History of Egypt from 330 B.C. to the present time

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Egyptian Slgve

From the painting by Siefert

History of Egypt

From 330 B. C. to the Present Time

By S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel ;
Member of the Ecole Langues Orientales, Paris ;
Russian, German, French Orientalist and Philologist

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED
COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume II.

LONDON
THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

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Copyright, igo4
By The Grolier Society

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Roman Dominion on the Nile — Settlement of the Egyptian Fron-
tiers — Religious Developments — Rebellions 3

CHAPTER II.

THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

The Ascendency of the New Religion — The Arian Controversies — The
Zenith of Monasticism — The Final Struggle of Paganism — The
Decline of Alexandria 187

CHAPTER III.

EGYPT DURING THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

The Rise of Muhammedanism — The Arabic Conquest of Egypt — The

Ommayad and Abbasid Dynasties 323

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGE

Egyptian Slave Frontispiece

Ornament from the Moristan of Kilawun 3

Coin of Augustus 3

The Nilometer at Elephantine 11

On the edge of the Desert 16

A Koptic Maiden 19

Fragments in stone and wood, painted 23

Temple at Tefttyra, enlarged by Roman architects 24

On the Banks of the Nile 27

Bedouin Tent in the Desert 29

A Relief from Saqq&ra 89

Egyptian Threshing Machine 41

An Egyptian Postman 43

An Arab Girl 47

Farming in Egypt 51

Maltese Coin 57

Coin of Cossyra ........... 58

Coin of Nero 59

Ethiopian Arabs ........... 63

Egyptian Coin of Galba 68

Scene in a Sepulchral Chamber 79

Harpocrates . 80

Coins of Domitian 81

Coin of Nerva 82

Trinity of fsis, Horus, and Nephthys 83

Coins of Trajan 84

Egyptian Wig (British Museum) 86

Antoninian Temple near Sinai 89

Commemorative Coin of Antinous 95

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGE

Rose-colouied Lotus 97

Vocal Statue of Amenhdthes ^^

Egyptian Oracle 102

Koptic Charm and Scarabseus 106

Gnostic Gem 107

Gems showing ^mbol of Death and the Word lAQ (Javeh) . . • 108

Hadrian's Egyptian Coins 109

Coins of Antoninus Pius 112

Statue of the Nile 115

Coins of Marcus Aurelius 117

The Harbour of Alexandria 118

Alexandrian forms of Writing 120

A Snake-Charmer 122

The Sign of NobiUty 123

Cartouche of Commodus 125

The Anubis StafE 126

Canopic Jars 128

Religious Procession 130

Shrine 131

Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic -writing 135

A Native of Aswan 139

Painting at the entrance to the Fifth Tomb of the Kings to the West,

Thebes 141

A Modern Scribe 149

Symbol of Egypt 151

A Harem Window 155

Coin of Zenobia 159

Coin of Athenodorus 161

Vender of Metal Ware 165

Coin of Domitianus with Latin Inscription 165

Coin of Severina 167

Coin of Trajan's Second Legion 169

Symbol of Mithra 179

Dome Palm of Upper Egypt 184

An Ancient Egyptian Necklace 187

The Papyrus Flower 187

The Island of Rhoda 199

Houses built on Piles at Punt 207

Temple of Abu Simbel in Nubia 213

Coin of Constantius, a. d. 347 220

A Young Egyptian wearing the Royal Lock 225

An Egyptian Water-Carrier 231

Remains of Christian Church in the Temple at Luxor .... 237

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGE

Temple Courtyard, Medinet Abu 243

Christian Picture at Abii Simbel 248

Manf aloot, showing the Height of the Nile in Summer .... 250

Quarries at Toorah on the Nile 257

Street and Mosque of Mahdjiar 259

Kamses II. and St. Peter 264

The Papyrus Plant 267

Arabs resting in the Desert c . . 271

Isis as the Dog Star 279

Street Sprinkler at Alexandria 285

Illustration from copy of Dioscorides 291

Fortress near Mount Sinai 302

Pyramid of Medum 307

A Modern House in the Delta at Kosetta 313

Coins of Justinian 316

Ornament from the Porch of the Sultan Hassan 323

Ornament from the Mosque of Baxkuk 323

CoinofAli 325

Coin of Omar 326

Old Cairo (Fostat) 329

A Modern Kopt 333

Mosque of Amr 335

Coin of Abu Bekr 387

Coin of Othman 337

Coin of Malik 338

Citadel of Cairo (Fostat) 339

A Crocodile used as a Talisman 341

Door of an Arabian House 347

A Veiled Beauty 349

Tomb of a Sheikh 351

Janizary of the Guard .......... 353

The Mosque of ibn Tulun, Cairo 356

Sanctuary of the Mosque of ibn Tulun 359

Mosque of Ahmed ibn Tulun 363

Coin of Abu Bekr 365

Mosque Tomb near Sy§nS 371

Mosque of Hakim 379

Mustanssir's Gate at Cairo 383

THE ROMAN, CHRISTIAN, AND ARABIC

PERIODS

THE ROMAN ADMINISTRATION IN EGYPT — THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY —

THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY THE GROWTH OP MONASTICISM THE

DECLINE OP ALEXANDRIA THE ARAB INVASION AND THE SPREAD

OP MUHAMMEDANISM — THE ARAB DYNASTIES.

Augustus remodels the government of Egypt — A new calendar intro-
duced — Egypt surveyed — Dissension between Jews and Q-reeks at
Alexandria — Strabo's visit — The Egyptian religion at Rome — Wise
administration of Tiberius — The rise of the Therapeutce — Lake
Moeris destroyed — The origin of Chemistry — The fable of the Phoenix
— Christianity introduced — Fiscal reforms under G-alba — Vespasian
in Egypt — Fall of Jerusalem — The Nile Canal restored — Hadrian's
voyage up the Nile — Death of Antinous — Christians and Ghnostics —
Astrology and Astronomy — Roman roads in Egypt — Commerce and
Sports — The Growth of Christianity — Severus visits Egypt — The
massacre of the Alexandrians — Ammonius Saccas and the Alexandrian
Platonists — The School of Origen — Rise of Controversy — Decline of
Commerce — Zenobia in Syria — Growing importance of the Arabs —
Revolt and recapture of Alexandria — Persecution of the Christians-
under Diocletian — Introduction of the Manichean heresy.

( 2 )

Constantine the Great converted — Privileges of the clergy — Dog-
matic disputes — Council of Niccea and the first Nicene Creed — Atha-
nasian and Arian controversies — Founding of Constantinople — Decline
of Alexandria — Imperial appointments in the Church — Religious
riots — Triumphs of Athanasius — Persecution by Bishop George
of Cappadocia — Early mission work — Development of the monastic
system — Text of the Bible — The monks and military service — Sara-
cenic encroachments — Theodosius overthrows Paganism — Destruction
of the Great lAbrary — Pagan and Christian literature — Story of
Hypatia — The Arabs defeat the Romans — The Koptic New Testa-
ment — Egypt separated from Rome — The Council of Chalcedon —
Paganism restored in Upper Egypt — The Henoticon — The writings
of Hieroeles — Relations with Persia — Inroads of the Arabs — Jus-
tinian^ s fiscal reforms — Coinage restored — The Persians enter Egypt.
-The lAfe of Muhammed — Amr conquers Egypt — The legend of
Omar and the Great Library — The founding of Fostat — The Chris-
tians taxed — Muhammedan oppression in Egypt — The Ommayad
and Abbasid dynasties — Caliph Harun er-Rashid — Turkish body-
guards — Rise of the Tulunite Dynasty — Office of Prince of Princes
— Reign of Muhammed ellkshid — War with Byzantium — Fatimite
Caliphs — The Ismailians and Mahdism — Reign of Mustanssir —
Turkish Rapacity — Ihd of the Fatimite Rule.

ORNAMENT FROM THE MOEI8TAN OP KILAWUN.

CHAPTER I

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Roman dominion on the Nile : Settlement of the Egyptian frontiers-.
Religious developments : Rebellions.

A UGUSTUS began his reign
in Egypt in b. c. 30 by
ordering all tbe statues of An-
tony, of which there were
more than fifty ornamenting
the various public buildings
of the city, to be broken to pieces; and it is said he
had the meanness to receive a bribe of one thousand tal-
ents from Archibus, a friend of Cleopatra, that the
queen's statues might be left standing. It seems to have
been part of his kingcraft to give the offices of greatest
trust to men of low birth, who were at the same time well

COIN or AUGUSTUS.

4 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

aware that they owed their employments to their seem-
ing want of ambition. Thus the government of Egypt,
the greatest and richest of the provinces, was given to
Cornelius Gallus.

Before the faU of the republic the senate had given
the command of the provinces to members of their own
body only; and therefore Augustus, not wishing to alter
the law, obtained from the senate for himself aU those
governments which he meant to give to men of lower
rank. By this legal fiction, these equestrian prefects
were answerable for their conduct to nobody but the
emperor on a petition, and they could not be sued at law
before the senate for their misdeeds. But he made an
exception in the case of Egypt. While on the one hand
in that province he gave to the prefect's edicts the force
of law, on the other he allowed him to be cited before the
senate, though appointed by himself. The power thus
given to the senate they never ventured to use, and the
prefect of Egypt was never punished or removed but by
the emperor. Under the prefect was the chief justice
of the province, who heard himself, or by deputy, all
causes except those which were reserved for the decision
of the emperor in person. These last were decided by a
second judge, or in modem language a chancellor, as
they were too numerous and too trifling to be taken to
Rome. Under these judges were numerous freedmen of
the emperor, and clerks entrusted with affairs of greater
and less weight. Of the native magistrates the chief
were the keeper of the records, the police judge, the
prefect of the night, and the Exegetes, or interpreter

THE JULIAN YEAE 5

of the Egyptian law, who was allowed to wear a purple
robe like a Roman magistrate. But these Egyptian mag-
istrates were never treated as citizens; they were bar-
barians, little better than slaves, and only raised to the
rank of the emperor's freedmen.

Augustus showed not a little jealousy in the rest of
the laws by which his new province was to be governed.
While other conquered cities usually had a senate or
municipal form of government granted to them, no city
in Egypt was allowed that privilege, which, by teaching
the citizens the art of governing themselves and the
advantages of union, might have made them less at the
mercy of their masters. He not only gave the command
of the kingdom to a man below the rank of a senator,
but ordered that no senator should even be allowed to
set foot in Egypt without leave from himself; and cen-
turies later, when the weakness of the country had led
the emperors to soften some of the other stem laws of
Augustus, this was still strictly enforced.

Among other changes then brought in by the Romans
was the use of a fixed year in aU civil reckonings. The
Egyptians, for all the common purposes of life, called
the day of the heliacal rising of the dogstar, about om-
18th of July, their new year's day, and the husbandman
marked it with religious ceremonies as the time when the
Nile began to overflow; while for all civil purposes, and
dates of kings' reigns, they used a year of three himdred
and sixty-five days, which, of course, had a movable new
year's day. But by the orders of Augustus aU public
deeds were henceforth dated by the new year of three

6 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, which was
named, after Julius Caesar, the Julian year. The years
from B. c. 24 were made to begin on the 29th of August,
the day on which the movable new year's day then hap-
pened to fall, and were numbered from the year follow-
ing the last of Cleopatra, as from the first year of the
reign of Augustus. But notwithstanding the many ad-
vantages of the Julian year, which was used throughout
Europe for sixteen centuries, till its faultiness was
pointed out by Pope Gregory XTTT., the Egyptian as-
tronomers and mathematicians distrusted it from the
first, and chose to stick to their old year, in which there
could be no mistake about its length. Thus there were
at the same time three years and three new year's days
in use in Egypt: one about the 18th of July, used by
the common people ; one on the 29th of August, used by
order of the emperor; and one movable, used by the
astronomers.

By the conquest of Egypt, Augustus was also able to
extend another of the plans of his late uncle. Julius
Csesar, whose powerful mind found all sciences within
its grasp, had ordered a survey to be taken of the whole
of the Eoman provinces, and the length of all the roads
to be measured for the use of the tax-gatherers and of
the army; and Augustus was now able to add Egypt to
the survey. Polyclitus was employed on this southern
portion of the empire; and, after thirty-two years from
its beginning by Julius, the measurement of nearly the
whole known world was finished and reported to the
senate.

HEEOD AT ALEXA2JDEIA 7

At Alexandria Augustus was visited by Herod, who
hastened to beg of him those portions of his kingdom
which Antony had given to Cleopatra. Augustus re-
ceived him as a friend; gave him back the territory which
Antony had taken from Mm, and added the province of
Samaria and the free cities on the coast. He also gave
to him the body of four hundred Gauls, who formed part
of the Egyptian army and had been Cleopatra's body-
guard. He thus removed from Alexandria the last re-

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PLAN OF AI.EXANDKIA.

mains of the Gallic mercenaries, of whom the Ptolemies
had usually had a troop in their service.

Augustus visited the royal burial-place to see the
body of Alexander, and devoutly added a golden crown
and a garland of flowers to the other ornaments on the
sarcophagus of the Macedonian. But he would take no
pains to please either the Alexandrians or Egyptians;
he despised them both. When asked if he would not like
to see the Alexandrian monarchs lying in their mummy-
eases in the same tomb, he answered: " No, I came to
see the king, not dead men, " His contempt for Cleopatra

8 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

and her father made him forget the great qualities of
Ptolemy Soter. So when he was at Memphis he refused
to humour the national prejudice of two thousand years'
standing by visiting the bull Apis. Of the former con-
querors, Cambyses had stabbed the sacred bull, Alex-
ander had sacrificed to it ; had Augustus had the violent
temper of either, he would have copied Cambyses. The
Egyptians always found the treatment of the sacred bull
a foretaste of what they were themselves to receive from
their sovereigns.

The Greeks of Alexandria, who had for some time
past very unwillingly yielded to the Jews the right of
citizenship, now urged upon Augustus that it should no
longer be granted. Augustus, however, had received
great services from the Jews, and at once refused the
prayer; and he set up in Alexandria an inscription
granting to the Jews the fuU privileges of Macedonians,
which they claimed and had hitherto enjoyed under
the Ptolemies. They were allowed their own magis-
trates and courts of justice, with the free exercise of
their own religion; and soon afterwards, when their
high priest died, they were allowed as usual to choose
his successor. The Greek Jews of Alexandria were in-
deed very important, both from their numbers and their
learning; they spread over Sjrria and Asia Minor: they
had a synagogue in Jerusalem in common with the Jews
of Cyrene and Libya; and we find that one of the chief
teachers of Christianity after the apostles was ApoUos,
the Alexandrian, who preached the new religion in
Ephesus, in Corinth, and in Crete.

AUGUSTUS DESPOILS EGYPT 9

On his return to Rome, Augustus carried with him the
whole of the royal treasure; and though perhaps there
might have been less gold and silver than usual in the
palace of the Ptolemies, still it was so large a sum that
when, upon the establishment of peace over all the world,
the rate of interest upon loans fell in Rome, and the price
of land rose, the change was thought to have been caused
by the money from Alexandria. At the same time were
carried away the valuable jewels, furniture, and orna-
ments, which had been handed down from father to son,
with the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. These were
drawn in waggons through the streets of Rome in tri-
umph; and with them were shown in chains to the
wondering crowd Alexander Helius and Cleopatra Se-
lene, the children of Cleopatra and Antony.

Augustus threatened a severe punishment to the
Alexandrians in the building of a new capital. Only four
miles from the Canopic or eastern gate of Alexandria
he laid out the plan of his new city of Nicopolis, on the
spot where he had routed Mark Antony's forces. Here
he began several large temples, and removed to them the
public sacrifices and the priesthood from the temples of
Alexandria. But the work was carried no farther, and
soon abandoned; and the only change made by it in
Alexandria was that the temple of Serapis and the other
temples were for a time deserted.

The rest of the world had long been used to see their
finest works of art carried away by their conquerors;
and the Egyptians soon learned that, if any of the monu-
ments of which they were so justly proud were to be

10 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

left to them, it would only be because they were too heavy
to be moved by the Roman engineers. Beside many
other smaller Egyptian works, two of the large obelisks,
which even now ornament Rome, were carried away by
Augustus, that of Thutmosis IV., which stands ia the
Piazza del Popolo, and that of Psammetichus, on Monte
Citorio.

Cornelius Gallus, the prefect of Egypt, seems either
to have misunderstood, or soon forgotten, the terms of his
appointment. He set up statues of himself in the cities
of Egypt, and, copying the kings of the country, he
carved his name and deeds upon the pyramids. On this
Augustus recalled him, and he kiUed himself to avoid
punishment. The emperor's wish to check the tyranny
of the prefects and tax-gatherers was strongly marked
in the case of the champion fightiag-cock. The Alexan-
drians bred these birds with great care, and eagerly
watched their battles in the theatre. A powerful cock,
that had hitherto slain all its rivals and always strutted
over the table unconquered, had gained a great name in
the city; and this bird, Eros, a tax-gatherer, roasted and
ate. Augustus, on hearing of this insult to the people,
sent for the man, and, on his owning what he had done,
ordered him to be crucified. Three legions and nine
cohorts were found force enough to keep this great king-
dom in quiet obedience to their new masters; and when
Heroopolis revolted, and afterwards when a rebellion
broke out in the Thebaid against the Roman tax-gather-
ers, these risings were easily crushed. The spirit of the
nation, both of the Greeks and Egyptians, seems to have

IREIGATION WORKS

11

been wlioUy broken; and Petronius, wbo succeeded Cor-
nelius Gallus, found no difficulty in putting down a rising
of the Alexandrians.

The canals, through which the overflowing waters of
the Nile were carried to the more distant fields, were,
of course, each year more or less blocked up by the same
mud which made the fields fruitful; and the clearing
of these canals was one of the greatest boons that the
monarch could bestow upon the till-
ers of the soil. This had often been
neglected by the less powerful and
less prudent kings of Egypt, in
whose reigns the husbandman be-
lieved that Heaven in its displeasure
withheld part of the wished-f or over-
flow; but Petronius employed the
leisure of his soldiers on this wise
and benevolent work. In order
better to understand the rise of the
Nile, to fix the amount of the land-
tax, and more fairly to regulate the
overflow through the canals, the
Nilometer on the Island of Elephan-
tine was at this time made.

It was under ^lius Gallus, the third prefect, that
Egypt was visited by Strabo, the most careful and judi-
cious of all the ancient travellers. He had come to study
mathematics, astronomy, and geography in the museum,
under the successors of Euclid, Eratosthenes, and Hip-
parchus. He accompanied the prefect in a march to

THE NILOMETER AT
ELEPHANTINE.

12 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAIC EMPIEE

Syene (Aswan), the border town, and he has left us a
valuable account of the state of the country at that time.
Alexandria was the chief object that engaged his atten-
tion. Its two harbours held more ships than were to be
seen in any other port in the world, and its export trade
was thought greater than that of all Italy. The docks on
each side of the causeway, and the ship canal, from the
harbour of Eunostus to the Mareotic Lake, were full of
bustle and activity. The palace or citadel on the promon-
tory of Lochias on one side of the great harbour was as
striking an object as the lighthouse on the other. The
temples and palaces covered a space of ground equal to
more than one-fourth part of the city, and the suburbs
reached even beyond the Mareotic Lake. Among the
chief buildings were the Soma, which held the bodies of
Alexander and of the Ptolemies; the court of justice;
the museum of philosophy, which had been rebuilt since
the burning by Caesar's soldiers; the exchange, crowded
with merchants, the temple of Neptune, and Mark An-
tony's fortress, called the Timonium, on a point of land
which jutted into the harbour; the CEesarium, or new
palace; and the great temple of Serapis, which was on
the western side of the city, and was the largest and most
ornamented of all these buildings. Farther off was the
beautiful gymnasium for wrestlers and boxers, with its
porticoes of a stadium in length, where the citizens used
to meet in public assembly. From the top of the temple
of Pan, which rose like a sugar-loaf in the middle of the
city, and was mounted by a winding staircase, the whole
of this remarkable capital might be seen spread out before

ALEXANDRIA DESCRIBED 13

the eye. On the east of the city was the circus, for chariot
races, and on the west lay the public gardens and pale
green palm-groves, and the Necropolis ornamenting the
roadside with tombs for miles along the seashore. Other
tombs were in the catacombs underground on the same
side of the city. The banks of the Mareotic Lake were
fringed with vineyards, which bore the famed wine of the
same name, and which formed a pleasant contrast with
the burning whiteness of the desert beyond. The canal
from the lake to the Nile marked its course through the
plain by the greater freshness of the green along its
banks. In the distance were the new buildings of Augus-
tus' city of Nicopohs. The arts of Grreece and the wealth
of Egypt had united to adorn the capital of the Ptolemies,
Heliopolis, the ancient seat of Egyptian learning, had
never been wholly repaired since its siege by Cambyses,
and was then almost a deserted city. Its schools were
€mpty, its teachers silent ; but the houses in which Plato
and his friend Eudoxus were said to have dwelt and
studied were pointed out to the traveller, to warm his
love of knowledge and encourage him in the pursuit of
virtue. Memphis was the second city in Egypt, while
Thebes and Abydos, the former capitals, had fallen to
the size and rank of villages. At Memphis Strabo saw
the bull-fights in the circus, and was allowed to look at
the bull Apis through a window of his stable. At Croco-
dilopolis he saw the sacred crocodile caught on the banks
of the lake and fed with cakes and wine. Ptolemais,
which was at first only an encampment of Greek soldiers,
had risen under the sovereigns to whom it owed its name

14 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

to be the largest city in the Thebaid, and scarcely less
than Memphis. It was built wholly by the Greeks, and,
like Alexandria, it was under Greek laws, while the other
cities in Egypt were under Egyptian laws and magis-
trates. It was situated between Panopolis and Abydos^
but, while the temples of Thebes, which were built so
many centuries earlier, are still standing in awful gran-
deur, scarcely a trace of this Greek city can be foimd in
the villages of El Menshieh and Girgeh (Cerkasoros) ,
which now stand on the spot. Strabo and the Roman
generals did not forget to visit the broken colossal statue
of Amenhothes, near Thebes, which sent forth its musical
sounds every morning, as the sun, rising over the Ara-
bian hiUs, first shone upon its face; but this inquiring
traveller could not make up his mind whether the music
came from the statue, or the base, or the people around
it. He ended his tour with watching the sunshine at the
bottom of the astronomical well at Syene, which, on the
longest day, is exactly under the sun's northern edge,
and with admiring the skill of the boatmen who shot
down the cataracts in their wicker boats, for the amuse-
ment of the Roman generals.

In the earlier periods of Egj^tian history Ethiopia
was peopled, or, at least, governed, by a race of men,
whom, as they spoke the same language and worshipped
the same gods as their neighbours of Upper Egypt, we
must call the Kopts. But the Arabs, under the name of
Troglodytes, and other tribes, had made an early settle-
ment on the African side of the Red Sea. So numerous
were they in Upper Egypt that in the time of Strabo

EARLY ARABIAN INROADS 15

half the population of the city of Koptos were Arabs;
they were the camel-drivers and carriers for the Theban
merchants in the trade across the desert. Some of the
conquests of Ramses had been over that nation in south-
ern Ethiopia, and the Arab power must have further
risen after the defeat of the Ethiopians by Euergetes I.
Ethiopia in the time of Augustus was held by Arabs; a
race who thought peace a state of disgraceful idleness,
and war the only employment worthy of men; and who
made frequent hasty inroads into Nubia, and sometimes
into Egypt. They fought for plunder, not for con-
quest, and usually retreated as quickly as they came, with
such booty as they laid their hands on. To use words
which were proverbial while the Nile swarmed with croc-
odiles, " They did as the dogs do, they drank and ran
away; " and the Romans found it necessary to place a
body of troops near the cataracts of Syene to stop their
marching northward and laying waste the Thebaid.
While the larger part of the Roman legions was with-
drawn into Arabia on an imsuccessful quest for treasure,
a body of thirty thousand of these men, whom we may
call either Arabs, from their blood and language, or Ethi-
opians, from their country, marched northward into
Egypt, and overpowered the three Roman cohorts at
Elephantine, Syene, and Philse. Badly armed and badly
trained, they were led on by the generals of Candace,
Queen of Napata, to the fourth cataract. They were,
however, easily driven back when Grallus led against
them an army of ten thousand men, and drove them to
Ethiopian Pselchis, now remaining as the modem village

16

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

of Dakkeh. There he defeated them again, and took the
city by storm. From Pselchis he marched across the
Nubian desert two hundred and fifty miles to Premnis,
on the northerly bend of the river, and then made himself
master of Napata,
the capital. A
guard was at the
moment left in the
country to check
any future in-
roads; but the Ro-
mans made no at-
tempts to hold it.

Of the state
of the Ethiopic

ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT.

Arabs under Queen Candace we learn but little from
this hasty inroad; but some of the tribes must have been
very far from the barbarians that, from their ignorance

ROMAN TOURISTS IN EGYPT 17

of the arts of war, the Romans judged them to be. Those
nearest to the Egyptian frontiers, the Troglodytse and
Blemmyes, were unsettled, wandering, and plundering;
but the inhabitants of Meroe were of a more civilised race.
The Jews had settled in southern Ethiopia in large num-
bers, and for a long time; Solomon's trade had made
them acquainted with Adule and Auxum; some of them
were employed in the highest offices, and must have
brought with them the arts of civilised life. A few years
later (Acts Vm. 27) we meet with a Jewish eimuch, the
treasurer of Queen Candace, travelling with some pomp
from Ethiopia to the religious festivals at Jerusalem.
The Egyptian coins of Augustus and his successors
are all Greek; the conquest of the country by the Romans
made no change in its language. Though the chief part
of the population spoke Koptic, it was still a Greek prov-
ince of the Roman empire; the decrees of the prefects
of Alexandria and of the upper provinces were written
in Greek; and every Roman traveller, who, like a school-
boy, has scratched his name upon the foot of the musical
statue of Amenhothes, to let the world know the extent
of his travels, has helped to prove that the Roman gov-
ernment of the country was carried on in the Greek lan-
guage. The coins often bear the eagle and thunderbolt
on one side, while on the other is the emperor's head,
with his name and titles; and, after a few years, they are
all dated with the year of the emperor's reign. In the
earliest he is styled a Son of God, in imitation of the
Egyptian title of Son of the Sun. After Egypt lost its
liberty, we no longer find any gold coinage in the

18 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

country; tiiat metal, with everything else that was most
costly, was carried away to pay the Roman tribute. This
was chiefly taken in money, except, indeed, the tax on
grain, which the Egyptian kings had always received in
kind, and which was still gathered in the same way, and
each year shipped to Rome, to be distributed among the
idle poor of that great city. At this time it amounted to
twenty millions of bushels, which was four times what
was levied in the reign of Philadelphus. The trade to the
east was increasing, but as yet not large. About one
hundred and twenty small vessels sailed every year to
India from Myos-Hormos, which was now the chief port
on the Red Sea.

No change was made in the Egyptian religion by this
change of masters; and, though the means of the priests
were lessened, they still carried forward the buildings
which were in progress, and even began new ones. The
small temple of Isis, at Tentyra, behind the great temple
of Hathor, was either built or finished in this reign, and it
was dedicated to the goddess, and to the honour of the
emperor as Jupiter Liberator, in a Greek inscription on
the cornice, in the thirty-first year of the reign, when
Publius Octavius was prefect of the province. The large
temple at Talmis, in Nubia, was also then bmlt, though
not wholly finished; and we find the name of Augustus
at Philge, on some of the additions to the temple of Isis,
which had been built in the reign of Philadelphus. In
the hieroglyphical inscriptions on these temples, Augus-
tus is called Autocrator Caesar, and is styled Son of the
Sun, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, with the other

A KOPTIC MAIDEN.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION 21

titles wMch had always been given by the priests to the
Ptolemies and their own native sovereigns for so many
centuries. These claims were evidently unknown in
Rome, where the modesty of Augustus was almost
proverbial.

The Greeks had at all times been forward in owning
the Egyptians as their teachers in religion; and in the
dog Cerberus, the judge Minos, the boat of Charon, and
the river Styx of their mythology, we see a clear proof
that it was in Egypt that the Greeks gained their faint
glimpse of the immortality of the soul, a day of judg-
ment, and a future state of rewards and punishments;
and, now that Rome was in close intercourse with Egypt,
the Romans were equally ready to borrow thence their
religious ceremonies. They brought to Rome the Egyp-
tian opinions with the statues of the gods. They ran into
the new superstition to avoid the painful uneasiness of
believing nothing, and, though the Romans ridiculed their
own gods, they believed in those of Egypt. So fashion-
able was the worship of Isis and Serapis becoming in
Italy, that Augustus made a law that no Egyptian cere-
monies should enter the city or even the suburbs of
Rome. His subjects might copy the luxuries, the follies,
and the vices of the Alexandrians, but not the gloomy
devotion of the Egyptians. But the spread of opinions
was not so checked; even Virgil taught the doctrine of
the Egyptian millennium, or the resurrection from the
dead when the thousand years were ended; and the crip-
ple asking for alms in the streets of Rome would beg in
the name of the holy Osiris.

» n\ one • .

s

o

o
o

BUILDINGS UNDER TIBERIAS 23

sheared, but not to be flayed." On the death of one of
the prefects, there was foimd among his property at
Rome a statue of Menelaus, carved in Ethiopian obsidian,
which had been used in the religious ceremonies in the
temple of Heliopolis, and Tiberius returned it to the
priests of that city as its rightful owners. Another proof
of the equal justice with which this province was gov-
erned was to be seen in the buildings then carried on by
the priests in Upper Egypt. We find the name of Tibe-
rius carved in hieroglyphics on additions or repairs made
to the temples at Thebes, at Aphroditopolis, at Berenice,
on the Red Sea, at Philas, and at the Greek city of Parem-
bole, in Nubia. The great portico was at this time added
to the temple at Tentyra, with an inscription dedicating
it to the goddess in Greek and in hieroglyphics. As a
building is often the work of years, while sculpture is
only the work of weeks, so the fashion of the former is
always far less changing than that of the latter. The
sculptures on the walls of this beautiful portico are
crowded and graceless; while, on the other hand, the
building itself has the same grand simplicity and massive
strength that we find in the older temples of Upper
Egypt.

We cannot but admire the zeal of the Egyptians by
whom this work was then finished. They were treated
as slaves by their Greek fellow-countrymen; their houses
were ransacked every third year by military authority
in search of arms; they could have had no help from
their Roman masters, who only drained the province of
its wealth; and the temple had perhaps never been

24

EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

heard of by the emperor, who could have been little aware
that the most lasting monument of his reign was being
raised in the distant province of Egypt. The priests of

TEMPLE AT TBNTTEA, ENLARGED BT ROMAN AROHITBOTS.

the other parts of the country sent gifts out of their
poverty in aid of this pious work; and among the figures
on the walls we see those of forty cities, from Semneh, at

POPULAEITY OF GERMANICUS 25

the second cataract, to Memphis and Sais, in the Delta,
each presenting an offering to the god of the temple.

In the third year of this reign Germanicus C^sar, who,
much against his wiU, had been sent into the East as
governor, found time to leave his own province, and to
snatch a hasty view of the time-honoured buildings of
Egypt. Descending the river to Thebes, and, while gazing
on the huge remains of the temples, he asked the priests
to read to him the hieroglyphical writing on the walls.
He was told that it recounted the greatness of the country
in the time of King Ramses, when there were seven hun-
dred thousand Egyptians of an age to bear arms; and
that with these troops Ramses had conquered the Lib-
yans, Ethiopians, Medes, Persians, Bactrians, Scythians,
Syrians, Armenians, Cappadocians, Bithynians, and Lyc-
ians. He was also told the tributes laid upon each of
those nations; the weight of gold and silver, the number
of chariots and horses, the gifts of ivory and scents for
the temples, and the quantity of grain which the con-
quered provinces sent to feed the population of Thebes.
After listening to the musical statue of Amenhothes,
Oermanicus went on to Elephantine and Syene ; and, on
his return, he turned aside to the pyramids and the Lake
of Moeris, which regulated the overflow of the Nile on
the neighbouring fields. At Memphis, Germanicus con-
sulted the sacred bull Apis as to his future fortime, and
met with an unfavourable answer. The manner of con-
sulting Apis was for the visitor to hold out some food
in his hand, and the answer was understood to be favour-
able if the bull turned his head to eat, but unfavourable

26 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

if he looked another way. When Germanicus accord-
ingly held out a handful of grain, the well-fed animal
turned his head sullenly towards the other side of his
stall; and on the death of this young prince, which shortly
followed, the Egyptians did not forget to praise the bull's
foresight. This blameless and seemingly praiseworthy
visit of Grermanicus did not, however, escape the notice
of the jealous Tiberius. He had been guilty of gaining
the love of the people by walking about without guards,
in a plain Greek dress, and of lowering the price of grain
in a famine by opening the public granaries; and Tiberius
sternly reproached him with breaking the known law
of Augustus, by which no Roman citizen of consular or
even of equestrian rank might enter Alexandria without
leave from the emperor.

There were at this time about a million of Jews in
Egypt. In Alexandria they seem to have been about one-
third of the population, as they formed the majority in
two wards out of the five into which the city was divided.
They lived under their own elders and Sanhedrim, going
up at their solemn feasts to worship in their own temple
at Onion; but, from their mixing with the Greeks, they
had become less strict than their Hebrew brethren in
their observance of the traditions. Some few of them,
however, held themselves in obedience to the Sanhedrim
in Jerusalem, and looked upon the temple of Jerusalem
as the only Jewish temple; and these men were in the
habit of sending an embassy on the stated solemn feasts
of the nation to offer the appointed sacrifices and prayers
to Jahveh in the holy city on their behalf. But though

JEWISH MONKS

27

the decree by Csesar, which declared that the Jews were
Alexandrian citizens, was engraved on a pillar in the
city, yet they were by no means treated as such, either
by the government, or by the Greeks, or by the Egyptians.
When, during the famine, the public granaries seemed
unable to supply the whole city with food, even the
humane Germanicus ordered that the Jews, like the
Egyptians, should have no share of the gift. They were

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE.

despised even by the Egyptians themselves, who, to insult
them, said that the wicked god Typhon had two sons,
Hierosolymus and Judseus, and that from these the Jews
were descended.

