Cleopatra | Page 7

of Physcon's accession.--Cleopatra.--Physcon's brutal
perfidity.--He marries his wife's daughter.--Atrocities of Physcon.--His flight.--Cleopatra
assumes the government.--Her birth-day.--Barbarity of Physcon.--Grief of
Cleopatra.--General character of the Ptolemy family.--Lathyrus. --Terrible quarrels with
his mother.--Cruelties of Cleopatra. --Alexander kills her.--Cleopatra a type of the
family.--Her two daughters.--Unnatural war.--Tryphena's hatred of her sister.--Taking of
Antioch.--Cleopatra flees to a temple.--Jealousy of Tryphena.--Her resentment
increases.--Cruel and sacrilegious murder.--The moral condition of mankind not
degenerating.
The founder of the dynasty of the Ptolemies--the ruler into whose hands the kingdom of
Egypt fell, as has already been stated, at the death of Alexander the Great--was a
Macedonian general in Alexander's army. The circumstances of his birth, and the events
which led to his entering into the service of Alexander, were somewhat peculiar. His
mother, whose name was Arsinoë, was a personal favorite and companion of Philip, king
of Macedon, the father of Alexander. Philip at length gave Arsinoë in marriage to a
certain man of his court named Lagus. A very short time after the marriage, Ptolemy was
born. Philip treated the child with the same consideration and favor that he had evinced
toward the mother. The boy was called the son of Lagus, but his position in the royal

court of Macedon was as high and honorable, and the attentions which he received were
as great, as he could have expected to enjoy if he had been in reality a son of the king. As
he grew up, he attained to official stations of considerable responsibility and power.
In the course of time, a certain transaction occurred by means of which Ptolemy involved
himself in serious difficulty with Philip, though by the same means he made Alexander
very strongly his friend. There was a province of the Persian empire called Caria, situated
in the southwestern part of Asia Minor. The governor of this province had offered his
daughter to Philip as the wife of one of his sons named Aridaeus, the half brother of
Alexander. Alexander's mother, who was not the mother of Aridaeus, was jealous of this
proposed marriage. She thought that it was part of a scheme for bringing Aridaeus
forward into public notice, and finally making him the heir to Philip's throne; whereas she
was very earnest that this splendid inheritance should be reserved for her own son.
Accordingly, she proposed to Alexander that they should send a secret embassage to the
Persian governor, and represent to him that it would be much better, both for him and for
his daughter, that she should have Alexander instead of Aridaeus for a husband, and
induce him, if possible, to demand of Philip that he should make the change.
Alexander entered readily into this scheme, and various courtiers, Ptolemy among the rest,
undertook to aid him in the accomplishment of it. The embassy was sent. The governor of
Caria was very much pleased with the change which they proposed to him. In fact, the
whole plan seemed to be going on very successfully toward its accomplishment, when,
by some means or other, Philip discovered the intrigue. He went immediately into
Alexander's apartment, highly excited with resentment and anger. He had never intended
to make Aridaeus, whose birth on the mother's side was obscure and ignoble, the heir to
his throne, and he reproached Alexander in the bitterest terms for being of so debased and
degenerate a spirit as to desire to marry the daughter of a Persian governor; a man who
was, in fact, the mere slave, as he said, of a barbarian king.
Alexander's scheme was thus totally defeated; and so displeased was his father with the
officers who had undertaken to aid him in the execution of it, that he banished them all
from the kingdom. Ptolemy, in consequence of this decree, wandered about an exile from
his country for some years, until at length the death of Philip enabled Alexander to recall
him. Alexander succeeded his father as King of Macedon, and immediately made
Ptolemy one of his principal generals. Ptolemy rose, in fact, to a very high command in
the Macedonian army, and distinguished himself very greatly in all the celebrated
conqueror's subsequent campaigns. In the Persian invasion, Ptolemy commanded one of
the three grand divisions of the army, and he rendered repeatedly the most signal services
to the cause of his master. He was employed on the most distant and dangerous
enterprises, and was often intrusted with the management of affairs of the utmost
importance. He was very successful in all his undertakings. He conquered armies,
reduced fortresses, negotiated treaties, and evinced, in a word, the highest degree of
military energy and skill. He once saved Alexander's life by discovering and revealing a
dangerous conspiracy which had been formed against the king. Alexander had the
opportunity to requite this favor, through a divine interposition