Diod. Sic. lib. xix. reason might Ptolemy, looking from Egypt, think that island the key to Phenicia. Accordingly he landed there with so large a force that he met with no resistance. He added Cyprus to the rest of his dominions. He banished the kings, and made Nicocreon governor of the whole island. (24) From Cyprus, Ptolemy landed with his army in Upper Syria, as the northern part of that country was called, while the part nearer to Palestine was called Cole-Syria. Here he took the towns of Posideion and Potami-Caron, and then marching hastily into Asia Minor, he took Mallus, a city of Cilicia. Having rewarded his soldiers with the booty there seized, he again embarked and returned to Alexandria. This inroad seems to have been meant to draw off the enemy from Cole-Syria; and it had the wished-for effect, for Demetrius, who commanded the forces of his father Antigonus in that quarter, marched northward to the relief of Cilicia; but he did not arrive there till Ptolemy's fleet was already under sail for Egypt. (25) Ptolemy, on reaching Alexandria, set his army in motion towards Pelusium, on its way to Palestine. His forces were eighteen thousand foot and four thousand horse, part Macedonians, as the Greeks living in Egypt were always called, and part mercenaries, followed by a crowd of Egyptians, of whom some were armed for battle, and some were to take care of the baggage. There are in all ages some nations who are so much before others in warlike skill and courage, that no inequality of numbers can make up for it. Not that one Greek could overcome ten barbarians; but that a body of Greeks, if large enough to make an army, with a centre, wings, heavy-armed, light-armed, and cavalry, would never think it worth while to count the crowd of barbarians that might be led against them. The number wanted to make an army has changed with the art of war. In modern Europe it must be much larger, perhaps many times what was needed before gunpowder was used; but we may quote the battle of Marathon, and the retreat of the ten thousand under Xenophon, to prove that this number was enough with the Greeks. When Greeks fought against Greeks it is probable that the larger army would conquer, but ten thousand Greeks would beat any number of barbarians. VOL. I. T This will help us to understand the low state of discipline among the native Egyptians under Ptolemy. When measuring his strength against Demetrius he took no account of their number; he had twenty-two thousand Greeks and a crowd of Egyptians. He was met at Gaza by the young Demetrius with an army of eleven thousand foot and twenty-three hundred horse, followed by forty-three elephants, and a body of light-armed barbarians, who, like the Egyptians in the army of Ptolemy, were not counted. But the youthful courage of Demetrius was no match for the cool skill and larger army of Ptolemy; the elephants were easily stopped by iron hurdles, and the Egyptian army, after gaining a complete victory, entered Gaza, while Demetrius fled to Azotus. Ptolemy, in his victory, showed a generosity unknown in modern warfare; he not only gave leave to the Diod. Sic. conquered army to bury their dead, but sent back lib. xix. the whole of the royal baggage which had fallen into his hands, and also those personal friends of Demetrius who were found among the prisoners; that is to say, all those who wished to depart, as the larger part of these Greek armies were equally ready to fight on either side. He may have thought that, in this almost civil strife, as much was to be gained by acts of friendship as by arms; but this should in no wise lessen our praise of any such deed, which, like an oasis in the desert, is one of the refreshing spots on which the mind rests in the dry and often barren history of war. (26) By this victory the whole of Phenicia was again joined to Egypt, and Seleucus regained Babylonia. There, by following the example of Ptolemy in his good treatment of the people, and in leaving them their own laws and religion, he founded a monarchy, and gave his name to a race of kings which rivalled even the Lagidæ. He raised up again for a short time the throne of Nebuchadnezzar. But it was only for a short time. The Chaldees and Assyrians now yielded the first rank to the Greeks who had settled among them ; and the Greeks were more numerous in the Syrian portion of his empire. Accordingly Seleucus built a new capital on the River Orontes, and named it Antioch, after his father. Babylon then yielded the same obedience to this new Greek city that Memphis paid to Alexandria. Assyria and Babylonia became subject provinces; and the successors of Seleucus styled themselves not kings of Babylon but of Syria. (27) When Antigonus, who was in Phrygia, on the other side of his kingdom, heard that his son Demetrius had been beaten at Gaza, he marched with all his forces to give battle to Ptolemy. He soon crossed Mount Taurus, the lofty range which divides Asia Minor from Syria and Mesopotamia, and joined his camp to that of his son in Upper Syria. But Ptolemy had gone through life without ever making a hazardous move; not indeed without ever suffering a loss, but without ever fighting a battle when its loss would have ruined him; and he did not choose to risk his kingdom against the far larger forces of Antigonus. Therefore, with the advice of his council of generals, he levelled the fortifications of Aca, Joppa, Samaria, and Gaza, and withdrew his forces. and treasure into Egypt, leaving the desert