Note 706 — LIFE OF CATO.

This Ptolemæus, the brother of Ptolemæus Auletes, King of Egypt, was now in possession of Cyprus, and the mission of Cato, which could not be to his taste, was to take possession of the island for the Romans. When Clodius had been made prisoner by the pirates nine years before, Ptolemæus was asked to contribute to his ransom but he only sent two talents, for which ill-timed saving he was mulcted in his whole kingdom by this unprincipled tribune (Drumann, Claudii, p. 263).