In the neighbourhood of Alexandria, on a hill near
the shores of the Lake Mareotis, was a little colony of
Jews, who, joining their own religion with the mystical
opinions and gloomy habits of the Egyptians, have left
us one of the earliest known examples of the monastic
life. They bore the name of Therapeutse. They had left,
says Philo, their worldly wealth to their families or

28 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

friends; they had forsaken wives, children, brethren,
parents, and the society of men, to bury themselves in
solitude and pass their lives in the contemplation of the
divine essence. Seized by this heavenly love, they were
eager to enter upon the next world, as though they were
already dead to this. Every one, whether man or woman,
lived alone in his cell or monastery, caring for neither
food nor raiment, but having his thoughts wholly turned
to the Law and the Prophets, or to sacred hymns of their
own composing. They had their God always in their
thoughts, and even the broken sentences which they
uttered in their dreams were treasures of religious wis-
dom. They prayed every morning at sunrise, and then
spent the day in turning over the sacred volumes, and
the commentaries, which explained the allegories, or
pointed out a secondary meaning as hidden beneath the
surface of even the historical books of the Old Testament.
At sunset they again prayed, and then tasted their first
and only meal. Self-denial indeed was the foundation
of all their virtues. Some made only three meals in the
week, that their meditations might be more free; while
others even attempted to prolong their fast to the sixth
day. During six days of the week they saw nobody, not
even one another. On the seventh day they met together
in the synagogue. Here they sat, each according to his
age; the women separated from the men. Each wore
a plain, modest robe, which covered the arms and hands,
and they sat in silence while one of the elders preached.
As they studied the mystic powers of numbers, they
thought the number seven was a holy number, and that

THE THERAPEUT^ AND ESSENES

29

seven times seven made a great week, and hence they
kept the fiftieth day as a solemn festival. On that day
they dined together, the men on one side and the women
on the other. The rushy papyrus formed the couches;
bread was their only meat, water their drink, salt the
seasoning, and cresses the delicacy. They would keep no
slaves, saying that aU men were bom equal. Nobody
spoke, unless it was to propose a question out of the Old

BEDOUIN TENT IN THE DE8EKT.

Testament, or to answer the question of another. The
feast ended with a hymn of praise.

The ascetic Jews of Palestine, the Essenes on the
banks of the Dead Sea, by no means, according to Philo,
thus quitted the active duties of life; and it would seem
that the Therapeutse rather borrowed their customs from
the country in which they had settled, than from any
sects of the Jewish nation. Some classes of the Egyptian
priesthood had always held the same views of their relig-
ious duties. These Egyptian monks slept on a hard
bed of palm branches, with a still harder wooden pillow

30 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAIiT EMPIRE

for the head; they were plain in their dress, slow in walk-
ing, spare in diet, and scarcely allowed themselves to
smile. They washed thrice a day, and prayed as often;
at sunrise, at noon, and at simset. They often fasted
from animal food, and at all times refused many meats
as unclean. They passed their lives alone, either in study
or wrapped in rehgious thought. They never met one
another but at set times, and were seldom seen by stran-
gers. Thus, leaving to others the pleasures, wealth, and
lesser prizes of this life, they received from them in re-
turn what most men value higher, namely, honour, fame,
and power.

The Romans, like the Greeks, feeling but little par-
tiality in favour of their own gods, were rarely guilty
of intolerance against those of others ; and would hardly
have checked the introduction of a new religion unless
it made its followers worse citizens. But in Rome, where
every act of its civil or military authorities was accom-
panied with a religious rite, any slight towards the gods
was a slight towards the magistrate; many devout Ro-
mans had begun to keep holy the seventh day; and Egypt
was now so closely joined to Italy that the Roman senate
made a new law against the Egyptian and Jewish super-
stitions, and, in a. d. 19, banished to Sardinia four thou-
sand men who were found guilty of being Jews.

Egypt had lost with its liberties its, gold coinage, and
it was now made to feel a further proof of being a con-
quered country in having its silver much alloyed with
copper. But Tiberius, in the tenth year of his reign,
altogether stopped the Alexandrian mint, as well as those

ROMAN PREFECTS 31

of the other cities which occasionally coined; and after
this year we find no more coins, but the few with the head
and name of Augustus Caesar, which seem hardly to have
been meant for money, but to commemorate on some
peculiar occasions the emperor's adoption by his step-
father. The Nubian gold mines were probably by this
time whoUy deserted; they had been so far worked out
as to be no longer profitable. For fifteen hundred years,
ever since Ethiopia was conquered by Thebes, wages and
prices had been higher in Egypt than in the neighbouring
countries. But this was now no longer the case. Egypt
had been getting poorer during the reigns of the latter
Ptolemies; and by this time it is probable that both
wages and prices were higher in Rome.

It seems to have been usual to change the prefect of
Egypt every few years, and the prefect-elect was often
sent to Alexandria to wait tni his predecessor's term of
years had ended. Thus in this reign of twenty-three
years ^milius Rectus was succeeded by Vetrasius PoUio;
and on his death Tiberius gave the government to his
freedman Iberus. During the last five years Egypt was
under the able but stem government of Flaccus Avillius,
whose name is carved on the temple of Tentyra with
that of the emperor. He was a man who united all those
qualities of prudent forethought, with prompt execution
and attention to business, which was so necessary in con-
trolling the irritable Alexandrians, who were liable to be
fired into rebellion by the smallest spark. Justice was
administered fairly; the great were not allowed to tyran-
nise over the poor, nor the people to meet in tumultuous

32 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIEE

mobs; and the legions were regularly paid, so that they
had no excuse for plundering the Egyptians.

On the death of Tiberius, in a. d. 37, the old quarrel
again broke out between Jews and Greeks. The Alex-
andrians were not slow in learning the feelings of his
successor, Caius, or Caligula, towards the Jews, nor in.
turning against them the new law that the emperor's
statue should be honoured in every temple of the empire.
They had very unwillingly yielded a half -obedience to the
law of Augustus that the Jews should stiU be allowed
the privileges of citizenship; and, as soon as they heard
that Caligula was to be worshipped in every temple
of the empire, they denounced the Jews as traitors and
rebels, who refused so to honour the emperor in their
synagogues. It happened, unfortimately, that their
comitryman. King Agrippa, at this time came to Alex-
andria. He had full leave from the emperor to touch
there, as being the quickest and most certain way of
making the voyage from Rome to the seat of his own
government. Indeed, the Alexandrian voyage had an-
other merit in the eyes of a Jew; for, whereas wooden
water-vessels were declared by the Law to be unclean,
an exception was made by their tradition in favour of the
larger size of the water-wells in the Alexandrian ships.
Agrippa had seen Egypt before, on his way to Rome, and
he meant to make no stay there; but, though he landed
purposely after dark, and with no pomp or show, he seems
to have raised the anger of the prefect Flaccus, who felt
jealous at any man of higher rank than himself coming
into his province. The Greeks fell into the prefect's

THE JEWS OPPRESSED 33

hmnour, and during the stay of Agrippa in Alexandria
they lampooned him in songs and ballads, of which the
raillery was not of the most delicate kind. They mocked
him by leading about the streets a poor idiot dressed
up with a paper crown and a reed for a sceptre, in ridicule
of his rather doubtful right to the style of royalty.

As these insults towards the emperor's friend passed
whoUy unchecked by the prefect, the Greeks next as-
saulted the Jews in the streets and market-place, at-
tacked their houses, rooted up the groves of trees around
their synagogues, and tore down the decree by which
the privileges of citizenship had been confirmed to them.
The Greeks then proceeded to set up by force a statue
of the emperor in each Jewish synagogue, as if the new
decree had included those places of worship among the
temples, and, not finding statues enough, they made use
of the statues of the Ptolemies, which they carried away
from the gymnasium for that purpose. During the last
reign, under the stern government of Tiberius, Flaccus
had governed with justice and prudence, but imder Ca-
ligula he seemed to have lost all judgment in his zeal
against the Jews. When the riots in the streets could
no longer be overlooked, instead of defending the injured
party, he issued a decree in which he styled the Jews
foreigners; thus at one word robbing them of their priv-
ileges and condemning them unheard. By this the Greeks
were hurried forward into further acts of injustice, and
the Jews of resistance. But the Jews were the weaker
party: they were overpowered, and aU driven into one
ward, and four hundred of their houses in the other wards

34 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

were plundered, and the spoil divided as if taken in
war. They were stoned, and even burnt in the streets,
if they ventured forth to buy food for their families.
Flaccus seized and scourged in the theatre thirty-eight
of their venerable councillors, and, to show them that
they were no longer citizens, the punishment was inflicted
by the hands of Egyptian executioners. While the city
was in this state of riot, the Greeks gave out that the
Jews were concealing arms; and Flaccus, to give them
a fresh proof that they had lost the rights of citizenship,
ordered that their houses should be forcibly entered and
searched by a centurion and a band of soldiers.

During their troubles the Jews had not been allowed
to complain to the emperor, or to send an embassy to
Rome to make known their grievances. But the Jewish
King Agrippa, who was on his way from Rome to his
kingdom, forwarded to Caligula the complaints of his
countrymen, the Jews, with an account of the rebellious
state of Alexandria. The riots, it is true, had been wholly
raised by the prefect's zeal in setting up the emperor's
statue in the synagogues to be worshipped by the Jews,
and in carrying into effect the emperor's decree; but,
as he had not been able to keep his province quiet, it
was necessary that he should be recalled, and pimished
for his want of success. To have found it necessary to
call out the troops was of course a fault in a governor;
but doubly so at a time and in a province where a suc-
cessful general might so easily become a formidable rebel.
Accordingly, a centurion, with a trusty cohort of soldiers,
was sent from Rome for the recall of the prefect. On

THE FEAST OF TABEENACLES 36

approaching the flat coast of Egypt, they kept the vessel
in deep water till sunset, and then entered the harbour
of Alexandria in the dark. The centurion, on landing,
met with a freedman of the emperor, from whom he
learned that the prefect was then at supper, entertain-
ing a large company of friends. The freedman led the
cohort quietly into the palace, into the very room where
Placcus was sitting at table; and the first tidings that
he heard of. his government being disapproved of in Rome
was his finding himself a prisoner in his own palace.
The friends stood motionless with surprise, the centurion
produced the emperor's order for what he was doing,
and as no resistance was attempted all passed off quietly;
Placcus was hurried on board the vessel then at anchor
in the harbour on the same evening and immediately
taken to Rome.

It so happened that on the night that Flaccus was
seized, the Jews had met together to celebrate their au-
tumnal feast, the feast of the Tabernacles: not as in
former years with joy and pomp, but in fear, in grief,
and in prayer. Their chief men were in prison, their
nation smarting under its wrongs and in daily fear of
fresh cruelties; and it was not without alarm that they
heard the noise of soldiers moving to and fro through
the city, and the heavy tread of the guards marching
by torchlight from the camp to the palace. But their
fear was soon turned into joy when they heard that
Flaccus, the author of all their wrongs, was already a
prisoner on board the vessel in the harbour; and they
gave glory to God, not, says Philo, that their enemy was

36 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIEE

going to be punished, but because their own sufferings
were at an end.

The Jews then, having had leave given them by the
prefect, sent an embassy to Rome, at the head of which
was Philo, the platonic philosopher, who was to lay their
grievances before the emperor, and to beg for redress.
The Greeks also at the same time sent their embassy,
at the head of which was the learned grammarian Apion,
who was to accuse the Jews of not worshipping the statue
of the emperor, and to argue that they had no right to
the same privileges of citizenship with those who boasted
of their Macedonian blood. But, as the Jews did not
deny the charge that was brought against them, Caligula
would hear nothing that they had to say; and Philo
withdrew with the remark, " Though the emperor is
against us, God will be our friend."

We learn the sad tale of the Jews' suffering under
Caligula from the pages of their own historian only.
But though Philo may have felt and written as one of
the sufferers, his truth is undoubted. He was a man of
unblemished character, and the writer of greatest learn-
ing and of the greatest note at that time in Alexandria;
being also of a great age, he well deserved the honour
of being sent on the embassy to Caligula. He was in
religion a Jew, in his philosophy a platonist, and by birth
an Egyptian: and in his numerous writings we may trace
the three sources from which he drew his opinions. He
is always devotional and in earnest, full of pure and lofty
thoughts, and often eloquent. His fondness for the mys-
tical properties of numbers, and for finding an allegory

THE DOCTEINE OF THE TRINITY 37

or secondary meaning in the plainest narrative, seems
borrowed from the Egyptians. According to the Eastern
proverb every word in a wise book has seventy-two mean-
ings; and this mode of interpretation was called into use
by the necessity which the Jews felt of making the Old
Testament speak a meaning more agreeable to their
modem views of religion. In Philo's speculative theol-
ogy he seems to have borrowed less from Moses than
from the abstractions of Plato, whose shadowy hints he
has embodied in a more solid form. He was the first
Jewish writer that applied to the Deity the mystical
notion of the Egyptians, that everything perfect was of
three parts. Philo's writings are valuable as showing
the steps by which the philosophy of Greece may be
traced from the writings of Plato to those of Justin
Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus. They give us the
earliest example of how the mystical interpretation of
the Scriptures was formed into a system, by which every
text was made to unfold some important philosophic or
religious truth to the learned student, at the same time
that to the unlearned reader it conveyed only the simple
historic fact.

The Hellenistic Jews, while suffering under severe
political disabilities, had taken up a high literary position
in Alexandria, and had forced their opinions into the
notice of the Greeks. The glowing earnestness of their
philosophy, now put forward in a platonic dress, and
their improved style, approaching even classic elegance,
placed their writings on a lofty eminence far above any-
thing which the cold,lif eless grammarians of the museum

38 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAJST EMPIRE

were then producing. Apion, who went to Rome to plead
against Philo, was a native of the Great Oasis, but as
he was bom of Greek parents, he claimed and received
the title and privileges of an Alexandrian, which he
denied to the Jews who were born in the city. He had
studied under Didymus and ApoUonius and Euphranor,
and was one of the most laborious of the grammarians
and editors of Homer. AU his writings are now lost.
Some of them were attacks upon the Jews and their
religion, calling in question the truth of the Jewish his-
tory and the justice of that nation's claim to high an-
tiquity; and to these attacks we owe Josephus' Answer,
in which several valuable fragments of history are saved
by being quoted against the pagans in support of the
Old Testament. One of his works was his ^gyptiaca,
an account of what he thought most curious in Egypt.
But his learned trifling is now lost, and nothing remains
of it but his account of the meeting between Androclus
and the lion, which took place in the amphitheatre at
Rome when Apion was there on his embassy. Androclus
was a rimaway slave, who, when retaken, was brought to
Rome to be thrown before an African lion for the amuse-
ment of the citizens, and as a punishment for his flight.
But the fierce and hungry beast, instead of tearing him
to pieces, wagged his tail at him, and licked his feet.
It seems that the slave, when he fled from his master,
had gained the friendship of the lion in the Libyan desert,
first by pulling a thorn out of his foot, and then by living
three years with him in a cave; and, when both were
brought in chains to Rome, Androclus found a grateful

THE LAST OF THE PTOLEMIES 39

friend in tlie amphitheatre where he thought to have met
with a cruel death.

We may for a moment leave our history, to bid a last
farewell to the family of the Ptolemies. Augustus, after
leading Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra and Antony,
through the streets of Rome in his triumph, had given
her in marriage to the younger Juba, the historian of
Africa; and about the same time he gave to the husband
the kingdom of Mauritania,- the inheritance of his father.
His son Ptolemy succeeded him on the throne, but was

A BELIEF FROM SAQQARA.

soon turned out of his kingdom. We trace the last of
the Ptolemies in his travels through Greece and Asia
Minor by the inscriptions remaining to his honour. The
citizens of Xanthus in Lycia set up a monument to him;
and at Athens his statue was placed beside that of Phil-
adelphus in the gymnasium of Ptolemy, near the temple
of Theseus, where he was honoured as of founder's kin.
He was put to death by Caligula. Drusilla, another
grandchild of Cleopatra and Antony, married Antonius
Felix, the procurator of Judaea, after the death of his

40 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

first wife, who was also named Drusilla. These are the
last notices that we meet with of the royal family of
Egypt.

As soon as the news of Caligula's death (a. d, 41)
reached Egypt, the joy of the Jews knew no bounds.
They at once flew to arms to revenge themselves on the
Alexandrians, whose streets were again the seat of civil
war. The governor did what he could to quiet both
parties, but was not wholly successful till the decree of
the new emperor reached Alexandria. In this Claudius
granted to the Jews the full rights of citizenship, which
they had enjoyed under the Ptolemies, and which had
been allowed by Augustus; he left them to choose their
own high priest, to enjoy their own religion without
hindrance, and he repealed the laws of Caligula under
which they had been groaning. At this time the Jewish
alabarch in Egypt was Demetrius, a man of wealth and
high birth, who had married Mariamne, the daughter of
the elder Agrippa.

The government under Claudius was mild and just,
at least as far as a government could be in which every
tax-gatherer, every military governor, and every sub-
prefect was supposed to enrich himself by his appoint-
ment. Every Roman officer, from the general down to
the lowest tribune, claimed the right of travelling through
the country free of expense, and seizing the carts and
cattle of the villagers to carry him forward to the next
town, under the pretence of being a courier on the pubhc
service. But we have a decree of the ninth year of this
reign, carved on the temple in the Great Oasis, in which

WEAKNESS OF AN ABSOLUTE EULE

41

Cneius Capito, the prefect of Egypt, endeavours to put
a stop to this injustice. He orders that no traveller shall
have the privilege of a courier unless he has a proper
warrant, and that then he shall only claim a free lodging;
that clerks in the villages shall keep a register of all that
is taken on account of the public service; and that if
anybody make an unjust claim he shall pay four times

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the amount to the informer and six times the amount to
the emperor. But royal decrees could do little or nothing
where there were no judges to enforce them; and the
people of Upper Egypt must have felt this law as a cruel
insult when they were told that they might take up
their complaints to Basilides, at Alexandria. The em-
ployment of the informer is a full acknowledgment of
the weakness of this absolute government, and that the
prefect had not the power to enforce his own decrees;
and, when we compare this law with that of Alexander

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42 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

on Ms conquest of the country, we have no difficulty in
seeing why Egypt rose under the Ptolemies and sunk
under the selfish policy of Augustus.

Claudius was somewhat of a scholar and an author;
he wrote several volumes both in Greek and in Latin.
The former he might perhaps think would be chiefly
valued in Alexandria; and when he founded a new col-
lege in that city, called after himself the Claudian Mu-
seum, he ordered that on given days every year his his-
tory of Carthage should be publicly read in one museum,
and his history of Italy in the other; thus securing dur-
ing Ms reign an attention to Ms writings which their
merits alone would not have gained.

Under the government of Claudius the Egyptians
were again allowed to coin money; and in Ms first year
begins that Mstorically important series in which every
coin is dated with the year of the emperor's reign. The
coins of the Ptolemies were strictly Greek in their work-
manship, and the few Egyptian characters that we see
upon them are so much altered by the classic taste of
the die-engraver that we hardly know them again. But
it is far otherwise with the coins of the emperors, which
are covered with the ornaments, characters, and religious
ceremonies of the native Egyptians; and, though the
style of art is often bad, they are scarcely equalled by
any series of coins whatever in the service they render
to the historian.

It was in this reign that the route through Egypt to
India first became really known to the Greeks and Ro-
mans. The historian Pliny, who died in 79 a. d., has left

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PLINY ON THE VOYAGE TO INDIA 43

US a contemporary account of these early voyages. '' It
will not be amiss," he says in his Natural. History, " to
set forth the whole of the route from Egypt, which has
been stated to us of late, upon information on which reli-
ance may be placed and is here published for the first
time. The subject is one well worthy of our notice, see-
ing that in no year does India drain our empire of less
than five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces [or two
million dollars], giving back her own wares in exchange,
which are sold among us at fully one hundred times their
cost price.

'' Two miles distant from Alexandria is the town of
Heliopolis. The distance thence to Koptos, up the Mle,
is three hundred and eight miles; the voyage is per-
formed, when the Etesian winds are blowing, in twelve
days. Prom Koptos the journey is made with the aid
of camels, stations being arranged at intervals for the
supply of fresh water. The first of these stations is called
Hydreuma, and is distant twenty-two miles; the second
is situate on a mountain at a distance of one day's
journey from the last; the third is at a second Hydreuma,
distant from Koptos ninety-five miles; the fourth is on a
mountain; the next to that is another Hydreuma, that
of Apollo, and is distant from Koptos one hundred and
eighty-four miles; after which there is another on a
mountain; there is then another station at a place called
the New Hydreuma, distant from Koptos two hundred
and thirty miles; and next to it there is another called
the Old Hydreuma, where a detachment is always on
guard, with a caravansary that affords lodging for two

44 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAJST EMPIRE

thousand persons. The last is distant from the New
Hydreuma seven miles. After leaving it, we come to
the city of Berenice, situate upon a harbour of the Red
Sea, and distant from Koptos two hundred and fifty-seven
miles. The greater part of this distance is generally
travelled by night, on account of the extreme heat, the
day being spent at the stations; in consequence of which
it takes twelve days to perform the whole journey from
Koptos to Berenice.

" Passengers generally set sail at midsmnmer before
the rising of the Dog-star, or else immediately after,
and in about thirty days arrive at Ocelis in Arabia, or
else at Cane, in the region which bears frankincense.
To those who are bound for India, Ocelis is the best place
for embarkation. If the wind called Hippolus happens
to be blowing, it is possible to arrive in forty days at
the nearest mart of India, Muziris by name [the modem
Mangalore]. This, however, is not a very desirable place
for disembarkation, on account of the pirates which fre-
quent its vicim'ty, where they occupy a place, Nitrias;
nor, in fact, is it very rich in articles of merchandise.
Besides, the roadstead for shipping is a considerable dis-
tance from the shore, and the cargoes have to be conveyed
in boats, either for loading or discharging. At the mo-
ment that I am writing these pages," continues Pliny,
" the name of the king of the place is Cselobotras. An-
other part, and a much more convenient one, is that which
lies in the territory of the people called Neacyndi, Barace
by name. Here King Pandian used to reign, dwelling
at a considerable distance from the mart in the interior.

TEADE WITH INDIA 45

at a city known as Modiera. The district from whicli
pepper is carried down to Barace in boats hollowed out
of a single tree, is known as Cottonara. None of these
names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in
any of the former writers, from which circumstance it
would appear that the localities have since changed their
names. Travellers set sail from India on their return
to Europe, at the beginning of the Egyptian month Ty-
bus, which is our December, or, at all events, before the
sixth day of the Egyptian month Mechir, the same as
our ides of January: if they do this, they can go and
return in the same year. They set sail from India with
a south-east wind, and, upon entering the Red Sea, catch
the south-west or south."

The places on the Indian coast which the Egyptian
merchant vessels then reached are verified from the coins
found there; and as we know the course of the trade-
wind by which they arrived, we also know the part of
Africa where they left the shore and braved the dangers
of the ocean. A hoard of Roman gold coins of these
reigns has been dug up in our own days near Calicut,
under the roots of a banyan-tree. It had been there
buried by an Alexandrian merchant on his arrival from
this voyage, and left safe imder the cover of the sacred
tree to await his return from a second journey. But he
died before his return, and his secret died with him.
The products of the Indian trade were chiefly silk, dia-
monds, and other precious stones, ginger, spices, and
some scents. The state of Ethiopia was then such that
no trade came down the Nile to Syene; and the produce

46 EGYPT UN DEE THE ROMAN EMPIEE

of southern Africa was brought by coasting vessels to
Berenice. These products were ivory, rhinoceros teeth,
hippopotamus skins, tortoise shell, apes, monkeys, and
slaves, a list which throws a sidelight both on the pur-
suits of the natives and the tastes of the ultimate
purchasers.

The Romans in most cases collected the revenues of
a province by means of a publican or farmer, to whom
the taxes were let by auction; but such was the impor-
tance of Egypt that the same jealousy which made them
think its government too great to be trusted to a man
of high rank, made them think its revenues too large
to be trusted to one farmer. The smaller branches of the
Egyptian revenue were, however, let out as usual, and
even the collection of the customs of the whole of the
Red Sea was not thought too much to trust to one citizen.
Annius Plocamus, who farmed them in this reign, had
a little fleet under his conunand to collect them with;
and, tempted either by trade or plunder, his ships were
sometimes as far out as the south coast of Arabia. On
one occasion one of his freedmen in the command of a
vessel was carried by a north wind into the open ocean,
and after being fifteen days at sea found himself on the
coast of Ceylon. This island was not then wholly new to
the geographers of Egypt and Europe. It had been heard
of by the pilots in the voyage of Alexander the Great;
Eratosthenes had given it a place in his map; and it
had often been reached from Africa by the sailors of the
Red Sea in wickerwork boats made of papyrus; but this
was the first time it had been visited by a European,

THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY 49

In the neighbourhood of the above-mentioned road
from Koptos to Berenice were the porphyritic quarries
and the emerald mines, which were briskly worked under
the Emperor Claudius. The mountain was now named
the Claudian Mountain.

As this route for trade became known, the geogra-
phers began to understand the wide space that separates
India from Africa. Hitherto, notwithstanding a few
voyages of discovery, it had been the common opinion
that Persia was in the neighbourhood of Ethiopia. The
Greeks had thought that the Nile rose in India, in oppo-
sition to the Jews, who said that it was the river Gihon
of the garden of Eden, which made a circuit round the
whole of the land of Cush, or Ethiopia. The names of
these countries got misused accordingly; and even after
the mistake was cleared up we sometimes find Ethiopia
called India.

The Egyptian chemists were able to produce very
bright dyes by methods then unknown to Greece or Rome.
They dipped the cloth first into a liquid of one colour,
called a mordant, to prepare it, and then into a liquid
of a second colour; and it came out dyed of a third colour,
unlike either of the former. The ink with which they
wrote the name of a deceased person on the mummy-
cloth, like our own marking-ink, was made with nitrate
of silver. Their knowledge of chemistry was far greater
than that of their neighbours, and the science is even
now named from the country of its birth. The later
Arabs called it Alchemia, tJie Egyptian art, and hence
our words alchemy and chemistry. So also Naphtha,

50 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIRE

or rock oil, from the coast of the Red Sea; and Anthra-
cite, or rock fuel, from the coast of Syria, both bear Egyp-
tian names. To some Egyptian stones the Romans gave
their own names; as the black glassy obsidian from
Nubia they called after Obsidius, who foimd it; the black
Tiberian marble with white spots, and the Augustan
marble with regular wavy veins, were both named after
the emperors. Porphyry was now used for statues for
the first time, and sometimes to make a kind of patch-
work figure, in which the clothed parts were of the col-
oured stone, while the head, hands, and feet were of white
marble. And it was thought that diamonds were nowhere
to be found but in the Ethiopian gold mines.

Several kinds of wine were made in Egypt; some in
the Arsinoite nome on the banks of the lake Mceris ; and
a poor Libyan wine at Antiphrse on the coast, a hundred
miles from Alexandria. Wine had also been made in
Upper Egypt in small quantities a very long time, as we
learn from the monuments; but it was produced with
difficulty and cost and was not good; it was not valued
by the G-reeks. It was poor and thin, and drunk only
by those who were feverish and afraid of anything
stronger. That of Anthylla, to the east of Alexandria,
was very much better. But better still were the thick
luscious Tseniotic and the mild delicate Mareotic wines.
This last was first grown at Plinthine, but afterwards
on all the banks of the lake Mareotis. The Mareotic
wine was white and sweet and thin, and very little heat-
ing or intoxicating. Horace had carelessly said of Cleo-
patra that she was drunk with Mareotic wine; but

EGYPTIAIT WINES

61

Lucan, who better knew its quality, says that the head-
strong lady drank wine far stronger than the Mareotic.
Near Sebennytus three kinds of wine were made; one
bitter named Pence, a second sparkling named ^thalon,
and the third Thasian, from a vine imported from Thasus.
But none of these Egyptian wines was thought equal
to those of Greece and Italy. Nor were they made in
quantities large enough or cheap enough for the poor;

FAEMING IN EGYPT.

and here, as in other countries, the common people for
their intoxicating drink used beer or spirits made from
barley. The Egyptian sour wine, however, made very
good vinegar, and it was then exported for sale in Rome.
During this half-century that great national work,
the lake of Moeris, by which thousands of acres had been
flooded and made fertile, and the watering of the lower
country regulated, was, through the neglect of the em-
bankments, at once destroyed. The latest traveller who
mentions it is Strabo, and the latest geographer Pom-
ponius Mela. By its means the province of Arsinoe was

52 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIRE

made one of the most fruitful and beautiful spots in
Egypt. Here only does the olive grow wild. Here the
vine wiU grow. And by the help of this embanked lake
the province was made yet more fruitful. But before
Pliny wrote, the bank had given way, the pent-up waters
had made for themselves a channel into the lake now
called Birket el Kurun, and the two small pyramids,
which had hitherto been surrounded by water, then stood
on dry ground. Thus was the coimtry slowly goiag to
ruin by the faults of the government, and ignorance in
the foreign rulers. But, on the other hand, the beautiful
temple of Latopolis, which had been begun under the
Ptolemies, was finished in this reign; and bears the name
of Claudius with those of some later emperors on its
portico and walls.

In the Egyptian language the word for a year is Bait,
which is also the name of a bird. In hieroglyphics this
word is spelt by a palm-branch Bai and the letter T, fol-
lowed sometimes by a circle as a picture of the year.
Hence arose among a people fond of mystery and allegory
a mode of speaking of the year under the name of a pahn-
branch or of a bird; and they formed a fable out of a mere
confusion of words. The Greeks, who were not slow to
copy Egyptian mysticism, called this fabulous bird the
Phcenix from their own name for the palm-tree. The
end of any long period of time they called the return
of the phoenix to earth. The Romans borrowed the fable,
though perhaps without understanding the allegory; and
in the seventh year of this reign, when the emperor cele-
brated the secular games at Rome, at the end of the

THE STORY OF THE PHOENIX 53

eighth century since the city was built, it was said that
the phoenix had come to Egypt and was thence brought
to Rome. This was in the consulship of Plautius and
Vitellius; and it would seem to be only from mistakes
in the name that Pliny places the event eleven years
earlier, in the consulship of Plautius and Papinius, and
that Tacitus places it thirteen years earlier in the con-
sulship of Pabius and ViteUius. This fable is connected
with some of the remarkable epochs in Egyptian history.
The story lost nothing by travelling to a distance. In
Rome it was said that this wonderful bird was a native
of Arabia, where it lived for five himdred years, that
on its death a grub came out of its body which in due
time became a perfect bird; and that the new phoenix
brought to Egypt the bones of its parent in the nest of
spices in which it had died, and laid them on the altar
in the temple of the sun in Heliopolis. It then returned
to Arabia to live in its turn for five hundred years, and
die and give life again to another as before. The Chris-
tians saw in this story a type of the resurrection; and
Clement, Bishop of Rome, quotes it as such in his Epistle
to the Corinthians.

We find the name of Claudius on several of the tem-
ples of Upper Egypt, particularly on that of ApoUinopolis
Magna, and on the portico of the great temples of Lato-
polis, which were being built in this reign.

In the beginning of the reign of INero, 55 a. d., an
Egjrptian Jew, who claimed to be listened to as a prophet,
raised the minds of his countrymen into a ferment of
religious zeal by preaching about the sufferings of their

64 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

brethren in Judasa; and he was able to get together a
body of men, called in reproach the Sicarii, or ruffians,
whose numbers are variously stated at four thousand
and thirtj^ thousand, whom he led out of Egypt to free
the holy city from the bondage of the heathen. But
Felix, the Roman governor, led against them the garrison
of Jerusalem, and easily scattered the half -armed rabble.
By such acts of religious zeal on the part of the Jews
they were again brought to blows with the Greeks of
Alexandria. The Macedonians, as the latter stUl called
themselves, had met in public assembly to send an em-
bassy to Rome, and some Jews who entered the meeting,
which as citizens they had a full right to do, were seized
and ill-treated by them as spies. They would perhaps
have even been put to death if a large body of their coun-
trymen had not run to their rescue. The Jews attacked
the assembled Grreeks with stones and lighted torches,
and would have burned the amphitheatre and all that
were in it, if the prefect, Tiberius Alexander, had not
sent some of the elders of their own nation to calm their
angry feelings. But, though the mischief was stopped
for a time, it soon broke out again; and the prefect was
forced to call out the garrison of two Roman legions and
five thousand Libyans before he could re-establish peace
in the city. The Jews were always the greatest sufferers
in these civil broils; and Josephus says that fifty thou-
sand of his countrymen were left dead in the streets of
Alexandria. But this number is very improbable, as
the prefect was a friend to the Jewish nation, and as
the Roman legions were not withdrawn to the camp tiU

ALEXANDEIAN SEAMANSHIP 55

they had guarded the Jews in carrying away and burying
the bodies of their friends.

It was a natural policy on the part of the emperors
to change a prefect whenever his province was disturbed
by rebellion, as we have seen in the case of Placcus, who
was recalled by Caligula. It was easier to send a new
governor than to inquire into a wrong or to redress a
grievance; and accordingly in the next year C Balbillus
was sent from Rome as prefect of Egypt. He reached
Alexandria on the sixth day after leaving the Straits of
Sicily, which was spoken of as the quickest voyage
known. The Alexandrian ships were better built and
better manned than any others, and, as a greater number
of vessels sailed every year between that port and Pute-
oli on the coast of Italy than between any other two
places, no voyage was better understood or more quickly
performed. They were out of sight of land for five hun-
dred miles between Syracuse and Cyrene. Hence we see
that the quickest rate of sailing, with a fair wind, was
at that time about one hundred and fifty miles in the
twenty-four hours. But these ships had very little power
of bearing up against the wind; and if it were contrary
the voyage became tedious. If the captain on sailing
out of the port of Alexandria foimd the wind westerly,
and was unable to creep along the African coast to Cy-
rene, he stood over to the coast of Asia Minor, in hopes
of there finding a more favourable wind. If a storm
arose, he ran into the nearest port, perhaps in Crete,
perhaps in Malta, there to wait the return of fair weather.
If winter then came on, he had to lie by till spring. Thus

56 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

a vessel laden with Egyptian wheat, leaving Alexandria
in September, after the harvest had been brought down
to the coast, would sometimes spend five months on its
voyage from that port to Puteoli. Such was the case
with the ship bearing the children of Jove as its figure-
head, which picked up the Apostle Paul and the historian
Josephus when they had been wrecked together on the
island of Malta; and such perhaps would have been the

EGYPTIAN THRESHING MACHINE.

case with the ship which they before found on the coast
of Lycia, had it been able to reach a safe harbour, and
not been wrecked at Malta.

