Cleomenes was not forgotten. If his popularity with the mercenaries
could secure their allegiance, he could, when he chose, make them rebel;
from that time he was treated rather as a prisoner than as a friend,
and by his well-meaning but incautious observation he lost all chance
of being helped to regain his kingdom. Nothing is known of the death of
Euergetes, the late king, and there is no proof that it was by unfair
means. But when his son began a cruel and wicked reign by putting to
death his mother and brother, and by taking the name of Philopator, or
father-loving, the world seems to have thought that he was the murderer
of his father, and had taken this name to throw a cloak over the deed.
By this murder of his brother, and by the minority both of Antiochus,
King of Syria, and of Philip, King of Macedonia, Philopator found
himself safe from enemies either at home or abroad, and he gave himself
up to a life of thoughtlessness and pleasure. The army and fleet were
left to go to ruin, and the foreign provinces, which had hitherto been
looked upon as the bulwarks of Egypt, were only half-guarded; but the
throne rested on the virtues of his forefathers, and it was not till his
death that it was found to have been undermined by his own follies and
vice.

Egypt had been governed by kings of more than usual wisdom for above one
hundred years, and was at the very height of its power when Philopator
came to the throne. He found himself master of Ethiopia, Cy-rene,
Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, part of Upper Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes, the cities
along the coast of Asia Minor from Pamphilia to Lysimachia, and the
cities of AEnos and Maronea in Thrace. The unwilling obedience of
distant provinces usually costs more than it is worth; but many of these
possessions across the Mediterranean had put themselves willingly into
the power of his predecessors for the sake of their protection, and
they cost little more than a message to warn off invaders. Egypt was the
greatest naval power in the world, having the command of the sea and the
whole of the coast at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

On the death of Euergetes, the happiness of the people came to an end.
The first trouble arose from the loose and vicious habits of the new
king, and was an attempt made upon his life by Cleomenes, who found the
palace in Alexandria had now become a prison. The Spartan took advantage
of the king's being at Canopus to escape from his guards, and to r