all the mouths of the Nile, that he could find no access to put on shore at any of them. Neither could Antigonus make any better progress with his army at land; for Ptolemy had so carefully provided against him in all places, and so strongly guarded all passes and avenues, that he could make no impression upon him any where, and (what afflicted him most) great numbers of his men daily deserted from him to the enemy. For Ptolemy having sent boats to several places on the river, where Antigonus' soldiers came for watering, caused it to be there proclaimed from those boats, within their hearing, that whoever should come over to him from Antigonus' army, if he were a common soldier, he should have two minas, m and, if a commander, a talent;" whereon great numbers of them, as well commanders as private soldiers, especially of the mercenaries, went over to him, and that not only for the sake of the reward, but especially out of the greater liking they had to Ptolemy; for Antigonus being a crabbed old man, and very haughty, morose, and severe, Ptolemy, by reason of the benignity of his temper, and his humane and courteous carriage, to all he had to do with, had the affections of all men much beyond him. Antigonus, therefore, after he had in vain hovered over the outskirts of Egypt, till all his provisions were spent, finding he could gain no advantage on Ptolemy, but that his army daily diminished by sickness and desertions, and he could no longer subsist the remainder in that country, was forced to return back into Syria with baffle and disgrace, having lost great numbers of his men at land, and many also of his ships at sea, in this unsuccessful expedition. Hereon Ptolemy wrote to Lysimachus, Cassander, and Seleucus, of his success; and, having renewed his league with them against this their common enemy, he became thenceforth firmly settled in his kingdom, and was never after any more disturbed in it. And therefore Ptolemy the astronomer here placeth the beginning of his reign, and from hence m About six pounds five shillings of our money. n About one hundred and eighty-eight pounds of our money. o He was now about eighty years old. reckoneth the years of it in his chronological canon. Therein, till now, he continued to compute by the years of Alexander Ægus, though he had been slain five years before. But this fortunate turn in favour of Ptolemy, and the firm settlement which he obtained hereby in the throne, gave him a new epocha after that to go by, which took its beginning from the seventh day of November, nineteen years after the death of Alexander. An. 304. The Rhodians, subsisting chiefly by their trade with Egypt, for this reason adhered to the interest of Ptolemy; and, when sent to by Antigonus for the assistance of some of their shipping in the Cyprian war, they refused to aid him with any for that undertaking. Antigonus, therefore, as soon as the Egyptian expedition was over, sent Demetrius, with a fleet and army, to reduce that island to his obedience. But, after a years' time spent in the siege of Rhodes, the chief city in it, not being able to take the place, he was content to make a peace with them upon terms, that they should associate with Antigonus in all his wars, except only against Ptolemy. For it being chiefly by the assistance of Ptolemy that they were enabled to sustain so long a siege, and were at length so happily delivered from it, they would make no peace which should oblige them to act any thing against him; and when the enemy was gone, in acknowledgment of the aid which he had given them in this dangerous war, having, for the greater solemnity, first consulted the oracle of Jupiter Hammon about it, they consecrated unto him a grove, and, for his greater honour, made it a very sumptuous work; for, it being a furlong square, they surrounded it with a most stately portico on every side, and, from his name called it the Ptolemæum; and there, according to the impious flattery of those times, they paid divine honours unto him; and, in commemoration of their being thus saved by him in this war, they gave him the additional name of Soter, that is, the saviour; p Diodor. Sic. lib. 20. Plutarch. in Demetrio. q Pausan. in Atticis. by which he is commonly called by historians, to distinguish him from the other Ptolemys that after reigned in that country. An. 303. Seleucus, having secured himself in the possession of all the countries from the Euphrates to the Ptolemy river Indus, made war upon Sandrocottus, Soter 2. for the making of himself master of India also. This Sandrocottuss was an Indian by birth, and of a very mean original; but giving out that he would deliver his country from the tyranny of foreigners, under this pretence, got together an army, and, by degrees, having increased it to a great number, took the advantage, while Alexander's successors were engaged in war against each other, to expel the Macedonians out of all those Indian provinces which Alexander had conquered, and seized them to himself. To recover these provinces, Seleucus marched over the Indus; but, finding that Sandrocottus had by this time brought all India under his power, and from the several parts of it drawn into the field an army of six hundred thousand men, and had in it a vast number of elephants managed