strike and sink the ships of the enemy.  The royal barge, in which the king and court moved on the quiet waters of the Nile, was nearly as large as this ship of war.  It was three hundred and thirty feet long, and forty-five feet wide; it was fitted up with staterooms and private rooms, and was nearly sixty feet high to the top of the royal awning.  A third ship, which even surpassed these in its fittings and ornaments, was given to Philopator by Hiero, King of Syracuse.  It was built under the care of Archimedes, and its timbers would have made sixty triremes.  Beside baths, and rooms for pleasures of all kinds, it had a library, and astronomical instruments, not only for navigation, as in modern ships, but for study, as in an observatory.  It was a ship of war, and had eight towers, from each of which stone’s were to be thrown at the enemy by six men.  Its machines, like modern cannons, could throw stones of three hundred pounds weight, and arrows of eighteen feet in length.  It had four anchors of wood, and eight of iron.  It was called the ship of Syracuse, but after it had been given to Philopator it was known by the name of the ship of Alexandria.

In the second year of Philopator’s reign the Romans began that long and doubtful war with Hannibal, called the second Punic war, and in the twelfth year of this reign they sent ambassadors to renew their treaty of peace with Egypt.  They sent as their gifts robes of purple for Philopator and Arsinoe, and for Philopator a chair of ivory and gold, which was the usual gift of the republic to friendly kings.  The Alexandrians kept upon good terms both with the Romans and the Carthaginians during the whole of the Punic wars.

When the city of Rhodes, which had long been joined in close friendship with Egypt, was shaken by an earthquake, that threw down the colossal statue of Apollo, together with a large part of the city walls and docks, Philopator was not behind the other friendly kings and states in his gifts and help.  He sent to his brave allies a large sum of money, with grain, timber, and hemp.

On the birth of his son and 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.