permission to pay her last respects to the memory of Antony she bathed the tomb with her tears, covered it with flowers, and, with many expressions of grief, performed such ceremonies as were practised among the Egyptians on similar occasions. But Epaphroditus kept so close to her during the whole time, that she had no opportunity of attempting any thing on her own life.

Upon her return she commanded a sumptuous entertainment to be made, and exhibited an uncommon degree of vivacity during the feast. In the height of her apparent mirth, she rose from table, and wrote a letter to Octavius, which she requested Epaphroditus to deliver with his own hands immediately. Having by this artifice delivered herself from the observation of Cæsar's freedman, she retired, with two female attendants, to her chamber, where she dressed herself in her royal robes, lay down on her bed, and asked for a basket of figs which one of her faithful servants had brought her in the disguise of a peasant. Among the figs was concealed an asp *, which she applied to her left arm, and, sinking immediately into a lethargy, she expired in the arms of her maids.

Octavius, having found by Cleopatra's letter that she had resolved to destroy herself, immediately dispatched some of his friends to see what had happened, and to prevent, if possible, the accomplishment of her purpose. These persons found the guards standing at the gate, and mistrusting nothing: but on their entering the queen's

A kind of serpent peculiar to Egypt and Libya, and of a very venomous nature; those who were bitten by it fell immediately into a lethargy, and died without exhibiting any sensations of pain.

apartment, they found her lying dead on a golden bed, in her royal robes: one of her maids likewise dead at her feet, and the other expiring by her side. Octavius, being informed of these particulars, hastened to the apartment, and tried all possible means to recover his fair prisoner. But finding that his attempts were fruitless, he granted her last petition, and caused her to be buried with the utmost pomp in the same tomb with Antony.

B. C.

Thus died Cleopatra, in the thirty-ninth 30. year of her age, and the twenty-second of

her reign. She was a woman of extraordinary abilities, for she is said to have been perfect mistress of the Greek and Latin languages, and to have conversed fluently with Ethiopians, Troglodites, Jews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, and Persians, without the assistance of an interpreter. She retained, in the midst of her voluptuousness, a taste for polite learning, and erected a magnificent library, which she enriched with the two hundred thousand volumes taken from Pergamus. She seems to have been capable of the most ardent attachments, but ambition was her ruling passion, and to this she sacrificed her love, her kingdom, and her life. In her ended the family of Ptolemy Lagus, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, after it had retained the sceptre two hundred and ninety-three years, from the death of Alexander the Great.

After Cleopatra's decease, Egypt was reduced to a Roman province, and governed by a prætor sent thither from Rome.

СНАР.

CHAP. V.

THE HISTORY OF THE MOABITES, AMMONITES, MIDIANITES, EDOMITES, AND AMALEKITES.

SECTION. I.

The History of Moab.

Abra

OT, the progenitor of this people, was, after his father Haran's deccase, brought from Ur of the Chaldees, to Haran in Mesopotamia; and placed beneath the protection of his uncle Abraham, who carried him with him into Canaan. From thence they were compelled, by a famine, to remove into Egypt: and soon after their return, they deemed it advisable to separate, as their flocks and herds were so greatly increased, that they began to experience the want of pasture and water. ham gave his nephew the choice of removing to what part of the country he thought proper: and Lot immediately chose the plain of Jordan, which at that time was so fertile and irriguous, as to be deemed comparable with the land of Egypt, and even with Paradise itself. In this delightful plain, Lot fixed his abode in the vicinage of Sodom, and afterwards dwelt in the city itself. But the Sodomites being overpowered by the victorious Chedorlaomer and his allies, Lot had the misfortune to be taken prisoner with all his family, and must have

have been carried away by the enemy, had not Abraham taken up arms in his behalf, and recovered all his effects. Notwithstanding this warning, and the unnatural wickedness of the inhabitants, he still continued to live in Sodom, till the offended Deity sent two angels with an express commission to destroy the place.

The heavenly messengers approached Sodom in the cool of the evening, and found Lot sitting in the gate. He, supposing them to have been travellers, invited them to his house, according to the hospitality of the eastern nations. But they had scarcely accepted his proffered accommodation, when the citizens assembled in a tumultuous manner, and demanded that the strangers should be delivered up to them. Lot, who was perfectly aware of their horrible design, endea voured to disperse them by soft persuasions, and even consented to sacrifice his own virgin daughters to their impurity, for the preservation of his guests; but, as this offer was peremptorily rejected, and the iniquitous citizens proceeded to violence, the angels suddenly pulled their host into the house, shut the door, and struck the rioters with blindness.

In the mean time the angels acquainted Lot with the nature of their commission, and earnestly exhorted him to provide for his own safety, and that of his friends. In consequence of which, he went before day-break to his sons-inlaw, and warned them of the impending danger, which they could only avoid by immediate flight, but his salutary advice was rejected.

Early on the morrow, the angels commanded Lot to depart with his wife and two daughters, lest they should be involved in the general destruction;

struction; and, on his appearing somewhat dilatory, they hastily laid hold of him and his relatives, and brought them out of the city, enjoining them to escape with the utmost speed to the mountains, and advising them not to look back lest they should be consumed. Lot, considering that the mountains were at a considerable distance, and fearing lest he should be unable to reach them in time for the preservation of his life, earnestly intreated permission to retreat to a small city near Sodom, then called Bela, bút afterwards distinguished by the name of Zoar. The angels readily granted his request, and assured him, their commission should not be executed till he had reached the place. Immediately after sun-rise, the threatened retribution descended on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah : and Lot's wife, unmindful of the angel's express command, looked back, and was instantly changed into a pillar of salt.

Lot soon quitted Zoar after this awful catastrophe, and went with his daughters to the mountains, on the east of the Dead sea, where he dwelt in a cave. In this solitude, the two young women dreading lest they should die childless, contrived to deceive their father, and have issue by him. They accordingly reduced their plan to execution, and from their incestuous commerce proceeded two sons, one of whom was named Moab, the father of the people now under consideration.

The descendants of Lot settled in the country bordering on the above-mentioned mountain, which some authors suppose to have been a part of Colo-Syria, while others affirm that it belongs

to