The rocky island of Malta, with the largest and safest
harbour in the Mediterranean, was a natural place for
ships to touch at between Alexandria and Italy. Its
population was made up of those races which had sailed
upon its waters first from Carthage and then from Alex-
andria; it was a mixture of Phoenicians, Egyptians, and

EGYPTIAN INFLUENCE IN MALTA

67

Greco-Egyptians. To judge from the skulls turned, up
in the burial-places, the Egyptians were the most numer-
ous, and here as elsewhere the Egyptian superstitions
conquered and put down all the other superstitions.
While the island was under the Phoenicians, the coins
had the head of the Sicilian goddess on one side, and
on the other the Egyptian trinity of Isis, Osiris, and
Nepthys. When it was under the Greek rule the head
on the coins received an Egyptian head-dress, and became
that of the goddess Isis, and on the other side of the
coin was a winged fig-
ure of Osiris. It was
at this time governed by
a Roman governor. The
large temple, built with
barbarian rudeness, and
ornamented with the
Phoenician palm-branch, was on somewhat of a Roman
plan, with a circular end to every room. But it was
dedicated to the chief god of Egypt, and is even yet
called by its Greek name Hagia Chem, the temple of
Chem. The little neighbouring island of Cossyra, be-
tween Sicily and Carthage, also shows upon its coins
clear traces of its taste for Egyptian customs.

The first five years of this reign, the quinquennium
Neronis, while the emperor was imder the tutorship of
the philosopher Seneca, became ia Rome proverbial for
good government, and on the coinage we see marks of
Egypt being equally well treated. In the third year
we see on a coin the queen sitting on a throne with

MALTESE COIN.

58 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the word agreement, as if to praise the young emperor's
good feeling in following the advice of his mother Agrip-
pina. On another the emperor is styled the young good
genius, and he is represented by the sacred basilisk
crowned with the double crown of Egypt. The new pre-
fect, Balbillus, was an Asiatic Greek, and no doubt re-
ceived his Roman names of Tiberius Claudius on being
made a freedman of the late emperor. He governed the
country mildly and justly; and the grateful inhabitants
declared that under him the Nile was more than usually
bountiful, and that its waters always rose to their just
height. But in the latter part of the reign the Egyptians
smarted severely under that cruel principle of a despotic
monarchy that every prefect, every sub-prefect, and
even every deputy tax-gatherer, might be equally des-
potic in his own depart-
ment. On a coin of the thir-
teenth year of the reign of
this ruler, we see a ship
with the word emperor-
coiN OF cossTBA. hettrev, being that in which

he then sailed into Grreece,
or in which the Alexandrians thought that he would
visit their city. But if they had really hoped for his
visit as a pleasure, they must have thought it a danger
escaped when they learned his character; they must have
been undeceived when the prefect Cscinna Tuscus was
punished with banishment for venturing to bathe in the
bath which was meant for the emperor's use if he had
come on his projected visit.

LITERATUEE UNDER NERO 69

During the first century and a half of Roman sway
in Egypt the school of Alexandria was nearly silent. We
have a few poems by Leonides of Alexandria, one of
which is addressed to the Empress Poppaea, as the wife
of Jupiter, on his presenting a celestial globe to her on
her birthday. Pamphila wrote a miscellaneous history
of entertaining stories, and her lively, simple style makes
us very much regret its loss. Chseremon, a Stoic philos-
opher, had been, during the last reign, at the head of
the Alexandrian Library,
but he was removed to
Rome as one of the tutors
to the young Nero. He is
ridiculed by Martial for
writing in praise of death, c"nf o^ ^^^o.

when, from age and poverty, he was less able to enjoy
life. We still possess a most curious though short ac-
count by him of the monastic habits of the ancient Egyp-
tians. He also wrote on hieroglyphics, and a small
fragment containing his opinion of the meanings of nine-
teen characters stiU remains to us. But he is not always
right; he thinks the characters were used allegorically
for thoughts, not for sounds; and fancies that the priests
used them to keep secret the real nature of the gods.

He was succeeded at the museum by his pupil
Dionysius, who had the charge of the library till
the reign of Trajan. Dionysius was also employed by
the prefect as a secretary of state, or, in the language
of the day, secretary to the embassies, epistles, and an-
swers. He was the author of the Periegesis, and aimed

60 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

at the rank of a poet by writing a treatise on geography
in heroic verse. From this work he is named Dionysius
Periegetes. While careful to remind us that his birth-
place Alexandria was a Macedonian city, he gives due
honour to Egypt and the Egyptians. There is no river,
says he, equal to the Nile for carrying fertility and add-
ing to the happiness of the land. It divides Asia from
Libya, falling between rocks at Syene, and then passing
by the old and famous city of Thebes, where Memnon
every morning salutes his beloved Aurora as she rises.
On its banks dwells a rich and glorious race of men, who
were the first to cultivate the arts of life; the first to
make trial of the plough and sow their seed in a straight
furrow; and the first to map the heavens and trace the
sloping path of the sun.

According to the traditions of the church, it was in
this reign that Christianity was first brought into Egypt
by the Evangelist Mark, the disciple of the Apostle Peter.
Many were already craving for religious food more real
than the old superstitions. The Egyptian had been
shaken in his attachment to the sacred animals by Greek
ridicule. The Greek had been weakened in his belief
of old Homer's gods by living with men who had never
heard of them. Both were dissatisfied with the scheme
of explaining the actions of their gods by means of alleg-
ory. The crumbling away of the old opinions left men
more fitted to receive the new religion from Galilee.
Mark's preaching converted crowds in Alexandria; but,
after a short stay, he returned to Rome, in about the
eleventh year of this reign, leaving Annianus to watch

CHEISTIA2TITY INTRODUCED 61

over the growing dmrch. Annianus is usually called the
first bishop of Alexandria; and Eusebius, who lived two
hundred years later, has given us the names of his suc-
cessors in an unbroken chain. If we would iaquire
whether the early converts to Christianity in Alexandria
were Jews, Greeks, or Egyptians, we have nothing to
guide us but the names of these bishops. Annianus, or
Annaniah, as his name was written by the Arabic his-
torians, was very likely a Jew; indeed, the Evangehst
Mark would begin by addressing himself to the Jews,
and woTild leave the care of the infant church to one of
his own nation. In the platonic Jews, Christianity f oimd
a soil so exactly suited to its reception that it is only by
the dates that the Therapeutae of Alexandria and their
historian Philo are proved not to be Christian; and, again,
it was in the close union between the platonic Jews and
the platonists that Christianity found its easiest path
to the ears and hearts of the pagans. The bishops that
followed seem to have been Greek converts. Before the
death of Annaniah, Jerusalem had been destroyed by
the Roman armies, and the Jews sunk in their own eyes
and in those of their fellow-citizens throughout the em-
pire; hence the second bishop of Alexandria was less
likely to be of Hebrew blood; and it was long before
any Egyptians aimed at rank in the church. But though
the spread of Christianity was rapid, both among the
Greeks and the Egyptians, we must not hope to find any
early traces of it in the historians. It was at first em-
braced by the unlearned and the poor, whose deeds and
opinions are seldom mentioned in history; and we may

62 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

readily believe the scomfiil reproach of the unbelievers,
that it was chiefly received by the unfortunate, the xui-
happy, the despised, and the sinful. When the white-
robed priestesses of Ceres carried the sacred basket
through the streets of Alexandria, they cried out, " Sin-
ners away, or keep your eyes to the ground; keep your
eyes to the ground! " When the crier, standing on the
steps of the portico in front of the great temple, called
upon the pagans to come near and join in the celebration
of their mysteries, he cried out, " All ye who are clean
of hands and pure of heart, come to the sacrifice ; all ye
who are guiltless in thought and deed, come to the sac-
rifice." But many a repentant sinner and humble spirit
must have drawn back in distrust from a summons which
to him was so forbidding, and been glad to hear the good
tidings of mercy offered by Christianity to those who
labour and are heavy laden, and to the broken-hearted
who would turn away from their wickedness. While such
were the chief followers of the gospel, it was not likely
to be much noticed by the historians; and we must wait
till it forced its way into the schools and the palace be-
fore we shall find many traces of the rapidity with which
it was spreading.

During these reigns the Ethiopian Arabs kept up
their irregular warfare against the southern frontier.
The tribe most dreaded were the Blemmyes, an uncivil-
ised people, described by the affrighted neighbours as
having no heads, but with eyes and mouth on the breast;
and it was under that name that the Arabs spread during
each century farther and farther into Egypt, separating

PUNITIVE EXPEDITION UP THE NILE 66

the province from the more cultivated tribes of Upper
Ethiopia or Meroe. The cities along the banks of the
Nile in Lower Ethiopia, between Nubia and Meroe, were
ruined by being in the debatable land between the two
nations. The early Greek travellers had counted about
twenty cities on each side of the Nile between Syene and
Meroe; but when, in a moment of leisure, the Roman
government proposed to punish and stop the inroads of
these troublesome neighbours, and sent forward a tribune
with a guard of soldiers, he reported on his return that
the whole country was a desert, and that there was
scarcely a city inhabited on either side of the Nile beyond
Nubia. But he had not marched very far. The interior
of Africa was little known; and to seek for the foun-
tain of the Nile was another name for an impossible
or chimerical undertaking.

But Egypt itself was so quiet as not to need the pres-
ence of so large a Roman force as usual to keep it in
obedience; and when Vespasian, who commanded Nero's
armies in Syria, found the Jews more obstinate in their
rebellion and less easily crushed than he expected, the
emperor sent the young Titus to Alexandria, to lead to
his father's assistance all the troops that could be spared.
Titus led into Palestine through Arabia two legions, the
Fifth and the Tenth, which were then in Egypt.

We find a temple of this reign in the oasis of Dakleh,
or the Western Oasis, which seems to have been a more
flourishing spot in the time of the Romans than when
Egypt itself was better governed. It is so far removed
from the cities in the valley of the Nile that its position,

66 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIEE

and even existence, was long unknown to Europeans,
and to such liiding-places as tMs many of the Egyptians
fled, to be farther from the tyranny of the Roman tax-
gatherers.

Hitherto the Roman empire had descended for just
one hundred years through five emperors like a fam-
ily inheritance; but, on the death of Nero, the Julian
and Claudian families were at an end, and Galba, who
was raised to the purple by the choice of the soldiers,
endeavoured to persuade the Romans and their depend-
ent provinces that they had regained their liberties.
The Egyptians may have been puzzled by the word free-
dom, then struck upon the coins by their foreign masters,
but must have been pleased to find it accompanied with
a redress of grievances.

Galba began his reign with the praiseworthy en-
deavour of repairing the injustice done by his cruel pre-
decessor. He at once recalled the prefect of Egypt, and
appointed in his place Tiberius Julius Alexander, an
Alexandrian, a son of the former prefect of that name;
and thus Egypt was under the government of a na-
tive prefect. The peaceable situation of the Great
Oasis has saved a long Greek inscription of the decree
which was now issued in redress of the grievances suf-
fered under Nero. It is a proclamation by Julius
Demetrius, the commander of the Oasis, quoting the
decree of Tiberius Julius Alexander, the new prefect of
Egypt.

The prefect acknowledges that the loud complaints
with which he was met on entering upon his government

riSCAL EEFORMS 67

were well founded, and he promises that the unjust taxes
shall cease; that nobody shall be forced to act as a pro-
vincial tax-gatherer; that no debts shall be cancelled
or sales made void under the plea of money owing to
the revenue; that no freeman shall be thrown into
prison for debt, unless it be a debt due to the royal
revenue, and that no private debt shall be made over
to the tax-gatherer, to be by bim collected as a public
debt; that no property settled on the wife at marriage
shall be seized for taxes due from the husband; and that
all new charges and claims which had grown up within
the last five years shall be repealed. In order to dis-
courage informers, whom the prefects had much em-
ployed, and by whom the families in Alexandria were
much harassed, and to whom he laid the great falling
off in the population of that city, he orders, that if any-
body should make three charges and fail in proving them,
he shall forfeit half his property and lose the right of
bringing an action at law. The land had always paid
a tax in proportion to the number of acres overflowed
and manured by the waters of the Mle ; and the husband-
men had latterly been frightened by the double threat
of a new measurement of the land, and of making it at
the same time pay according to the ancient registers
of the overflow when the canals had been more open and
more acres flooded; but the prefect promises that there
shall be no new measurements, and that they shall only be
taxed according to the actual overflow. In 69 a. d. Galba
was murdered, after a reign of seven months. Some of his
coins, however, are dated in the second year of his reign,

EGYPTIAN COIN OP GALEA.

68 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

according to the Alexandrian custom of counting the
years. They called the 29th of August, the first new
year's day after the sovereign came to the throne, the
first day of his second year.

Otho was then acknowledged as emperor by Rome
and the East, while the hardy legions of Germany

thought themselves entitled
to choose for themselves.
They set up their own
general, Vitellius. The two
legions in Egypt sided with
the four legions in Syria
under Mucianus, and the three legions which, under Ves-
pasian, were carrying on the memorable war against the
Jews; and all took the oaths to Otho. We find no hiero-
glyphical inscriptions during this short reign of a few
weeks, but there are many Alexandrian coins to prove
the truth of the historian; and some of them, like those
of Galba, bear the unlooked-for word freedom. In the
few weeks which then passed between the news of Otho's
death and of Vespasian being raised to the purple in
Syria, Vitellius was acknowledged in Egypt; and the
Alexandrian mint struck a few coins in his name with the
figure of Victory. But as soon as the legions of Egypt
heard that the Sj^rian army had made choice of another
emperor, they withdrew their allegiance from Vitellius,
and promised it to his Syrian rival.

Vespasian was at Csesarea, in command of the army
employed in the Jewish war, when the news reached him
that Otho was dead, and that Vitellius had been raised

VESPASIAN UST EGYPT 69

to the purple by the GTerman legions, and acknowledged
at Eome; and, without wasting more time in refusing
the honour than was necessary to prove that his soldiers
were in earnest in offering it, he allowed himself to be
proclaimed emperor, as the successor of Otho. He woiild
not, however, then risk a march upon Rome, but he sent
to Alexandria to tell Tiberius Alexander, the governor
of Egypt, what he had done; he ordered him to claim
in his name the allegiance of that great province, and
added that he should soon be there himself. The two
Roman legions in Egypt much preferred the choice of the
Eastern to that of the Western army, and the Alexan-
drians, who had only just acknowledged Vitellius, readily
took the oath to be faithful to Vespasian. This made it
less necessary for him to hasten thither, and he only
reached Alexandria in time to hear that Vitellius had
been murdered after a reign of eight months, and that he
himself had been acknowledged as emperor by Rome and
the Western legions. His Egyptian coins in the first
year of his reign, by the word peace, point to the end
of the civil war.

When Vespasian entered Alexandria, he was met by
the philosophers and magistrates in great pomp. The
philosophers, indeed, in a city where, beside the officers
of government, talent formed the only aristocracy, were
a very important body; and Dion, Euphrates, and Apollo-
nius had been useful in securing for Vespasian the alle-
giance of the Alexandrians. Dion was an orator, who
had been professor of rhetoric, but he had given up that
study for philosophy. His orations, or declamations^

70 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

gained for him the name of Chrysostom, or golden-
mouthed. Euphrates, his friend, was a platonist, who
afterwards married the daughter of the prefect of Syria,
and removed to Rome. Apollonius of Tyana, the most
celebrated of these philosophers, was one of the first
who gained his eminence from the study of Eastern phi-
losophy, which was then rising in the opinions of the
Greeks as highly worth their notice. He had been trav-
elling in the East; and, boasting that he was already
master of all the fabled wisdom of the Magi of Babylon
and of the Gymnosophists of India, he was come to Egypt
to compare this mystic philosophy with that of the her-
mits of Ethiopia and the Thebaid. Addressing himself
as a pupil to the priests, he willingly yielded his belief
to their mystic claims ; and, whether from being deceived
or as a deceiver, whether as an enthusiast or as a cheat,
he pretended to have learned all the supernatural knowl-
edge which they pretended to teach. By the Egyptians
he was looked upon as the favourite of Heaven; he
claimed the power of working miracles by his magical
arts, and of foretelling events by his knowledge of astrol-
ogy. In the Thebaid he was so far honoured that at the
bidding of the priests one of the sacred trees spoke to
him, as had been their custom from of old with favourites,
and in a clear and rather womanly voice addressed him
as a teacher from heaven.

It was to witness such practices as these, and to learn
the art of deceiving their followers, that the Egyptian
priests were now consulted by the Greeks. The oracle
at Delphi was silent, but the oracle of Ammon continued

PRIESTCRAFT 71

to return an answer. The mystic philosophy of the East
had come into fashion in Alexandria, and the priests were
more celebrated as magicians than as philosophers. They
would tell a man's fortune and the year that he was to die
by examining the lines of his forehead. Some of them
even undertook, for a siun of money, to raise the dead
to life, or, rather, to recall for a time to earth the im-
willing spirits, and make them answer any questions that
might be put to them. Ventriloquism was an art often
practised in Egypt, and perhaps invented there. By this
the priests gained a power over the minds of the listeners,
and could make them believe that a tree, a statue, or a
dead body, was speaking to them.

The Alexandrian men of letters seldom erred by wrap-
ping themselves up in pride to avoid the fault of mean-
ness; they usually cringed to the great. ApoUonius was
wholly at the serAdce of Vespasian, and the emperor
repaid the philosopher by flattery as well as by more
solid favours. He kept him always by his side during
his stay in Egypt; he acknowledged his rank as a prophet,
and tried to make further use of him in persuading the
Egyptians of his own divine right to the throne. Ves-
pasian begged him to make use of his prayers that he
might obtain from God the empire which he had as yet
hardly grasped; but ApoUonius, claiming even a higher
mission from Heaven than Vespasian was granting to
him, answered, with as much arrogance as flattery, ** I
have myself already made you emperor." With the in-
timacy between Vespasian and ApoUonius begins the
use of gnostic emblems on the Alexandrian coins. The

72 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

imperial pupil was not slow in learning from such a
master; and the people were as ready to believe in the
emperor's miracles as in the philosopher's. As Vespa-
sian was walking through the streets of Alexandria, a
man well known as having a disease in his eyes threw
himself at his feet and begged of him to heal his blind-
ness. He had been told by the god Serapis that he should
regain his sight if the emperor would but deign to spit
upon his eyelids. Another man, who had lost the use
of a hand, had been told by the same god that he should
be healed if the emperor would but trample on him with
his feet. Vespasian at first laughed at them and thrust
them off; but at last he so far yielded to their prayers,
and to the flattery of his friends, as to have the physicians
of Alexandria consulted whether it was in his power to
heal these unfortunate men. The physicians, like good
courtiers, were not so unwise as to think it impossible;
besides, it seemed meant by the god as a public proof
of Vespasian's right to the throne; if he were successful
the glory would be his, and if he failed the laugh would
be against the cripples. The two men were therefore
brought before him, and in the face of the assembled
citizens he trampled on one and spit on the other; and
his flatterers declared that he had healed the maimed and
given sight to the blind.

Vespasian met with further wonders when he entered
the temple of Serapis to consult the god as to the state
and fortunes of the empire. He went into the inner sanc-
tuary alone, and, to his surprise, there he beheld the old
Basilides, the freedman of Claudius, one of the chief men

JOSEPHUS AND THE JEWS 73

of Alexandria, whom he knew was then lying danger-
ously ill, and several days' journey from the city. He
inquired of the priests whether BasiUdes had been in the
temple, and was assured that he had not. He then asked
whether he had been in Alexandria; but nobody had seen
him therfe. Lastly, on sending messengers, he learned
that he was on his death-bed eighty nules off. With this
miracle before his eyes, he could not distrust the answers
which the priests gave to his questions.

From Alexandria Vespasian sent back Titus to finish
the siege of Jerusalem. The Jewish writer Joseph, the
son of Matthias, or Flavins Josephus, as he called himself
when he entered the service of the emperor, was then in
Alexandria. He had been taken prisoner by Vespasian,
but had gained his freedom by the betrayal of his coun-
try's cause. He joined the army of Titus and marched
to the overthrow of Jerusalem. Notwithstanding the
obstinate and heroic struggles of the Jews, Judaea was
wholly conquered by the Romans, and Jerusalem and its
other fortresses either received Roman garrisons or were
dismantled. The Temple was overthrown in the month
of September, a. d. 70. Titus made slaves of ninety-seven
thousand men, many of whom he led with him into Egypt,
and then sent them to work in the mines. These were
soon followed by a crowd of other brave Jews, who chose
rather to quit their homes and live as wanderers in Egypt
than to own Vespasian as their king. They knew no lord
but Jahveh; to take the oaths or to pay tribute to Caesar
was to renounce the faith of their fathers. But they
found no safety in Egypt. Their Greek brethren turned

74 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

against them, and handed six hundred of them up to
Lupus, the governor of Egypt, to be punished; and their
countryman Josephus brands them all with the name of
Sicarii. They tried to hide themselves in Thebes and
other cities less under the eyes of the Roman governor.
They were, however, followed and taken, and the courage
with which the boys and mere children bore their suffer-
ings, sooner than acknowledge Vespasian for their king,
drew forth the praise of even the time-serving Josephus.

The Greek Jews of Egypt gained nothing by this
treachery towards their Hebrew brethren; they were
themselves looked down upon by the Alexandrians, and
distrusted by the Romans. The emperor ordered Lupus
to shut up the temple at Onion, near HeliopoUs, in which,
during the last three hundred years, they had been
allowed to have an altar, in rivalry to the Temple of
Jerusalem. Even Josephus, whose betrayal of his coun-
trymen might have saved him from their enemies, was
sent with many others in chains to Rome, and was only
set free on his making himself known to Titus. Indeed,
when the Hebrew Jews lost their capital and their rank
as a nation, their brethren felt lowered in the eyes of
their fellow-citizens, in whatever city they dwelt, and in
Alexandria they lost all hope of keeping their privileges;
although the emperor refused to repeal the edict which
granted them their citizenship, an edict to which they
always appealed for protection, but often with very little
success.

The Alexandrians were sadly disappointed in Vespa-
sian. They had been among the first to acknowledge

MEDIATION OF TITUS 76

hitn as emperor while his power was yet doubtful, and
they looked for a sum of money as a largess; but to
their sorrow he increased the taxes, and re-established
some which had fallen into disuse. They had a joke
against him, about his claiming from one of his friends
the trifling debt of six oboli; and, upon hearing of their
witticisms, he was so angry that he ordered this sum of
six oboU to be levied as a poll-tax upon every man in
the city, and he only remitted the tax at the request of
his son Titus. He went to Rome, carrying with him the
nickname of Cybiosactes, the scullion, which the Alexan-
drians gave him for his stinginess and greediness, and
which they had before given to Seleucus, who robbed
the tomb of Alexander the Great, at Alexandria, of its
famous golden sarcophagus.

Titus saw the importance of pleasing the people; and
his wish to humour their ancient prejudices, at the cere-
mony of consecrating a new bull as Apis, brought some
blame upon him. He there, as became the occasion, wore
the state crown, and dazzled the people of Memphis
with his regal pomp; but, while thus endeavouring to
strengthen his father's throne, he was by some accused
of grasping at it for himself.

The great temple of Kneph, at Latopolis, which had
been the work of many reigns and perhaps many cen-
turies, was finished under Vespasian. It is a building
worthy of the best times of Egyptian architecture. It
has a grand portico, upheld by four rows of massive col-
umns, with capitals in the form of papyrus flowers. On
the ceiling is a zodiac, like that at Tentyra; and, though

76 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

many other kings' names are carved on the walls, that
of Vespasian is in the dedication over the entrance.

Of the reign of Titus in Egypt we find no trace be-
yond his coins struck each year at Alexandria, and his
name carved on one or two temples which had been built
in former reigns.

Of the reign of Domitian (81—96 a. d.) we learn some-
thing from the poet Juvenal, who then held a military
post in the province; and he gives us a sad account of
the state of lawlessness in which the troops lived under
his commands. All quarrels between soldiers and
citizens were tried by the officers according to martial
law; and justice was very far from being even-handed
between the Roman and the poor Egyptian. No witness
was bold enough to come forward and say anything
against a soldier, while everybody was believed who
spoke on his behalf. Juvenal was at a great age when he
was sent into Egypt; and he felt that the command of
a cohort on the very borders of the desert was a cruel
banishment from the literary society of Rome. His death
in the camp was hastened by his wish to return home.
As what Juvenal chiefly aimed at in Ms writings was
to lash the follies of the age, he, of course, found plenty
of amusement in the superstitions and sacred animals of
Egypt. But he sometimes takes a poet's liberty, and
when he tells us that man's was almost the only flesh that
they ate without sinning, we need not believe him to the
letter. He gives a lively picture of a fight which he saw
between the citizens of two towns. The towns of Ombos
and Tentyra, though about a hundred miles aipart, had

RIVAL GODS 77

a longrstanding quarrel about their gods. At Ombos they
■worshipped the crocodile and the crocodile-headed god
Savak, while at Tentyra they worshipped the goddess
Hathor, and were celebrated for their skill in catching
and killing crocodiles. So, taking advantage of a feast or
holiday, they marched out for a fight. The men of
Ombos were beaten and put to flight; but one of them,
stumbling as he ran away, was caught and torn to pieces,
and, as Juvenal adds, eaten by the men of Tentyra. Their
worship of beasts, birds, and fishes, and even growing
their gods in the garden, are pleasantly hit off by him;
they left nothing, said he, without worship, but the god-
dess of chastity. The mother goddess, Isis, the queen
of heaven, was the deity to whom they bowed with the
most tender devotion, and to swear by Isis was their
favourite oath; and hence the leek, in their own language
named Isi, was no doubt the vegetable called a god by
the satiric Juvenal.

At the same time also the towns of Oxyrrhynchos and
Oynopolis, in the Heptanomos, had a little civil war about
the animals which they worshipped. Somebody at Cyn-
opolis was said to have caught an oxyrrhynchus fish in
the Nile and eaten it; and so the people of Oxyrrhynchos,
in revenge, made an attack upon the dogs, the gods of
Cjmopolis. They caught a number of them, killed them
in sacrifice to their offended fish-god, and ate them. The
two parties then flew to arms and fought several battles;
they sacked one another's cities in turns, and the war was
not stopped till the Roman troops marched to the spot
and punished them both.

78 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

But we gain a more agreeable and most likely a mor(
true notion of the mystical religion and philosophy o:
the Egyptians in these days from the serious enquiriei
of Plutarch, who, instead of looking for what he couh
laugh at, was only too ready to believe that he saw wis
dom hidden under an allegory in aU their superstitions
Many of the habits of the priests, such as shaving th(
whole body, wearing linen instead of cotton, and refusing
some meats as impure, seem to have arisen from a lov<
of cleanliness; their religion ordered what was useful
And it also forbade what was hurtful; so to stir th(
fire with a sword was displeasing to the gods, becaus(
it spoilt the temper of the metal. None but the vulga]
now looked upon the animals and statues as gods; th(
priests believed that the unseen gods, who acted with on(
mind and with one providence, were the authors of al
good; and though these, like the sun and moon, wer(
called in each coimtry by a different name, yet, like thos(
luminaries, they were the same over all the world. Out
ward ceremonies in religion were no longer though'
enough without a good life; and, as the Greeks said, tha'
beard and cloak did not make a philosopher, so the Egyp
tians said that white linen and a tonsure would no'
make a follower of Isis. All the sacrifices to the gods hat
a secondary meaning, or, at least, they tried to join j
moral aim to the outward act; as on the twentieth daj
of the month, when they ate honey and figs in honour o:
Thot, they sang " Sweet is truth." The Egyptians, lik(
most other Eastern polytheists, held the doctrine whicl
was afterwards called Manicheism; they believed in i

SCENE IN A SEPULCHRAL CHAMBER.

CHANGES IN RELIGION 79

good and in a wicked god, who governed the world be-
tween them. Of these the former made himself three-
fold, because three is a perfect number, and they adopted
into their religion that curious metaphysical opinion that
everything divine is formed of three parts; and accord-
ingly, on the Theban monmnents we often see the gods
in groups of three. They worshipped Osiris, Isis, and
Horus under the form of a right-angled triangle, in which
Horus was the side opposite to the right angle. The
favourite part of their mythology was the lamentation
of Isis for the death of her husband Osiris. By another
change the god Horus, who used to be a crowned king
of manly stature, was now a child holding a finger to his
mouth, and thereby marking that he had not yet learned
to talk. The Romans, who did not understand this Egyp-
tian symbol for youthfulness, thought that in this char-
acter he was commanding silence; and they gave the
name of Harpocrates, Horus the potverful, to a god of
silence. Horus was also often placed as a child in the
arms of his mother Isis; and thus by the loving nature
of the group were awakened the more tender feelings of
the worshipper. The Egyptians, Like the Greeks, had
always been loud in declaring that they were beloved
by their gods; but they received their favours with little
gratitude, and hardly professed that they felt any love
towards the gods in return. But after the time of the
Christian era, we meet with more kindly feelings even
among the pagans. We find from the Greek names of
persons that they at least had begun to think their gods
deserving of love, and in this group of the mother and

80 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

child, such a favourite also in Christian art, we see in
what direction these more kindly feelings found an en-
trance into the Egyptian religion. As fast as opinion
was raising the great god Serapis above his fellows and
making the wrathful judge into the ruler of the world,
so fast was the same opinion creating for itself a harbour
of refuge in the child Horus and its mother.

The deep earnestness of the Egyptians in the belief
of their own religion was the chief cause
of its being adopted by others. The
Grreeks had borrowed much from it.
Though in Eome it had been forbidden
by law, it was much cultivated there in
private; and the engraved rings on the
fingers of the wealthy Romans which bore
the figures of Harpocrates and other
Egyptian gods easily escaped the notice of the magistrate.
But the superstitious Domitian, who was in the habit of
consulting astrologers and Chaldaean fortune-tellers, al-
lowed the Egyptian worship. He built at Rome a temple
to Isis, and another to Serapis ; and such was the eager-
ness of the citizens for pictures of the mother goddess
with her child in her arms that, according to Juvenal,
the Roman painters all lived upon the goddess Isis, For
her temple in the Campus Martins, holy water was even
brought from the Nile to purify the building and the
votaries ; and a regular college of priests was maintained
there by their zeal and at their cost, with a splendour
worthy of the Roman capital. Domitian, also, was some-
what of a scholar, and he sent to Alexandria for copies

BABFOCBATES.

THE CLEMENCY OF NEEVA.

81

of their books, to restore the public library at Rome
which had been lately burnt; while his garden on the
banks of the Tiber was richer in the Egyptian winter rose
than even the gardens of Memphis and Alexandria.

During this century the coinage continues one of the
subjects of chief interest to the antiquary. In 92 a. d.,
in the eleventh year of his reign, when Domitian took
upon himself the tribunitian power at Rome for a second
period of ten years, the event was celebrated in Alex-
andria with a triumphal procession and games in the
hippodrome, of all which we see clear traces on the
Egyptian coins.

COINS OP DOMITIAN.

The coinage is almost the only trace of Nerva (96—98
A. D.) having reigned in Egypt; but it is at the same
time enough to prove the mildness of his government.
The Jews who by their owil law were of old required
to pay half a shekel, or a didrachm, to the service of
their temple, had on their conquest been made to pay
that sum as a yearly tribute to the Ptolemies, and after-
wards to the emperors. It was a poll-tax levied on every
Jew throughout the empire. But Nerva had the human-
ity to relieve them from this insulting tribute, and well
did he deserve the honour of having it recorded on the
coins struck in his reign.

COIN OF NBRVA.

82 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The coinage of the eleventh year of his successor,
Trajan (98—117 a. d,), is very remarkable for its beauty,

its technical skill, and variety, even
more so than that of the eleventh
year of Domitian, The coins have
hitherto proclaimed, in a manner un-
mistakably plain to those who study
numismatics, the games and con-
quests of the emperors, the bountiful
overflow of the Nile, and sometimes
the worship of Serapis; but we now enter upon the
most briUiant and most important period of the Egyptian
coinage, and find a rich variety of fables taken both from
Egyptian and Greek mythology. The coins of Rome in
this and the following reigns show the wealth, good taste,
and learning of the nation, but they are surpassed by
the coins of Egypt. While history is nearly silent, and
the buildings and other proofs of Roman good govern-
ment have perished, the coins alone are quite enough
to prove the well-being of the people. Among the Egyp-
tian coins those of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines
equal in number those of all the other emperors together,
while in beauty they far surpass them. They are mostly
of copper, of a small size, and thick, weighing about one
hundred and ten grains, and some larger of two hundred
and twenty grains; the silver coins are less common,
and of mixed metal.

Though the Romans, while admiring and copying
everything that was Greek, affected to look upon the
Egyptians as savages, who were only known to be human

CITIZEN^SHIP AJSTD FEEEDOM

83

TRINITY OF ISIS, HO-
EUS, AND NEPHIHTS.

beings by their power of speech, stUl the Egyptian phy-
sicians were held by them in the highest repute. The
more wealthy Romans often sailed to
Alexandria for the benefit of their ad-
vice. Pliny the Elder, however, thought
that of the invalids who went to Egypt
for their health more were cured by the
sea voyage than by the physicians on
their arrival. One of Cicero's physi-
cians was an Egyptian. Pliny the
Yoimger repaid his Egyptian ocuhst,
Harpocrates, by getting a rescript from the emperor to
make him a Roman citizen. But the statesman did not
know under what harsh laws his friend was born, for the
grant was void in the case of an Egyptian, the emperor's
rescript was bad as being against the law; and Pliny
had again to beg the greater favour that the Egyptian
might first be made a citizen of Alexandria, without
which the former favour was useless. Thus, even in
Alexandria, a conquered province governed by the des-
potic will of a military emperor, there were still some
laws or principles which the emperor found it not easy
to break. The courts of justice, those to whom the edicts
were addressed and by whom they were to be explained
and carried into effect, claimed a power in some cases
above the emperor; and the first article in the Roman
code was that an imperial rescript, by whomsoever or
howsoever obtained, was void if it was against the law.
As the lawyers and magistrates formed part of the body
of citizens, the Alexandrians had so far a share in the

84

EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

government of their own affairs ; but this was an advan-
tage that the Egyptians lost by being under the power
of the Greek magistrates.

Trajan always kept in the public granaries of Rome
a supply of Egyptian grain equal to seven times the
canon, or yearly gift to the poor citizens; and in this
prudent course he was followed by all his successors.

COINS OF TKAJAN.

until the store was squandered by the worthless Ela-
gabalus. One year, when the Mle did not rise to its.usual
height, and much, of the grain land of the Delta, instead
of being moistened by its waters and enriched by its mud,
was left a dry, sandy plain, the granaries of Rome were
unlocked to feed the city of Alexandria. .The Alexan-
drians then, saw the unusual sight of ships unloading
their cargoes of wheat in their harbour, and the Romans
boasted that they took the Egyptian tribute in grain,

COSMOPOLITAN ALEXANDEIA 85

not because they could not feed themselves, but because
the Egyptians had nothing else to send them.

