“Ptolemy Philopator had come to the throne of Egypt in 221 B.C., on the death of his father Euergetes. During the reign of the father of Antiochus, the father of Philopator had made himself master of a goodly portion of Syria, and had taken even Seleucia, at the mouth of the Orontes, the harbor of Antioch. And now Antiochus decided to take from Philopator as much as possible of this territory. He was successful. He recovered not only Syria, but also Phenecia, except the city of Sidon; and part of Palestine, including Galilee, and all the country beyond Jordan as far south as the river Arnon and the border of Moab. Establishing garrisons to hold the country, he led the main part of his army back into Phenicia and put them in winter quarters at Ptolemais, 218 B.C. Thus one certainly came, and overflowed, and passed through; then he returned, even to his fortress.
As soon as the spring of 217 B. C. opened, Ptolemy Philipator with an army of seventy-five thousand men and seventy-three elephants marched out of Egypt to do battle with Antiochus where ever they might meet. Antiochus was also early in the field with seventy-eight thousand men and one hundred and two elephants. The battle was fought at Gaza. Antiochus was defeated with a loss of ten thousand killed and four thousand taken prisoners; upon his army returned to his capitol. Those countries which Antiochus had the year before overrun, now gladly returned to the protectorate of Philopator. Thus “the king of the north “set forth a great multitude; but the multitude” was “given into his hand.”
This great success caused Philopator to become so elated that in honor of himself he made a pompous “progress” through all the provinces that had been recovered. As he passed Palestine, he visited Jerusalem, and at the temple “offered sacrifices to the God of Israel, making at the same time oblations, and bestowing considerable gifts.” But not content with this, he attempted to force his way into the temple itself; but suddenly, as in the like instance of Uzziah king of Judah, “he was smitten from God with such a terror and confusion of mind that he was carried out of the place in a manner half-dead. On this he departed from Jerusalem, filled with great wrath against the whole nation of the Jews for that which happened to him in that place, and venting many threatenings against them for it.”--Prideaux.
On his return to Alexandria, Philipator resolved to be revenged upon the Jews who dwelt there, for his repulse and disgrace at the temple in Jerusalem. Accordingly he published a decree, 216 B. C., that none should be allowed to enter the palace gates who did not sacrifice to the gods. There were three ranks of people of the inhabitants of Alexandria, and by both Alexander the Great and the first of the Ptolomies, the Jews there were enrolled in the first rank. Philopator decreed that they should all be reduced to the third, or lowest, rank. This required them to be enrolled anew; and he decreed that when they presented themselves for enrolment, they should have the badge of Bacchus—an ivy leaf—impressed upon them with a hot iron, and that all who should refuse this badge should be made slaves, and that if any refused to be slaves, they should be put to death. He did grant, however, that all who would renounce the worship of Jehovah, and accepted initiation into the Egyptian religion, should retain their original rank and privileges.
There were three hundred who adopted the heathen religion. These were at once cut off from all communication of any kind whatever with the rest of the Jews. Philopator took this as a further insult to himself and his religion, and in further vengeance decided to destroy all the Jews in all his dominions, beginning with all Egypt. He therefore commanded that all the Jews that could be found in Egypt should be brought in chains to Alexandria. There he shut them up in the hippodrome,--a large place where the games and races were celebrated,--and appointed a day when they should be made a spectacle, and should be destroyed by elephants maddened and drunk with mingled wine and frankincense.
As a matter of course the devoted Jews were calling upon God, as in many a crises in their history before. The great day came. The destruction was to be accomplished under the eye of the king himself. The great crowd was assembled in the hippodrome. The hour came; but the king had not arrived. The officers and the crowd waited; but still the king came not. Messengers were sent to inquire why the king delayed, and they found that he had got so drunk the night before that it was long after the hour appointed for the great spectacle before he awoke from his drunken stupor.
The spectacle was postponed till the next day. But he got drunk again; and when his officers wakened him the next day in time for the spectacle, he was still so drunk that they could not convince him that there was any such thing appointed; he thought the men out of their wits who were trying to convince him that any such thing was ever planned. (my comment: LOL to that one!!)
The spectacle was therefore postponed again till the next day. Then at the appointed hour the king came. When all was ready, the signal was given, and the drunken and maddened elephants were let loose. But lo! Instead of rushing upon the Jews as was expected, the elephants “turned their rage upon all those who came to see the show, and destroyed great numbers of them; and besides, several appearances were seen in the air, which much frightened the king and all the spectators. (my comment: LOL to that one again!!) All which manifesting the interposal of a divine power in the protection of those people, Philopator durst not any longer prosecute his rage against them, but ordered them to be all again set free. And fearing the divine vengeance upon him in their behalf, he restored them to all their privileges, rescinding and revoking all his decrees which he had published against them.”—Prideaux.
Three years afterward, however (213 B. C.), there was an insurrection of the Egyptians, of which Philopator made occasion to wreak his wrath against the Jews, slaying forty thousand of them. Thus he “cast down tens of thousands.” After this Philopator gave himself wholly to dissipation: “drinking, gaming, and lasciviousness, were the whole employments of his life.” He was ruled by his concubines, and the country was ruled by their favorites.
