s
of Alexandria by a Greek girl in the procession. One of the chief
troubles in the reign of Philadelphus was the revolt of Cyrene. The
government of that part of Africa had been entrusted to Magas, the
half-brother of the king, a son of Berenice by her former husband.
Berenice, who had been successful in setting aside Ceraunus to make room
for her son Philadelphus on the throne of Egypt, has even been said to
have favoured the rebellious and ungrateful efforts of her elder son
Magas to make himself King of Cyrene. Magas, without waiting till the
large armies of Egypt were drawn together to crush his little state,
marched hastily towards Alexandria, in the hopes of being joined by
some of the restless thousands of that crowded city. But he was quickly
recalled to Cyrene by the news of the rising of the Marmaridas, the race
of Libyan herdsmen that had been driven back from the coast by the Greek
settlers who founded Cyrene. Philadelphus then led his army along the
coast against the rebels; but he was, in the same way, stopped by the
fear of treachery among his own Gallic mercenaries. With a measured
cruelty which the use of foreign mercenaries could alone have taught
him, he led back his army to the marshes of the Delta, and, entrapping
the four thousand distrusted Gauls* on one of the small islands, he
hemmed them in between the water and the spears of the phalanx, and they
all died miserably, by famine, by drowning, or by the sword.

* It is not known for certain from what part of the world
these Gauls were recruited. The race known as Gallic was at
one time spread over a wide district from Gallicia in the
East to Gallia in the West.

Magas had married Apime, the daughter of Antiochus Soter, King of Syria;
and he sent to his father-in-law to beg him to march upon Coele-Syria
and Palestine, to call off the army of Philadelphus from Cyrene. But
Philadelphus did not wait for this attack: his armies moved before
Antiochus was ready, and, by a successful inroad upon Syria, he
prevented any relief being sent to Magas.

After the war between the brothers had lasted some years, Magas made
an offer of peace, which was to be sealed by betrothing his only
child, Berenice, to the son of Philadelphus. To this offer Philadelphus
yielded; as by the death of Magas, who was already worn out by luxury
and disease, Cyrene would then fall to his own son. Magas, indeed, died
before the marriage took place; but, notwi