aise
a riot in Alexandria; but not being able to gain the citadel, and seeing
that disgrace and death must follow upon his failure, he stabbed himself
with his own dagger.

The kingdom of Syria, after being humbled by Ptolemy Euergetes,
had risen lately under the able rule of Antiochus, son of Seleucus
Callinicus. He was a man possessed of abilities of a high order. His
energy and courage soon recovered from Egypt the provinces that Syria
had before lost, and afterwards gained for him the name of Antiochus the
Great. He made himself master of the city of Damascus by a stratagem.
Soon after this, Seleucia, the capital, which had been taken by
Euergetes, was retaken by Antiochus, or rather given up to him by
treachery. Theodotus also, the Alexandrian governor of Coele-Syria,
delivered up to him that province; and Antiochus marched southward, and
had taken Tyre and Ptolemais before the Egyptian army could be brought
into the field. There he gained forty ships of war, of which twenty were
decked vessels with four banks of oars, and the others smaller. He
then marched towards Egypt, and on his way learned that Ptolemy was at
Memphis. On his arrival at Pelusium he found that the place was strongly
guarded, and that the garrison had opened the flood-gates from the
neighbouring lake, and thereby spoiled the fresh water of all the
neighbourhood; he therefore did not lay siege to that city, but seized
many of the open towns on the east side of the Nile.

On this, Philopator roused himself from his idleness, and got together
his forces against the coming danger. His troops consisted of Greeks,
Egyptians, and mercenaries to the total of seventy-three thousand men
and seventy-three elephants, or one elephant to every thousand men,
which was the number usually allowed to the armies about this time. But
before this army reached Pelusium, Antiochus had led back his forces
to winter in Seleucia. The next spring Antiochus again marched towards
Egypt with an army of seventy-two thousand foot, six thousand horse, and
one hundred and two elephants. Philopator led his whole forces to the
frontier to oppose his march, and met the Syrian army near the village
of Raphia, the border town between Egypt and Palestine. Arsinoe, his
queen and sister, rode with him on horseback through the ranks, and
called upon the soldiers to fight for their wives and children. At first
the Egyptians seemed in danger of being beaten. As the armies approached
one