Dr. Ernestus Grabe, a learned Prussian, who had lived many years in England, did lately, under the government of her late majesty, Queen Anne, who gave him a pension for this purpose, undertake to publish an edition of the Septuagint according to this copy; and he hath accordingly given us two parts of it, and would have published the rest in two parts more, but that his death prevented him from proceeding any farther. Would some other able hand, with the like accuracy and care, finish what he hath left undone, this might then be justly reckoned among us a fourth edition of the Septuagint; and it is not doubted, but that, when so completed, it will be approved as the most perfect and best of them all. And thus far I have given an account of this ancient translation of the holy scriptures of the Old Testament, and all the editions it hath gone through, both ancient and modern, so far as it belongs to an historian to relate. If any are desirous to know all the critical disputes and observations which have been made about it, and what learned men have written of this nature concerning it, they may consult Archbishop Usher's Syntagma de Græca LXX Interpretum Versione; Morinus's Exercitationes Biblicæ, part 1., and his Preface before his Paris edition of the Septuagint; Wouwer de Græca et Latina Bibliorum Interpretatione; Walton's Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglotta, c. 9. Vossius de LXX Interpretibus; Simon's Critical History of the Old Testament; Du Pin's History of the Canon of the Old Testament; Grabe's Prolegomena before those two parts of the Septuagint which were published by him; and especially Dr. Hody's learned book above cited, where he hath written the fullest and the best of all that have handled this argument. And here having concluded this long historical account of it, I shall with it conclude this book. BOOK II. An. 276. Ptolemy Philadelph. 9.]-SOSTHENES (who on defeating the Gauls had for some time reigned in Macedon) being dead, Antiochus, the son of Seleucus Nicator, and Antigonus Gonatus, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes,' each claimed to succeed there as in their father's kingdom, Demetrius first, and afterwards Seleucus, having been kings of that country. But Antigonus who had now, from the time of his father's last expedition into Asia, reigned in Greece ten years, being nearest, first took possession; whereon Antiochus resolving to march against him, and the other to keep what he had gotten, each raised great armies, and made strong alliances for war. On this occasion, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, having confederated with Antigonus, Antiochus, in his march toward Macedonia, not thinking it fit to leave such an enemy behind him in Asia, instead of passing over the Hellespont to attack Antigonus, led his army against Nicomedes, and carried the war into Bithynia. But there both armies having for some time lain against each other, and neither of them having courage enough to assault the other, it at length came to a treaty," and terms of agreement between them; by virtue of which,3 Antigonus having married Phila, the half-sister of Antiochus, as being the daughter of Stratonice by Seleucus, Antiochus quitted to him his claim to Macedonia, and Antigonus became quietly settled in that kingdom, where his posterity reigned for several descents, till at length Perseus, the last of that race, being conquered by Paulus Æmilius, that kingdom became a province of the Roman empire. An. 275. Ptolemy Philadelph. 10.]-Antiochus, being thus freed from this war, marched against the Gauls (who having gotten a settlement in Asia, by the favour of Nichomedes, in the manner as hath been above related, overran and harassed all that country," and having, after a short conflict, overthrown them 1 Memnon, c. 19. 4 Plutarchus in Demetrio. VOL. II.-7 2 Justin. lib. 25. c. 1. 3 In Vita Arati Astronomi operibus ejus præfixa. 5 Appian. in Syriacis. in battle, he thereby delivered those provinces from their oppressions, from whence he had the name of Soter, or the Saviour, given unto him. 2 An. 274. Ptolemy Philadelph. 11.]-The Romans having forced Pyrrhus,' after a six years' war, to leave Italy, and return again into Epirus, with baffle and disappointment, their name began to grow of great note and fame among foreign nations; whereon Ptolemy Philadelphus sent ambassadors to them, to desire their friendship; with which the Romans were well pleased, thinking it not small reputation to them that their friendship was sought for by so great a king. An. 273. Ptolemy Philadelph. 12.]-And therefore, to make a return of the like respects, the next year after they sent a solemn embassy into Egypt unto that king. The ambassadors were Q. Fabius Gurges, Cn. Fabius Pictor, and Q. Ogulinus, whose conduct in this employment was very remarkable: for, with a mind as great as self-denying, they put off every thing from themselves that might tend to their own proper interest: for when King Ptolemy, having invited them to supper with him, presented them, in the conclusion of the entertainment, with crowns of gold, they accepted of the crowns for the sake of the honour that was done them thereby, but the next morning after, crowned with them the statues of the king, which stood in the public places of the city; and being presented, on their taking their leave, with very valuable gifts from the king, they accepted of them, that they might not disgust him by the refusal; but as soon as they were returned to Rome, they delivered them all into the public treasury, before they appeared in the senate