otice of the Greeks. The glowing
earnestness of their philosophy, now put forward in a platonic dress,
and heir improved style, approaching even classic elegance, laced their
writings on a lofty eminence far above anything which the cold, lifeless
grammarians of the museum were then producing. Apion, who went to Rome
to plead against Philo, was a native of the Great Oasis, but as he was
born of Greek parents, he claimed and received the title and privileges
of an Alexandrian, which he denied to the Jews who were born in the
city. He had studied under Didymus and Apollonius and Euphranor, and was
one of the most laborious of the grammarians and editors of Homer. All
his writings are now lost. Some of them were attacks upon the Jews and
their religion, calling in question the truth of the Jewish history
and the justice of that nation's claim to high antiquity; and to these
attacks we owe Josephus' _Answer_, in which several valuable fragments
of history are saved by being quoted against the pagans in support of
the Old Testament. One of his works was his _AEgyptiaca_, an account of
what he thought most curious in Egypt. But his learned trifling is now
lost, and nothing remains of it but his account of the meeting between
Androclus and the lion, which took place in the amphitheatre at Rome
when Apion was there on his embassy. Androclus was a runaway slave, who,
when retaken, was brought to Rome to be thrown before an African lion
for the amusement of the citizens, and as a punishment for his flight.
But the fierce and hungry beast, instead of tearing him to pieces,
wagged his tail at him, and licked his feet. It seems that the slave,
when he fled from his master, had gained the friendship of the lion in
the Libyan desert, first by pulling a thorn out of his foot, and then
by living three years with him in a cave; and, when both were brought
in chains to Rome, Androclus found a grateful friend in the amphitheatre
where he thought to have met with a cruel death.

We may for a moment leave our history, to bid a last farewell to the
family of the Ptolemies. Augustus, after leading Selene, the daughter
of Cleopatra and Antony, through the streets of Rome in his triumph, had
given her in marriage to the younger Juba, the historian of Africa; and
about the same time he gave to the husband the kingdom of Mauritania,
the inheritance of his father. His son Ptolemy succeeded him on the
throne, but was soon turned out of his kingdom. W