d heir, in B.C. 209, ambassadors crowded to
Alexandria with gifts and messages of joy. But they were all thrown into
the shade by Hyrcanus, the son of Joseph, who was sent from Jerusalem by
his father, and who brought to the king one hundred boys and one hundred
girls, each carrying a talent of silver.

Philopator, soon after the birth of this his only child, employed
Philammon, at the bidding of his mistress, to put to death his queen and
sister Arsinoe, or Eurydice, as she is sometimes called. He had already
forgotten his rank, and his name ennobled by the virtues of three
generations, and had given up his days and nights to vice and riot.
He kept in his pay several fools, or laughing-stocks as they were then
called, who were the chosen companions of his meals; and he was the
first who brought eunuchs into the court of Alexandria. His mistress
Agathoclea, her brother Agathocles, and their mother OEnanthe, held him
bound by those chains which clever, worthless, and selfish favourites
throw around the mind of a weak and debauched king. Agathocles, who
never left his side, was his adviser in matters of business or pleasure,
and governed alike the army, the courts of justice, and the women. Thus
was spent a reign of seventeen years, during which the king had never
but once, when he met Antiochus in battle, roused himself from his life
of sloth.

The misconduct and vices of Agathocles raised such an outcry against
him, that Philopator, without giving up the pleasure of his favourite's
company, was forced to take away from him the charge of receiving the
taxes. That high post was then given to Tlepolemus, a young man, whose
strength of body and warlike courage had made him the darling of the
soldiers. Another charge given to Tlepolemus was that of watching over
the supply and price of corn in Alexandria. The wisest statesmen of old
thought it part of a king's duty to take care that the people were fed,
and seem never to have found out that it would be better done if the
people were left to take care of themselves. They thought it moreover a
piece of wise policy, or at any rate of clever kingcraft, to keep down
the price of food in the capital at the cost of the rest of the kingdom,
and even sometimes to give a monthly fixed measure of corn to each
citizen. By such means as these the crowd of poor and restless citizens,
who swell the mob of every capital, was larger in Alexandria than it
otherwise would have been; and the d