to give an account of their embassy, declaring thereby that they desired no other advantage from the service of the public, than the honour of discharging it well. And this was the general temper and inclination of the Romans in those times; which made them prosper in all their undertakings. But afterward, when the service of the public was only desired in order to plunder it, and men entered on the employments of the state with no other view or intent than to enrich themselves, and advance their own private fortunes, no wonder then that every thing began to go backward with them. And so it must happen with all other states and kingdoms, when the public interest is sacrificed to that of private men, and the offices and employments of the state are desired only to gratify the ambition and glut the avarice of them that can get into them. But the Romans, although they received into their treasury what their ambassadors thus generously delivered into it, yet were not wanting in what was proper for them to do for the encouraging so good an example, and the rewarding of them that gave it: for they ordered to be given to them, for their service done the state in this embassy, such sums out of their treasury, as equalled the value of what they thus delivered into it. So that the liberality of Ptolemy, the abstinence and selfdenial of the ambassadors, and the justice of the Romans, were all signally made appear in the transactions of this matter. An. 268. Ptolemy Philadelph. 17.]-After the death of Pyrrhus, who was slain at Argus, in an attempt made upon that city, Antigonus Gonatus, king of Macedon, having much enlarged his power, and made himself thereby very formidable to the Grecian states, the Lacedemonians, and the Anthenians entered into a confederacy against him, and gained Ptolemy Philadelphus to join with them herein. Whereon Antigonus besieged Athens: for the relief of which Ptolemy sent a fleet under the command of Patroclus, one of his chief officers; and Areus, king of the Lacedemonians, led thither an army by land. for the same purpose. Patroclus, on his arrival with his fleet, sent to Areus to persuade him forthwith to engage the enemy, promising him at the same time, to land the forces which he had on board the fleet, and fall on them in the rear. But the provisions of the Lacedemonians being all spent, Areus thought it better to retreat, and march home; whereon Patroclus was forced to do the same, and 1 Plutarchus in Pyrrho. 2 Livius, lib. 14. Eutrop. lib. 2. 3 Ibid. Valerius Maximus, lib. 4. c. 3. Dio in Excerptis ab Ursino editis. 4 Plutarchus in Pyrrho. 6 Pausanias, ibid. sail back with his fleet again into Egypt, without accomplishing any thing of the design for which he was sent; and Athens being thus deserted by its allies, fell into the hands of Antigonus, and he placed a garrison in it. An. 267. Ptolemy Philadelph. 18.]-Patroclus, in his return into Egypt, having found Sotades at Caunus, a maritime city of Caria, there seized on him,' and wrapping him in a sheet of lead, cast him into the sea. He was a lewd poet, who having written some satirical verses against King Ptolemy, and in them bitterly reflected on him for his marriage with Arsinoe his sister, was fled from Alexandria, to avoid the indignation of that prince. But Patroclus, having thus met him in his flight, thought he could not better recommend himself to the favour of his prince, than by taking this vengeance on the person who had thus abused him. And it was a punishment which he well deserved; for he was a very vile and flagitious wretch, and was commonly called Sotades Cinœdus, i. e. Sotades the Sodomite; which name was given him by way of eminence, not only for his notorious guilt in that monstrous and abominable vice, but especially for that he had written in Iambic verses, a very remarkable poem in commendation of it, which was in great repute among those who were given to that unnatural and vile lust. Hence Sodomites were called, from him, Sotadici Cinadi. i. e. Sotadic Sodomites, as in Juvenal, Inter Sotadicos notissima fossa Cinados; for so it ought to be read, and not Socraticos, as in our printed books; for this latter was an alteration made in the text of that author by such as were wickedly addicted to this beastly vice, thinking they might acquire some credit, or at least some excuse to this worst of uncleanliness, if they could make it believed that Socrates, who was one of the best of men, had also been addicted to it. An. 265. Ptolemy Philadelph. 20.]-Magas, governor of Cyrene and Libya for King Ptolemy, rebelled against him, and made himself king of these provinces. He was half-brother to him, being son of Berenice by Philip, a Macedonian, who had been her husband before she married King Ptolemy Soter; and therefore, by her intercession, she prevailed with that prince to make him his lieutenant, to govern those provinces, on his again recovering them after the death of Ophellas, Anno 307; where having strengthened himself by a long continuance in that government, and also by the marriage of Apame, the daughter of Antiochus Soter, king of Asia, he, in confidence hereof, rebelled against his brother, and, not being contented to deprive him of the provinces of Libya and Cyrene, where he now reigned, sought to dispossess him also of Egypt; and therefore, having gotten together an army, marched toward Alexandria for this purpose, and seized Parætonium, a city of Marmarica, in his way thither. But as he was proceeding farther, a message being brought him, that the Marmarides, a pepole of Libya, had revolted from him, he was forced to march back again for the suppressing of this defection. Ptolemy being then with a great army on the borders of Egypt, to defend his country against this invader, had a good opportunity, by falling on him in his retreat, utterly to have broken him. But he was hindered by a like defection at home, as Magas had been; for having for his defence in this war hired several mercenaries, and among them four thousand Gauls, he found they had entered into a conspiracy against him to take possession of Egypt, and drive him thence; for the preventing of which he marched back into Egypt, and having led the conspirators into an island in the Nile, he there pent them up, till they all persihed of famine, or, to avoid it, had slain each other with their own swords. An. 264. Ptolemy Philadelph. 