for the war, he thought not fit to run the hazard of engaging so great a power; and therefore, coming to a treaty with him, he agreed, that, on his receiving from Sandrocottus five hundred of his elephants, he should, on that consideration, quit to him all his pretensions in India; and on these terms peace was made between them. And Seleucus, having thus settled this matter, marched back into the western parts to make war against Antigonus; the necessity whereof was one main cause that hastened this peace with Sandrocottus. For Demetrius,t after he had ended his war with the Rhodians, sailed a second time with a great fleet and army into Greece, under the same pretence of freeing the Grecian cities, but in reality to weaken and suppress the power of Ptolemy and Cassander in those parts, and there dispossessed Ptolemy of Sicyon, r Diodor. Sic lib. 20. Justin. lib. 15, c. 4. Appian. in Syriacis. s Justin. Diodor Appian. ibid Plutarch. in Alexandro. Strabo, lib. 16. Arrian, de Expeditione Alexandri, lib. 5. t Diodor. Sic. lib. 20. Plutarch. in Demet. Justin. lib. 15, c. 4. An. 302. Ptolemy Soter 3. Corinth, and most of the other places which he held in Greece; and pressed so hard upon Cassander, that he was forced to sue to him for peace. But when he found that none could be had, but upon the terms of resigning himself absolutely to the will and pleasure of Antigonus, he and Lysimachus, having had consultation hereupon, agreed both of them to send ambassadors to Seleucus and Ptolemy, with a representation of the case; by which it being made appear, that the designs of Antigonus were to suppress all the other successors of Alexander, and usurp the whole empire to himself, it was thought time for them all to unite together against him, for the bringing down of his overgrowing power. And therefore Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus, having confederated together for this purpose, this hastened Seleucus out of India back again into Assyria, there to provide for the war. The first operations of it began on the Hellespont. For Cassander and Lysimachus having concerted matters together on that side, it was agreed between them, that, while the former remained in Europe to make a stand against Demetrius in those parts, the other, with as many forces as could be spared from both their territories, should make an invasion upon the provinces of Antigonus in Asia. And accordingly Lysimachus passed the Hellespont with a great army; and partly by force, and partly by desertions and revolts, reduced Phrygia, Lydia, Lycaonia, and most of the countries from the Propontis to the river Meander, under his power. Antigonus was at Antigonia, a new city built by him in the Upper Syria, and was there celebrating solemn games which he had appointed in that place, when the news of this invasion was first brought to him. On his hearing hereof, and the many revolts which had been made from him, he immediately broke up his sports, and, dismissing the assembly, forthwith set himself to prepare for a march against the enemy; and, as soon as he had gotten all the forces together which he had in those parts, he hastened with them over Mount Taurus into Cilicia; and having, at Quinda, in that province, taken out of the public treasury (which was there kept) what money he thought necessary, he therewith recruited and augmented his forces to a number sufficient for his purpose, and then marched directly against the enemy, retaking in his way many of those places which had revolted from him. Lysimachus, not finding himself strong enough to encounter Antigonus, stood upon the defensive only, till Seleucus and Ptolemy should come up to his assistance; and in this manner wore out the years' war, till both sides were forced to go into winter quarters. In the beginning of the next year," Seleucus, havAn. 301. ing gotten together a great army at Babylon, Ptolemy marched thence into Cappadocia, for the purSoter 4. suing of the war against Antigonus. Of which Antigonus having notice, sent for Demetrius out of Greece to his assistance; who, immediately obeying his father's orders, transported himself to Ephesus, and recovered again that city to Antigonus, and many other adjacent places, which, on the coming of Lysimachus into Asia, had revolted from him. Ptolemy, on Antigonus' leaving Syria, took the advantage of his absence to invade that country, and soon recovered again all Phoenicia, Judea, and CœleSyria, excepting only Tyre and Sidon, which, being well garrisoned, held out against him for Antigonus. For the reduction of them, he first layed siege to Sidon; but, as he was carrying of it on, being informed that Antigonus had beaten Seleucus and Lysimachus, and was marching against him for the relief of the place, he suffered himself to be imposed on by this false report; and therefore, forthwith making a truce with the Sidonians for five months, raised the siege, and returned into Egypt. In the mean time, the forces of the confederated princes being got together, under the command of Seleucus and Lysimachus on the one hand, and Demetrius having joined Antigonus on the other, the controversy between them was soon brought to a decisive issue in a fierce battle, wherein they engaged u Diodor. & Plutarch. ibid. Appian. in Syriacis. |