his
pride and haughtiness of manner, and inattention to those who had to make
any request from him.

One day, when he was passing through the streets, some persons brought
him some petitions, which he received more graciously than usual, and
placed them in one of the folds of his robe; but as soon as he came to a
bridge over a river he threw them into the water, to the great offence
and disappointment of the poor people who had brought them.

This was very unlike Ptolemy, who was a wise, clear-headed man, with much
of Alexander's spirit of teaching and improving people under him, and who
ruled so as to make himself much beloved in Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes, and
Palestine. The new city of Alexandria was his capital, and under him and
his son Ptolemy Philadelphus it grew to be a great merchant city, and
also a school of art, science, and philosophy almost as famous as Athens,
and with a library containing all the chief books in the world, including
the Old Testament. This was translated into Greek by 70 learned Jews,
and therefore called the Septuagint.

Seleucus, king of Syria, held all the lands from Persia to Asia Minor.
His capital was Antioch, in Syria, which he had built and named after his
son Antiochus, and which became a very splendid and beautiful city, full
of a light-minded, merry people, fond of games and shows. He built many
other places, calling them after himself or his son, and placing Greeks
to live in them. Thus, though Alexander only reigned twelve years, he
had made a great difference to the world, for the Greek language,
learning, and habits were spread all over the East, and every well-taught
person was brought up in them. So that, while the grand old Greek states
were in bondage, and produced no more great men, their teachings had
spread farther than they ever thought.

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CHAP. XXXIII--PYRRHUS, KING OF EPIRUS. B.C. 287.

To the westward of Greece lay a mountainous land, bordered by the
Adriatic Sea, and in old times called Epirus. The people spoke a sort of
barbarous Greek, worse than that of the Macedonians; but the royal family
were pure Greeks, and believed themselves to be descended from Achilles;
and Alexander's mother, Olympias, had been one of them. In the wars and
confusion that followed upon Alexander's death, the Epirot king,
AEacides, took part, and this led to a rising against him, ending in his
being killed, with