s said,
were settled in Alexandria when Palestine was governed by Greek generals
and princes. But Judaea was wrested from Ptolemy Lagus by Antigonus, and
again recovered by Ptolemy after the battle of Ipsus, in 301 B.C. Under
Ptolemy Egypt became a powerful kingdom, and still more so under his
son Philadelphus, who made Alexandria the second capital of the
world,--commercially, indeed, the first. It became also a great
intellectual centre, and its famous library was the largest ever
collected in classical antiquity. This city was the home of scholars and
philosophers from all parts of the world. Under the auspices of an
enlightened monarch, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek,
the version being called the Septuagint,--an immense service to sacred
literature. The Jews enjoyed great prosperity under this Grecian prince,
and Palestine was at peace with powerful neighbors, protected by the
great king who favored the Jews as the Persian monarchs had done. Under
his successor, Ptolemy Euergetes, a still more powerful king, the empire
reached its culminating glory, and was extended as far as Antioch and
Babylon. Under the next Ptolemy,--Philopater,--degeneracy set in; but
the empire was not diminished, and the Syrian monarch Antiochus III.,
called the Great, was defeated at the battle of Raphia, 217. Under the
successor of the enervated Egyptian king, Ptolemy V., a child five years
old, Antiochus the Great retrieved the disaster at Raphia, and in 199
won a victory over Scopas the Egyptian general, in consequence of which
Judaea, with Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, passed from the Ptolemies to the
Seleucidae.

Judaea now became the battle-ground for the contending Syrian and
Egyptian armies, and after two hundred years of peace and prosperity her
calamities began afresh. She was cruelly deceived and oppressed by the
Syrian kings and their generals, for the "kings of the North" were more
hostile to the Jews than the "kings of the South." In consequence of the
incessant wars between Syria and Egypt, many Jews emigrated, and became
merchants, bankers, and artisans in all the great cities of the world,
especially in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, where all
departments of industry were freely opened to them. In the time of
Philo, there were more than a million of Jews in these various
countries; but they remained Jews, and tenaciously kept the laws and
traditions of their nation. In every large city were Jewis