between himself and the army of Antigonus. (28) Antigonus could not safely attempt to march through the desert in the face of Ptolemy's army. He had therefore, first, either to conquer or gain the friendship of the Nabatæans, a warlike race of Arabs, who held the north of Arabia; and then he might march by Petra, Mount Sinai, and the coast of the Red Sea, without being in want of water for his army. The Nabatæans were the tribe at an earlier time called Edomites. But they lost that name when they carried it to the southern portion of Judæa, then called Idumæa; for when the Jews regained Idumæa they called these Edomites of the desert Nebaoth or Nabatæans. The Nabatæans professed neutrality between Antigonus and Ptolemy, the two contending powers; but the mild temper of Ptolemy had so far gained their friendship that the haughty Antigonus, though he did not refuse their pledges of peace, secretly made up his mind to conquer them. Laborde's (29) Petra, the city of the Nabataans, is in a narrow valley between steep overhanging rocks, so difficult of Pliny, approach that a handful of men could guard it lib. vi. 32. against the largest army. Not more than two horsemen can ride abreast through the chasm in the rock by which it is entered from the east (see Fig. 213), while the other entrance from the west is down a hill-side too steep for a loaded camel. The eastern proverb reminds us that "Water is the chief thing;" and a large stream within the valley, in addition to the strength of the fortress, made it a favourite resting place for caravans, which, whether they were coming from Tyre or Jerusalem, were forced to pass by this city in their way to the Incense Country of Arabia Felix, or to the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, and for other caravans from Egypt to Dedan on the Persian Gulf. These warlike Arabs seem to have received a toll from the caravans, and they held their rocky fastness unconquered by the great nations which rounded them. From its strength it had the Hebrew name of Mibzar, the fortress. Its temples and tombs were cut out of the live rock, and it was by the Jews also named Sela, the rock, and by the Greeks named Petra, from which last the country was sometimes called Arabia Petræa. Diod. Sic. Fig. 213. sur (30) Antigonus heard that the Nabateans had left Petra less guarded than usual, and had gone to a neighbouring fair, probably to meet a caravan from lib. xix. the south, and to receive spices in exchange for the woollen goods from Tyre. He therefore sent forward four thousand light-armed foot and six hundred horse, who overpowered the guard and seized the city. The Arabs, when they heard of what had happened, returned in the night, surrounded the place, came upon the Greeks from above, by paths known only to themselves, and overcame them with such slaughter, that out of the four thousand six hundred men only fifty returned to Antigonus to tell the tale. (31) The Nabateans then sent to Antigonus to complain of this crafty attack being made upon Petra after Diod. Sic. they had received from him a promise of friendlib. xix. ship. He endeavoured to put them off their guard by disowning the acts of his general; he sent them home with promises of peace, but at the same time sent forward his son Demetrius, with four thousand horse and four thousand foot, to take revenge upon them, and again seize their city. But the Arabs were this time upon their guard; the nature of the place was as unfavourable to the Greek arms and warfare as it was favourable to the Arabs; and these eight thousand men, the flower of the army, under the brave Demetrius, were unable to force their way through the narrow pass into this remarkable city. (32) Had Antigonus been master of the sea, he might perhaps have marched through the desert along the coast of the Mediterranean to Pelusium, with his fleet to wait upon his army, as Perdiccas had done. But without this, the only way that he could enter Egypt was through the neighbourhood of Petra, and then along the same path by which the Jews under Moses had come out; and the stop thus put upon the invasion of Egypt by this little city shows us the strength of Ptolemy's eastern frontier. Antigonus then led his army northward, leaving Egypt unattacked. B.C. 312. (33) This retreat was followed by a treaty of peace between these generals, by which it was agreed that each should keep the country that he then held; that Cassander should govern Macedonia until Alexander Ægus, the son of Alexander the Great, should be of age; that Lysimachus should keep Thrace, Ptolemy Egypt, and Antigonus Asia Minor and Palestine; and each wishing to be looked upon as the friend of the soldiers by whom his power was upheld, and the whole of these wide conquests kept in awe, added the very unnecessary article, that the Greeks living in each of these countries should be governed according to their own laws. (34) All the provinces held by these generals became more or less Greek kingdoms, yet in no one did so many Greeks settle as in Lower Egypt. Though the rest of Egypt was governed by Egyptian laws and judges, the city of Alexandria was under Macedonian law. It did not form part of the nome of Hermopolites, in which it was built. It scarcely formed a part of Egypt, but was a Greek state in its neighbourhood, holding the Egyptians in a state of slavery. In that city no Egyptian could live without feeling himself of a conquered race. He was not admitted to the privileges of Macedonian |
