commerce for which Antioch was at once fo commodiously fituated and fo widely famed, that great prince hoarded not up useless treafures, but expended with wisdom what he received in abundance. His fucceffors on the throne of Syria by no means acted with his wisdom or policy, and, amidst their other infanities, violated the harmony that had for many years fubfifted between the families of the two most renowned generals of the school of Alexander. This rafh conduct occafioned the descent of Ptolemy Euergetes, who, in the reign of Antiochus Theos, with a vaft army, laid waste and plundered the richest provinces of the Syrian empire, carrying back with him into Egypt no less than forty thoufand talents of filver, an ineftimable quantity of gold and filver veffels, and two thousand five hundred ftatues, of many of which Cambyfes had formerly pillaged Egypt, and, from returning which to its violated temples, the conqueror obtained, as before-intimated, from its grateful inhabitants, the illuftrious title of Benefactor.* * See Juftin, lib. xxvii. cap. 1, and Hieron. on Dan. cap. 11, in which chapter this irruption is plainly, and almost in as many words, predicted, Still, however, amidft the defolations of war and the ravages of avarice, a fufficient quantity of treasure remained to the Seleucida for the exhibition, even in the late period of their declining power, and after Antiochus the Great had been defpoiled by Scipio Africanus of that enormous aggregate of wealth, the influx of which was the fource at once of the grandeur and ruin of Rome, for the exhibition, I fay, of a fpectacle only inferior in magnificence and brilliancy to that of the first Ptolemy. We are indebted to Polybius for the description of this fplendid proceffion which took place in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, at Daphne, near Antioch ; more fplendid on account of the numerous cavalry who helped to form it, and who, by the luftre and clangor of the peculiar armour worn by them, as well as the prancing and coftly caparisons of the noble animal that bears them, never fail to throw an additional glory on this kind of exhibition. the An immense body of infantry, in the warlike habits of the respective nations of Afia Minor, Greece, and Rome, having for the moft part crowns of gold on their heads, and nd bearing fhields of filver, marched fore 1 moft moft in the proceffion. They were followed by a thousand youths mounted on Nicæan horfes, fucceeded by three thousand others on horses, not indeed of the Nicæan breed, but the finest which the other regions of Afia could produce, all adorned with gold trappings, and wearing gold crowns. A thousand of the king's friends and relations, arrayed in the most sumptuous dreffes, followed next on horses still more fplendidly caparisoned than the former: to these fucceeded the body-guard of the kings of Syria; a band of four thou fand horsemen, clothed in purple robes interwoven with gold. This part of the proceffion was closed by a hundred and fortytwo chariots, richly painted and gilded, drawn fome by fix and fome by four horses abreast. That part of the proceffion which related to religion was ushered in by eight hundred youths, in the flower and bloom of their age, bearing crowns of gold. These walked before the statues of the Syrian and Greek deities, borne aloft by men moft magnificently attired; after whom immediately followed a thousand pages, each of whom carried a filver veffel, the leaft weighing a thousand drachmas. The king's own pages, amounting to fix hundred number, number, came next, carrying vessels of gold; and, after them, two hundred virgins, bearing gold chalices, filled with fcented waters, with which they liberally fprinkled the fpectators. In the rear of the proceffion were borne eighty litters with pillared feet of massy gold, on which fate as many women, probably the wives of the fovereign, superbly decorated with gold and jewels; and, after them, five hundred more, probably his concubines, with pillared feet of folid filver. The sports and games commenced when the proceffion clofed, and afterwards the banquet was ferved up on fifteen hundred tables, at which an innumerable company partook of the rareft delicacies in viands and wines which ranfacked Afia and Europe could furnish. In the fpacious banqueting-hail were placed fifteen vaft bafons of goid, which were filled with unguents of the most expensive kind for the use of the guests; and the king himself, with great affability, attended in perfon upon them, arrayed in his royal robes, and wearing the diadem of Syria.* With refpect to Lyfimachus, the third great fharer of the empire of Alexander, after a * Athenæus, lib. v. cap. 4, p. 194, 195. long age, long train of varied events, fortunate and difaftrous, he himself was, at an advanced flain in a battle with Seleucus Nicator, who made himself mafter both of his dominions and treafures, which were immenfe, and depofited at Sardis. Caffander, also, the fourth who fucceeded to Alexander's hereditary kingdom, was too deeply engaged in perpetual foreign contefts with Antigonus, Demetrius, and other rivals, to allow of his giving any of thofe magnificent entertainments, by which an adequate idea may be formed of the wealthy fpoils which he acquired; but a moft ample and complete view of the wealth that flowed from plundered Afia into the treasury of Macedon may be obtained, by adverting to the prodigious treafure of every description found in the palace of Perfeus, by Pauius Æmilius, when, in the year 167 before Chrift, he conquered that kingdom, and converted the illuftrious country that gave birth to Philip and to Alexander into a province of the Roman empire. These treasures, which were difplayed in a public triumph decreed Æmilius, amounted to such an immenfe fum in coined money and bullion, and fo glutted Rome with gold and filver, |