Alexandria under the Romans was still the centre
of the trading world, not only having its own great trade
in grain, but being the port through which the trade of
India and Arabia passed to Europe, and at which the
Syrian vessels touched in their way to Italy. The har-
bour was crowded with masts and strange prows and
imcouth sails, and the quays always busy with loading
and unloading; while in the streets might be seen men
of all languages and all dresses, copper-coloured Egyp-
tians, swarthy Jews, lively, bustling Greeks, and haughty
Italians, with Asiatics from the neighbouring coasts of
Syria and Cilicia, and even dark Ethiopians, painted
Arabs, Bactrians, Scythians, Persians, and Indians, all
gay with their national costumes. Alexandria was a spot
in which Europe met Asia, and each wondered at the
strangeness of the other.

Of the Alexandrians themselves we receive a very
unfavourable account from their countryman, Dion
Chrysostom. "With their wealth, they had those vices
which usually foUow or cause the loss of national inde-
pendence. They were eager for nothing but food and
horse-races. They were grave and quiet in their sacri-
fices and listless in business, but in the theatre or in the
stadium men, women, and children were alike heated into
passion, and overcome with eagerness and warmth of feel-
ing. A" scurrilous song or a horse-race would so rouse
them into a quarrel that they could not hear for their
own noise, nor see for the dust raised by their own bustle

86

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

in the hippodrome; while all those acts, of their rulers,
which in a more wholesome state of society would have
called for notice, passed by unheeded. They cared more
for the tumble of a favourite charioteer than for the
sinking state of the nation. The ready employment of

E&TPTIAN WIG (bBITISH MUSETTM).

ridicule in the place of argument, of wit instead of graver
reason, of nicknames as their most powerful weapon, was
one of the worst points in the Alexandrian character.
Frankness and manliness are hardly to be looked for
under a despotic government where men are forbidden
to speak their minds openly; and the Alexandrians made

POPULAE AMUSEMENTS 87

use of such checks upon their rulers as the law allowed
them. They hved under an absolute monarchy tempered
only by ridicule. Though their city was four hundred
years old, they were stiU colonists and without a mother-
coimtry. They had very little faith in anything great
or good, whether human or divine. They had few cher-
ished prejudices, no honoured traditions, sadly little love
of fame, and they wrote no histories. But in luxury and
delicacy they set the fashion to their conquerors. The
wealthy Alexandrian walked about Rome in a scarlet
robe, in summer fanning himself with gold, and display-
ing on his fingers rings carefully suited to the season;
as his hands were too delicate to carry his heavier jewels
in the warm weather. At the supper tables of the rich,
the Alexandrian singing boys were much valued; the
smart young Roman walked along the Via Sacra hum-
ming an Alexandrian tune; the favourite comic actor,
the delight of the city, whose jokes set the theatre in a
roar, was an Alexandrian; the Retiarius, who, with no
weapon but a net, fought against an armed gladiator
in the Roman forum, and came off conqueror in twenty-
six such battles, was an Alexandrian; and no breed of
fighting-cocks was thought equal to those reared in the
suburbs of Alexandria.

In the reign of Augustus the Roman generals had
been defeated in their attacks on Arabia; but under
Trajan, when the Romans were masters of all the coim-
tries which surround Arabia Nabatsea, and when Egypt
was so far quiet that the legions could be withdrawn
without danger to the provinces, the Arabs could hold

88 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

out no longer, and the rocky fastness of Petra was forced
to receive a Roman garrison. The event was as usual
conunemorated on the coins of Rome; and for the next
four hundred years that remarkable Arab city formed
part of the Roman empire; and Europeans now travel-
ling through the desert from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem
are agreeably surprised at coming upon temples, carved
out of the solid rock, ornamented with Corinthian col-
umns of the age of the Antonines.

In the twelfth year of this reign, when Lucius Sul-
picius Simius was prefect, some additions which had
been made to the temple at Panopolis in the Thebaid
were dedicated in the name of the emperor; and in the
nineteenth year, when Marcus Rutilius Lupus was pre-
fect, a new portico in the oasis of Thebes was in the
same manner dedicated to Serapis and Isis. A small
temple, which had been before built at Denderah, near
the great temple of Yenus, was in the first year of this
reign dedicated to the Empress Piotina, under the name
of the great goddess, the Younger Yenus.

The canal from the Nile near Bubastis to the Bitter
Lakes, which had been first made by Necho, had been
either finished or a second time made by Philadelphus;
and in this reign that great undertaking was again re-
newed. But the stream of the Nile was deserting the
Bubastite branch, which was less navigable than for-
merly; and the engineers now changed the greater part
of the canal's bed. They thought it wiser to bring water
from a higher part of the Mle, so that the current in
the canal might run into the Red Sea instead of out,

EISING OF THE JEWS

89

and its waters might still be fresh and useful to agricul-
ture. It now began at Babylon opposite Memphis and
entered the Red Sea at a town which, taking its name
from -the locks, was called Clysmon, about ten miles to
the south of Arsinoe.
This latter town was no
longer a port, having
been separated from the
sea by the continual ad-
vance of the sands. We
have no knowledge of
how long the care of the
imperial prefects kept
this new canal open and
in use. It was perhaps
one of the first of the
Uoman works that went
io decay; and, when we
find the Christian pilgrims sailing along it seven cen-
turies later, on their way from England to the holy
sepulchre, it had been again opened by the Muhammedan
■conquerors of Egypt.

Writings which some now regard as literary forgeries
appeared in Alexandria about this time. They prophe-
sied the re-establishment of the Jews at Jerusalem, and,
as the wished-for time drew near, all the eastern prov-
inces of the Roman empire were disturbed by rebellious
risings of the Jews. Moved by the religious enthusiasm
which gave birth to the writings, the Jews of Egypt in
ihe eighteenth year of this reign (116 a. d.) were again

ANTONINIAN TEMPLE NEAR SINAI.

90 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAN EMPIEE

roused into a quarrel witli their Greek fellow-citizens;
and in tlie next year, the last of the reign, they rose
against their Roman governors in open rebellion, and
they were not put down till the prefect Lupus had
brought his forces against them. After this the Jews
of Cyrene marched through the desert into Egypt, under
the command of Lucuas, to help their brethren; and the
rebellion took the regular form of a civil war, with all
its usual horrors. The emperor sent against the Jews
an army followed by a fleet, which, after numerous skir-
mishes and battles, routed them with great slaughter,
and drove numbers of them back into the desert, whence
they harassed the village as robbers. By these un-
successful appeals to force, the Jews lost all right to
those privileges of citizenship which they always claimed,
and which had been granted by the emperors, though
usually refused by the Alexandrians. The despair and
disappointment of the Jews seem in many cases to have
turned their minds to the Christian view of the Old
Testament prophecies; henceforth, says Eusebius, the
Jews embraced the Christian religion more readily and
in greater numbers.

In A. D. 122, the sixth year of the reign of Hadrian,
Egypt was honoured by a visit from the emperor. He
was led to Egypt at that time by some riots of a character
more serious than usual, which had arisen between two
cities, probably Memphis and Heliopolis, about a buU, as
to whether it was to be Apis or Mnevis. Egypt had been
for some years without a sacred bull; and when at length
the priests found one, marked with the mystic spots, the

HADEIA^f EXPLORES THE NILE 91

iiihabitants of those two cities flew to arms, and the peace
of the province was disturbed by their religious zeal, each
claiming the bull as their own.

Hadrian also undertook a voyage up the Nile from
Alexandria in order to explore the wonders of Egypt.
This was the fashion then, for the ancient monuments
and the banks of this mysterious river offered just as
many attractions at that time as they have done to all
nations since the expedition of Napoleon. That animal-
worship, which had remained unchanged for centuries,
a riddle of human religion, was bound to excite the curi-
osity of strangers. In this divinisation of animals lay
the greatest contempt for human understanding, and it
was a bitter satire on the apotheosis of kings and em-
perors. For what was the divinity of Sesostris, of Alex-
ander, of Augustus, or Hadrian compared with the
heavenly majesty of the ox Apis, or the holy cats, dogs,
kites, crocodiles, and god-apes ? Egypt was at this epoch
already a museiun of the Pharaoh-time and its enbal-
samed culture. Strange buildings, rare sculptures, hier-
oglyphics, and pictures still filled the ancient towns, even
though these had lost their splendour. Memphis and
Heliopolis, Bubastis, Abydos, Sais, Tanis, and the hun-
dred-gated Thebes had long fallen into ruin, although still
inhabited.

The emperor's escort must have been an extraordi-
nary sight as it steered up the stream on a fleet of daha-
biehs. The emperor was accompanied by students of the
museum, interpreters, priests, and astrologers. Amongst
his followers were Verus and the beautiful Antinous.

92 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Empress Sabina also accompanied Mm; she had the
poetess Julia Balbilla amongst her court, ladies. They
landed wherever there was anything of interest to be
seen, and there was more in those days than there is now.
They admired the great pyramids, the colossal sphinx,
and the sacred town of Memphis. This city, the ancient
royal seat of the Pharaohs, and even in Strabo's time the
secondiown in Egypt, was not yet buried under the sand
of the desert; its disappearance had, however, already
begun. Under the Ptolemies it had given much of the
material of her temples and palaces for the building of
Alexandria. The great palace of the Pharaohs had long
been destroyed, but there stiU remained many notable
monuments, such as the temple of Phtah, the pyramids,
the necropolis, and the Serapeum, and they retained their
ancient cult. The town was stiU the chief seat of the
Egyptian hierarchy and the residence of Apis; for this
very reason the Roman government had destined it to
be one of her strong military stations, for here a legion
was quartered. The emperor could walk through the
time-worn avenues of sphinxes which led to the wonder-
ful vaults where the long succession of divine animals
was buried, each like a Pharaoh, in a magnificent granite
sarcophagus. Hadrian could admire the beautifully
sculptured tomb of Di, an Egyptian officer of the fifth
dynasty, with less trouble than we must experience now;
for now the palaces, the pictures of the gods, and almost
all the pyramids are swallowed up in sand. Miserable
Arab villages, such as Saqqara, have fixed themselves
in the ruins of Memphis, and from a thick palm grove

DEATH OF ANTINOUS 93

one can look with astonislunent upon the torso gf the
powerful Ramses II. lying solitary there, the last witness
to the glory of the temple of Phtah, before which this
colossus once had its stand. In the neighbourhood of
Memphis lay Hehopolis, the town of the sun-god, with
its ancient temple, and a school of Egyptian wisdom,
in which Plato is supposed to have studied.

In Heliopolis the worship of the god Ra was pre-
served, the centre of which was the holy animal Mnevis,
a rival or comrade of Apis. Cambyses had partly des-
troyed the temple and even the obelisks which the
Pharaohs had in the course of centuries erected to the
sim-god; nowhere in Egypt existed so many of these
monuments as here and in Thebes. Hadrian saw many
of them lying half -burnt on the ground just as Strabo
had done. On the site of Heliopolis, now green with
wheat-fields, only a single obelisk has remained upright,
which is considered as the oldest of all, and was erected
in the twelfth dynasty by Usirtasen I.

The royal assemblage had arrived in the course of
their journey at Besa, a place on the right bank of the
river, opposite Hermopolis, when a strange event oc-
curred. This was the death of Hadrian's favourite,
Antinous, a young Greek from Claudiopohs, who had
been degraded to the position of Ganymede to the em-
peror on account of his beauty. It is not known where
the emperor first came across the youth; possibly in
his native land, Bithynia. Not till he came to Egypt
did he become his inseparable companion, and this must
have been a deep offence to his wife. The unfortunate

94 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAIf EMPIRE

queen was delivered in Besa from his hated presence, for
Antinous was drowned there in the Nile.

His death was surrounded by mystery. "Was it acci-
dent? Was he a victim? Hadrian's humanity protects
him from the suspicion that he sacrificed his victim in
cold blood, as Tiberius had once sacrificed the beautiful
Hypatus in Capri. Had the fantastic youth sacrificed
himself of his own free will to the death divinities in
order to save the emperor's life? Had the Egyptian
priests foreseen in the stars some danger threatening
Hadrian, only to be averted by the death of his favourite?
Such an idea commended itself to the superstition of
the time, especially in this land and by the mysterious
Nile. It corresponded, too, with the emperor's astrolog-
ical arts. Was Antinous certain when he plunged into
the waves of the Nile that he would arise from them as
a god? Hadrian asserts in his memoirs that it was an
accident, but no one believed him. The divine honours
which he paid to the dead youth lead us to suppose that
they formed the reward of a self-sacrifice, which, accord-
ing to the custom of those times, constituted a highly
moral action, and was looked upon as heroic devotion.
At any rate, we will assume that this sacrifice sank into
the Nile without Hadrian's will. Hadrian mourned for
Antinous with unspeakable pain and " womanly tears."
Now he was Achilles by the corpse of Patroklus, or Alex-
ander by the pyre of the dead Hephaistus. He had the
youth splendidly buried in Besa. This most extraordi-
nary intermezzo of all Nile journeys supplied dying
heathendom with a new god, and art with its last ideal

HADEIAN'S TOUE TO THEBES

95

form. Ptobablj, also, during tlie burial, far-sighted court-
iers already saw the star of Antinous shining in Egypt's
midnight sky, and then Hadrian saw it himself.

In the mystical land of Egypt, life might still be
poetical even in the clear daylight of Roman universal
history in the reign of Hadrian. The death of the young
Bithynian seems to have occurred in October, 130, The
emperor continued his journey as soon as he had given
orders for a splendid town to be erected on the site of

COMMEMOHATIVE COIN OP ANTINOUS.

Besa, in honour of his friend. In November, 130, the
royal company is to be found amongst the ruins of Thebes.

Thebes, the oldest town in Egypt, had been first put
in the shade by Memphis, and then destroyed by Cam-
byses. Since the time of the Ptolemies, it had been called
Diospolis, and Ptolemais had taken its place as capital
of the Thebaid. Already in Strabo's time it was split up.
It formed on either side of the Nile groups of gigantic
temples and palaces, monuments, and royal graves sim-
ilar to those scattered to-day amongst Luxor, Kamak,
Medinet-Habu, Deir-el-Bahari, and Kuma.

In Hadrian's time the Rameseum, the so-called grave
of Osymandias, on the western bank of the NUe, the

96 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAiT EMPIEE

wonderful building of Ramses II., must stiE have been
in good repair. These pylons, pillars, arcades, and courts,
these splendid halls with their sculpture-covered walls,
appear even to have influenced the Roman art in the
time of the emperors. Their reflex influence has been
even seen in Trajan's forum, in which the chief thing
was the emperor's tomb.

In Alexandria the emperor mixed freely with the
professors of the museum, asking them questions and
answering theirs in return; and he dropped his tear of
pity on the tomb of the great Pompey, in the form of
a Greek epigram, though with very little point. He laid
out large sums of money in building and ornamenting
the city, and the Alexandrians were much pleased with
his behaviour. Among other honours that they paid him,
they changed the name of the month December, calling
it the month Hadrian; but as they were not followed
by the rest of the empire the name soon went out of use.
The emperor's patronage of philosophy was rather at
the cost of the Alexandrian museum, for he enrolled
among its paid professors men who were teaching from
school to school in Italy and Asia Minor. Thus Polemon
of Laodicea, who taught oratory and philosophy at Rome,
Laodicea, and Smyrna, and had the right of a free pas-
sage for himself and his servants in any of the public
ships whenever he chose to move from city to city for
the purposes of study or teaching, had at the same time
a salary from the Alexandriarfmuseum. "Dionysius of
Miletus also received his salary as a professor in the
museuih while teaching philosophy and mnemonics

PANCEATES FLATTERS HADEIAJST

97

at Miletus and Ephesus. Pancrates, the Alexandrian
poet, gained Ms salary in the museum by the easy task
of a little flattery. On Hadrian's return to Alexandria
from the Thebaid, the poet presented to him a rose-col-
oured lotus, a flower well known in India, though less
common in Egypt than either the blue or white lotus,
and assured him that it had
sprijng out of the blood of
the lion slain by his royal
javelin at a lion-hunt in
Libya. The emperor was
pleased with the compli-
ment, and gave biin a place
in the museum; and Pan-
crates in return named the
plant the lotus of Antinous.
Pancrates was a warm ad-

KOSE - COLOURED LOTUS.

mirer of the mystical opinions of the Egyptians which
were then coming into note in Alexandria. He was said
to have lived underground in holy solitude or converse
with the gods for twenty-three years, and during that
time to have been taught magic by the goddess Isis, and
thus to have gained the power of working miracles. He
learned to call upon the queen of darkness by her Egyp-
tian name Hecate, and when driving out evil spirits to
speak to them in the Egyptian language. Whether these
Greek students of the Eastern mysticism were deceivers
or deceived, whether they were led by a love of notoriety
or of knowledge, is in most cases doubtful, but they were
surroimded by a crowd of credulous admirers, who

98 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAIC EMPIEE

formed a strange contrast witli the sceptics and critics
of the museum.

Among the Alexandrian grammarians of this reign
was Apollonius Dyscolus, so called perhaps from a mo-
roseness of manner, who wrote largely on rhetoric, on
the Greek dialects, on accents, prosody, and on other
branches of grammar. In the few pages that remain
of his numerous writings, we trace the love of the mar-
vellous which was then growing among some of the
philosophers. He teUs us many remarkable stories, which
he collected rather as a judicious inquirer than as a
credulous believer; such as of second sight; an account
of a lad who fell asleep in the field while watching his
sheep, and then slept for fifty-seven years, and awoke to
wonder at the strangeness of the changes that had taken
place in the meanwhile; and of a man who after death
used from time to time to leave his body, and wander
over the earth as a spirit, till his wife, tired of his com-
ing back again so often, put a stop to it by having his
mummy burnt. He gives us for the first time Eastern
tales in a Grreek dress, and we thus learn the source from
which Europe gained much of its literature in the Middle
Ages. The Alexandrian author of greatest note at this
time was the historian Appian, who tells us that he had
spent some years in Rome practising as a lawyer, and
returned to Egypt on being appointed to a high post in
the government of his native city. There he wrote his
Roman history.

In this reign the Jews, forgetful of what they had just
suffered under Trajan, again rose against the power of

THE VOCAL STATUE

99

Rome; and, when Judgea rebelled against its prefect,
Tinnius Rufus, a little army of Jews marched out of
Egypt and Libya, to help their brethren and to free the
holy land (130 a. d.). But they were everywhere routed
and put down with resolute slaughter.

Travellers, on reaching a distant point of a journey.

VOCAL STATUE OF AMENHOTHEB.

or on viewing any remarkable object of their curiosity,
have at all times been fond of carving or scribbUng their
names on the spot, to boast of their prowess to after-
comers; and never had any place been more favoured
with memorials of this kind than the great statue of
Amenhothes at Thebes. This colossal statue, fifty-three
feet high, was famed, as long as the Egyptian priesthood
lasted, for sending forth musical sounds every morning
at sunrise, when first touched by the sun's rays; and

100 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

no traveller ever visited Thebes without listening for
these remarkable notes. The journey through Upper
Egypt was at this time perfectly open and safe, and the
legs and feet of the statue are covered with names, and
inscriptions in prose and verse, of travellers who had
visited it at sunrise during the reigns of Hadrian and
the Antonines. From these curious memorials we learn
that Hadrian visited Thebes a second time with his queen,
Sabina, in the fifteenth year of his reign. When the
empress first visited the statue she was disappointed at
not hearing the musical sounds; but, on her hinting
threats of the emperor's displeasure, her curiosity was
gratified on the following morning. This gigantic statue
of hard gritstone had formerly been broken in half across
the waist, and the upper part thrown to the ground,
either by the shock of an earthquake or the ruder shock
of Persian zeal against the Egyptian religion; and for
some centuries past the musical notes had issued from the
broken fragments. Such was its fallen state when the
Empress Sabina saw it, and when Strabo and Juvenal
and Pausanias listened to its sounds; and it was not till
after the reign of Hadrian that it was again raised up-
right like its companion, as travellers now see it.

From this second visit, and a longer acquaintance,
Hadrian seems to have formed a very poor opinion of
the Egyptians and Egyptian Jews; and the following
curious letter, written in 134 a. d. to his friend Servianus,
throws much light upon their religion as worshippers of
Serapis, at the same time that it proves how numerous
the Christians had become in Alexandria, even withia

HADRIAN'S IMPEESSIONS OF EGYPT 101

seventy years of the period during wMcli the evangelist
Mark is believed to have preached there:

" Hadrian Augustus to Servianus, the consul, greet-
ing:

" As for Egypt, which you were praising to me, dear-
est Servianus, I have foiuid its people whoUy light,
wavering, and flying after every breath of a report.
Those who worship Serapis are Christians, and those
who call themselves bishops of Christ are devoted to
Serapis. There is no ruler of a Jewish synagogue, no
Samaritan, no presbyter of the Christians, who is not a
mathematician, an augur, and a soothsayer. The very
patriarch himself, when he came into Egypt, was by
some said to worship Serapis, and by others to worship
Christ. As a race of men, they are seditious, vaia, and
spiteful; as a body, wealthy and prosperous, of whom,
nobody lives in idleness. Some blow glass, some make
paper, and others linen. There is work for the lame and
work for the blind; even those who have lost the use
of their hands do not live in idleness. Their one god
is nothing; Christians, Jews, and aU nations worship
him. I wish this body of men was better behaved, and
worthy of their number; for as for that they ought to
hold the chief place in Egypt. I have granted every-
thing unto them; I have restored their old privileges,,
and have made them grateful by adding new ones."

Among the crowd of gods that had formerly been
worshipped in Egypt, Serapis had latterly been rising

102

EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

above the rest. He was the god of the dead, who in the
next world was to reward the good and punish the
wicked; and in the growing worship of this one all-
seeing judge we cannot but trace the downfall of some
of the evils of polytheism. A plurality in unity was
another method now used to explain away the poly-
theism. The oracle when consulted about the divine
nature had answered, '' I am Ra, and
Horus, and Osiris;" or, as the Greeks
translated it, Apollo, and Lord, and Bac-
chus ; " I rule the hours and the seasons,
the wind and the storms, the day and the
night ; I am king of the stars and myself
an immortal fire." Hence arose the opin-
ion which seems to have been given to
Hadrian, that the Egyptians had only
one god, and his mistake in thinking that
the worshippers of Serapis were Chris-
tians. The emperor, indeed, himself,
though a polytheist, was very little of an idolater; for,
though he wished to add Christ to the number of the
Eoman gods, he on the other hand ordered that the
temples built in his reign should have no images for
worship; and in after ages it was common to call all
temples without statues Hadrian's temples. But there
were other and stronger reasons for Hadrian's classing
the Christians with the Egyptian astrologers. A Chris-
tian heresy was then rising into notice in Egypt in that
very form, taking its opinions from the philosophy
on which it was engrafted. Before Christianity was

EGYPTIAN ORACLE.

RISE OF GNOSTICISM 103

preached in Alexandria, there were already three relig-
ions or forms of philosophy belonging to the three races
of men who peopled that busy city; first, the Greek
philosophy, which was chiefly platonism; secondly, the
mysticism of the Egyptians ; and lastly, the religion of
the Jews. These were often more or less mixed, as we
see them all imited in the works of Philo-Judseus; and
in the writings of the early converts we usually find
Christianity clothed in one or other of these forms, ac-
cording to the opinions held by the writers before their
conversion. The first Christian teachers, the apostolic
fathers as they are called, because they had been hearers
of the apostles themselves, were mostly Jews; but among
the Egyptians and Greeks of Alexandria their religion
lost much of its purely moral caste, and became, with
the former, an astrological mysticism, and with the lat-
ter an abstract speculative theology. It is of the Egyp-
tian Jews that Hadrian speaks in his letter just quoted;
many of them had been already converted to Christianity,
and their religion had taken the form of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism, or Science, for the name means no more,
was not then new in Alexandria, nor were its followers
originally Christians. It was the proud name claimed
for their opinions by those who studied the Eastern phi-
losophy of the Magi; and Egypt seems to have been as
much its native soil as India. The name of Gnostic, says
Weber, was generally given to those who distinguished
between belief on authority and gnosis, i. e., between the
ordinary comprehension and a higher knowledge only
granted to a few gifted or chosen ones. They were split

104 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

up into different sects, according as they approached
more nearly the Eastern theosophy or the platonic phi-
losophy; but in general the Eastern conception, with
its symbols and unlimited fantasy, remained dominant.
The '' creed of those who know " never reached actual
monotheism, the conception of one personal god, who
created everything according to his own free will and
rules over everything with unlimited wisdom and love.
The god of the Gnostics is a dark, mysterious being
which can only arrive at a consciousness of itself through
a manifold descending scale of forces, which flow from
the god himself. The visible world was created out of
dead and evil matter by Demiurgos, the divine work-
master, a production and subordinate of the highest god.
Man, too, is a production of this subordinate creator,
a production subject to a blind fate, and a prey to those
powers which rule between heaven and earth, without
free-will, the only thing which makes the ideas of sin
and responsibility possible. Matter is the seat of evil,
and as long as man stands under the influence of this
matter, he is in the hands of evil and knows no freedom.
Eedemption can only reach him through those higher
beings of light, which free man from the power of matter
and translate him into the kingdom of light. According
to the Gnostic teaching, Christ is one of these beings of
light; he is one of the highest who appeared on earth,
and is transformed into a mj^thical, allegorical being,
with his human nature, his sufferings and death com-
pletely suppressed. The redeemed soul is then as a kind
of angel, or ideal being, brought in triumph into the

GNOSTIC GEMS 105

idealistic realm of light as soon as it has purified itself
to the nature of a spirit, by means of penitence, chas-
tisements, and finally the death of the physical body.
Hence the Gnostics attached little importance to the
means of mercy in the Church, to the Bible, or the sacra-
ments; they allowed the Church teaching to exist as a
necessaiy conception for the people, but they placed their
own teachings far above it as mysterious or secret teach-
ings. As regards their morals and mode of life, the
Gnostics generally went to extremes. It was due to
Gnosticism that art and science found an entrance into
the Church. It preserved the Church from becoming
stereotyped in form; but, built up entirely on ideas and
not on historical facts, it died from its own hoUowness
and eccentricity.

We still possess the traces of the Gnostic astrology
in a number of amulets and engraved gems, with the
word Abraxas or rather Abrasax and other emblems of
their superstition, which they kept as charms against
diseases and evil spirits. The word Abra-sax may be
translated Hurt me not. To their mystic rites we may
trace many of the reproaches thrown upon Christianity,
such as that the Christians worshipped the head of an
ass, using the animal's Koptic name Eeo, to represent
the name of lAfl, or Jahveh. To the same source we may
also trace some of the peculiarities of the Christian
fathers, such as St. Ambrose calling Jesus " the good
scarabseus, who roUed up before him the hitherto un-
shapen mud of our bodies; " a thought which seems to
have heen borrowed as much from the hieroglyphics as

106 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

from the insect's habits; and perhaps from the Egyptian

priests in some cases, using the scarabseus to denote the

god Horus-Ea, and sometimes the word only-hegotten.

We trace this thought on the Gnostic gems where we see

a winged griffin rolling before him a

wheel, the emblem of eternity. He

sits like a conqueror on horseback,

tramphng under foot the serpent of

old, the spirit of sin and death. His

horse is in the form of a ram, with

KOPTic CHAHM AND g^j^ caglo's head and the crowned

asp or basilisk for its tail. Before

him stands the figure of victory giving him a crown;

above are written the words Alpha and Omega, and

below perhaps the word lAfl, Jahveh,

So far we have seen the form which Christianity at
first took among the Egyptians; but, as few writiags
by these Gnostics have come down to our time, we chiefly
know their opinions from the reproaches of their enemies.
It was not till the second generation of Gnostic teachers
were spreading their heresies that the Greek philosophers
began to embrace Christianity, or the Christians to study
Greek literature; but as soon as that was the case we
have an unbroken chain of writings, in which we find
Christianity more or less mixed with the Alexandrian
form of platonism.

The philosopher Justin, after those who had talked
with the apostles, is the earliest Christian writer whose
works have reached us. He was a Greek, bom in Sama-
ria; but he studied many years in Alexandria under

JUSTIN ON CHRISTIANITY 107

pJailosopliel's of all opinions. He did not, however, at
once find in the schools the wisdom he was in search
for. The Stoic could teach Tiityi nothing about God; the
Peripatetic wished to be paid for his lessons before he
gave them; and the Pjrthagorean proposed to begin with
music and mathematics. Not content with these, Justin
turned to the platonist, whose purer philosophy seemed
to add wings to his thoughts, and taught him to mount
aloft towards true wisdom. While turning over in his
mind what he had thus learned in the several schools,
dissatisfied with the philosopher's views, he chanced
one day to meet with an old man walking on the sea-
shore near Alexandria, to whom he unbosomed his
thoughts, and by whom he was converted to Christianity.
Justin teUs us that there were no people, whether
Greeks or barbarians, or even
dwellers in tent and waggons,
among whom prayers were not
offered up to the heavenly father
in the name of the crucified
Jesus. The Christians met every
Sunday for public worship,

1 . 1 1 .,T J- _ GNOSTIC GEM.

which began with a reading

from the prophets, or from the memoirs of the apostles
called the gospels. This was followed by a sermon, a
prayer, the bread and wine, and a second prayer. Jus-
tin's quotations prove that he is speaking of the New
Testament, which within a hundred years of the cruci-
fixion was read in all the principal cities in which Greek
was spoken. Justin died as a martyr in 163 a. d.

108 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The platonic professorship in Alexandria had usually
been held by an Athenian, and for a short time Athe-
nagoras of Athens taught that branch of philosophy in
the museum; but he afterwards embraced the Christian
religion, and then taught Christianity openly in Alex-
andria. He enjoys with Justin the honour of being one
of the first men of learning who were converted, and,
like Justin, his chief work is an apology for the Chris-
tians, addressed to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Athe-
nagoras confines himself in his defence to the resurrec-

GEMS SHOWING SYMBOL OP DEATH AND THE WORD lAO (jAVBH).

tion from the dead and the unity of the Deity, the points
chiefly attacked by the pagans.

Hadrian's Egyptian coins are remarkable l)oth for
number and variety. In the sixth year of the reign we
see a ship with spread sails, most likely in gratitude
for the emperor's safe arrival in Egypt. In the eighth
year we see the head of the favourite Antinous, who had
been placed among the gods of the country. In the
eleventh year, when the emperor took up the tribunitial
power at Rome for a second period of ten years, we find
a series of coins, each bearing the name of the nome or
district in which it was coined. This indeed is the most

THE SOTHIC PERIOD

109

remarkable year of tlie most remarkable reign in the
whole history of coinage; we have numerous coins for
every year of this reign, and, in this year, for nearly
every nome in Egypt. Some coins are strongly marked
with the favourite opinion of the Gnostics as to the
opposition between good and evil. On one we have the
war between the serpent of good and the serpent of evil,

HADBIAN'S EGYPTIAN COINS.

distinguished by their different forms and by the em-
blems of Isis and Serapis; on others the heads of Isis
and Serapis, the principles of love and fear; while on a
third these two are united into a trinity by Horus, who
is standing on an eagle instead of having an eagle's head,
as represented on previous coins.

The beginning of the reign of Antoninus Pius (a. d.
138) was remarkable as being the end of the Sothic
period of one thousand four hundred and sixty years;
the movable new year's day of the calendar had come

110 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

round to the place in the natural year from which it first
began to move in the reign of Menophres or Thutmosis-
TTT .; it had come round to the day when the dog-star
rose heliacally. If the years had been counted from the
beginning of this great year, there could have been no
doubt when it came to an end, as from the want of a leap
year the new year's day must have been always moving
one day in four years; but no satisfactory reckoning of
the years had been kept, and, as the end of the period wa&
only known by observation, there was some little doubt
about the exact year. Indeed, among the Greek astron-
omers, Dositheus said the dog-star rises heliacally
twenty-three days after midsummer, Meton twenty-
eight days, and Euctemon thirty-one days; they thus,
left a doubt of thirty-two years as to when the period
should end, but the statesmen placed it in the first year
of the reign of Antoninus. This end of the Sothic period
was called the return to the phoenix, and had been looked
forward to by the Egyptians for many years, and is weE
marked on the coins of this reign. The coins for the first
eight years teem with astronomy. There are several with
the goddess Isis in a boat, which we know, from the zodiac
in the Memnonium at Thebes, was meant for the heliacal
rising of the dog-star. In the second and in the sixth year
we find on the coins the remarkable word aion, the age or
period, and an ibis with a glory of rays round its head^
meant for the bird phoenix. In the seventh year we see
Orpheus playing on his lyre while all the animals of the
forest are listening, thus pointing out the return of the
golden age. In the eighth year we have the head of

HISTORY TEOM THE COINS HI

Serapis circled by the seven planets, and the whole within
the twelve signs of the zodiac; and on another coin we
have the sun and moon within the signs of the zodiac. A
series of twelve coins for the same year teUs us that the
house of the sun, in the language of the astrologers, is
in the lion, that of the moon in the crab, the houses of
Venus in the scales and the bull, those of Mars in the
scorpion and the ram, those of Jupiter in the archer and
the fishes, those of Saturn in the sea-goat and aquarius,
those of Mercury in the virgin and the twins. On the
coins of the same year we have the eagle and thunder-
bolt, the sphinx, the bull Apis, the Nile and crocodile,
Isis nursing the child Horus, the hawk-headed Aroeris,
and the winged sun. On coins of other years we have a
camelopard, Horus sitting on the lotus-flower, and a
sacrifice to Isis, which was celebrated on the last day
of the year.

The coins also teU us of the bountiful overflow of
the Nile, and of the goodness of the harvests that fol-
lowed; thus, in the ninth, tenth, thirteenth, and seven-
teenth years, we see the river Nile in the form of an old
man leaning on a crocodile, pouring corn and fruit out
of a cornucopia, while a child by his side, with the figures
16, tells us that in those years the waters of the Nile rose
at Memphis to the wished-for height of sixteen cubits.
!Prom these latter coins it would seem that but little
change had taken place in the soil of the Delta by the
yearly deposit of mud; Herodotus says that sixteen
cubits was the wished-for rise of the Nile at Memphis
when he was there. And we should almost think that

112 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the seasons were more favourable to the husbandman
during the reign of an Antonine than of a Caligula, did
we not set it down to the canals being better cleansed
by the care of the prefect, and to the mildness of the
government leaving the people at liberty to enjoy the
bounties of nature, and at the same time making them
more grateful in acknowledging them.