21.]-Magas, as soon as he had removed the difficulties at home which called him thither, was again for renewing his designs upon Egypt; and for the carrying of them on with the better success," engaged Antiochus Soter, his father-in-law, to engage with him herein; and the project concerted between them was, that Antiochus should attack the terAnthenaus, lib. 14. p. 620. Suidas in voce Zwraσns. 5 Ibid. 1 Athenæus, lib. 14. p. 620. 3 Batyr, 2. 10. 2 Strabo, lib. 14. p. 648. ritories of Ptolemy on one side, and Magas on the other. But while Antiochus was providing an army for this purpose, Ptolemy, having full notice of what was intended, sent forces into all the maritime provinces which were under the dominion of Antiochus; whereby having caused great ravages and devastations to be made in them, by this means he necessitated that prince to keep at home for the defence of his own territories, and Magas, without his assistance in the war thought not fit to move any farther in it. An. 263. Ptolemy Philadelph. 22.]-The next year after died Philetarus, the first founder of the kingdom of Pergamus,' being eighty years old: he was a eunuch, and served Docimus, who was one of the captains of Antigonus, and on his revolt from that prince to Lysimachus, passed with him into the same service; and Lysimachus finding him to have had a liberal education, and to be a person of great capacity, made him his treasurer, and thereon put the city of Pergamus into his hands, where, in a strong castle, his treasure was kept. And here he served Lysimachus many years with great fidelity; but being particu larly attached to the interest of Agathocles, the eldest son of Lysimachus, and therefore having expressed great grief at his death, which was brought about by the contrivance of Arsinoe, the daughter of King Ptolemy Soter (whom Lysimachus had married in his old age, as hath been already related,) he grew suspected to that lady; and finding thereon that designs were laid for his life also, he revolted from Lysimachus, and under the protection of Seleucus, set up for himself: and, having converted the treasure of Lysimachus to his own use, among the distractions that after followed, first on the death of Lysimachus, and then on that of Seleucus, within seven months after, and the unsettled state of them that succeeded them, he managed his affairs with that craft and subtlety that he secured himself in the possession of his castle, and all the country adjacent, for the term of twenty years, and there founded a kingdom, which lasted for several descents in his family after him, and was one of the most potent sovereignties in all Asia. He had, indeed, no children of his own, as being a eunuch; but he had two brothers, Eumenes and Attalus; the elder of which, Eumenes, had a son of the same name, who succeeded his new acquired kingdom, and reigned in it twenty-two years. This same year began the first Punic war between the Romans and Carthaginians, which lasted twenty-four years. 3 Toward the end of the same year died Antigonus of Socho, who was president of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and the great master and teacher of the Jewish law in their prime divinity school in that city, and had been in both these offices, say the Jews, from the death of Simon the Just, who was of the last of those who were called the men of the great synagogue. These taught the scriptures only to the people. They who after succeeded, added the traditions of the elders to the holy scriptures, and taught them both to their scholars, obliging them to the observance of the one as well as the other, as if both had equally proceeded from Mount Sinai. These were called the Tanaim, or Mishnical doctors, for the reason already mentioned: and the first of them was this Antigonus of Socho, who being now dead, was succeeded by Joseph the son of Joazer, and Joseph the son of John. The first of these was Nasi, or the president of the Sanhedrin, and the other Ab-Beth-Din, or vice-president; and both jointly taught together in the chief divinity school at Jerusalem. In the time of this Antigonus began the sect of the Sadducees, to the rise of which he gave the occasion; for having, in his lectures, often inculcated to his scholars, that they ought not to serve God in a servile manner with respect to the reward, but out of the filial love and fear only which they owed unto him. Sadoc and Baithus, two of his scholars, hearing this from him, inferred from 1 Lucianus in Macrobiis. 2 Pausanias in Atticis. Strabo, lib. 12. p. 543. lib. 13. p. 623, 624. Appian. in Syriacis. 3 Juchasin. Zemach David. Shalsheleth Haccabala. 4 Part 1, book 5. 5 Pirke Avoth Juchasin. Zemach David. Shalsheleth Haccabala. R. Abraham Levita in Cabbala Hietorica. See Lightfoot's Works in English, vol. 1. p. 457. 655, 656, und vol. 2. p. 125–127. |