In the year 212 B. C., Antiochus made an expedition into the east to check the growing power of the Parthians, who had become so strong that they had added even Media to their possessions. Antiochus was wonderfully successful. In that same year he recovered Media, and fixed it firmly again under his own power. In 211 he drove Arsaces completely out of Parthia and Hyrcania. In 210 he marched into Hyrcania, an there battled with Arsaces for two years. In 208 he concluded a peace with Arsaces, upon the agreement that Arsaces should posses Parthia and Hyrcania, and become his confederate against all the other provinces of the east, and aid him in bringing then again under his power. In 207 and 206 he recovered Bactria, and marched over the mountains into India, and made a league with the king of that country, and then returned through Arachosia and Drangiana into Carmania, where he spent the winter of 206-5. In 205 he marched from Carmania through Persia, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia, and returned to his capitol at Antioch, having in seven years uninterrupted success covered the larger part of Alexander’s eastern campaign, and so earned for himself the title of Magnus—the Great. “By the boldness of his attempts, and the wisdom of his conduct through this whole war, he gained the reputation of a very wise and valiant prince, which made his name terrible through all Europe and Asia. And thereby he kept all the provinces of his empire in thorough subjection to him; and thus far his actions might well have deserved the name the Great, which was given unto him; and he might have carried it with full glory and honor to his grave, but that he unfortunately engaged in a war with the Romans.”—Prideaux.
In 204 B. C., Ptolemy Philopator died, at the age of thirty-seven, having worn himself out by debauchery in a reign of seven-teen years. His heir was a son only five years old, named Ptolemy Epiphanes. Seeing that the kingdom and dominions of Egypt had thus fallen to an infant, Antiochus the Great and Philip king of Macedon formed a league to take the whole realm and divide it between them. Philip was to have Caria, Libya, Cyrene, and Egypt; and Antiochus Magnus was to take all the rest. If successful, this would give to these two men the dominion of all the Eastern world, from the Adriatic Sea to the river Indus. They entered at once upon their enterprise. Antichus Magnus led out his great and veteran army, and speedily took all the countries up to the very borders of Egypt. Thus “the king of the north” returned and “set forth a multitude greater than the former,” and certainly came “after certain years with a great army and much riches.”
The guardians of the infant king in Egypt, seeing that all the powers round about were against him, and that these would certainly succeed, determined in the year 202 B. C., to send an embassy to the Romans to ask them for help in this crises. “Scipio having beaten Hannibal in Africa, and thereby put an end to the second Punic War with victory and honor, the name of the Romans began to be everywhere of great note, and therefore the Egyptian court, finding themselves much distress by the league made between Philip and Antiochus against their infant king, and usurpations which had thereon been made by them on his provinces, sent an embassy to Rome to pray their protection, offering them the guardianship of their king and regency of his dominions during his minority…. The Romans, thinking would enlarge their fame, complied with what was desired, and took on them the tuition of the young king.”—Prideaux
“The Romans having complied with the request of the Egyptian embassy to them, sent three ambassadors to Philip king of Macedon and Antiochus king of Syria, to let them know that they had taken on them the tuition of Ptolemy king of Egypt during his nonage, and to require them that they therefore desist from invading the dominions of their pupil, and that otherwise they should be obligated to make war upon them for his protection. After they had delivered this embassy to both kings, M. Aemilius Lepidus, who was one of them, according to the instructions he had received from the Senate at his first setting out, went to Alexandria to take on him, in their names, the tuition of the young king; where, having regulated his affairs as well as the then circumstances of them would admit, he appointed Aristomenes, and Acarnanian, to be his guardian and chief minister, and then returned to Rome.”—Prideaux.
And thus “in those times many stood up against the king of the south;” but just at the juncture when the king and the kingdom of “the south” would have been swallowed up, “the children of robbers exalted themselves,” saved “the king of the south,” and “established the vision.”
As at this point we are brought to the entrance of Rome into the field of history, we must now turn our attention to the rise and reign of that mighty, world-famed, and deeply interesting power.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me know what you think of this story, I thought it was pretty interesting. I could go on into the power of Rome, but I’ll just stop there. ooosssshhh! that was a lot of typing, so please don't ignore this post! I Lysimachus: as one of the four generals of Alexander the great, I serve him to the best of my military knowledge.
There are also other stories which I would just love to share, but would take me another year before I could post em all. Other interesting topics which this book goes into detail are: during the time of Xerxes I of Persia and how he crossed the Helespont with an army the size of 5,283,220 (notice the detail expressed to the exact number, for they were numbered by the Persians themselves, and there are records that prove the exact count), of whom half where baggage bearers (The largest army that has ever been mustered for an invasion). And how the 300 Spartans defended their position with such courage and bravery, that they were able to kill 20,000 Persians in that narrow pass of Thermopylae.
P.S. If an of you guys have some interesting stories from ancient books, feel free to share, and post them here.