple 
which the Macedonians held in the higheft veneration, 
and there protefted before the ftatues of the gods and the 
friends of Arfinoe, that he entertained no thought inimi¬ 
cal to the welfare of his fifter and her children. But no 
fooner had tlte~ traitor attained Iris ends, than he threw 
off the malk ; caufed the young princes to be affaflinated 
in the very bofom of their diftrafted mother; and, drip¬ 
ping her of all her poffeffions, baniflied her into Samo- 
thrace, with only two women to attend her. Such dia¬ 
bolical condudt might be naturally fuppofed to incur a 
dreadful retribution ; and we accordingly find that this 
monfter of cruelty was taken prifoner the next year by 
the Gauls, and literally torn to pieces. After the death 
of Ceraunus, Arfinoe quitted the, place of her banifit¬ 
ment, and hafiened to the court of her brother Philadel- 
pluis, who, being ftruck with her charms, exalted her to 
the participation of his throne, after he had divorced an¬ 
other woman of the fame name, whom he had efpoufed 
on his acceflion to the crown, but whofe jealoufy prompt¬ 
ed her to fome treafonable defigns. On the difcovery of 
the plot, all the other confpirators were executed ; and 
the queen was confined for life to a province of Upper 
Egypt, bordering upon Ethiopia. 
Pyrrhus king of Epirus, having been defeated in Italy 
by the Romans, and driven difgracefully into his own 
country, Ptolemy Philadelphus was anxious to form an 
alliance with the conquerors, whofe name began to be 
highly celebrated among foreign nations; and he accord¬ 
ingly fent ambatfadors to Rome for that purpofe. This 
being the firft time that any Egyptian had vifited Rome, 
the fenate was greatly delighted to fee foreigners come 
from fitch a diftance to folieit the fri£ndfliip of their re¬ 
public. They immediately difpatched four ambalfadors 
to Egypt, who met with a reception at Ptolemy’s court 
Aiitable to their'rank, and worthy the magnificence of an 
Egyptian monarch. At a fplendid entertainment given 
by the king, each of them was prefented with a crown of 
gold, which they refpectively accepted ; but the very 
next morning they placed them on the (tatues of Ptole¬ 
my, which were erected in the city. This contempt of 
wealth eftabliflied the reputation of the Romans in Egypt, 
but the king would not fuffer them to depart without 
other tokens of his royal favour towards their republic 
and themfelves; however, they (bowed the fame difin- 
tereflednefs on their return ; for they depofited all their 
prefents in the public treafury, before they gave an ac¬ 
count of their embafly to the fenate. 
Ptolemy who had for a long time enjoyed the fweets 
of domeftic tranquillity was, in the year before Chrift 265, 
unexpectedly alarmed by the revolt of Magas, who had 
been regarded as one of the king’s mod faithful friends. 
This man was the fon of Berenice, by a Macedonian of- 
y p t. 
ficer, previous to her marriage with Ptolemy Soter, and 
in confequence of her afcendency over the mind of her 
royal confort, (he had obtained for this fon the govern¬ 
ment of T.ybia and Gyrene. Magas having (Lengthened 
himfelf in thefe provinces by long pofleflton, and. an 
advantageous marriage with a princefs of Syria, began 
to give yent to his ambition, and actually formed the 
defign of driving his brother from the throne. With 
this intent, he marched at the head of a numerous army 
towards the capital, and obtained pofleflion of Paretonion 
in his way thither, but upon intelligence that the-Mar- 
marides had revolted from him, he abandoned his enter- 
prize and returned home. The king, who was ihen with 
a great body of troops on the frontiers, had a favourable 
opportunity of cutting off the rebels, by falling upon 
their rear; but he was prevented from embracing it by 
a fimilar revolt among the Gauls, whom he had taken 
into his fervice, and who had now refolved to (eize the 
throne for themfelves. To obviate this danger, he haf- 
tened back into Egypt, and (hut up the confpirators (o 
effectually in an ifland of the Nile, that moft of them 
peri (lied either by famine or the fvvord. Magas, after 
quelling the troubles which demanded his attendance at 
home, renewed his defigns upon Egypt, and prevailed 
on Antiochus Soter, his father-in-law, to invade the 
country on one fide, while he (hould make an incurlion 
on the other. Thefe meafures were however fruftrated ; 
for Ptolemy, who received private intelligence of all his 
motions, fent a powerful force into the maritime pro¬ 
vinces of Syria, which committed fuch devaluations as 
obliged Antiochus to relinquifh his engagement, and 
Magas thought it molt advifable to withdraw his preten- 
fions. Ptolemy now began to turn his thoughts to the 
advancement of his people’s profperity ; and to this end 
he refolved to draw to Egypt all the trade of the eaft, 
which the Tyrian.s had till this time carried on by fea to 
Ejath, and from thence by the way of Rhinocorura to 
Tyre. Tcfeffedt this important defign, Ptolemy built a 
city on the wefiern fide of the Red Sea, from whence he 
fent out his fleets to all the countries whither the Tyrians 
reforted with their merchandize from Elath; but finding 
that the Red Sea was extremely dangerous, on account 
of its numerous fhelves and rocks, he transferred the 
trade to the city of Myas-Hormos, near the frontiers of 
Ethiopia. To this place all the commodities of the dif¬ 
ferent nations were conveyed by fea, and from thence 
carried on camels to Coptus on the Nile, where they 
were again (hipped for Alexandria ; and difpofed of from 
that city all over the welt, in exchange for the goods 
that were afterwards exported to the eaft. Alexandria 
thus became the chief mart of all the trade that fubfifted 
between the eaftern and weftern countries, and continued 
to be the greateft emporium of the world for upwards of 
one thoufand (even hundred years, till the paflage was 
found out by the Cape of Good Hope. But as the road 
from Coptus to the Red Sea lay acrofs the delerts, where 
travellers were equally diftrelled for lodging and w'ater, 
the king caufed a canal to be opened- along the great 
road, which was filled by the waters of the Nile, and 
bordered with houfes at fuitable diftances, where paflen- 
gers might find repofe and neceflary refrelhments. Ptolemy 
alfo provided for the fecurity of his trading (objects, by 
fitting out two powerful fleets, one of which he kept in 
the Red Sea, and the other in the Mediterranean. With 
thefe fleets he rode triumphant on the feas, and kept moft 
of the maritime provinces of Alia Minor in fubjeCtion. 
Magas, king of Cyrene and Lybia, exprefled a defire, 
in the latter part of his reign, of compoiing all differences 
with Ptolemy; and, in order ,to eft eft a complete recon¬ 
ciliation, he propofed a marriage between his brother’s 
eldeft Ion and his own daughter, proiniling to give the 
latter all his dominions by way of dowry. This propofal 
was accepted at the court of Egypt, and peace was con¬ 
cluded upon thefe terms; but Magas dying before the 
celebration of the nuptials, his wife A.pamea tifed her 
utnioft 