The mystic emblems on the coins are only what we

COINS OF ANTONINUS PIUS.

might look for from the spread of the Gnostic opinions^
and the eagerness with which the Greeks were copying the
superstitions of the Egyptians ; and, while astrology was
thus countenanced by the state, of course it was not less
followed by the people. The poor Jews took to it as a
trade. In Alexandria the Jewess, half beggar, half for-
tune-teller, would stop people in the streets and interpret
dreams by the help of the Bible, or sit under a sacred
tree like a sibyl, and promise wealth to those who con-
sulted her, duly proportioned to the size of the coin by

ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY 113

which she was paid. We find among the Theban ruins
pieces of papyrus with inscriptions, describing the posi-
tions of the heavens at particular hours in this reign, for
the astrologers therewith to calculate the nativities of
the persons then bom. On one is a complete horoscope,
containing the places of the sun, moon, and every planet,
noted down on the zodiac ia degrees and minutes of a
degree; and with these particulars the mathematician
Tuidertook to foretell the marriage, fortune, and death
of the person who had been bom at the instant when the
heavenly bodies were so situated; and, as the horoscope
was buried in the tomb with the mummy, we must sup-
pose that it was thought that the prognostication would
hold good even in the next world.

But astrology was not the only end to which mathe-
matics were then turned. Claudius Ptolemy, the astron-
omer and geographer, was at that time the ornament of
the mathematical school of Alexandria. In his writings
he treats of the earth as the centre of the heavens, and
the sun, moon, and planets as moving in circles and epi-
cycles round it. This had been the opinion of some of
the early astronomers; but since this theory of the
heavens received the stamp of his authority, it is now
always called the Ptolemaic system.

In this reign was made a new survey of all the military
roads in the Roman empire, called the Itinerary of An-
toninus. It included the great roads of Egypt, which
were only six in number. One was from Contra-Pselcis
in Nubia along the east bank of the Nile, to Babylon
opposite Memphis, and there turning eastward through

114 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Heliopolis and the district of the Jews to Clysmon, where
Trajan's canal entered the Red Sea. A second, from
Memphis to Pelusium, made use of this for about thirty
miles, joining it at Babylon, and leaving it at Scenae
Veteranormn. By these two roads a traveller could go
from Pelusium to the head of the Red Sea; but there
was a shorter road through the desert which joined the
first at Serapion, about fifty miles from Clysmon, instead
of at Scenae Veteranorum, which was therefore about a
hundred miles shorter. A fourth was along the west
bank of the Nile from Hiera Sycaminon in Nubia to Alex-
andria, leaving the river at Andropolis, about sixty miles
from the latter city. A fifth was from Palestine to Alex-
andria, running along the coast of the Mediterranean
from Raphia to Pelusium, and thence, leaving the coast
to avoid the flat country, which was under water during
the inundation; it joined the last at Andropolis. The
sixth road was from Koptos on the Nile to Berenice on
the Red Sea. These six were probably the only roads
under the care of the prefect. Though Syene was the
boundary of the province of Egypt, the Roman power
was felt for about one hundred miles into Nubia, and
we find the names of the emperors on several temples
between Syene and Hiera Sycaminon. But beyond this,
though we find inscriptions left by Roman travellers,
the emperors seem never to have aimed at making mili-
tary roads, or holding any cities against the inroads of
the Blemmyes and other Arabs.

To this survey we must add the valuable geographical
knowledge given by Arrian in his voyage round the

INTERNATIONAL COMMEECE 116

shores of tlie Red Sea, wMch has come down to us in an
interesting document, wherein he mentions the several
seaports and their distances, with the tribes and cities
near the coast. The trade of Egypt to India, Ethiopia,
and Arabia was then most valuable, and carried on with
great activity; but, as the merchandise was in each case
carried only for short distances from city to city, the
traveller could gain but little knowledge of where it came
from, or even sometimes of where it was going. The
Egyptians sent coarse linen, glass bottles, brazen vessels,

STATUE OP THE NILE.

brass for money, and iron for weapons of war and hunt-
ing; and they received back ivory, rhinoceros' teeth,
Indian steel, Indian ink, silks, slaves, tortoise-shell,
myrrh, and other scents, with many other Eastern articles
of high price and little weight. The presents which the
merchants made to the petty kings of Arabia were chiefly
horses, mules, and gold and silver vases. Beside this,
the ports on the Red Sea carried on a brisk trade among
themselves in grain, expressed oil, wicker boats, and
sugar. Of sugar, or honey from the cane, this is perhaps
the earliest mention found in history; but Arrian does
not speak of the sugar-cane as then new, nor does he tell

116 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

US where it was grown. Had sugar been then seen for
the first time he would certainly have said so; it must
have been an article well known in the Indian trade.
While passing through Egypt on his travels, or while
living there and holding some post under the prefect, the
historian Arrian has left us his name and a few lines of
poetry carved on the foot of the great sphinx near the
pyramids.

At this time also the travellers continued to carve
their names and their feelings of wonder on. the foot of
the musical statue at Thebes and in the deep empty
tombs of the Theban kings. These inscriptions are full
of curious information. For example, it has been doubted
whether the Roman army was provided with medical
officers. Their writers have not mentioned them. But
part of the Second Legion was at this time stationed at
Thebes; and one Asclepiades, while cutting his name in
a tomb which once held some old Theban, has cleared
up the doubt for us, by saying that he was physician to
the Second Legion.

Antoninus made a hippodrome, or race-course, for
the amusement of the citizens of Alexandria, and built
two gates to the city, called the gate of the sun and the
gate of the moon, the former fronting the harbour and
the latter fronting the lake Mareotis, and joined by the
great street which ran across the whole width of the
city. But this reign was not wholly without trouble;
there was a rebellion in which the prefect Dinarchus lost
his life, and for which the Alexandrians were severely
pimished by the emperor.

PROSPERITY UNDER MARCUS AURELIUS 117

The coins of Marcus Aurelius, the successor of An-
toninus Pius, have a rich variety of subjects, falling not
far short of those of the last reign. On those of the fifth
year, the bountiful overflow of the Nile is gratefully
acknowledged by the figure of the god holding a cornu-
copia, and a troop of sixteen children playing round
him. It had been not unusual in hieroglyphical writing
to express a thought by means of a figure which in the
Koptic language had nearly the same sound; and we
have seen this copied on the coins in the case of a Greek
word, when the bird phoenix was used for the palm-

C0IN8 OP MARCUS AURELIUS.

branch phoenix, or the hieroglyphical word year; and a
striking instance may be noticed in the case of a Latin
word, as the sixteen children or cupids mean sixteen
cubits, the wished-for height of the Nile's overflow. The
statue of the Nile, which had been carried by Vespasian
to Eome and placed in the temple of Peace, was sur-
rounded by the same sixteen children. On the coins of
his twelfth year the sail held up by the goddess Isis is
blown towards the Pharos lighthouse, as if in that year
the emperor had been expected in Alexandria.

We find no coins in the eleventh or fourteenth years
of this reign, which makes it probable that it was in the

118 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIEE

eleventh year (a. d. 172) that the rebellion of the native
soldiers took place. These were very likely Arabs who
had been admitted into the ranks of the legions, but
having withdrawn to the desert they now harassed the
towns with their marauding inroads, and a considerable
time elapsed before they were wholly put down by Avi-
dius Cassius at the head of the legions. But Cassius
himself was imable to resist the temptations which
always beset a successful general, and after this victory
he allowed himself to be declared emperor by the legions
of Egypt; and this seems to have been the cause of no
coins being struck in Alexandria in the fourteenth year
of the reign. Cassius left his son Maecianus in Alex-
andria with the title of Pretorian Prefect, while he him-
self marched into Syria to secure that province. There
the legions followed the example of their brethren in
Egypt, and the Syrians were glad to acknowledge a gen-
eral of the Eastern armies as their sovereign. But on
Marcus leading an army into Syria he was met with the
news that the rebels had repented, and had put Cassius
to death, and he then moved his forces towards Egypt;
but before his arrival the Egyptian legions had in the
same manner put Msecianus to death, and all had returned
to their allegiance.

When Marcus arrived in Alexandria the citizens were
agreeably surprised by the mildness of his conduct. He
at once forgave his enemies; and no offenders were
put to death for having joined in the rebellion. The
severest punishment, even to the children of Cassius,
was banishment from the province, but without restraint,

H

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W

o

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o

LOST LITEEATUEE 119

and with the forfeiture of less than half their patrimony.
In Alexandria the emperor laid aside the severity of the
soldier, and mingled with the people as a fellow-citizen
in the temples and public places; while with the pro-
fessors in the museum he was a philosopher, joining them
in their studies in the schools.

Rome and Athens at this time alike looked upon Alex-
andria as the centre of the world's learning. The hbrary
was then in its greatest glory; the readers were numer-
ous, and Christianity had as yet raised no doubts about
the value of its pagan treasures. All the wisdom of
Greece, written on rolls of brittle papyrus or tough parch-
ment, was ranged in boxes on the shelves. Of these
writings the few that have been saved from the wreck
of time are no doubt some of the best, and they are per-
haps enough to guide our less simple taste towards the
unomamented grace of the Greek model. But we often
fancy those treasures most valuable that are beyond our
reach, and hence when we run over the names of the
authors in this library we think perhaps too much of
those which are now missing. The student in the museum
could have read the lyric poems of Alcseus and Ster-
sichorus, which in matter and style were excellent enough
to be judged not quite so good as Homer; the tender
lamentations of Simonides; the warm breathings of
Sappho, the tenth muse; the pithy iambics of Archil-
ochus, full of noble flights and brave irregularities; the
comedies of Menander, containing every kind of excel-
lence; those of Eupolis and Cratinus, which were equal
to Aristophanes; the histories of Theopompus, which in

120 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAJS" EMPIRE

the speeches were as good as Thucydides ; the lively,
agreeable orations of Hyperides, the accuser of Demos-
thenes; with the books of travels, chronologies, and
countless others of less merit for style and genius, but
which, if they had been saved, would not have left Egypt
wholly without a history.

The trade of writing and making copies of the old
authors employed a great many hands in the neighbour-
hood of the museiun. Two kinds of handwriting were
iu use. One was a running hand, with the letters joined

Kmo MOAoro YMeNocwver^

omNescT noN,o|^i|:icii.b^NTclmcliC£Ni

ALEXANSBIAN FORMS OF WKITING.

together in rather a slovenly manner; and the other a
neat, regular hand, with the letters square and larger,
written more slowly but read more easily. Those that
wrote the first were called quick-writers, those that wrote
the second were called book-writers. If an author was
not skilled in the use of the pen, he employed a quick-
writer to write down his words as he delivered them. But
in order that his work might be published it was handed
over to the book-writers to be copied out more neatly;
and numbers of young women, skilled in penmanship,
were employed in the trade of copying books for sale.
Por this purpose parchment was coming into use, though

SOCIETY SCANDALS 121

the old papyrus was still used, as an inexpensive though
less lasting writing material.

Athenseus, if we may judge from his writings, was
then the brightest of the Alexandrian wits and men of
learning. We learn from his own pages that he was bom
at Naucratis, and was the friend of Pancrates, who lived
under Hadrian, and also of Oppian, who died in the reign
of Caracalla. His DeipnosopMst, or table-talk of the
philosophers, is a large work full of pleasing anecdotes
and curious information, gathered from comic writers
and authors without number that have long since been
lost. But it is put together with very little skUl. His
industry and memory are more remarkable than his judg-
ment or good taste; and the table-talk is too often turned
towards eating and drinking. His amusing work is a
picture of society in Alexandria, where everything friv-
olous was treated as grave, and everything serious was
laughed at. The wit sinks into scandal, the humour is
at the cost of morality, and the numerous quotations are
chosen for their point, not for any lofty thoughts or noble
feeling. Alexandria was then as much the seat of literary
wit as it was of dry criticism; and Martial, the lively
author of the Epigrams, had fifty years before remarked
that there were few places in the world where he would
more wish his verses to be repeated than on the banks
of the Nile.

Nothing could be lower than the poetic taste in Alex-
andria at this time. The museum was giving birth to a
race of poets who, instead of bringing forth thoughts
out of their own minds, found them in the storehouse

122

EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAN EMPIEE

of the memory only. They wrote their patchwork poems
by the help of Homer's lines, which they picked from all
parts of the Ihad and Odyssey and so put together as
to make them tell a new tale. They called themselves
Homeric poets.

A SNAKE - CHARMER.

Lucian, the author of the Dialogues, was at that time
secretary to the prefect of Egypt, and this philosopher
foimd a broad mark for his humour in the religion
of the Egyptians, their worship of animals and water-
jars, their love of magic, the general mourning through
the land on the death of the buU Apis, their funeral
ceremonies, their placing of their mummies round the
dinner-table as so many guests, and pawning a father
or a brother when in want of money. So little had the
customs changed that the young Egyptians of high birth

THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIAJSTITY 123

still wore their long hair tied in one lock, and hanging
over the right ear, as we see on the Theban sculptures fif-
teen centuries earlier. It was then a mark of royalty,
but had since been adopted by many families of high
rank, and continues to be used even in the twentieth
century.

Before the end of this reign we meet with a strong
proof of the spread of Christianity in Egypt. The num-
ber of believers made it necessary for the
Bishop of Alexandria to appoint three
bishops under him, to look after the
churches in three other cities; and ac-
cordingly Demetrius, who then held that
office, took upon himself the rank, if not
the name, of Patriarch of Alexandria.
A second proof of the spread of Chris- the sign op
tianity is the pagan philosophers think- nobility.
ing it necessary to write against it. Celsus, an Epicurean
of Alexandria, was one of the first to attack it. Origen
answered the several arguments of Celsus with skill and
candour. He challenges his readers to a comparison
between the Christians and pagans in point of morals,
in Alexandria or in any other city. He argues in the
most forcible way that Christianity had overcome all
difficulties, and had spread itself far and wide against
the power of kings and emperors, and he says that no-
body but a Christian ever died a martyr to the truth
of his religion. He makes good use of the Jewish
prophecies; but he brings forward no proofs in support
of the truth of the gospel history; they were not wanted,

124 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

as Celsus and the pagans had not considered it necessary
to call it into question.

Another proof of the number of Egyptian Christians
is seen in the literary frauds of which their writers were
guilty, most likely to satisfy the minds of those pagan
converts that they had already made rather than from
a wish to make new believers. About this time was
written by an unknown Christian author a poem in eight
books, named the Sibylline Verses which must not be
mistaken for the pagan fragments of the same name.
It is written in the form of a prophecy, in the style
used by the Gnostics, and is full of dark sentences and
half -expressed hints.

Another spurious Christian work of about the same
time is the Clementina, or the Recognitions of Clemens,
Bishop of Rome. It is an account of the travels of the
Apostle Peter and his conversation with Simon Magus;
but the author's knowledge of the Egyptian mythology,
of the opinions of the Greek philosophers, and of the
astrological rules by which fortunes are foretold from
the planets' places, amply prove that he was an Egyp-
tian or an Alexandrian. No name ranked higher among
the Christians than that of Clemens Romanus; and this
is only one out of several cases of Christian authors
who wished to give weight to their own opinions by
passing them upon the world as his writings.

Marcus Aurelius, who died in 181 a. d., had pardoned
the children of the rebel general Avidius Cassius, but
Commodus began his reign by putting them to death;
and, while thus disregarding the example and advice

CARTOUCHE or

DECLINE OF UPPER EGYPT 125

of his father, he paid his memory the idle compliment
of continuing his series of dates on his own coins. But
ihe Egyptian coinage of Commodus clearly betrays the
sad change that was gradually taking place in the arts
of the country; we no longer see the
former beauty and variety of subjects;
and the silver, which had before been
very much mixed with copper, was under
Commodus hardly to be known from
brass. Commodus was very partial to
the Egyptian superstitions, and he commodus.
adopted the tonsure, and had his head
«haven like a priest of Isis, that he might more properly
■carry an Auubis staff in sacred processions, which con-
tinued to be a featiu-e of the religious activities of the age.
Upper Egypt had latterly been falling off in popu-
lation. It had been drained of all its hoarded wealth.
Its carrying trade through Koptos to the Red Sea was
much lessened. Any tribute that its temples received
from the piety of the neighbourhood was small. Nubia
was a desert; and a few soldiers at Syene were enough
to guard the poverty of the Thebaid from the inroads
of the Blemmyes. It was no longer necessary to send
<!riminals to the Oasis; it was enough to banish them
to the neighbourhood of Thebes. Hence we learn but
Tittle of the state of the country. Now and then a trav-
eller, after measuring the pyramids of Memphis and
the underground tombs of Thebes, might venture as far
as the cataracts, and watch the sun at noon on the
longest day shining to the bottom of the sacred weU at

126 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Syene, like the orator Aristides and his friend Dion.
But such travellers were few; the majority of those
who made this journey have left the fact on record.

The celebrated museum, which had held the vast
library of the Ptolemies, had been burnt by the soldiers
of Julius Caesar in one of their battles with the Egyptian
army in the streets of Alexandria; but the loss had been
in part repaired by Mark Antony's gift of the library
from Pergamus to the temple of Serapis. The new
library, however, would seem to have been placed in a
building somewhat separated from the temple, as when
the temple of Serapis was burnt in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius, and again when it was in part destroyed by
fire in the second year of this reign we hear of no loss
of books; and two hundred years later the
library of the Serapium, it is said, had risen
to the number of seven hundred thousand
volumes. The temple-keeper to the great god
Serapis, or one of the temple-keepers, at this
time was Asclepiades, a noted boxer and
wrestler, who had been made chief of the
wrestling-ground and had received the high
rank of the emperor's freedman. He set up
THE ANUBis a statue to his father Demetrius, an equally

STAFF. ^

noted boxer and wrestler, who had been chief
priest of the wrestling-ground and of the emperor's baths
in the last reign. Another favourite in the theatre was
Apolaustus of Memphis, who removed to Rome, where
he was crowned as conqueror in the games, and as a
reward made priest to Apollo and emperor's freedman.

ARTISTIC DECADENCE 127

The city of Canopus was still a large mart for mer-
•chandise, as the shallow but safe entrance to its harbour
made it a favourite with pilots of the small tradiQg
vessels, who rather dreaded the rocks at the mouth of
the harbour of Alexandria. A temple of Serapis which
had lately been bmlt at Canopus was dedicated to the
god in the name of the Emperor Commodus; and there
some of the grosser superstitions of the polytheists fled
before the spread of Christianity and platonism in Alex-
andria. The Canopic jars, which held those parts of
the body that could not be made solid in the mummy,
and which had the heads of the four lesser gods of the
dead on their lids, received their name from this city.
The sculptures on the beautiful temples of Contra-La-
topolis were also finished in this reign, and the emperor's
names and titles were carved on the walls in hieroglyph-
ics, with those of the Ptolemies, under whom the temple
itself had been built. Commodus may perhaps not have
heen the- last emperor whose name and praises were
carved in hieroglyphics; but all the great buildings in
the Thebaid, which add such value to the early history
of Egypt, had ceased before his reign. Other buildings
of a less lasting form were no doubt being built, such
as the Greek temples at Autinoopolis and Ptolemais,
which have long since been swept away; but the Egyp-
tian priests, with their gigantic imdertakings, their noble
plan of working for after ages rather than for themselves,
were nearly ruined, and we find no ancient building now
standing in Egypt that was raised after the time of the
■dynasty of the Antonines.

128

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

But the poverty of the Egyptians was not the only
cause why they built no more temples. Though the
colossal statue of Amenhothes uttered its musical notes,
every morning at sunrise, still tuneful amid the deso-
lation with which it was surrounded, and the Nile was-
still worshipped at midsummer by the husbandman to
secure its fertilising overflow; nevertheless, the religion
itself for which the temples had been built was fast
giving way before the silent spread of Christianity. The-
religion of the Egyptians, unlike that of the Greeks, was-

CANOPIC JAKS.

no longer upheld by the magistrate; it rested solely on
the belief of its followers, and it may have merged into
Christianity the faster for the greater number of truths
which were contained in it than in the paganism of other
nations. The scanty hieroglyphical records tell us little
of thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Indeed that cumber-
some mode of writing, which alone was used in religious
matters, was little fitted for anything beyond the most
material parts of their mythology. Hence we must not
believe that the Egyptian polytheism was quite so gross
as would appear from the sculptures; and indeed we
there learn that they believed, even at the earliest times,
in a resurrection from the tomb, a day of judgment, and
a future state of rewards and punishments.

PRIESTLY LEARNING 129

The priests made a great boast of their learmng and
philosophy, and could each repeat by heart those books
of Thot which belonged to his own order. The singer,
who walked first in the sacred processions, bearing the
symbols of music, could repeat the books of hymns and
the rules for the king's life. The soothsayer, who fol-
lowed, carrying a; clock and a palm-branch, the emblem
of the year, could repeat the four astrological books;
one on the moon's phases, one on the fixed stars, and
two on their heliacal risings. The scribe, who walked
next, carrying a book and the flat rule which held the
ink and pen, was acquainted with the geography of the
world and of the Nile, and with those books which de-
scribe the motions of the sun, moon, and planets, and
the furniture of the temple and consecrated places. The
master of the robes understood the ten books relating
to education, to the marks on the sacred heifers, and to
the worship of the gods, embracing the sacrifices, the
first-fruits, the hymns, the prayers, the processions, and
festivals. The prophet or preacher, who walked last,
carrying in his arms the great water-pot^ was the presi-
dent of the temple, and learned in the ten books, called
hieratic, relating to the laws, the gods, the management
of the temples, and the revenue. Thus, of the forty-two
chief books of Thot, thirty-six were learned by these
priests, while the remaining six on the body, its diseases,
and medicines, were learned by the Pastophori, priests
who carried the image of the god in a small shrine.
These books had been written at various times: some
may have been very old, but some were undoubtedly

130

EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAN EMPIRE

new; they together formed the Egyptian bible. Apol-
lonius, or Apollonides Horapis, an Egyptian priest, had
lately published a work on these matters in his own lan-
guage, named Shomenuthi, the book of the gods.

But the priests were no longer the earnest, sincere
teachers as of old; they had invented a system of sec-
ondary meanings, by which they explained away the
coarse religion of their statues and sacred animals.

RELIGIOUS PKOCBSSION.

They had two religions, one for the many and one for
the few; one, material and visible, for the crowds in
the outer courtyards, in which the hero was made a god
and every attribute of deity was made a person; and an-
other, spiritual and intellectual, for the learned in the
schools and sacred colleges. Even if we were not told,
we could have no doubt but the main point of secret
knowledge among the learned was a disbelief in those
very doctrines which they were teaching to the vulgar,
and which they now explained among themselves by
saying that they had a second meaning. This, perhaps,

THE WANING OF PAGANISM 131

was part of the great secret of the goddess Isis, the
secret of Abydos, the betrayer of which was more guilty
than he who should try to stop the haris or sacred barge
in the procession on the Nile. The worship of gods,
before whose statues the nation had bowed with unchang-
ing devotion for at least two thousand years was now
drawing to a close. Hitherto the priests had
been able to resist all new opinions. The
name of Amon-Ra had at one time been cut
out from the Theban monuments to make
way for a god from Lower Egypt; but it had
been cut in again when the storm passed by.
The Jewish monotheism had left the crowd
of gods unlessened. The Persian efforts
had overthrown statues and broken open
temples, but had not been able to introduce their wor-
ship of the sun. The Greek conquerors had yielded to
the Egyptian mind without a struggle; and Alexander
had humbly begged at the door of the temple to be
acknowledged as a son of Amon. But in the fulness of
time these opinions, which seemed as firmly based as the
monuments which represented them, sunk before a re-
ligion which set up no new statues, and could command
no force to break open temples.

The Egyptian priests, who had been proud of the
superiority of their own doctrines over the paganism of
their neighbours, mourned the overthrow of their national
religion. " Our land," says the author of Hermes Tris-
megistus, " is the temple of the world; but, as wise men
should foresee all things, you should know that a time is

132 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

coming when it will seem that the Egyptians have by an
imf ailing piety served Grod in vain. For when strangers
shall possess this kingdom religion will be neglected, and
laws made against piety and divine worship, with pun-
ishment on those who favour it. Then this holy seat wiU
be full of idolatry, idols' temples, and dead men's tombs.
Egypt, Egypt, there shall remain of thy reUgion but
vague stories which posterity will refuse to believe,
and words graven in stone recounting thy piety. The
Scythian, the Indian, or some other barbarous neighbour
shall dwell in Egypt. The Divinity shall reascend into
the heaven; and Egypt shall be a desert, widowed of men
and gods."

The spread of Christianity among the Egyptians was
such that their teachers found it necessary to supply
them with a life of Jesus, written in their own language,
that they might the more readily explain to them his
claim to be obeyed, and the nature of his commands.
The Gospel according to the Egjrptians, for such was the
name this work bore, has long since been lost, and was
little quoted by the Alexandrians. It was most likely
a translation from one of the four gospels, though it had
some different readings suited to its own church, and
contained some praise of celibacy not found in the New
Testament; but it was not valued by the Greeks, and
was lost on the spread of the Koptic translation of the
whole New Testament.

The grave, serious Christians of Upper Egypt were
very unlike the lively Alexandrians. But though the
difference arose from peculiarities of national character.

ECCLESIASTICAL DIFFERENCES 133

it was only spoken of as a difference of opinion. The
Egyptians formed an ascetic sect in the church, who were
called heretics by the Alexandrians, and named Docetse,
because they taught that the Saviour was a god, and
did not really suffer on the cross, but was crucified only
in appearance. They of necessity used the Gospel ac-
cording to the Egyptians, which is quoted by Cassianus,
one of their writers; many of them renounced marriage
with the other pleasures and duties of social life, and
placed their chief virtue in painful self-denial; and
out of them sprang that remarkable class of hermits,
monks, and fathers of the desert who ia a few centuries
covered Europe with monasteries.

It is remarkable that the translation of a gospel into
Koptic introduced a Greek alphabet into the Koptie
language. Though for all religious purposes the scribes
continued to use the ancient hieroglyphics, in which we
trace the first steps by which pictures are made to rep-
resent words and syllables rather than letters, yet for
the common purposes of writing they had long since
made use of the enchorial or common hand, in which the
earlier system of writing is improved by the characters
representing only letters, though sadly too numerous for
each to have a fixed and well-known force. But, as the
hieroglyphics were also always used for carved writing
on all subjects, and the common hand only used on
papyrus with a reed pen, the latter became wholly an
indistinct running hand; it lost that beauty and regu-
larity which the hieroglyphics, like the Greek and Roman
characters, kept by being carved on stone, and hence

134 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

it would seem arose the want of a new alphabet for the
New Testament. This was made by merely adding to
the Greek alphabet six new letters borrowed from the
hieroglyphics for those somids which the Greeks did not
use; and the writing was then written from left to right
like a European language instead of in either direction
according to the skill or fancy of the scribe.

It was only upon the ancient hieroglyphics thus fall-
ing into disuse that the Greeks of Alexandria, almost
for the first time, had the curiosity to study the prin-
ciples on which they were written, Clemens Alexan-
drinus, who thought no branch of knowledge unworthy
of his attention, gives a slight account of them, nearly
agreeing with the results of our modern discoveries.
He mentions the three kinds of writing; first, the Jiiero-
glypJiic; secondly, the hieratic, which is nearly the same,
but written with a pen, and less ornamental than the
carved figures; and thirdly, the demotic, or common
alphabetic writing. He then divides the hieroglyphic
into the alphabetic and the symbolic; and lastly, he
divides the symbolic characters into the imitative, the
figurative, and those formed like riddles. As instances
of these last we may quote, for the first, the three zig-
zag lines which by simple imitation mean " water; "
for the second, the oval which mean " a name," because
kings' names were written within ovals; and for the
third, a cup with three anvils, which mean " Lord of
Battles," because " cup " and " lord " have nearly the
same sound net, and " anvils " and '* battles " have
nearly the same sound meshe.

EISE OF CHEISTIAlf PHILOSOPHY 136

In this reign PantaBnus of Athens, a Stoic philosopher,
held the first place among the Christians of Alexandria.
He is celebrated for uniting the study of heathen learn-
ing with a religious zeal which led him to preach Chris-
tianity in Abyssinia. He introduced a taste for philos-
ophy among the Christians; and, though Athenagoras
rather deserves that honour, he was called the founder
of the catechetical school which gave birth to the series

SA/VSA/ I I iK^

\(WW > " ^t A

HIEEOGLTPHIC, HIERATIC, AND DEMOTIC WRITING.

of learned Christian writers that flourished in Alexan-
dria for the next century. To have been a learned man
and a Christian, and to have encouraged learning among
the catechists in his schools may seem deserving of no
great praise. Was the religion of Jesus to spread igno-
rance and darkness over the world? But we must re-
member that a new religion cannot be introduced without
some danger that learning and science may get forbidden,
together with the ancient superstitions which had been
taught in the same schools; we shaU hereafter see that

136 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAJST EMPIRE

in the quarrels between pagans and Christians, and again
between the several sects of Christians, learning was
often reproached with being unfavourable to true rehg-
ion; and then it will be granted that it was no small
merit to have founded a school in which learning and
Christianity went hand in hand for nearly two centuries.
Pantsenus has left no writings of his own, and is best
known through his pupil or feUow-student, Clemens.
He is said to have brought with him to Alexandria, from
the Jewish Christians that he met with on his travels,
a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel in the original Hebrew,
a work now unfortunately lost, which, if we possessed
it, would settle for us the disputed point, whether or
no it contained all that now bears that Apostle's name
in the Greek translation.

The learned, industrious, and pious Clemens, who, to
distinguish him from Clemens of Rome, is usually called
Clemens Alexandrinus, succeeded Pantaenus in the cate-
chetical school, and was at the same time a voluminous
writer. He was in his philosophy a platonist, though
sometimes called of the Eclectic school. He has left
an Address to the Gentiles, a treatise on Christian be-
haviour called Pedagogus, and eight books of Stromata,
or collections, which he wrote to describe the perfect
Christian or Gnostic, to furnish the believer with a model
for his imitation, and to save him from being led astray
by the sects of Gnostics " falsely so called." By his
advice, and by the imitation of Christ, the Christian is
to step forward from faith, through love, to knowledge;
from being a slave, he is to become a faithful servant

MYSTIC NUMBERS 137

and then a son; he is to become at last a god walking
in the flesh.

Clemens was not whoUy free from the mysticism
which was the chief mark of the Gnostic sect. He
thought much of the sacred power of numbers. Abra-
ham had three himdred and eighteen servants when he
rescued Lot, which, when written ia Greek numerals
thus, IHT formed the sacred sign for the name of Jesus.
Ten was a perfect number, and is that of the command-
ments given to Moses. Seven was a glorious nimiber,
and there are seven Pleiades, seven planets, seven days
in the week; and the two fishes and five barley loaves,
with which the multitude were miraculously fed, to-
gether make the number of years of plenty in Egypt
under Joseph. Clemens also quotes several lines in
praise of the seventh day, which he says were from
Homer, Hesiod, and Callimachus; but here there is rea-
son to believe that he was deceived by the pious fraud
of some zealous Jew or Christian, as no such lines are
now to be found in the pagan poets.

During the reign of Pertinax, which lasted only three
months (194 a, d.) , we find no trace of his power in Egypt,
except the money which the Alexandrians coined in his
name. It seems to have been the duty of the prefect
of the mint, as soon as he heard of an emperor's death,
to lose no time in issuing coins in the name of his suc-
cessor. It was one of the means to proclaim and secure
the allegiance of the province for the new emperor.

During the reign of Commodus, Pescennius Niger
had been at the head of the legion that was employed in

138 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Upper Egypt in stopping the inroads of their trouble-
some neighbours, who already sometimes bore the name
of Saracens. He was a hardy soldier, and strict in his
discipline, while he shared the labours of the field and
of the camp with the men under him. He would not
allow them the use of wine; and once, when the troops
that guarded the frontier at Syene (Aswan) sent to ask
for it, he bluntly answered, '^ You have got the Mle to
drink, and cannot possibly want more." Once, when a
cohort had been routed by the Saracens, the men com-
plained that they could not fight without wine; but he
would not relax in his discipline. " Those who have
just now beaten you," said Niger, " drink nothing but
water." He gained the love and thanks of the people
of Upper Egypt by thus bridling the lawlessness of the
troops; and they gave him his statue cut in black basalt,
in allusion to his name Mger. This statue was placed
in his Roman villa.

But on the death of Pertinax, when Septimus Seve-
rus declared himself emperor in Pannonia, Niger, who
was then in the province of Syria, did the sa,me. Egypt
and the Egyptian legions readily and heartily joined his
party, which made it unnecessary for him to stay in that
part of the empire; so he marched upon Greece, Thrace,
and Macedonia. But there, after a few months, he was
met by the army of his rival, who also sent a second
army into Egypt; and he was defeated and slain at
Cyzicus in Mysia, after having been acknowledged as
emperor in Egypt and Syria for perhaps a year and a
few months. We find no Alexandrian coins of Mger,

A NATIVE OP ASWAN.

O ?

LU UJ

iililHiiiilllm^

THE REFORMS OF SEVERUS 141

although we camiot allow a shorter space of time to Ms
reign than one whole year, together with a few months
of the preceding and following years. Within that time
Severus had to march upon Rome against his first rival,
Julian, to pimish the praetorian guards, and afterwards
to conquer Niger.

After the death of his rival, when Severus was the
undisputed master of the empire, and was no longer
wanted in the other provinces, he f oimd leisure, in a. d.
196, to visit Egypt; and, like other active-minded travel-
lers, he examined the pyramids of Memphis and the tem-
ples at Thebes, and laughed at the worship of Serapis and
"the Egyptian animals. His visit to Alexandria was
marked by many new laws. Now that the G-reeks of
that city, crushed beneath two centuries of foreign rule,
had lost any remains of courage or of pride that could
make them feared by their Roman master, he relaxed
part of the strict policy of Augustus. He gave them a
senate and a municipal form of government, a privilege
that had hitherto been refused in distrust to that great
city, though freely granted in other provinces where
TebeUion was less dreaded. He also ornamented the city
w^ith a temple to Rhea, and with a public bath, which
was named after himself the Bath of Severus.

Severus made a law, says the pagan historian, for-
l3idding anybody, under a severe punishment, from be-
•coming Jew or Christian. But he who gives the blow
is likely to speak of it more lightly than he who smarts
imder it; and we learn from the historian of the Church
-that, in the tenth year of this reign, the Christians

142 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

suffered persecution from their governors and their
fellow-citizens. Among others who then lost their lives
for their religion was Leonides, the father of Origen.
He left seven orphan children, of whom the eldest, that
justly celebrated writer, was only sixteen years old, but
was already deeply read in the Scriptures, and in the-
great writers of Greece. As the property of Leonides.
was forfeited, his children were left in poverty; but the-
young Origen was adopted by a wealthy lady, zealous'
for the new religion, by whose help he was enabled to
continue his studies under Clemens. In order to read
the Old Testament in the original, he made himself
master of Hebrew, which was a study then very unusual
among the Greeks, whether Jews or Christians.

