But the favour of Apelles with Alexander seems to have procured him the ill-will of some of the courtiers, particularly of Ptolemy, as was shown some years afterwards, when Apelles, being on a voyage to Rhodes, was shipwrecked at the mouth of the Nile; and on getting ashore repaired to Alexandria, where Ptolemy, who had become King of Egypt on Alexander’s death, then held his court. It appears that several Greek painters had already established themselves there, and that jealous of the motives of Apelles’ visit, they, in conjunction with a painter of Alexandria, named Antiphilus, planned his ruin by the following artifice. They bribed the court jester to invite Apelles formally to sup with the king. On his presenting himself, Ptolemy, remembering his ancient enmity, was extremely enraged, and threatened him with death, unless he instantly informed him of the name and quality of his inviter. Apelles being entirely ignorant of both, and unacquainted with any person at court, took a piece of charcoal and drew the face of the jester, which was recognised instantly; the life of the painter was spared; but his treatment was such that he hastened to escape from Egypt, and soon after painted, in memorial of his danger, the allegory of Calumny, which has been highly praised by the ancients, and has furnished several modern painters with a theme[127]. Apelles’ first voyage to Rhodes was expressly to visit Protogenes, at that time extremely poor, and living in obscurity. Some of his works having been brought to Athens for sale, and publicly exhibited, Apelles instantly resolved to make acquaintance with the painter, and embarked accordingly. On landing, he ran eagerly to the house of Protogenes, and, finding that he was abroad, took up his pencil, and drew a fine pure line, such as he thought only himself could draw. He left it and returned, when he hoped Protogenes might be found; but he had been obliged to leave home again, not, however, without acknowledging the line of Apelles, for he drew another still finer within it. Apelles now added a third finer than either, which Protogenes seeing, now made it his business to discover the stranger, with whom he contracted a lasting friendship[128]. The proverb that a prophet is not honoured in his own country, was not, it seems, falsified in the case of Protogenes, whose fellow-townsmen, the Rhodians, esteemed his pictures but lightly, and paid him a very inadequate price for them. Apelles, however, on inquiring the cost of some works he was engaged upon, declared he thought the sum much too small, and immediately engaged to give fifty talents for them[129]. The Rhodians, astonished at the price, imagined that Apelles had purchased them for the purpose of selling again as his own. They therefore began to open their eyes to his merit, and the reputation of Protogenes rose nearly to an equality with that of Apelles himself.