4 ⁴³ Charges were brought against Menelaus about this incident. 4 ⁴⁴ When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case before him. 4 ⁴⁵ But Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes to win over the king. 4 ⁴⁶ Therefore Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment, induced the king to change his mind. 4 ⁴⁷ Menelaus, the cause of all the evil, he acquitted of the charges against him, while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men, who would have been freed uncondemned if they had pleaded even before Scythians. 4 ⁴⁸ And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty. 4 ⁴⁹ Therefore even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently for their funeral. 4 ⁵⁰ But Menelaus, because of the cupidity of those in power, remained in office, growing in wickedness, having become the chief plotter against his fellow citizens.