The first successor of Lathyrus in Egypt was his legitimate daughter Cleopatra Berenice, 81: at the end of six months, however, Sylla, then dictator at Rome, sent his client Alexander II. to Egypt, 80; that prince married Berenice, and with her ascended the throne. Nineteen days after Alexander murdered his consort, and, according to Appian, was himself about the same time cut off by the Alexandrines, on account of his tyranny. We afterwards hear, notwithstanding, of a king Alexander, who reigned until 73, or, according to others, until 66; when, being driven out of Egypt, he fled to Tyre, and called upon the Romans for that aid, which probably through Caesar's intercession, would have been granted, had not the supplicant soon after died at the place of his refuge. He is said to have bequeathed by will his kingdom to Rome; and although the senate did not accept the legacy, it does not appear to have formally rejected the offer; in consequence of which, frequent attempts were made at Rome for effecting the occupation.--Either, therefore, Appian's account must be false, and this person was the same Alexander II. or he was some other person bearing that name, and belonging to the royal house.--Be this as it may, after the death of Lathyrus the kingdom was dismembered: and one of his illegitimate sons, Ptolemy, had received Cyprus, but that island was taken from him, 57, and converted into a Roman province: the other, Ptolemy Auletes, seems to have kept his footing either in a part of Egypt, or in Cyrene, and was probably the cause of Alexander's expulsion, at whose decease he ascended the throne; although the Syrian queen Selene, sister to Lathyrus, asserted her son's claims at Rome, as legitimate heir to the throne of Egypt. With Caesar's assistance, Auletes, however, succeeded in obtaining the formal acknowledgment of his right at Rome, 59. But the measures taken by the Romans with regard to Cyprus, gave rise to a sedition at Alexandria, 57, in consequence of which Auletes, being compelled to flee, passed over into Italy: or, perhaps, he was ordered to take this step by the intrigues of some Roman grandees, anxious of an opportunity to reinstate him. Pompey's attempts, with this view, are thwarted by Cato, 56. Meanwhile the Alexandrines placed Berenice, the eldest daughter of Auletes, on the throne; she married first Seleucus Cybiosactes, as being the lawful heir; and after putting that prince to death, united herself to Archelaus, 57.--Actual restoration of Auletes by the purchased assistance of Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria; and execution of Berenice, whose husband had fallen in the war, 54. Not long after, this miserable prince, no less effeminate than tyrannical, died, 51. J. R. FORSTER, _Commentatio de successoribus Ptolemaei VII._ Inserted in _Comment. Soc. Gotting._ vol. iii.