In this persecution of the Church aU public worship
was forbidden to the Christians; and TertuUian of
Carthage eloquently complains that, while the emperor
allowed the Egyptians to worship cows, goats, or croco-
diles, or indeed any animal they chose, he only punished
those that bowed down before the Creator and Governor
of the world. Of course, at this time of trouble the cate-
chetical school was broken up and scattered, so that
there was no public teaching of Christianity in Alex-
andria. But Origen ventured to do that privately which
was forbidden to be done openly; and, when the storm
had blown over, Demetrius, the bishop, appointed him
to that office at the head of the school which he had
already so bravely taken upon himself in the hour of
danger. Origen could boast of several pupils who added
their names to the noble list of martyrs who lost their

ALEXANDEIAN SATIEE 143

lives for Christianity, among whom the best known was
Plutarch, the brother of Heraclas. Origen afterwards
removed for a time to Palestine, and fell tinder the dis-
pleasure of his own bishop for being there ordained a
presbyter.

In Egypt Severus seems to have dated the years of
his reign from the death of Niger, though he had reigned
in Rome since the deaths of Pertinax and Julian. His
Egyptian coins are either copper, or brass plated with
a little silver; and after a few reigns even those last
traces of a silver coinage are lost in this falling country.
In tracing the history of a word's meaning we often
throw a light upon the customs of a nation. Thus, in
Home, gold was so far common that avarice was called
the love of gold; while in Greece, where sUver was the
metal most in use, money was called argurion. In the
same way it is curiously shown that silver was no longer
used in Egypt by our finding that the brass coin of one
hundred and ten grains weight, as being the only piece
of money seen in circulation, was named an argurion.

The latter years of the reign of Caracalla were spent
in visiting the provinces of his wide empire; and, after
he had passed through Thrace and Asia Minor, Egypt
had the misfortune to be honoured by a visit from its
emperor. The satirical Alexandrians, who in the midst
of their own follies and vices were always clever in lash-
ing those of their rulers, had latterly been turning their
unseemly jokes against CaracaUa. They had laughed
at his dressing like Achilles and Alexander the Great,
while in his person he was below the usual height; and

144 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIRE

they had not forgotten his murder of his brother, and
his talking of marrying his own mother. Some of these
dangerous witticisms had reached his ears at Rome,
and they were not forgotten. But Caracalla never
showed his displeasure; and, as he passed through An-
tioch, he gave out that he was going to visit the city
founded by Alexander the Great, and to consult the
oracle in the temple of Serapis.

The Alexandrians in their joy got ready the heca-
tombs for his sacrifices; and the emperor entered their
city through rows of torches to the sound of soft music,
while the air was sweetened with costly scents, and the
road scattered with flowers. After a few days he sac-
rificed in the temple of Serapis, and then visited the
tomb of Alexander, where he took off his scarlet cloak,
his rings, and his girdle covered with precious stones,
and dutifully laid them on the sarcophagus of the hero.
The Alexandrians were delighted with their visitor; and
crowds flocked into the city to witness the daily and
nightly shows, little aware of the unforgiving malice that
was lurking in his mind.

The emperor then issued a decree that all the youths
of Alexandria of an age to enter the army should meet
him in a plain on the outside of the city; they had already
a Macedonian and a Spartan phalanx, and he was going
to make an Alexandrian phalanx. Accordingly the plain
was filled with thousands of young men, who were ranged
in bodies according to their height, their age, and their
fitness for bearing arms, while their friends and relations
came in equal numbers to be witnesses of their honour.

REVENGE OF CAEACALLA 146

The emperor moved through their ranks, and was loudly
greeted with their cheers, while the army which encircled
the whole plain was gradually closing round the crowd
and lessening the circle. When the ring was formed,
Caracalla withdrew with his guards and gave the looked-
for signal. The soldiers then lowered their spears and
charged on the unarmed crowd, of whom a part were
butchered and part driven headlong into the ditches and
canals; and such was the slaughter that the waters of
the Nile, which at midsummer are always red with the
mud from the upper coimtry, were said to have flowed
coloured to the sea with the blood of the sufferers. Cara-
calla then returned to Antioch, congratulating himself
on the revenge that he had taken on the Alexandrians
for their jokes; not however till he had consecrated in
the temple of Serapis the sword with which he boasted
that he had slain his brother Greta.

Caracalla also punished the Alexandrians by stopping
the public games and the allowance of grain to the citi-
zens; and, to lessen the danger of their rebelling, he had
the fortifications carried between the rest of the city
and the great palace-quarter, the Bruchium, thus divid-
ing Alexandria into two fortified cities, with towers on
the walls between them. Hitherto, under the Romans
as under the Ptolemies, the Alexandrians had been the
trusted favourites of their rulers, who made use of them
to keep the Egyptians in bondage. But under Caracalla
that policy was changed; the Alexandrians were treated
as enemies; and we see for the first time Egyptians
taking their seat in the Roman senate, and the Egyptian

146 EGYPT UNDEK THE ROMAN EMPIRE

religion openly cultivated by the emperor, who then
built a temple in Rome to the goddess Isis.

On the murder of Caracalla in a. d. 217, Macrinus,
who was thought to be the author of his death, was ac-
knowledged as emperor; and though he only reigned
for about two months, yet, as the Egyptian new year's
day fell within that time, we find Alexandrian coins for
the first and second years of his reign. The Egyptians
pretended that the death of Caracalla had been foretold
by signs from heaven; that a ball of fire had fallen on the
temple of Serapis, which destroyed nothing but the
sword with which Caracalla had slain his brother; and
that an Egyptian named Serapion, who had been thrown
into a lion's den for naming Macrinus as the future
emperor, had escaped unhurt by the wild beasts.

Macrinus recalled from Alexandria Julian, the pre-
fect of Egypt, and appointed to that post his friend
Basilianus, with Marius Secundus, a senator, as second
in command, who was the first senator that had ever held
command in Egypt. He was himself at Antioch when
Bassianus, a Syrian, pretending to be the son of Cara-
calla, offered himself to the legions as that emperor's
successor. When the news reached Alexandria that the
Syrian troops had joined the pretended Antoninus, the
prefect Basilianus at once put to death the public cou-
riers that brought the unwelcome tidings. But when, a
few days afterwards, it was known that Macrinus had
been defeated and killed, the doubts about his successor
led to serious struggles between the troops and the Alex-
andrians. The Alexandrians could have had no love for

FACTIONS IN ALEXANDRIA 147

a son of Caracalla; Basilianus and Secundus had before
declared against bim; but, on the other hand, the choice
of the soldiers was guided by their brethren in Syria.
The citizens flew to arms, and day after day was the
battle fought in the streets of Alexandria between two
parties, neither of whom was strong enough, even if
successful, to have any weight in settling the fate of the
Roman empire. Marius Secimdus lost his life in the
struggle. The prefect Basilianus fled to Italy to escape
from his own soldiers; and the province of Egypt then
followed the example of the rest of the East in acknowl-
edging the new emperor.

For four years Rome was disgraced by the sover-
eignty of Elagabalus, the pretended son of Caracalla,
and we find his coins each year in Alexandria. He was
succeeded by the young Alexander, whose amiable vir-
tues, however, could not gain for bim the respect which
he lost by the weakness of his government. The Alex-
andrians, always ready to lampoon their rulers, laughed
at his wish to be thought a Roman; they called him the
Syrian, the high priest, and the ruler of the synagogue.
And well might they think slightly of his government,
when a prefect of Egypt owed his appointment to the
emperor's want of power to punish him. Epagathus had
headed a mutiny of the praetorian guards in Rome, in
which their general Ulpian was killed; and Alexander,
afraid to punish the murderers, made the ringleader of
the rebels prefect of Eg3rpt in order to send him out of
the way; so little did it then seem necessary to follow the
cautious policy of Augustus, or to fear a rebellion in that

148 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

province. But after a short time, when Epagathus had
been forgotten by the Roman legion, he was removed
to the government of Crete, and then at last punished
with death.

In this reign Anunonius Saccas became the founder
of a new and most important school of philosophy, that
of the Alexandrian platonists. He is only known to us
through his pupils, in whose writings we trace the mind
and system of the teacher. The most celebrated of these
pupils were Plotinus, Herennius, and Origen, a pagan
writer, together with Longinus, the great master of the
'' sublime," who owns him his teacher in elegant hter-
ature. Ammonius was unequalled in the variety and
depth of his knowledge, and was by his followers called
heaven-taught. He aimed at putting an end to the
triflings and quarrels of the philosophers by showing
that all the great truths were the same in each system,
and by pointing out where Plato and Aristotle agreed
instead of where they differed; or rather by cuUing
opinions out of both schools of philosophy, and by gath-
ering together the scattered limbs of Truth, whose lovely
form had been hewn to pieces and thrown to the four
winds like the mangled body of Osiris.

Origen in the tenth year of this reign (a. d. 231) with-
drew to Csesarea, on finding himself made uncomfortable
at Alexandria by the displeasure of Demetrius the bishop;
and he left the care of the Christian school to Heraclas,
who had been one of his pupils. Origen's opinions met
with no blame in Csesarea, where Christianity was not
yet so far removed from its early simplicity as in Egypt.

THE FIEST POPE

149

The Christians of Syria and Palestine highly prized his
teaching when it was no longer valued in Alexandria.
He died at Tyre in the reign of Gallus.

On the death of Demetrius, Heraclas, who had just
before succeeded Origen in the charge of the Christian
school, was chosen Bishop of Alexandria; and Christian-

A MODERN SCRIBE.

ity had by that time so far spread through the cities of
Upper and Lower Egypt that he found it necessary to
ordain twenty bishops under him, while three had been
found enough by his predecessor. From his being the
head of the bishops, who were all styled fathers, Heraclas
received the title of Papa, pope or grandfather, the title
afterwards used by the bishops of Rome.

150 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

Among the presbyters ordained by Heraclas was
Amtnonius Saccas, the founder of the platonic school;
but he afterwards forsook the religion of Jesus; and we
must not mistake him for a second Alexandrian Christian
of the name of Ammonius, who can hardly have been the
same person as the former, for he never changed his
religion, and was the author of the Evangelical Canons,
a work afterwards continued by Eusebius of Csesarea.

On the death of the Emperor Alexander, in a. d, 235,
while Italy was torn to pieces by civil wars and by its
generals' rival claims for the purple, the Alexandrians
seem to have taken no part in the struggles, but to have
acknowledged each emperor as soon as the news reached
them that he had taken the title. In one year we find
Alexandrian coins of Maximin and his son Maximus,
with those of the two Gordians, who for a few weeks
reigned in Carthage, and in the next year we again have
coins of Maximin and Maximus, with those of Balbinus
and Pupienus, and of Gordianus Pius.

The Persians, taking advantage of the weakness in
the empire caused by these civil wars, had latterly been
harassing the eastern frontier; and it soon became the
duty of the young Gordian to march against them in
person. Hitherto the Roman armies had usually been
successful; but unfortunately the Persians, or, rather,
their Syrian and Arab allies, had latterly risen as much
as the Romans had fallen off in courage and warlike skill.
The army of Gordian was routed, and the emperor him-
self slain, either by traitors or by the enemy. Hereafter
we shall see the Romans paying the just penalty for

CHEISTIAJSr PERSECUTIONS 151

the example that they had set to the surrouiidiag nations.
They had taught them that conquest should be a people's
chief aim, that the great use of strength was to crush
a neighbour; and it was not long before Egypt and the
other Eastern provinces suffered under the same treat-
ment. So little had defeat been expected that the philo-
sopher Plotinus had left his studies in Alexandria to
join the army, in hopes of gaining for himself an insight
into the Eastern philosophy that was so much talked of
in Egypt. After the rout of the army he with difficulty
escaped to Antioch, and thence he removed to Rome,
where he taught the new platonism to scholars of all
nations, including Serapion, the celebrated
rhetorician, and Eustochius, the physician,
from Alexandria.

Philip, who is accused by the historians of
being the author of G-ordian's death, succeeded
him on the throne in 244; but he is only
known in the history of Egypt by his Alex-
andrian coins, which we find with the dates
of each of the seven years of his reign, and
these seem to prove that for one year he had

SYMBOL OF -^

EGYPT. ^QQj^ associated with G-ordian in the purple.
In the reign of Decius, which began in 249, the Chris-
tians of Egypt were again harassed by the zeal with
which the laws against their religion were put in force.
The persecution began by their fellow-citizens informing
against them; but in the next year it was followed up
by the prefect ^milianus; and several Christians were
summoned before the magistrate and put to death. Many

152 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

fled for safety to the desert and to Mount Sinai, where
they fell into a danger of a different kind; they were
taken prisoners by the Saracens and carried away as
slaves. Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, himself
fled from the storm, and was then banished to the village
of Cephro in the desert. But his flight was not without
some scandal to the Church, as there were not a few
who thought that he was called upon by his rank at least
to await, if not to court, the pains of martyrdom. Indeed,
the persecution was less remarkable for the sufferings
of the Christians than for the numbers who failed in their
courage, and renounced Christianity under the threats
of the magistrate. Dionysius, the bishop, who had shown
no courage himself, was willing to pardon their weakness,
and after flt proof of sorrow again to receive them as
brethren. But his humanity offended the zeal of many
whose distance from the danger had saved them from
temptation; and it was found necessary to summon a
council at Rome to settle the dispute. In this assembly
the moderate party prevailed; and some who refused
to receive back those who had once fallen away from the
faith were themselves turned out of the Church.

Dionysius had succeeded Heraclas in the bishopric,
having before succeeded him as head of the catechetical
school. He was the author of several works, written in
defence of the trinitarian opinions, on the one hand
against the Egyptian Gnostics, who said that there were
eight, and even thirty, persons in the Grodhead, and, on
the other hand, against the Syrian bishop, Paul of Samo-
sata, on the Euphrates, who said that Jesus was a man.

DOGMA AND MYSTICISM 153

and that the Word and Holy Spirit were not persons, but
attributes, of God.

But while Dionysius was thus engaged in a contro-
versy with such opposite opinions, Egypt and Libya were
giving birth to a new view of the trinity. Sabellius,
Bishop of Ptolemais, near Cyrene, was putting forth the
opinion that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were only
three names for the one God, and that the creator of the
world had himself appeared upon earth in the form of
Jesus. Against this opinion Dionysius again engaged in
controversy, arguing against Sabellius that Jesus was not
the creator, but the first of created beings.

The Christians were thus each generation changing
more and more, sometimes leaning towards Greek poly-
theism and sometimes towards Egyptian mysticism. As
in each quarrel the most mysterious opinions were
thought the most sacred, each generation added new
mysteries to its religion; and the progress was rapid,
from a practical piety, to a profession of opinions which
they did not pretend to understand.

During the reigns of Gallus, of ^^milius ^milianus,
and of Valerian (a. d. 251—260), the Alexandrians coined
money in the name of each emperor as soon as the news
reached Egypt that he had made Italy acknowledge his
title. Gallus and his son reigned two years and four
months; ^milianus, who rebelled in Pannonia, reigned
three months; and Valerian reigned about six years.

Egypt, as a trading country, now suffered severely
from the want of order and quiet government; and in
particular since the reign of Alexander Severus it had

154 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

been kept in a fever by rebellions, persecutions, and this
unceasing change of rulers. Change brings the fear of
change; and this fear checks trade, throws the labourer
out of employment, and leaves the poor of the cities
without wages and without food. Famine is followed
by disease; and Egypt and Alexandria were visited ia
the reign of Gallus by a dreadful plague, one of those
scourges that force themselves on the notice of the his-
torian. It was probably the same disease that in a less
frightful form had been not uncommon in that country
and in the lower parts of Syria. The physician Aretseus
describes it imder the name of ulcers on the tonsils. It
seems by the letters of Bishop Dionysius that in Alexan-
dria the population had so much fallen off that the in-
habitants between the ages of fourteen and eighty were
not more than those between forty and seventy had been
formerly, as appeared by old records then existing. The
misery that the city had suffered may be measured by
its lessened numbers.

During these latter years the eastern half of the em-
pire was chiefly guarded by Odenathus of Palmyra, the
brave and faithful ally of Rome, under whose wise rule
his country for a short time held a rank among the em-
pires of the world, which it never could have gained but
for an union of many favourable circimastances. The
city and little state of Pahnyra is situated about mid-
way between the cities of Damascus and Babylon. Sepa-
rated from the rest of the world, between the Roman
and the Parthian empires. Palmyra had long kept its
freedom, while each of those great rival powers rather

PEESIAJN ATTACKS

155

courted its friendship than aimed at conquering it. But,
as the cause of Rome grew weaker, Odenathus wisely
threw his weight into the lighter scale; and latterly,
without aiming at conquest, he foimd himself almost the
sovereign of those provinces of the Roman empire which
were in danger of being overrun by the Persians, Vale-
rian himself was conquered, taken prisoner, and put to

A HAREM WINDOW.

death by Sapor, King of Persia; and Gallienus, his son,
who was idling away his life in disgraceful pleasures
in the West, wisely gave the title of emperor to Odena-
thus, and declared him his colleague on the throne.

No sooner was Valerian taken prisoner than every
province of the Roman empire, feeling the sword power-
less in the weak hands of Gallienus, declared its own
general emperor; and when Macrianus, who had been

166 EGYPT UISTDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

left in command in Syria, gathered together the scattered
forces of the Eastern army, and made himself emperor
of the East, the Egyptians owned him as their sovereign.
As Macrianus found his age too great for the activity
required of a rebel emperor, he made his two sons, Mac-
rianus, junior, and Quietus, his colleagues; and we find
their names on the coins of Alexandria, dated the first
and second years of their reign. But Macrianus was
defeated by Dominitianus at the head of a part of the
army of Aureolus, who had made himself emperor in
Illyricimi, and he lost his life, together with one of his
sons, while the other soon afterwards met with the same
fate from Odenathus.

After this, Egypt was governed for a short time in
the name of Grallienus; but the fickle Alexandrians soon
made a rebel emperor for themselves. The Roman re-
public, says the historian, was often in danger from the
headstrong giddiness of the Alexandrians. Any civihty
forgotten, a place in the baths not yielded, a heap of
rubbish, or even a pair of old shoes in the streets, was
often enough to throw the state into the greatest danger,
and make it necessary to call out the troops to put down
the riots. Thus, one day, one of the prefect's slaves was
beaten by the soldiers, for saying that his shoes were
better than theirs. On this a riotous crowd gathered
round the house of ^milianus to complain of the conduct
of his soldiers. He was attacked with stones and such
weapons as are usually within the reach of a mob. He
had no choice but to call out the troops, who, when they
had quieted the city and were intoxicated with their

INFLUENCE . OF CHEISTIANITY 157

success, saluted him with the title of emperor; and hatred
of Grallienus made the rest of the Egyptian army agree
to their choice.

This was in the year 265. The new emperor called
himself Alexander, and was even thought to deserve the
name. He governed Egypt during his short reign with
great vigour. He led Ms army through the Thebaid, and
drove back the barbarians with a courage and activity
which had latterly been imcommon in the Egyptian army.
Alexandria then sent no tribute to Rome. " Well! can-
not we live without Egyptian hnen'? " was the forced
joke of Gallienus, when the Romans were in alarm at
the loss of the usual supply of grain. But ^milianus
was soon beaten by Theodotus, the general of Gallienus,
who besieged him in the strong quarter of Alexandria
called the Bruchium, and then took him prisoner and
strangled him.

During this siege the ministers of Christianity were
able to lessen some of the horrors of war by persuading
the besiegers to allow the useless mouths to quit the
blockaded fortress. Eusebius, afterwards Bishop of
Laodicea, was without the trenches trying to lessen the
cruelties of the siege; and Anatolius, the Christian peri-
patetic, was within the walls, endeavouring to persuade
the rebels to surrender. GalUenus in gratitude to his
general would have granted him the honour of a pro-
consular trimnph, to dazzle the eyes of the Alexandrians;
but the policy of Augustus was not whoUy forgotten, and
the emperor was reminded by the priests that it was
unlawful for the consular fasces to enter Alexandria.

158 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

The late Emperor Valerian had begun his reign with
mild treatment of the Christians; but he was overper-
suaded by the Alexandrians. He then allowed the power
of the magistrate to be used, in order to check the Chris-
tian religion. But in this weakness of the empire Glal-
lienus could no longer with safety allow the Christians
to be persecuted for their religion. Both their numbers
and their station made it dangerous to treat them as
enemies; and the emperor ordered all persecution to be
stopped. The imperial rescript for that purpose was
even addressed to " Dionysius, Pinna, Demetrius, and the
other bishops; " it grants them full indulgence in the
exercise of their religion, and by its very address almost
acknowledges their rank in the state. By this edict of
Gallienus the Christians were put on a better footing
than at any time since their numbers brought them under
the notice of the magistrate.

When the bishop Dionysius returned to Alexandria,
he foimd the place sadly ruined by the late siege. The
middle of the city was a vast waste. It was easier, he
says, to go from one end of Egypt to the other than to
cross the main street which divided the Bruchium from
the western end of Alexandria. The place was still
marked with all the horrors of last week's battle. Then,
as usual, disease and famine followed upon war. Not a
house was without a funeral. Death was everywhere to
be seen in its most ghastly form. Bodies were left un-
buried in the streets to be eaten by the dogs. Men ran
away from their sickening friends in fear. As the sun
set they felt in doubt whether they should be alive to

QUEEN ZENOBIA 159

see it rise in the morning. Cowards hid their alarms in
noisy amusements and laughter. Not a few in very de-
spair rushed into riot and vice. But the Christians clung
to one another in brotherly love; they visited the sick;
they laid out and buried their dead; and many of them
thereby caught the disease themselves, and died as mar-
tyrs to the strength of their faith and love.

As long as Odenathus lived, the victories of the Pal-
myrenes were always over the enemies of Rome; but on
his assassination, together with his son Herodes, though
the armies of Palmyra were still led to battle with equal
courage, its couasels were no longer guided with the same
moderation. Zenobia, the widow of Odenathus, seized
the command of the army for herself and her infant sons,
Herennius and Timolaus; and her masculine courage and
stern virtues well qualified her for the bold task that

she had undertaken. She threw
off the friendship of Eome, and
routed the armies which Grallie-
nus sent against her; and, claim-
coiN OF ZENOBIA. jj^g j-q ^q dcsceuded from Cleo-

patra, she marched upon Egypt, in 268 a. d., to seize the
throne of her ancestors, and to add that kingdom to Syria
and Asia Minor, which she already possessed.

Zenobia 's army was led by her general, Zabda, who
was joined by an Egyptian named Timogenes; and, with
seventy thousand Palmyrenes, Syrians, and other bar-
barians, they routed the Roman army of fifty thousand
Egyptians under Probatus. The unfortunate Roman
general put an end to his own life; but nevertheless the

160 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIRE

Palmyrenes were unsuccessful, and Egypt followed the
example of Rome, and took the oaths to Claudius. For
three years the coins of Alexandria bear the name of that
emperor.

On the death of Claudius, his brother QuintiUus
assmned the purple in Europe (a. d. 270) ; and though
he only reigned for seventeen days the Alexandrian mint
found time to engrave new dies and to issue coined money
in his name.

On the death of Claudius, also, the Palmyrenes re-
newed their attacks upon Egypt, and this second time
with success. The whole kingdom acknowledged Zeno-
bia as their queen; and in the fourth and fifth years of
her reign in Palmyra we find her name on the Alexan-
drian coins. The Greeks, who had been masters of Egypt
for six hundred years, either in their own name or in
that of the Roman emperors, were then for the first
time governed by an Asiatic. Palmyra in the desert was
then ornamented with the spoils of Egypt; and travellers
yet admire the remains of eight large columns of red
porphyry, each thirty feet high, which stood in front of
the two gates to the great temple. They speak for them-
selves, and teU their own history. From their material
and form and size we must suppose that these columns
were quarried between Thebes and the Red Sea, were
cut into shape by Egyptian workmen under the guidance
of Greek artists in the service of the Roman emperors;
and were thence carried away by the Syrian queen
to the oasis-city in the desert between Damascus and
Babylon.

ZENOBIA CONQUERS EGYPT 161

Zenobia was a handsome woman of a dark complex-
ion, with an aquiline nose, quick, piercing eyes, and a
masculine voice. She had the commanding qualities of
Cleopatra^ from whom her flatterers traced her descent,
and she was without her vices. While Syriac was her
native tongue, she was not ignorant of Latin, which she
was careful to have taught to her children; she carried
on her government in G-reek, and could speak Koptic
with the Egyptians, whose history she had studied and
written upon. In her dress and manners she joined the
pomp of the Persian court to the self-denial and military
virtues of a camp. With these qualities, followed by
a success in arms which they seemed to deserve, the world
could not help remarking, that while Gallienus was wast-
ing his time with fiddlers and players, in idleness that
would have disgraced a woman, Zenobia was govern-
ing her half of the empire like
a man.

Zenobia made Antioch and
Palmyra the capitals of her
COIN or ATHENODOKus. cmplre, aud Egypt became for

the time a province of Syria. Her rehgion like her lan-
guage was Syriac. The name of her husband, Odena-
thus, means sacred to the goddess Adoneth, and that of
her son, Vaballathus, means sacred to the goddess Baal-
eth. But as her troops were many of them Saracens
or Arabs, a people nearly the same as the Blemmyes,
who already formed part of the people of Upper Egypt,
this conquest gave a new rank to that part of the "popu-
lation; and had the further result, important in after

162 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

years, of causing them to be less quiet in their slavery
to the Greeks of Alexandria.

But the sceptre of Rome had lately been grasped by
the firmer hand of AureUan, and the reign of Zenobia
drew to a close. Aurelian at first granted her the title
of his colleague in the empire, and we find Alexandrian
coins with her head on one side and his on the other. But
he lost no time in leading his forces into Syria, and, after
routing Zenobia 's army in one or two battles, he took
her prisoner at Emessa, He then led her to Rome, where,
after being made the ornament of his triumph, she was
allowed to spend the rest of her days in quiet, having
reigned for four years in Pahnyra, though only for a
few months in Egypt.

On the defeat of Zenobia it would seem that Egypt
and Syria were still left imder the government of one of
her sons, with the title of colleague of Aurelian. The
Alexandrian coins are then dated in the first year of
Aurelian and the fourth of Vaballathus, or, according
to the Greek translation of this name, of Athenodorus,
who counted his years from the death of Odenathus.

The young Herodes, who had been killed with his
father Odenathus, was not the son of Zenobia, but of a
former wife, and Zenobia always acted towards him with
the unkindness unfortunately too common in a step-
mother. She had claimed the throne for her infant sons,
Herennius and Timolaus; and we are left in doubt by
the historians about Vaballathus; Vopiscus, who calls
him the son of Zenobia, does not tell us who was his
father. We know but little of him beyond his coins; but

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE ARABS 163

from these we learn that, after reigning one year with
Aurelian, he aimed at reigning alone, took the title of
Augustus, and dropped the name of Aurelian from his
coins. This step was very likely the cause of his over-
throw and death, which happened in the year 271.

On the overthrow of Zenobia's family, Egypt, which
had been so fruitful in rebels, submitted to the Emperor
Aurelian, but it was only for a few months. The Grreeks
of Alexandria, now lessened in numbers, were found to
be no longer masters of the kingdom. Former rebellions
in Egypt had been caused by the two Roman legions and
the Greek mercenaries sometimes claiming the right to
appoint an emperor to the Roman world; but Zenobia's
conquest had raised the Egyptian and Arab population
in their own opinion, and they were no longer willing
to be governed by an Alexandrian or European master.
In 272 A. D. they set up Firmus, a native of Seleucia, who
took the title of emperor; and, resting his power on that
part of the population that had been treated as slaves
or barbarians for six hundred years, he aimed at the
conquest of Alexandria.

Firmus was a man of great size and bodily strength,
and, of course, barbarian manners. He had gained great
riches by trade with India; and had a paper trade so
profitable that he used to boast that he could feed an army
on papyrus and glue. His house was furnished with
glass windows, a luxury then but little known, and the
squares of glass were fastened into the frames by means
of bitumen. His chief strength was in the Arabs or
Blemmyes of Upper Egypt, and in the Saracens who had

164 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

lately been fighting against Rome under the standard of
Zenobia. Firmus fixed his government at Koptos and
Ptolemais, and held all Upper Egypt; but he either never
conquered Alexandria, or did not hold it for many
months, as for every year that he reigned in the Thebaid
we find Alexandrian coins bearing the name of Aurehan.
Firmus was at last conquered by Aurelian in person,
who took htm prisoner, and had him tortured and then
put to death. During these troubles Rome had been
thrown into alarm at the thoughts of losing the usual
supply of Egyptian grain, as since the reign of Elaga-
balus the Roman granaries had never held more than was
wanted for the year; but Aurelian hastened to send
word to the Roman people that the country was again
quiet, and that the yearly supplies, which had been de-
layed by the wickedness of Firmus, would soon arrive.
Had Firmus raised the Roman legions in rebeUion, he
would have been honoured with the title of a rebel em-
peror; but, as his power rested on the Egyptians and
Arabs, Aurelian only boasted that he had rid the world
of a robber.

Another rebel emperor about this time was Domitius
Domitianus; but we have no certain knowledge of the
year in which he rebelled, nor, indeed, without the help
of the coins should we know in what province of the
whole Roman empire he had assumed the purple. The
historian only tells us that in the reign of Aurelian the
general Domitianus was put to death for aiming at a
change. "We learn, however, from the coins that he
reigned for part of a first and a second year in Egypt;

1 "^ ;

Vender of Metal Ware

Vender of Metal Ware

DEBASED CUEEENCY , 166

but the subject of Ms reign is not without its difficulties,
as we find Alexandrian coins of Domitianus with Latin
inscriptions, and dated in the third year of his reign.
The Latin language had not at this time been used on
the coins of Alexandria; and he could not have held
Alexandria for any one whole year, as the series of Aure-
lian's coins is not broken. It is possible that the Latin
coins of Domitianus may belong to a second and later
usurper of the same name.

AureUan had reigned in Rome from the death of
Claudius; and, notwithstanding the four rebels to whom
we have given the title of sovereigns of Egypt, money was
coined in Alexandria in his name during each of those
years. His coinage, however, reminds us of the troubled
and fallen state of the country; and from this time for-
ward copper, or, rather, brass, is the only metal used.

Aurelian left Probus in
the command of the Egyp-
tian army, and that gen-
eral's skiU and activity
found full employment in

con, or DOMITIANUS WITH .a™ driviug back the barba-

iNscBiPTioN. rians who pressed upon

the province on each of the three sides on which it was
open to attack. His first battles were against the Afri-
cans and Marmaridae, who were in arms on the side of
Cyrene, and he next took the field against the Palmy-
renes and Saracens, who still claimed Egypt in the name
of the family of Zenobia. He employed the leisure of
his soldiers in many useful works; in repairing bridges,

166 EGYPT UNDEE THE ROMAN EMPIRE

temples, and porticoes, and more particularly in widening
the trenches and keeping open the canals, and in such
other works as were of use in raising and forwarding the
yearly supply of grain to Rome. Aurelian increased the
amount of the Egyptian tribute, which was paid in glass,
paper, linen, hemp, and grain; the latter he increased
by one-twelfth part, and he placed a larger number of
ships on the voyage to make the supply certain.

The Christians were well treated during this reign,
and their patriarch Nero so far took courage as to build
the Church of St. Mary in Alexandria. This was prob-
ably the first church that was built in Egypt for the
public service of Christianity, which for two hundred
years had been preached in private rooms, and very often
in secret. The service was in Greek, as, indeed, it was
in all parts of Egypt : for it does not appear that Chris-
tian prayers were publicly read in the Egyptian, language
before the quarrel between the two churches made the
Kopts unwilling to use Greek prayers. The liturgy there
read was probably very nearly the same as that after-
wards known as the Liturgy of St. Mark. This is among
the oldest of the Christian liturgies, and it shows its
country by the prayer that the waters of the river may
rise to their just measure, and that rain may be sent
from heaven to the countries that need it.

We learn from the historians that eight months were
allowed to pass between the death of Aurelian and the
choice of a successor; and during this time the power
rested in the hands of his widow. The sway of a woman
was never openly acknowledged in Rome, but the

EGYPT CHOOSES AN EMPEROR

167

Alexandrians and Egyptians were used to female rule,
and from contemporary coins we learn that in Egypt tlie
government was carried on in the name of the Empress
Severina. The last coins of Aurelian bear the date of
the sixth year of his reign, and the coias of Severina are
dated in the sixth and seventh years. But after Tacitus
was chosen emperor by his colleagues of the Roman
senate, and during his short reign of six months (a. d.
276), his authority was obeyed by the Egyptian legions
rnider Probus, as is fully proved by the Alexandrian coins
bearing his name, aU dated in the first year of his reign.
On the death of Tacitus, his brother Plorian hoped to
succeed to the imperial power, and was acknowledged
in the same year by the senate and troops of Rome.
But when the news reached Egypt it was at once felt
by the legions that Probus, both by his own personal
qualities and by the high state of discipline of the army

under his command, and by
his success against the Egyp-
tian rebels, had a better claim
to the purple than any other
general. At first the opinion
ran round the camp in a
whisper, and at last the army spoke the general wish
aloud; they snatched a purple cloak from a statue in
one of the temples to throw over him, they placed him
on an earthen mound as a tribunal, and against his will
saluted him with the title of emperor. The choice of the
Egyptian legions was soon approved of by Asia Minor,
Syria, and Italy; Florian was put to death, and Probus

COIN OP SEVEKINA.

168 EGYPT UNDER THE EOMAJST EMPIEE

shortly afterwards marched into Gaul and "Germany, to
quiet those provinces.

After a year or two, Probus was recalled into Egypt
by hearing that the Blemmyes had risen in arms, and that
Upper Egypt was again independent of the Roman
power. Not only Koptos, which had for centuries been
an Arab city, but even Ptolemais, the Greek capital of
the Thebaid, was now peopled by those barbarians, and
they had to be reconquered by Probus as foreign cities,
and kept in obedience by Roman garrisons; and on
his return to Rome he thought his victories over the
Blemmyes of Upper Egypt not unworthy of a triumph.

