Book 5
35
And after all these things came a procession of troops, both. cavalry and infantry, all armed and appointed in a most superb manner: infantry to the number of fifty-seven thousand six hundred; and cavalry to the number of twenty-three thousand two hundred. And all these marched in the procession, all clad in suitable apparel, and all having their appropriate armour; and there were also great numbers of suits of armour besides lying for inspection, too numerous for any one to count, (but Callixenus has made a catalogue of them;) and they were also crowned in the assembly with twenty golden crowns. And first of all Ptolemy and Berenice were crowned with twenty-three, standing on golden chariots, in the sacred precincts of Dodona. And the expense of money which was incurred on this occasion, amounted to two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine talents, ad fifty mine; and this was all counted by the clerks of the treasury, owing to the eagernessThere is a great dispute among the commentators as to the exact reading of this passage, or its meaning. Palmer says the crowns were given by different cities and tribes; and that what the king, an queen, and prince wore were not the crowns themselves, but a model of them in papyrus, with an inscription on each, stating its weight, a d what city had given it. of those who had given the crowns, before the spectacle came to an end. But Ptolemy Philadel- phus, their son, was crowned with twenty golden crowns, two of them on golden chariots, and one six cubits high on a pillar, and five five cubits high, and six four cubits high.
