But they
had brought none or not enough, and Ptolemy, secure of his patrons'
support, hired a party of banditti, who set on the deputation when it
landed, and killed the greater part of its members. Dion, the leader of
the embassy, escaped for a time. There was still a small party among the
aristocracy (Cato and Cato's followers) who had a conscience in such
things; and Favonius, one of them, took up Dion's cause. Envoys and allied
sovereigns or provinces, he said, were continually being murdered. Noble
lords received hush-money, and there had been no inquiry. Such things
happened too often, and ought to be stopped. The Senate voted decently to
send for Dion and examine him. But Favonius was privately laughed at as
"Cato's ape;" the unfortunate Dion was made away with, and Pompey took
Ptolemy into his own house and openly entertained him there. Pompey would
himself perhaps have undertaken the restoration, but the Senate was
jealous. His own future was growing uncertain; and eventually, without
asking for a consent which the Senate would have refused to give, he sent
his guest to Syria with a charge to his friend Gabinius to take him back
on his own responsibility.[12]
The killing of envoys and the taking of hush-money by senators were, as
Favonius had said, too common to attract much notice; but the affair of
Ptolemy, like that of Jugurtha, had obtained an infamous notoriety.
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