By these unceasing wars, the Egyptian legions had
lately been brought into a high state of discipline; and,
confident in their strength, and in the success with which
they had made their late general emperor of the Roman
world, they now attempted to raise up a rival to him
in the person of their present general Saturninus. Sat-
uminus had been made general of the Eastern frontier
by Aurelian, who had given him strict orders never to
enter Egypt. " The Egyptians," says the historian,
meaning, however, the Alexandrians, '' are boastful, vain,
spiteful, licentious, fond of change, clever in making
songs and epigrams against their rulers, and much given
to soothsaying and augury." Aurelian well knew that
the loyalty of a successful general was not to be trusted
in Egypt, and during his lifetime Saturninus never en-
tered that province. But after his death, when Probus
was called away to the other parts of the empire, the
government of Egypt was added to the other duties of

A REBEL EULER 169

Satumiiius; and no sooner was he seen there, at the head
of an army that seemed strong enough to enforce his
wishes, than the fickle Alexandrians saluted him with
the title of emperor and Augustus. But Satumiaus was
a wise man, and shimned the dangerous honour; he had
hitherto fought always for his country; he had saved
the provinces of Spain, Graul, and Africa from the enemy
or from rebellion; and he knew the value of his rank and
character too well to fling it away for a bauble. To
escape from further difficulties he withdrew from Egypt,
and moved his headquarters into Palestine. But the
treasonable cheers of the Alexandrians could neither be
forgotten by himself nor by his troops ; he had withstood
the calls of ambition, but he yielded at last to his fears;
he became a rebel for fear of being thought one, and he
declared himself emperor as the safest mode of escaping
punishment. But he was soon afterwards defeated and

strangled, against the will of
the forgiving Probus.

On the death of Probus, in
A. D. 283, the empire fell to
COIN OF TRAJAN'S SECOND LEGION. Carus aud Ms SOUS, Numeri"
anus and Carinus, whose names are found on the Alex-
andrian coins, but whose short reigns have left no other
trace in Egypt. At this time also we find upon the coins
the name of Trajan's second Egyptian legion, which was
at all times stationed in Egypt, and which, acting upon
an authority that was usually granted to the Roman
legions in the various provinces, coined money of several
kinds for their own pay.

170 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The reign of Diocletian, beginning in a. d. 285, was one
of suffering to tlie Egyptians; and in the fourth year
the j)eople rose against the Roman government, and gave
the title of emperor to Achilleus, their leader in the re-
bellion. Galerius, the Roman general, led an army against
the rebels, and marched through the whole of the The-
baid; but, though the Egyptians were routed whenever
they were bold enough to meet the legions in battle, yet
the rebellion was not very easily crushed. The Romans
were scarcely obeyed beyond the spot on which their
army was encamped. In the fourth year of the rebellion,
A. D. 292, Diocletian came to Egypt, and the cities of
Koptos and Busiris were besieged by the emperor in
person, and wholly destroyed after a regular siege.

When Diocletian reached the southern limits of Egypt
he was able to judge of the difficulty, and indeed the
uselessness, of trying to hold any part of Ethiopia; and
he found that the tribute levied there was less than the
cost of the troops required to collect it. He therefore
made a new treaty with the Nobatse, as the people be-
tween the first and second cataracts were now called.
He gave up to them the whole of Lower Ethiopia, or the
province called Nubia. The valley for seventy miles
above Syene, which bore the name of the Dodecaschoenos,
had been held by Augustus and his successors, and this
was now given up to the original inhabitants. Diocletian
strengthened the fortifications on the isle of Elephantine,
to guard what was thenceforth the uttermost point of
defence, and agreed to pay to the Nobatse and Blemmyes
a yearly sum of gold on the latter promising no longer

DIOCLETIAN'S HUMANITY 171

to harass Upper Egypt with their marauding inroads,
and on the former promising to forbid the Blemmyes
from doing so. What remains of the Roman wall built
against the inroads of these troublesome neighbours rims
along the edge of the cultivated land on the east side of
the river for some distance to the north of the cataract.
But so much was the strength of the Greek party
lessened, and so deeply rooted among the Egyptians was
their hatred of their rulers and the belief that they should
then be able to throw off the yoke, that soon afterwards
Alexandria declared in favour of Achilleus, and Diocle-
tian was again called to Egypt to regain the capital.
Such was the strength of the rebels that the city could
not be taken without a regular siege. Diocletian sur-
rounded it with a ditch and wall, and turned aside the
canals that supplied the citizens with water. After a
tedious siege of eight months, Alexandria was at last
taken by storm in 297, and Achilleus was put to death.
A large part of the city was burnt at the storming, nor
would the punishment of the citizens have there ended,
but for Diocletian's humane interpretation of an accident.
The horse on which he sat stumbled as he entered the
city with his troops, and he had the humanity to under-
stand it as a command from heaven that he should stop
the pillage of the city; and the citizens in gratitude
erected near the spot a bronze statue of the horse to
which they owed so much. This statue has long since
been lost, but we cannot be mistaken in the place where
it stood. The lofty column in the centre of the temple
of Serapis, now well known by the name of Pompey's

172 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Pillar/ once held a statue on the top, and on the base
it still bears the inscription of the grateful citizens, " To
the most honoured emperor, the saviour of Alexandria,
the imconquerable Diocletian."

This rebellion had lasted more than nine years, and
the Egyptians seemed never in want of money for the
purposes of the war. Diocletian was struck with their
riches, and he ordered a careful search to be made through
Egypt for all writings on alchemy, an art which the
Egyptians studied together with magic and astrology.
These books he ordered to be burnt, under a belief that
they were the great sources of the riches by which his
own power had been resisted. Want and misery no doubt
caused this rebellion, but the rebellion certainly caused
more want and misery. The navigation of the Nile was
stopped, the canals were no longer kept cleared, the fields
were badly tilled, trade and manufactures were ruined.
Since the rebellions against the Persians, Egypt had
never suffered so much. It had been sadly changed by
the troubles of the last sixty years, during which it had
been six times in arms against Rome; and when the
rebellion was put down by Diocletian, it was no longer
the same country that it had been under the Antonines.
The framework of society had been shaken, the Greeks
had lessened in nmnbers, and still more in weight. The
fall of the Ptolemies, and the conquest by Rome, did not
make so great a change. The bright days of Egypt as
a Greek kingdom began with the building of Alexandria,
and they ended with the rebellions against Gallienus,

iSee Volume X, page 317.

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTIONS 173

Anrelian and Diocletian. The native Egyptians, both
Kopts and Arabs, now rise into more notice, as the Grreek
civilisation sinks around them. And soon the upper
classes among the Kopts, to avoid the duty of maintain-
ing a family of children in such troubled times, rush by
thousands into monasteries and convents, and further
lessen the population by their religious vows of celibacy.

In the twelfth year of the reign, that in which Alex-
andria rebelled and the siege was begun, the Egyptian
coinage for the most part ceased. Henceforth, though
money was often coined in Alexandria as in every other
great city of the empire, the inscriptions were usually
in Latin, and the designs the same as those on the coins
of Rome. In taking leave of this long and valuable series
of coins with dates, which has been our guide in the
chronology of these reigns, we must not forget to ac-
knowledge how much we owe to the labours of the learned
Zoega. In his Numi ^gypti Imperatorii, the mere de-
scriptions, almost without a remark, speak the very
words of history.

The reign of Diocletian is chiefly remarkable for the
new law which was then made against the Christians,
and for the cruel severity with which it was put into
force. The issuing of this edict in 304 a. d., which was
to root out Christianity from the world, took place in
the twentieth year of the reign, according to the Alex-
andrians, or in the nineteenth year after the emperor's
first installation as consul, as years were reckoned in
the other parts of the empire. The churches, which since
the reign of Gallienus had been everywhere rising, were

174 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN ElIPIEE

ordered to be destroyed and the Bibles to be biimt, while
banishment, slavery, and death were the punishments
threatened against those who obstinately climg to their
religion. In no province of the empire was the perse-
cution more severe than in Egypt; and many Christians
fled to Syria, where the law, though the same, was more
mildly carried into execution. But the Christians were
too munerous to fly and too few to resist. The ecclesias-
tical writers present us with a sad tale of tortures and
of death borne by those who refused to renounce their
faith,— a tale which is only made less sad by the doubt
how far the writers' feelings may have misled their
judgment, and made them overstate the numbers.

But We may safely rely upon the account which Euse-
bius gives us of what he himself saw in Egypt. Many
were put to death on the same day, some beheaded and
some burnt. The executioners were tired, and the hearts
of the pagan judges melted by the unflinching firmness
of the Christians. Many who were eminent for wealth,
rank, and learning chose to lay down their lives rather
than throw a few grains of wheat upon the altar, or com-
ply with any ceremony that was required of them as a
religious test. The judges begged them to think of their
wives and children, and pointed out that they were the
cause of their own death; but the Christians were usually
firm, and were beheaded for the refusal to take the test.
Among the most celebrated of the Egyptian martyrs
were Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, with Faustus, Dius,
and Ammonius, presbyters under him; the learned Phi-
leas, Bishop of Thmuis, Hesychius, the editor of the

MARTYEDOM OF PHILOEOMUS 175

Septuagint, and the Bishops Pachomius and Theodorus;
though the pagans must have been still more surprised
at Philoromus, the receiver-general of the taxes at Alex-
andria. This man, after the prefect of Egypt and the
general of the troops, was perhaps the highest Roman
officer in the province. He sat in public as a judge in
Alexandria, surrounded by a guard of soldiers, daily de-
ciding all causes relating to the taxes of Egypt. He was
accused of no crime but that of being a Christian, which
he was earnestly entreated to deny, and was at liberty
indirectly to disprove by joining in some pagan sacrifice.
The Bishops of Alexandria and Thmuis may have been
strengthened imder their trials by their rank in the
church, by having themselves urged others to do their
duty in the same case, but the receiver-general of the
taxes could have had nothing to encourage him but the
strength of his faith and a noble scorn of falsehood; he
was reproached or ridiculed by all around him, but he
refused to deny his religion, and was beheaded as a
common criminal.

The ready ministers of this persecution were Culei-
anus, the prefect of the Thebaid, and Hierocles, the pre-
fect of Alexandria. The latter was peculiarly well
chosen for the task; he added the zeal of the theologian
to the ready obedience of the soldier. He had written
against the Christians a work named PMlaletlies (the
lover of truth), which we now know only in the answer
by Eusebius of Csesarea. In this he denounced the
apostles as impostors, and the Christian miracles as
tr iflin g; and, comparing them with the pretended

176 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

miracles of ApoUonius of Tyana, he pronounced the latter
more numerous, more important, and better authentiT
cated than the former by the evangelists; and he ridi-
culed the Christians for calling Jesus a god, while the
pagans did not raise ApoUonius higher than a man be-
loved by the gods.

This persecution under Diocletian was one of the
most severe that the Christians ever underwent from
the Eomans. It did not, however, wholly stop the relig-
ious services, nor break up the regular government of
the Church. In the catechetical school, Pierius, whom we
have before spoken of as a man of learning, was suc-
ceeded by Theognostus and then by Serapion, whose
name reminds us that the Egyptian party was gaining
weight in the Alexandrian church. It can hardly have
been for his superior learning, it may have been because
his opinions were becoming more popiilar than those
of the Greeks, that a professor with an Egyptian name
was placed at the head of the catechetical school. Se-
rapion was succeeded by Peter, who afterwards gained
the bishopric of Alexandria and a martyr's crown. But
these men were little known beyond their lecture-room.
In the twentieth year of the reign, on the death of Peter,
the Bishop of Alexandria, who lost his life as a martyr,
the presbyters of the church met to choose a successor.
Among their number was Arius, whose name afterwards
became so famous in ecclesiastical history, and who had
already, even before he was ordained a priest, offended
many by the bold manner in which he stated his religious
opinions. But upon him, if we may believe a partial

THE ERA OF THE MARTYRS 177

historian, tlie majority of votes fell in the choice of a
patriarch of Alexandria, and had he not himself mod-
estly given way to the more ambitious Alexander, he
might perhaps have been saved from the treatment which
he afterwards suffered from his rival.

When, in the year 305, Diocletian and his colleague,
Valerius Maximian, resigned the purple, Egypt with the
rest of the East was given to Galerius, who had also as
Caesar been named Maximian on his Egyptian coins,
while Constantius Chlorus ruled the West. Galerius in
307 granted some slight indulgence to the Christians
without wholly stopping the persecution. But all favour
was again withdrawn from them by his successor Max-
imin, who had indeed misgoverned Egypt for some years,
under the title of Caesar, before the rank of Augustus
was granted to him. He encouraged private informers,
he set townsman against townsman; and, as the wishes
of the emperor are quickly understood by all under him,
those who wished for his favour courted it by giving
him an excuse for his cruelties. The cities sent up petiT
tions to him, begging that the Christians might not be
allowed to have churches within their walls. The his-
tory of these reigns indeed is little more than the history
of the persecutions; and when the Alexandrian astron-
omers, dropping the era of Augustus, began to date from
the first year of Diocletian, the Christian writers in the
same way dated from the Era of the Martyrs.

It can be no matter of surprise to us that, in a per-
secution which threatened all classes of society, there
should have been many who, when they were accused of

178 EGYPT UNDEE THE EOMAN EMPIEE

being Christians, wanted the courage to undergo the
pains of martyrdom, and escaped the punishment by
joining in a pagan sacrifice. When the storm was blown
over, these men again asked to be received into the
Church, and their conduct gave rise to the very same
quarrel that had divided the Christians in the reign of
Decius, Meletius, a bishop of the Thebaid, was at the
head of the party who would make no allowance for the
weakness of their brethren, and who refused to grant
to the repentant the forgiveness that they asked for. He
had himself borne the same trials without bending, he
had been sent as a criminal to work in the Egyptian
mines, and had returned to Alexandria from his banish-
ment, proud of his sufferings and furious against those
who had escaped through cowardice. But the larger part
of the bishops were of a more forgiving nature; they
could not aU boast of the same constancy, and the re-
pentant Christians were re-admitted into communion
with the faithful, while the followers of Meletius were
branded with the name of heretics.

In Alexandria, Meletius soon found another and, as
it proved, a more memorable occasion for the display
of his zeal. He has the unenviable honour of being the
author of the great Arian quarrel, by accusing of heresy
Arius, at that time a presbyter of the church of Baucala
near Alexandria, and by calling upon Alexander, the
bishop, to inquire into his belief, and to condemn it if
found unsound. Arius frankly and openly acknowledged
his opinions: he thought Jesus a created being, and
would speak of him in no higher terms than those used

THE WORSHIP 01" MITHEA

179

in the New Testament and Apostles' Creed, and defended
his opinions by an appeal to the Scriptures. But he soon
found that his defence was thought weak, and, without
waiting to be condemned, he withdrew before the storra
to Palestine, where he remained tiU summoned before
the council of Nicsea in the coming reign.

It was during these reigns of trouble, about which
history is sadly silent, when G-reek learning was sinking,
and after the country had been for a year or two in the
power of the Syrians, that the worship of Mithra was
brought into Alexandria, where superstitious ceremonies
and philosophical subtleties were equally welcome.
Mithra was the Persian god of the sun; and in the
system of two gods, one good and the other wicked, he

was the god of goodness.
The chief symbol in his wor-
ship was the figure of a
young hero in Phrygian cap
and trousers, mounted on a
sinking bull, and stabbing it
in sacrifice to the god. In
a deserted part of Alexan-
dria, called the Mithrium,
his rites were celebrated
among ruins and rubbish;
and his ignorant followers were as ignorantly accused
of there slaying their feUow-eitizens on his altars.

It was about the same time that the eastern doctrine
of Manicheism was said to have been brought into Egypt
by Papus, and Thomas or Hermas. This sect, if sect

SYMBOL OF MITHRA.

180 EGYPT UNDEK THE KOMAN EMPIRE

it may be called, owed its origin to a certain Majus Mani,
banished from Persia imder the Sassanides; this Mani
was a talented man, highly civilised through his studies
and voyages in distant lands. In his exile he conceived
the idea of putting himself forward as the reformer of
the religions of all the peoples he had visited, and of
reducing them all to one universal religion. Banished
by the Christians, to whom he represented himself as
the divinely inspired apostle of Jesus, in whom the
Comforter had appeared, he returned to Persia, taking
with him a book of the Gospels adorned by extraordinary
paintings. Here he obtained at first the favour of the
king and the people, till finally, after many changes of
fortune, he was pursued by the magi, and convicted in
a solemn disputation of falsifying religion; he was con-
demned to the terrible punishment of being flayed alive,
after which his skin was to be stuffed and hung up over
the gates of the royal city. His teaching consisted in a
mixture of Persian and Christian-Gnostic views; its
middle final point was the dualism of good and evil which
rules in the world and in the human breast.

According to Mani's creed, there were originally two
principles, God in His kingdom of light, and the demon
with his kingdom of darkness, and these two principles
existed independently of each other. The powers of
evil fell into strife with each other, until, hurled away
by their inward confusion, they reached the outermost
edge of their own kingdom, and from there beheld the
kingdom of light in all its glory. Now they ceased their
strife among themselves and united to do battle to the

THE TEACHING OF MAGUS MANI 181

kingdom of light. To meet them, God created the '* orig-
inal man," who, armed with the five pure elements, light,
fire, air, water, and earth, advanced to meet the hostile
powers. He was defeated, though finally saved; but a
part of his light had thus made its way into the reahn
of darkness. In order gradually to regain this light,
God caused the mother of life to create the visible world,
in which that light lies hidden as a living power or world-
soul awaiting its deliverance from the bonds of matter.
In order to accomplish this redemption, two new beings
of light proceed from God, viz.: Christ and the Holy
Ghost, of whom the former, Christus Mithras, has his
abode in the sun and moon, the latter in the ether
diffused around the entire world. Both attract the pow-
ers of light which have sunk into the material world in
order to lead them back, finally, into the everlasting
reahn of light. To oppose them, however, the demons
created a new beiag, viz. : man, after the example of the
*' original man," and united in him the clearest light and
the darkness peculiar to themselves, in order that the
great strife might be renewed in his breast, and so man
became the point of union of all the forces in the uni-
verse, the microcosm in which two principles ever strive
for the mastery. Through the enticements of the ma-
terial and the illusions of the demon, the soul of light was
held in bondage in spite of its indwelling capacity for
freedom, so that in heathenism and Judaism the " son
of everlasting light," as the soul of the universe, was
chained to matter. In order to accomplish this work
of redemption more quickly, Christ finally leaves his

182 EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

throne at God's right hand, and appears on earth, truly
in human form, but only with an apparent body; his
suffering and death on the cross are but illusions for the
multitude, although historical facts, and they serve at
the same time as a symbol of the light imprisoned in
matter, and as a typical expression of the suffering,
poured out over the whole of nature (especially in the
plant-world), of the great physical weltschmerz. Christ,
through his teaching and power of attraction, began the
deliverance of the light, so that one can truly say that
the salvation of the world proceeds from rays which
stream from the Cross; as, however, his teachings were
conceived by the apostles in a Jewish sense, and the
Gospels were disfigured, Mani appeared as the comforter
promised by Christ to accomplish the victory. In his
writings only is the pure truth preserved. Finally there
will be a complete separation of the light from the dark-
ness, and then the powers of darkness will fall upon each
other again.

The ignorant in all ages of Christianity seem to have
held nearly the same opinion in one form or other, think-
ing that sin has arisen either from a wicked being or
from the wickedness of the flesh itself. The Jews alone
proclaimed that God created good and God created evil.
But we know of few writers who have ever owned them-
selves Manicheans, though many have been reproached
as such; their doctrine is now known only in the works
written against it. Of all heresies among the Christians
this is the one most denounced by the ecclesiastical
writers, and most severely threatened by the laws when

THE DOGMA OF THE EESUEEECTION 183

the law makers became Christian; and of all the accu-
sations of the angry controversialists this was the most
reproachful. We might almost think that the numerous
fathers who have written against the Manicheans must
have had an easy victory when the enemy never appeared
in the field, when their writings were scarcely answered,
or their arguments denied; but perhaps a juster view
would lead us to remark how much the writers, as well
as the readers, must have felt the difficulty of accounting
for the origin of evil, since men have run into such wild
opinions to explain it.

Another heresy, which for a time made even as much
noise as the last, was that of Hieraeas of Leontopolis.
Even in Egypt, where for two thousand years it had been
the custom to make the bodies of the dead into mummies,
to embalm them against the day of resurrection, a custom
which had been usually practised by the Christians, this
native Egyptian ventured to teach that nothing but the
soul would rise from the dead, and that we must look
forward to only a spiritual resurrection. Hieraeas was a
man of some learning, and, much to the vexation of those
who opposed his argmnents, he could repeat nearly the
whole Bible by heart.

The Bishop Hesychius, the martyr in the late perse-
cution, was one of the learned men of the time. He
had published a new edition of the Septuagint Old Tes-
tament, and also of the New Testament. This edition
was valued and chiefly used in -Egypt, while that by
Lucianus, who suffered in the same persecution, was
read in Asia Minor from Constantinople to Antioch,

184

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

and the older edition by Origen remained in use in
Palestine. But such was the credit of Alexandria, as
the chief seat of Christian learning, that distant churches
sent there for copies of the Scriptures, foreign transla-
tions were mostly made from Alexandrian copies, and
the greater number of Christians even now read the
Bible according to the edition by Hesychius. We must,
however, fear that these editors were by no means judi-
cious in their labours.
From the text itself we
can learn that the early
copiers of the Bible
thought those manu-
scripts most valuable
which were most full.
Many a gloss and mar-
ginal note got written
into the text. Their
devotional feelings
blinded their critical
judgment ; and they
never ventured to put
aside a modern addi-
tion as spurious. This
mistaken view of their
duty had of old guided
the Hebrew copiers in
Jerusalem; and though
in Alexandria a juster criticism had been applied to the
copies of Homer, it was not thought proper to use the

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DOME PALM OF UPPER EGYPT.

VEESIONS or THE BIBLE 185

same good sense wlien making copies of the Bible. So
strong was the habit of grafting the additions into the
text that the Greek translation became more copious
than the Hebrew original, as the Latin soon afterwards
became more copious than the Greek.

It was about this time, at least after Theodotion's
translation of Daniel had received the sanction of the
Alexandrian church, and when the teachers of Christian-
ity found willing hearers in every city of Egypt, that the
Bible was translated into the language of the country.
We have now parts of several Koptic versions. They
are translated closely, and nearly word by word from
the Greek; and, being meant for a people among whom
that language had been spoken for centuries, about one
word in five is Greek. The Thebaic and Bashmuric
versions may have been translated from the edition by
Hesychius; but the Koptic version seems older, and its
value to the Biblical critic is very great, as it helps us,
with the quotations in Origen and Clemens, to distin-
guish the edition of the sacred text which was then used
in Alexandria, and is shown in the celebrated Vatican
manuscript, from the later editions used afterwards in
Constantinople and Italy, when Christian literature
flourished in those countries.

The Emperor Maximin died at Tarsus in a. d. 313,
after being defeated by Licinius, who like himself had
l)een raised to the rank of Augustus by Galerius, and to
whom the empire of Egypt and the East then fell, while
Constantine, the son of Constantius, governed Italy and
the West. Licinius held his empire for ten years against

186

EGYPT UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the growing strength of his colleague and rival; but
the ambition of Constantine increased with his power,
and Licinius was at last forced to gather together his
army m Thrace, to defend himself from an attack. His
forces consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot,
fifteen thousand horse, and three hundred and fifty
triremes, of which Egypt furnished eighty. He was
defeated near Adrianople; and then, upon a promise
that his life should be spared, he surrendered to Con-
stantine at Nicomedia. But the promise was forgotten
and Licinius hanged, and the Roman world was once
more governed by a single emperor.

AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN NECKLACE.

CHAPTER n

THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

The Ascendency of the new religion : The Aiian controversies : The Zenith
of monasticism: The final struggle of Paganism: The decline of
Alexandria.

C"

] OMINGr under tlie Eoman sway,
the Greek world underwent,
not only politically but also in-
tellectually, a complete change.
As the Roman conquest had worn
away all political differences and
national divergences, and, by unit-
ing the various races under the
rule of the empire was bringing
to its consummation the work
begun by the Macedonian con-
queror, it could not fail to influ-
ence the train of thought. On
the one hand the political and ideal structure of Greek
life was crumbling and bringing down the support and

187

THE PAPTKUS PLOWEK.

188 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

guiding principle supplied by the duties of citizenship
and the devotion to the commonwealth. Man was thrown
upon himself to find the principles of conduct. The
customary morality and religion had been shaken in
their foundations. The belief in the old gods and the
old religion was undermined. Philosophy endeavoured
to occupy the place left vacant by the gradual decay of
the national religion. The individual, seeking for sup-
port and spiritual guidance, found it, or at least imag-
ined he had found it, in philosophy. The conduct of
life became the fundamental problem, and philosophy
assumed a practical aspect. It aimed at finding a com-
plete art of living. It had a thoroughly ethical stamp,
and became more and more a rival of and opposed to
religion. Such were the tendencies of the Stoic and Epi-
curean schools. The Roman rule was greatly favourable
to such a development of thought. The Romans were
a practical nation, had no conception of nor appreciation
for purely theoretical problems, and demanded practical
lessons and philosophical investigations which would
serve as a guide for life. Thus the political tendency
of the time towards practical wisdom had imparted a
new direction to philosophical thought. Yet, as time
went on, a deep feeling of dissatisfaction seized the
ancient world in the midst of all the glories of the Roman
rule. This huge empire could offer to the peoples, which
it had welded into one mighty unit, no compensation
for the loss of their national independence; it offered
them no inner worth nor outer fortune. There was a
complete discord running through the entire civilisation

PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, AND EELIGION 189

of the Graeco-Roman world. The social condition of the
empire had brought with it extreme contrasts in the
daily Ufe. The contrasts had become more pronounced.
Abundance and luxury existed side by side with misery
and starvation. Millions were excluded from the very
necessaries of existence. With the sense of injustice
and revolt against the existing inequality of the state
of society, the hope for some future compensation arose.
The millions excluded from the worldly possessions
turned longingly to a better world. The thou ghts of
ma n were turned to something beyond t errestriaLiife^
to heaven instea d of e arth. Philosophy, too, had failed
to give complete satisfaction. Man had reaUsed his
utter inability to find knowledge in himself by his un-
aided efforts. He despaired to arrive at it without the
help of some transcendental power and its kind assist-
ance. Salvation was not to be found in man's own na-
ture, but in a world beyond that of the senses. Philoso-
phy could not satisfy the cultured man by the presenta-
tion of its ethical ideal of life, could not secure for him
the promised happiness. Philosophy, therefore, turned
to religion for help. At Alexandria, where, in the active
work of its museum, all treasures of Grecian culture were
garnered, all religions and forms of worship crowded
together in the great throng of the commercial metrop-
olis to seek a scientific clarification of the feelings that
surged and stormed within them. The cosmopolitan
spirit and broad-mindedness which had brought nations
together under the Egyptian government, which had
gathered scholars from all parts in the library and the

190 THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

museum, was favourable also to tlie fusion and recon-
ciliation in the evolution of thought.

If Alexandria was the birthplace of that intellectual
movement which has been described, this was not only
the result of the prevailing spirit of the age, but was
due to the influence of ideas; salvation could only be
found in the reconciliation of ideas. The geographical
centre of this movement of fusion and reconciliation
was, however, in Alexandria. After having been the
town of the museum and the library, of criticism and
Literary erudition, Alexandria became once again the
meeting-place of philosophical schools and religious
sects; communication had become easier, and various
fundamentally different inhabitants belonging to dis-
tinct social groups met on the banks of the Nile. Not
only goods and products of the soil were exchanged,
but also ideas and thoughts. The mental horizon was
widened, comparisons ensued, and new ideas were sug-
gested and formed. This mixture of ideas necessarily
created a complex spirit where two currents of thought,
of critical scepticism and superstitious credulity, mixed
and mingled. Another powerful factor was the close
contact in which Occidentalism or Greek culture found
itself with Orientalism. Here it was where the' G-reek
and Oriental spirit mixed and mingled, producing doc-
trines and religious systems containing germs of tra-
dition and science, of inspiration and reflection. Images
and formulas, method and ecstasy, were interwoven and
intertwined. The brilliant qualities of the Greek spirit,
its sagacity and subtlety of intelligence, its lucidity and

OCCIDENTAL AND ORIENTAL THOUGHT 191

facility of expression, were animated and vivified by
the Oriental spark, and gained new life and vigour. On
the other hand, the contemplative spirit of the Orient,
which is characterised by its aspiration towards the in-
visible and mysterious, would never have produced a
coherent system or theory had it not been aided by
Greek science. It was the latter that arranged and
explained the Oriental traditions, loosed their tongues,
and produced those religious doctrines and philosophical
systems which culminated in Gnosticism, Neo-Plato-
nism, the Judaism of Philo, and the Polytheism of Julian
the Apostate.

It was the contemplative Oriental mind, with its
tendency towards the supernatural and miraculous, with
its mysticism and religion, and Greece with her subtle
scrutinising and investigating spirit, which gave rise to
the peculiar phase of thought prevalent in Alexandria
during the first centuries of our era. It was tinctured
with ideahstic, mystic, and yet speculative and scientific
colours. Hence the religious spirit in philosophy and
the philosophic tendency in the religious system that
are the characteristic features. " East and West," says
Baldwin,^ *' met at Alexandria. The co-operative ideas
of civilisations, cultures, and religions of Rome, Greece,
Palestine, and the farther East found themselves in
juxtaposition. Hence arose a new problem, developed
partly by Occidental thought, partly by Oriental aspira-
tion. Religion and philosophy became inextricably
mixed, and the resultant doctrines consequently belong

* Baldwin : Dictionary of Philosophy.

192 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

to neither sphere proper, but are rather witnesses of an
attempt at combining both. These efforts naturally
came from two sides. On the one hand, the Jews tried
to accommodate their faith to the results of Western
culture, in which Greek culture predominated. On the
other hand, thinkers whose main impulse came from
Greek philosophy attempted to accommodate their doc-
trines to the distinctively religious problems which the
Eastern nations had brought with them. From which-
ever side the consequences be viewed, they are to be
characterised as theosophical rather than purely philo-
sophical, purely religious, or purely theological."

The reign of Constantine the Great, who became sole
ruler of the East and West in 323, after ten years' joint
government with Licinius, is remarkable for the change
which was then wrought in the religion and philosophy
of the empire by the emperor's embracing the Christian
faith. His conversion occurred in 312, and on his coming
to the united sovereignty the Christians were at once
released from every punishment and disability on ac-
count of their religion, which was then more than toler-
ated; they were put upon a nearly equal footing with
the pagans, and every minister of the Church was re-
leased from the burden of civil and military duties.
Whether the emperor's conversion arose from education,
from conviction, or from state policy, we have no means
of knowing; but Christianity did not reach the throne
before it was the religion of a most important class of
his subjects, and the Egyptian Christians soon found
themselves numerous enough to call the Greek Christians

EASTERN MYSTICISM 193

heretics, as the Greek Christians had already begun to
designate the Jewish.

The Greeks of Alexandria had formed rather a school
of philosophy than a religious sect. Before Alexander's
conquest the Greek settlers at Naucratis had thought it
necessary to have their own temples and sacrifices; but
since the building of Alexandria they had been smitten
with the love of Eastern mysticism, and content to wor-
ship in the temples of Serapis and Mithra, and to receive
instruction from the Egyptian priests. They had sup-
ported the religion of the conquered Egyptians without
wholly believing it; and had shaken by their ridicule the
respect for the very ceremonies which they upheld by
law. Polytheism among the Greeks had been further
shaken by the platonists; and Christianity spread in
about equal proportions among the Greeks and the
Egyptians. Before the conversi ^n^ of Constantino the
Eg3rptian c hurch had alreadg^^read into eygry^ city of
theprovince, and had a regular^ episcopal gover nmen t.
Till the time of Heraclas and Dionysius, the bishops
had been always chosen by the votes of the presbyters,
as the archdeacons were by the deacons. Dionysius in
his public epistles joins with himself his fellow-presby-
ters as if he were only the first among equals; but after
that time some irregularities had crept into the elections,
and latterly the Church had become more monarchical.
There was a -patriarch in Alexandria, with a bishop in
every other large city, each assisted by a body of priests
and deacons. They had been clad in faith, holiness, hu-
mility, and charity; but Constantino robed them in

194 THE CHEISTIAJSr PEEIOD IN EGYPT

honour, wealth, and power; and to this many of them
soon added pride, avarice, and ambition.

This reign is no less remarkable for the religious
quarrel which then divided the Christians, which set
church against church and bishop against bishop, as soon
as they lost that great bond of union, the fear of the
pagans. Jesus of Nazareth was acknowledged by Con-
stantine as a divine person; and, in the attempt then
made by the Alexandrians to arrive at a more exact
definition of his nature, while the emperor was willing
to be guided by the bishops in his theological opinions,
he was able to instruct them all in the more valuable
lessons of mutual toleration and forbearance. The fol-
lowers of early religions held different opinions, but
distinguished themselves apart only by outward modes
of worship, such as by sacrifices among the Greeks and
Romans, and among the Jews and Egyptians by circum-
cision, and abstinence from certain meats. When Jesus
of Nazareth introduced his spiritual religion of repent-
ance and amendment of life, he taught that the test by
which his disciples were to be known was their love
to one another. After his death, however, the Christians
gave more importance to opinions in religion, and towards
the end of the third century they proposed to dis-
tinguish their fellow-worshippers in a mode hitherto
unknown to the world, namely, by the profession of
belief in certain opinions ; for as yet there was no differ-
ence in their belief of historic facts. This gave rise to
numerous metaphysical discussions, particularly among
the more speculative and mystical.

THE AEIAJSr CONTEOVEKSY 195

At about this time the chief controversy was as to \
whether Christ was of the same, or of similar substance
with God the Father, this being the dispute which divided (,
Christendom for centuries. This dispute and others not
quite so metaphysical were brought to the ears of the
emperor by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and Arius,
the presbyter. The bishop had been enquiriag into the
belief of the presbyter, and the latter had argued against
his superior and against the doctrine of the consubstan-
tiality of the Father and the Son. The emperor's letter
to the theologians, in this first ecclesiastical quarrel that
was ever brought before a Christian monarch, is ad-
dressed to Alexander and Arius, and he therein tells them
that they are raising useless questions, which it is not
necessary to settle, and which, though a good exercise
for the understanding, only breed ill-will, and should
be kept by each man in his own breast. He regrets
the religious madness which has seized all Egypt; and
lastly he orders the bishop not to question the priest
as to his belief, and orders the priest, if questioned, not
to return an answer. But this wise letter had no weight
with the Alexandrian divines. The quarrel gained in ?
importance from being noticed by the emperor; the civil k
government of the country was clogged; and Constan- ^
tine, after having once interfered, was persuaded to call
a council of bishops to settle the Christian faith for the
future. Nicsea in Bithynia was chosen as the spot most
convenient for Eastern Christendom to meet in; and
two hundred and fifty bishops, followed by crowds of
priests, there met in coimcil from Greece, Thrace, Asia

196 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Minor, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Libya, with one or two
from Western Europe.

