Here, too, O Ptolemy, beneath thy sway What cities glitter to the beams of day! Lo! with thy statelier pomp no kingdom vies, While round thee thrice ten thousand cities rise. Struck by the terror of thy flashing sword, Syria bowed down, Arabia called thee Lord; Phoenicia trembled, and the Libyan plain, With the black Ethiop, owned thy wide domain: E'en Lesser Asia and her isles grew pale As o'er the billows passed thy crowd of sail. Earth feels thy nod, and all the subject sea; And each resounding river rolls for thee. And while, around, thy thick battalions flash, Thy proud steeds neighing for the warlike clash-- Through all thy marts the tide of commerce flows, And wealth beyond a monarch's grandeur glows. Such gold-haired Ptolemy! whose easy port Speaks the soft polish of the mannered court; And whose severer aspect, as he wields The spear, dire-blazing, frowns in tented fields. And though he guards, while other kingdoms own His conquering arms, the hereditary throne, Yet in vast heaps no useless treasure stored Lies, like the riches of an emmet's hoard; To mighty kings his bounty he extends, To states confederate and illustrious friends. No bard at Bacchus' festival appears, Whose lyre has power to charm the ravished ears, But he bright honors and rewards imparts, Due to his merits, equal to his arts; And poets hence, for deathless song renowned, The generous fame of Ptolemy resound. At what more glorious can the wealthy aim Than thus to purchase fair and lasting fame? -Trans. by FAWKES. Cassander survived the establishment of his power in Greece only four years, and as his sons quarreled over the succession; Demetrius, son of Antigonus, seized the opportunity to interfere in their disputes, cut off the brother who had invited his aid, and made himself master of the throne of Macedon, which was held by him and his posterity, except during a brief interruption after his death, down to the time of the Roman Conquest. For a number of years succeeding the death of Demetrius, Macedon, Greece, and western Asia were harassed with the wars excited by the various aspirants to power; and in this situation of affairs a storm, unseen in the distance, but that had long been gathering, suddenly burst upon Macedon, threatening to convert, by its ravages, the whole Grecian peninsula into a scene of desolation. * * * * * III. THE CELTIC INVASION, AND THE WAR WITH PYRRHUS.