I. The Consuls of the year preceding had just been succeeded by Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus and L. Marcius Philippus; the latter allied by family to Cæsar, whose niece, Atia, he had married.[603] It was in vain that the chief magistrates succeeded each other annually, the change of persons led to no change in the state of the Republic. There happened about this time a circumstance which showed to what a low degree of contempt law and morality had fallen. Ptolemy Auletes, King of Egypt, father of the famous Cleopatra, hated by his subjects, had fled from Alexandria, and arrived in Rome, towards the end of 697, in spite of the advice of M. Cato, whom he had met at Rhodes. He came to solicit the protection of the Republic against the Egyptians, who, in his absence, had given the crown to his daughter Berenice. He had obtained the title, then the object of so much emulation, of friend and ally of the Roman people, by purchasing the suffrages of a great number of considerable personages, which had obliged him to exact heavy taxes from his subjects. He was at first well received, for it was known that he had brought with him his treasure, ready for distribution among his new protectors. Pompey gave him a lodging in his house,[604] and declared publicly in his favour. But the Egyptians, when they were informed of his departure, sent an embassy, composed of more than a hundred persons, to defend their cause; most of them were assassinated on their way by Ptolemy’s agents; and the rest, terrified or corrupted by force of bribery, never carried out their mission.[605] This affair made so much noise, that Favonius, called the _ape_ of Cato, because he imitated his austerity, denounced the conduct of Ptolemy in the Senate, and added that he knew one of the Egyptian deputies, named Dio, who was ready to confirm his assertions. Dio did not dare to appear, and, a short time after, was assassinated. In spite of this crime, Pompey persisted in his friendship for Ptolemy, and no one dared to prosecute the guest of so powerful a man.[606]