the six years after Cleopatra had been
betrothed, was broken as soon as she was married. The war was still
going on between Antiochus and the Romans; and Epiphanes soon sent to
Rome a thousand pounds weight of gold and twenty thousand pounds of
silver, to help the republic against their common enemy. But the Romans
neither hired mercenaries nor fought as such, the thirst for gold had
not yet become the strongest feeling in the senate, and they sent back
the money to Alexandria with many thanks.

In the twentieth year of his reign Epiphanes was troubled by a second
serious rebellion of the Egyptians. Polycrates marched against them at
the head of the Greek troops; and, as he brought with him a superior
force, and the king's promise of a free pardon to all who should return
to their obedience, the rebels yielded to necessity and laid down their
arms. The leaders of the rebellion, Athinis, Pausiras, Chesuphus, and
Irobashtus, whose Koptic names prove that this was a struggle on the
part of the Egyptians to throw off the Greek yoke, were brought before
the king at Sais. Epiphanes, in whose youthful heart were joined the
cruelty and cowardice of a tyrant, who had not even shown himself to the
army during the danger, was now eager to act the conqueror; and in spite
of the promises of safety on which these brave Kopts had laid down their
arms, he had them tied to his chariot wheels, and copying the vices
of men whose virtues he could not even understand, like Achilles and
Alexander, he dragged them living round the city walls, and then ordered
them to be put to death. He then led the army to Naucratis, which was
the port of Sais, and there he embarked on the Nile for Alexandria, and
taking with him a further body of mercenaries, which Aristonicus had
just brought from Greece, he entered the city in triumph.

Ptolemy of Megalopolis, the new governor of Cyprus, copied his
predecessor, Polycrates, in his wise and careful management. His chief
aim was to keep the province quiet, and his next to collect the taxes.
He was at first distrusted by the Alexandrian council for the large sum
of money which he had got together and kept within his own power;
but when he sent it all home to the empty treasury, they were as much
pleased as they were surprised.

Apollonius, whom we have spoken of in the reign of Euergetes, and who
had been teaching at Rhodes during the reign of Philopator, was recalled
to Alexandria in the beginning of this