At this synod, held in the year 325, Athanasius, a
young deacon in the Alexandrian church, came for the
first time into notice as the champion of Alexander
against Arius, who was then placed upon his trial. All
the authority, eloquence, and charity of the emperor were
needed to queU the tumultuous passions of the assembly.
It ended its stormy labours by voting what was called
the Homoousian doctrine, that Jesus was of one substance
with God. They put forth to the world the celebrated
creed, named, from the city in which they met, the
Mcene creed, and they excommunicated Arius and his
followers, who were then all banished by the emperor.
The meeting had afterwards less difficulty in coming
to an agreement about the true time of Easter, and in
excommunicating the Jews ; and all except the Egyptians
returned home with a wish that the quarrel should be
forgotten and forgiven.

This first attempt among the Christians at settling
the true faith by putting fetters on the mind, by draw-
ing up a creed and punishing those that disbelieved it,
was but the beginning of theological difficulties. These
in Egypt arose as much from the difference of blood
and language of the races that inhabited the country
as from their religious belief; and Constantine must soon
have seen that if as a theologian he had decided right,
yet as a statesman he had been helping the Egyptians
against the friends of his own Greek government in
Alexandria.

ATHANASIUS BA^STISHED 197

After a reasonable delay, Arius addressed to the
emperor a letter either of explanation or apology, assert-
ing Ms full belief in Christianity, explaining his faith
by using the words of the Apostles' Creed, and begging
to be re-admitted into the Church. The emperor, either
from a readiness to forgive, or from a change of policy,
or from an ignorance of the theological controversy, was
satisfied with the apology, and thereupon wrote a mild
conciliatory letter to Athanasius, who had in the mean-
time been made Bishop of Alexandria, expressing his
wish that forgiveness should at all times be offered to
the repentant, and ordering him to re-admit Arius to
his rank in the Church. But the young Athanasius, who
had gained his favour with the Egyptian clergy, and had
been raised to his high seat by his zeal shown against
Arius, refused to obey the commands of the emperor,
alleging that it was imlawful to re-admit into the Church
anybody who had once been excommimicated. Constan-
tino could hardly be expected to listen to this excuse,
or to overlook this direct refusal to obey his orders. The
rebellious Athanasius was ordered into the emperor's
presence at Constantinople, and soon afterwards, in 335,
called before a councU of bishops at Tyre, where he
was deposed and banished. At the same council, in
the thirtieth year of this reign, Arius was re-admitted
into communion with the Church, and after a few months
he was allowed to return to Alexandria, to the indignation
of the popular party in that city, while Athanasius re-
mained in banishment during the rest of the reign, as
a punishment for his disobedience.

198 THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

This practice of judging and condemning opinions
gave power in the Church to men who would otherwise
have been least entitled to weight and influence. Atha-
nasius rose to his high rank over the heads of the elder
presbyters by his fitness for the harsher duties then re-
quired of an archbishop. Theological opinions became
the watchwords of two contending parties; religion lost
much of its empire over the heart; and the nuld spirit
of Christianity gave way to angry quarrels and cruel
persecutions.

Another remarkable event of this reign was the foun-
dation of the new city of Constantinople, to which the
emperor removed the seat of his government. Rome
lost much by the building of the new capital, although
the emperors had for some time past ceased to Uve in
Italy; but Alexandria lost the rank which it had long
held as the centre of Greek learning and G-reek thought,
and it felt a blow from which Rome was saved by the
difference of language. The patriarch of Alexandria
was no longer the head of Greek Christendom. That
rank was granted to the bishop of the imperial city; many
of the philosophers who hung roimd the palace at Con-
tantinople would otherwise have studied and taught in
the museum; and the Greeks, by whose superiority
Egypt had so long been kept in subjection, gradually
became the weaker party. In the opinion of the his-
torian, as in the map of the geographer, Alexandria
had formerly been a Greek state on the borders of Egypt;
but since the rebellion in the reign of Diocletian it was
becoming more and more an Egyptian city; and those

GREEK DEGENERACY

199

who in religion and politics thought and felt as Egyp-
tians soon formed the larger half of the Alexandrians.
The climate of Egypt was hardly fitted for the Greek
race. Their nnmbers never could have been kept up by
births alone, and they now began to lessen as the attrac-
tion to newcomers ceased. The pure Greek names hence-

THE ISLAND OP EHODHA.

forth become less common; and among the monks and
writers we now meet with those named after the old gods
of the country.

Constantino removed an obelisk from Egypt for the
ornament of his new city, and he brought down another
from Heliopolis to Alexandria; but he died before the
second left the country, and it was afterwards taken
by his son to Rome. These obelisks were covered with

200 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

hieroglypMcs, as usual, and we have a translation said
to be made from the latter by Hermapion, an Egyptian
priest. In order to take away its pagan character from
the religious ceremony with which the yearly rise of the
Nile was celebrated in Alexandria, Constantine removed
the sacred cubit from the temple of Serapis to one of the
Christian churches; and nothwithstanding the gloomy
forebodings of the people, the Nile rose as usual, and the
clergy afterwards celebrated the time of its overflow as
a Christian festival.

The pagan philosophers under Constantine had but
few pupils and met with but little encouragement. Aly-
pius of Alexandria and his friend lamblichus, however,
still taught the philosophy of Ammonius and Plotinus.
The only writings by Alypius now remaining are his
Introduction to Music; in which he explains the nota-
tion of the fifteen modes or tones in their respective kinds
of diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic. His signs are
said to be Pythagorean. They are in pairs, of which
one is thought to represent the note struck on the lyre,
and the other the tone of the voice to be sung thereto.
They thus imply accord or harmony. The same signs
are found in some manuscripts written over the syllables
of ancient poems; and thereby scholars, learned at once
in the Grreek language, in the art of deciphering signs,
and in the science of music, now chant the odes of Pindar
in strains not dissimilar to modern cathedral psalmody.

Sopator succeeded lamblichus as professor of pla-
tonism in Alexandria, with the proud title of successor to
Plato. For some time he enjoyed the friendship of

DECLINE OF ALEXANDRIA 201

Constantine; but, when religion made a quarrel between

the friends, the philosopher was put to death by the

emperor. The pagan accoimt of the quarrel was that,

when Constantine had killed his son, he applied to Sopa-

tor to be pimfied from his guilt; and when the platonist

answered that he knew of no ceremony that could absolve

a man from such a crime, the emperor applied to the

Christians for baptism. This story may not be true, and

the ecclesiastical historian remarks that Constantine had

professed Christianity several years before the murder

of his son; but then, as after his conversion he had got

Sopator to consecrate his new city with a variety of pagan

ceremonies, he may in the same way have asked him

to absolve him from the guilt of murder.

On the death of Constantine, in 337, his three sons,
without entirely dismembering the empire, divided the
provinces of the Roman world into three shares. Con-
stantine II., the eldest son, who succeeded to the throne
of his father in Constantinople, and Constans, the
youngest, who dwelt in Rome, divided Europe between
them; while Constantius, the second son, held Syria,
Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt, of which possessions
Antioch on the Orontes was at that time the capital. Thus
Alexandria was doomed to a further fall. When gov-
erned by Rome it had still been the first of G-reek cities;
afterwards, when the seat of the empire was fixed at
Constantinople, it became the second; but on this divi-
sion of the Roman world, when the seat of government
came stiU nearer to Egypt, and Antioch rose as the capital
of the East, Alexandria fell to be the third among Greek

202 THE CHEISTIAI^ PEEIOD IN EGYPT

cities. Egypt quietly received its political orders from
Antioch. Its opinions also in some cases followed those
of the capital, and it is curious to remark that the Alex-
andrian writers, when dating by the era of the creation,
were now willing to consider the world ten years less
old than they used, because it was so thought at Antioch.
But it was not so with their religious opinions, and as
long as Antioch and its emperor undertook to govern
the Egyptian church there was little peace in the
province.

The three emperors did not take the same side in the
quarrel which under the name of religion was then un-
settling the obedience of the Egyptians, and even in some
degree troubling the rest of the empire. Constantius
held the Arian opinions of Syria; but Constantine II, and
Constans openly gave their countenance to the party
of the rebellious Athanasius, who under their favour
ventured to return to Alexandria, where, after an absence
of two years and four months, he was received in the
warmest manner by his admiring flock. But on the death
of Constantine II., who was shortly afterwards killed in
battle by his brother Constans, Constantius felt himself
more master of his own kingdom; he deposed Athanasius,
and summoned a council of bishops at Antioch to elect
a new patriarch of Alexandria. Christian bishops,
though they had latterly owed their ordination to the
authority of their equals, had always received their
bishoprics by the choice of their presbyters or of their
flocks; and though they were glad to receive the support
of the emperor, they were not willing to acknowledge

IMPERIAL INTEEVENTION 203

TiiTYi as their head. Hence, when the council at Antioch
first elected Ensebius of Emisa into the bishopric of
Alexandria, he chose to refuse the honour which they
had only a doubtful right to bestow, rather than to ven-
ture into the city in the face of his popular rival. The
council then elected Grregory, whose greater courage and
ambition led him to accept the of&ce.

The council of Antioch then made some changes in
the creed. A few years later, a second council met in
the same place, and drew up a creed more near to what
we now call the Athanasian; but it was firmly rejected
by the Egyptian and Roman churches. G-regory was
no sooner elected to the bishopric than he issued his
commands as bishop, though, if he had the courage, he
had not at the time the power to enter Alexandria. But
Syrianus, the general of the Egyptian troops, was soon
afterwards ordered by the emperor to place him on his
episcopal throne; and he led him into the city, sur-
rounded by the spears of five thousand soldiers, and
followed by the small body of Alexandrians that after
this invasion of their acknowledged rights still caUed
themselves Arians. Gregory entered Alexandria in the
evening, meaning to take his seat in the church on the
next day; but the people in their zeal did not wait quietly
for the dreaded morning. They ran at once to the church,
and passed the night there with Athanasius in the great-
est anxiety. In the morning, when Gregory arrived at
the church, accompanied with the troops, he found the
doors barricaded and the building full of men and
women, denouncing the sacrilege, and threatening

204 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

resistance. But the general gave orders that the church
should be stormed, and the new bishop carried in by-
force of arms ; and Athanasius, seeing that all resistance
was useless, ordered the deacons to give out a psalm,
and they aU marched out at the opposite door singing.
After these acts of violence on the part of the troops,
and of resistance on the part of the people, the whole
city was thrown into an uproar, and the prefect was
hardly strong enough to carry on the government; the
regular supply of grain for the poor citizens of Alexan-
dria, and for Constantinople, was stopped; and the blame
of the whole thrown upon Athanasius. He was a second
time obliged to leave Egypt, and he fled to Rome, where
he was warmly received by the Emperor Constans and
the Roman bishop. But the zeal of the Athanasian party
would not allow Gregory to keep possession of the church
which he had gained only by force; they soon afterwards
set fire to it and burned it to the ground, choosing that
there should be no church at all rather than that it should
be in the hands of the Arians; and the Arian clergy and
bishops, though supported by the favour of the emperor
and the troops of the prefect, were everywhere through-
out Egypt driven from their churches and monasteries.
During this quarrel it seems to have been felt by both
parties that the choice of the people, or at least of the
clergy, was necessary to make a bishop, and that Gregory
had very little claim to that rank in Alexandria. Julius,
the Bishop of Rome, warmly espoused the cause of Atha-
nasius, and he wrote a letter to the Alexandrian church,
praising their zeal for their bishop, and ordering them

ATHANASIXJS EESTOEED 205

-to re-admit Mm to Ms former rank, from wMch he had
been deposed by the council of Antioch, but to wMch
he had been restored by the Western bishops. Athanasius
was also warmly supported by Constans, the emperor
of the West, who at the same time wrote to his brother
Constantius, begging Mm to replace the Alexandrian
bishop, and making the additional tMeat that if he would
not reinstate him he should be made to do so by force
of arms.

Constantius, after taking the advice of Ms own
bishops, thought it wisest to yield to the wishes or rather
the commands of Ms brother Constans, and he wrote
to Athanasius, calling him into his presence in Constan-
tinople. But the rebellious bishop was not willing to
trust himself within the reach of his offended sovereign;
and it was not till after a second and a third letter, press-
ing him to come and promising Mm Ms safety, that he
ventured within the limits of the Eastern empire. Strong
in Ms Mgh character for learning, firmness, and political
skiU, carrying with him the allegiance of the Egyptian
nation, which was yielded to Mm much rather than to the
emperor, and backed by the threats of Constans, Atha-
nasius was at least a match for Constantius. At Con-
stantinople the emperor and Ms subject, the Alexandrian
bishop, made a formal treaty, by which it was agreed
that, if Constantius would allow the Homoousian clergy
throughout his domimons to return to their churches,
Athanasius would in the same way tMoughout Egypt
restore the Arian clergy; and upon this agreement Atha-
nasius himself returned to Alexandria.

206 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Among the followers of Athanasius was that impor-
tant mixed race with whom the Egyptian civiUsation
chiefly rested, a race that may be called Koptic, but half
Greek and half Egyptian in their language and religion
as in their forefathers. But in feelings they were wholly
opposed to the Greeks of Alexandria. Never since the
last Nectanebo was conquered by the Persians, eight
hundred years earlier, did the Egyptians seem so near
to throwing off the foreign yoke and rising again as an
independent nation. But the Greeks, who had taught
them so much, had not taught them the arts of war; and
the nation remained enslaved to those who could wield
the sword. The return of Athanasius, however, was only
the signal for a fresh uproar, and the Arians complained
that Egypt was kept in a constant turmoil by his zealous
activity. Nor were the Arians his only enemies. He
had offended many others of his clergy by his overbear-
ing manners, and more particularly by his following in
the steps of Alexander, the late bishop, in claiming new
and higher powers for the office of patriarch than had
ever been yielded to the bishops of Alexandria before
their spiritual rank had been changed into civil rank
by the emperor's adoption of their religion. Meletius
headed a strong party of bishops, priests, and deacons ui
opposing the new claims of the archiepiscopal see of
Alexandria. His followers differed in no point of doc-
trine from the Athanasian party, but as they sided with
the Arians they were usually called heretics.

By this time the statesmen and magistrates had
gained a clear view of the change which had come over

EPISCOPAL POWER

207

the political state of the empire, first by tlie spread of
Christianity, and secondly by the emperor's embracing
it. By supporting Christianity the emperors gave rank
in the state to an organised and well-trained body, which
immediately found itself in possession of all the civil
power. A bishopric, which a few years before was a
post of danger, was now a place of great profit, and
secured to its possessor every worldly advantage of
wealth, honour, and power. An archbishop ia the cap-
ital, obeyed by a bishop in every city, with numerous

HOUSES BUILT ON PILES AT PUNT.

priests and deacons under them, was usually of more
weight than the prefect. "While Athanasius was at the
height of his popularity in Egypt, and was supported
by the Emperor of the West, the Emperor Constantius
was very far from being his master. But on the death
of Constans, when Constantius became sovereign of the
whole empire, he once more tried to make Alexandria
and the Egyptian church obedient to his wishes. He was,
however, still doubtful how far it was prudent to measure
his strength against that of the bishop, and he chose
rather to begin privately with threats before using his

208 THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

power openly. He first wrote word to Athanasius, as
if in answer to a request from the bishop, that he was
at liberty, if he wished, to visit Italy; but he sent the
letter by the hands of the notary Diogenes, who added,
by word of mouth, that the permission was meant for
a command, and that it was the emperor's pleasure that
he should immediately quit his bishopric and the prov-
ince. But this underhand conduct of the emperor only
showed his own weakness. Athanasius steadily refused
to obey any unwritten orders, and held his bishopric
for upwards of two years longer, before Constantius felt
strong enough to enforce his wishes. Towards the end of
that time, Syrianus, the general of the Egyptian army, to
whom this delicate task was entrusted, gathered together
from other parts of the province a body of five thousand
chosen men, and with these he marched quietly into Alex-
andria, to overawe, if possible, the rebellious bishop. He
gave out no reason for his conduct; but the Arians, who
were in the secret, openly boasted that it would soon
be their turn to possess the churches. Syrianus then
sent for Athanasius, and in the presence of Maximus the
prefect again delivered to him the command of Con-
stantius, that he should quit Egypt and retire into
banishment, and he threatened to carry this command
into execution by the help of the troops if he met with
any resistance. Athanasius, without refusing to obey,
begged to be shown the emperor's orders in writing; but
this reasonable request was refused. He then entreated
them even to give him, in their own handwriting, an
order for his banishment; but this was also refused, and

ATHANASIUS ATTACKED 209

the citizens, who were made acquainted with the em-
peror's wishes and the bishop's firmness, waited in
dreadful anxiety to see whether the prefect and the gen-
eral would venture to enforce their orders. The presby-
tery of the church and the corporation of the city went
up to Syrianus in solemn procession to beg him either
to show a written authority for the banishment of their
bishop, or to write to Constantinople to learn the em-
peror's pleasure. To this request Syrianus at last yielded,
and gave his word to the friends of Athanasius that he
would take no further steps till the return of the messen-
gers which he then sent to Constantinople.

But Syrianus had before received his orders, which
were, if possible, to frighten Athanasius into obedience,
and, if that could not be done, then to employ force, but
not to expose the emperor's written commands to the
danger of being successfully resisted. He therefore only
waited for an opportunity of carrying them into effect;
and at midnight, on the ninth of February, a. d. 356,
twenty-three days after the promise had been given,
Syrianus, at the head of his troops, armed for the assault,
surrounded the church where Athanasius and a crowded
assembly were at prayers. The doors were forcibly and
suddenly broken open, the armed soldiers rushed forward
to seize the bishop, and numbers of his faithful friends
were slain in their efforts to save him. Athanasius, how-
ever, escaped in the tumult ; but though the general was
imsuccessful, the bodies of the slain and the arms of the
soldiers found scattered through the church in the morn-
ing were full proofs of his unholy attempt. The friends

210 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

of the bishop drew up and signed a public declaration
describing the outrage, and Syrianus sent to Constan-
tinople a counter-protest declaring that there had been no
disturbance in the city,

Athanasius, with nearly the whole of the nation for
his friends, easily escaped the vengeance of the emperor;
and, withdrawing for a third time from public life, he
passed the remainder of this reign in concealment. He
did not, however, neglect the interests of his flock. He
encouraged them with his letters, and even privately
visited his friends in Alexandria. As the greater part
of the population was eager to befriend him, he was
there able to hide himself for six years. Disregarding
the scandal that might arise from it, he lived in the
house of a young woman, who concealed him in her cham-
ber, and waited on him with imtiring zeal. She was
then in the flower of her youth, only twenty years of age ;
and fifty years afterwards, in the reign of Theodosius 11.,
when the name of the archbishop ranked with those of
the apostles, this woman used to boast among the monks
of Alexandria that in her youth she had for six years
concealed the great Athanasius.

But though the general was not wholly successful,
yet the Athanasian party was for the time crushed. Se-
bastianus, the new prefect, was sent into Egypt with
orders to seize Athanasius dead or alive, wherever he
should be found within the province; and under his
protection the Arian party in Alexandria again ventured
to meet in public, and proceeded to choose a bishop. They
elected to this high position the celebrated George of

ST. GEORGE OF CAPPADOCIA 211

Cappadocia, a man who, while he equalled his more pop-
ular rival in learning and in ambition, fell far behind
him in cooLaess of judgment, and in that political skill
which is as much wanted in the guidance of a religious
party as in the government of an empire.

George was born at Epiphania in CiUcia, and was the
son of a clothier, but his ambition led him into the Church,
as being at that time the fairest field for the display of
talent; and he rose from one station to another till he
reached the high post of Bishop of Alexandria. The
fickle, irritable Alexandrians needed no such firebrand
to light up the flames of discontent. George took no
pains to conceal the fact that he held his bishopric by
the favour of the emperor and the power of the army
against the wishes of his flock. To support his authority,
he opened his doors to informers of the worst descrip-
tion; anybody who stood in the way of his grasp at
power was accused of being an enemy to the emperor.
He proposed to the emperor to lay a house-tax on Alex-
andria, thereby to repay the expense incurred by Alexan-
der the Great in building the city; and he made the
imperial government more unpopular than it had ever
been since Augustus landed in Egypt. He used the army
as the means of terrifying the Homoousians into an
acknowledgment of the Arian opinions. He banished
fifteen bishops to the Great Oasis, besides others of lower
rank. He beat, tortured, and put to death; the perse-
cution was more cruel than any suffered from the pagans,
except perhaps that in the reign of Diocletian; and thirty
Egyptian bishops are said to have lost their lives while

212 THE CHEISTIAIJ PERIOD IN EGYPT

George was patriarch of Alexandria. Most of these
accusations, however, are from the pens of his enemies.
At this time the countries at the southern end of the
Red Sea were becoming a little more known to Alex-
andria. Meropius, travelling in the reign of Constantine
for curiosity and the sake of knowledge, had visited
Auxum, the capital of the Hexumitse, in Abyssinia. His
companion Frumentius undertook to convert the people
to Christianity and persuade them to trade with Egypt;
and, as he found them willing to listen to his argimaents,
he came home to Alexandria to tell of his success and
ask for support. Athanasius readily entered into a plan
for spreading the blessings of Christianity and the power
of the Alexandrian church. To increase the missionary's
weight he consecrated him a bishop, and sent him back
to Auxum to continue his good work. His progress, how-
ever, was somewhat checked by sectarian jealousy; for,
when Athanasius was deposed by Constantius, Frumen-
tius was recalled to receive again his orders and his
opinions from the new patriarch. Constantius also sent
an embassy to the Homeritse on the opposite coast of
Arabia, under Theophilus, a monk and deacon in the
Church. The Homerit® were of Jewish blood though of
gentile faith, and were readily converted, if not to Chris-
tianity, at least to friendship with the emperor. After
consecrating their churches, Theophilus crossed over to
the African coast, to the Hexumitae, to carry on the
work which Frumentius had begun. There he was
equally successful in the object of his embassy. Both in
trade and in religion the Hexumitse, who were also of

THE ETHIOPIC BIBLE

213

Jewish blood, were eager to be connected with the Euro-
peans, from whom they were cut off by Arabs of a wilder
race. He found also a little to the south of Auxum a
settlement of Syrians, who were said to have been placed
there by Alexander the Great. These tribes spoke the
language called Bthiopic, a dialect of Arabic which was

TEMPLE OF ABn SIMBEL IN NOBIA.

not used in the country which we have hitherto called
Ethiopia. The Ethiopic version of the Bible was about
this time made for their use. It was translated out of
the Greek from the Alexandrian copies, as the Greek
version was held in such value that it was not thought
necessary to look to the Hebrew original of the Old

214 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

Testament. But these well-meant efforts did little at
the time towards making the Hexmnitse Christians. Dis-
tance and the Blemmyes checked their intercourse with
Alexandria. It was not tiU two hundred years later that
they could be said in the slightest sense to be converted to
Christianity.

Though the origin of monastic life has sometimes been
claimed for the Essenes on the shores of the Dead Sea,
yet it was in Egypt that it was framed into a system, and
became the model for the Christian world. It took its
rise in the serious and gloomy views of religion which
always formed part of the Egyptian polytheism, and
which the Greeks remarked as very imlike their own
gay and tasteful modes of worship, and which were
readily engrafted by the Egyptian converts into their
own Christian belief. In the reigns of Constantine and
his sons, hundreds of Christians, both men and women,
quitting the pleasures and trials of the busy world, with-
drew one by one into the Egyptian desert, where the
sands are as boundless as the ocean, where the sunshine
is less cheerful than darkness, to spend their lonely days
and watchful nights in religious meditation and in prayer.
They were led by a gloomy view of their duty towards
Ood, and by a want of fellow-feeling for their neighbour;
and they seemed to think that pain and misery in this
world would save them from punishment hereafter. The
lives of many of these Fathers of the Desert were written
by the Christians who lived at the same time; but a full
account of the miracles which were said to have been
worked in their favour, or by their means, would now

EAELT CHKISTIAN ASCETICISM 215

only call forth a smile of pity, or perhaps even of
ridicule.

" Prosperity and peace," says Gribbon, " introduced
the distinction of the vulgar and the ascetic Christians.
The loose and imperfect practice of religion satisfied the
conscience of the multitude. The prince or magistrate,
soldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent zeal, and
implicit faith, with the exercise of their profession, the
pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their pas-
sions; but the ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid
precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the severe en-
thusiasm which represents man as a criminal and Grod
as a tyrant. They seriously renounced the business and
the pleasures of the age; abjured the use of wine, of
flesh, and of marriage, chastised their body, mortified
their affections, and embraced a life of misery, as the
price of eternal happiness. The ascetics fled from a pro-
fane and degenerate world to perpetual solitude, or
religious society. Like the first Christians of Jerusalem,
they resigned the use, or the property, of their temporal
possessions ; established regular communities of the same
sex and a similar disposition, and assumed the names
of hermits, monks, or anchorites, expressive of their
lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon
acquired the respect of the world, which they despised,
and the loudest applause was bestowed on this divine
philosophy, which surpassed, without the aid of science
or reason, the laborious virtues of the G-recian schools.
The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics in
the contempt of fortime, of pain, and of death; the

216 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Pythagorean silence and submission were revived ir
their servile discipline; and they disdained, as firmly as
the Cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil
society. But the votaries of this divine philosophy as-
pired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They
trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired
to the desert; and they restored the devout and con-
templative life, which had been instituted by the Esse-
nians, in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of
Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people
who dwelt among the palm trees near the Dead Sea; who
subsisted without money, who were propagated without
women, and who derived from the disgust and repentance
of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary associates.
" Antony, an illiterate youth of the lower part of The-
baid, distributed his patrimony, deserted his family and
native home, and executed his monastic penance with
original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and pain-
ful novitiate among the tombs and in a ruined tower,
he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey
to the eastward of the Mle; discovered a lonely spot,
which possessed the advantages of shade and water, and
fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim near the Red
Sea, where an ancient monastery still preserves the name
and memory of the saint. The curious devotion of the
Christians pursued him to the desert; and, when he was
obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind,
he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He
enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine
he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully

ORIGIN OF MONKISH CUSTOMS 217

declined a respectful invitation from the Emperor Oon-
stantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained
the age of 105 years) beheld the ninnerous progeny which
had been formed by his example and his lessons. The
prolific colonies of monks multiplied on the sands of
Libya, upon the rocks of the Thebaid, and in the cities
of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain
and adjacent desert of Mtria were peopled by five thou-
sand anchorites; and the traveller may still investigate
the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that
barren soil by the disciples of Antony. In the Upper
Thebaid, the vacant island of Tabenna was occupied by
Pachomius and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That
holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men
and one of women; and the festival of Easter sometimes
collected fifty thousand religious persons, who followed
his angelic rules of discipline. The stately and populous
city of Oxyrrhynchos, the seat of Christian orthodoxy,
had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the
ramparts, to pious and charitable uses, and the bishop,
who might preach in twelve churches, computed ten thou-
sand females and twenty thousand males of the monastic
profession."

The monks borrowed many of their customs from the
old Egyptian priests, such as shaving the head; and
Athanasius in his charge to them orders them not to
adopt the tonsure on the head, nor to shave the beard.
He forbids their employing magic or incantations to
assist their prayers. He endeavours to stop their emu-
lation in fasting, and orders those whose strength of

218 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD HSf EGYPT

body enabled them to fast longest not to boast of it.
But he orders them not even to speak to a woman, and
wishes them not to bathe, as being an immodest act.
The early Christians, as being a sect of Jews, had fol-
lowed many Jewish customs, such as observing the Sab-
bath as well as the Lord's day; but latterly the line
between the two religions had been growing wider, and
Athanasius orders the monks not to keep holy the Jewish
Sabbath. After a few years their religious duties were
clearly laid down for them in several well-drawn codes.

One of the earliest of these ascetics was Ammon, who
on the morning of his marriage is said to have persuaded
his young wife of the superior holiness of a single life,
and to have agreed with her that they should devote
themselves apart to the honour of God in the desert.
But, in thus avoiding the pleasures, the duties, and the
temptations of the world. Amnion lost many of the vir-
tues and even the decencies of society; he never washed
himself, or changed his garments, because he thought
it wrong for a religious man even to see himself un-
dressed; and when he had occasion to cross a canal, his
biographer tells us that attendant angels carried him
over the water in their arms, lest, while keeping his
vows, he should be troubled by wet clothes.

In the religious controversies, whether pagan or
Christian, Rome had often looked to Egypt for its opin-
ions ; Constans, when wanting copies of the Greek Scrip-
tures for Rome, had lately sent to Alexandria, and had
received the approved text from Athanasius. The two
countries held nearly the same opinions and had the

THE EOMAJ!f AIJD EGYPTIAiT CHUECHES 219

same dislike of the Greeks; so when Jerome visited
Egypt he found the Church holding, he said, the true
Roman faith as taught by the apostles. Under Didymus,
who was then the head of the catechetical school, Jerome
pursued his studies, having the same religious opinions
with the Egyptian, and the same dislike to Arianism.
But no dread of heresy stopped Jerome in his search for
knowledge and for books. He obtained copies of the
whole of Origen's works, and read them with the great-
est admiration. It is true that he finds fault with many
of his opinions; but no admirer of Origen could speak
in higher terms of praise of his virtues and his learning,
of the qualities of his head and of his heart, than Jerome
uses while he timidly pretends to think that he has done
wrong in reading his works.

At this time— the end of the eleventh century after
the building of the city— the emperor himself did not
refuse to mark on his Roman coins the happy renewal
of the years by the old Egyptian astrological fable of
the return of the phoenix.

From the treatise of Julius Permicus against the
pagan superstitions, it woiild seem that the sacred ani-
mals of the Egyptians were no longer kept in the several
cities in which they used to be worshipped, and that many
of the old gods had been gradually dropped from the
mythology, which was then chiefly confined to the wor-
ship of Isis and Osiris. The great week of the year was
the feast of Isis, when the priests joined the goddess in
her grief for the loss of the good Osiris, who had been
killed through jealousy by the wicked Typhon. The

220 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

priests shaved their heads, beat their breasts, tore the
skin off their arms, and opened up the old wounds of
former years, in grief for the death of Osiris, and in

honour of the widowed Isis. The
river NUe was also still wor-
shipped for the blessings which
it scatters along its banks, but
we hear no more of Anaon-Ea,

COIN 01' C0N8TANTIUS, A. D. 347

Chem, Horus, Aroeris, and the
other gods of the Thebaid, whose worship ceased with the
fall of that part of the country.

But great changes often take place with very little
improvement; the fall of idolatry only made way for
the rise of magic and astrology. Abydos in Upper Egypt
had latterly gained great renown for the temple of Bisu,
whose oracle was much consulted, not only by the Egyp-
tians but by Greek strangers, and by others who sent
their questions in writing. Some of these letters on
parchment had been taken from the temple by informers,
and carried to the emperor, whose ears were never deaf
to a charge against the pagans. On this accusation num-
bers of all ranks were dragged out of Egypt, to be tried
and punished in Syria, with torture and forfeiture of
goods. Such indeed was the nation's belief in these
oracles and prophecies that it gave to the priests a greater
power than it was safe to trust them with. By prophesy-
ing that a man was to be an emperor, they could make
him a traitor, and perhaps raise a village in rebellion.
As the devotedness of their followers made it dangerous
for the magistrates to punish the mischief-makers, they

THE CRIME OF PATRONAGE 221

had no choice but to punish those who consulted them.
Without forbidding the divine oracle to answer, they
forbade anybody to question it. Parnasius, who had been
a prefect of Egypt, a man of spotless character, was
banished for thus illegally seeking a knowledge of the
future; and Demetrius Cythras, an aged philosopher,
was put to the rack on a charge of having sacrificed to
the god, and only released because he persisted through
his tortures in asserting that he sacrificed ia gratitude
and not from a wish thus to learn his future fate.

In the falling state of the empire the towns and vil-
lages of Egypt found their rulers too weak either to guard
them or to tyrannise over them, and they sometimes
formed themselves into small societies, and took means
for their own defence. The law had so far allowed this
as in some cases to grant a corporate constitution to a
city. But in other cases a city kept in its pay a coiu'tier
or government servant powerful enough to guard it
against the extortions of the provincial tax-gatherer, or
would put itself imder the patronage of a neighboiu" rich
enough and strong enough to guard it. This, however,
could not be allowed, even if not used as the means of
throwing off the authority of the provincial government;
and accordingly at this time we begin to find laws against
the new crime of patronage. These associations gave a
place of refuge to criminals, they stopped the worshipper
in his way to the temple, and the tax-gatherer in collect-
ing the tribute. But new laws have little weight when
there is no power to enforce them, and the orders from
Constantinople were Kttle heeded in Tipper Egypt.

222 THE CHRISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

But this patronage wMcli the emperor wished to put
down was weak compared to that of the bishops and
clergy, which the law allowed and even upheld, and which
was the great check to the tyranny of the civil governor.
iWMle the emperor at a distance gave orders through
his prefect, the people looked up to the bishop as their
head; and hence the power of each was checked by the
other. The emperors had not yet made the terrors of
religion a tool in the hands of the magistrate; nor had
they yet learned from the pontif ex and augurs of pagan
Rome the secret that civil power is never so strong as
when based on that of the Church.

On the death of Constantius, in 361, Julian was at
once acknowledged as emperor, and the Roman world
was again, but for the last time, governed by a pagan.
The Christians had been in power for fifty-five years
under Constantine and his sons, during which time the
pagans had been made to feel that their enemies had got
the upper hand of them. But on the accession of Julian
their places were again changed; and the Egyptians
among others crowded to Constantinople to complain of
injustice done by the Christian prefect and bishop, and
to pray for a redress of wrongs. They were, however,
sadly disappointed in their emperor; he put them off
with an unfeeling joke; he ordered them to meet him
at Chalcedon on the other side of the straits of Constan-
tinople, and, instead of following them according to his
promise, he gave orders that no vessel should bring an
Egyptian from Chalcedon to the capital; and the Egyp-
tians, after wasting their time and money, returned

CONTINUED CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION 223

home in despair. But though their complaints were
laughed at, they were not overlooked, and the author
of their grievances was punished; Artemius, the prefect
of Egypt, was summoned to Chalcedon, and not being
able to disprove the crimes laid to his charge by the
Alexandrians, he paid his life as the forfeit for his mis-
government during the last reign.

While Artemius was on his trial the pagans of Alex-
andria remained quiet, and in daily fear of his return
to power, for after their treatment at Chalcedon they
by no means felt sm^e of what would be the emperor's
policy in matters of religion; but they no sooner heard
of the death of Artemius than they took it as a sign
that they had full leave to revenge themselves on the
Christians. The mob rose first against the Bishop
Oeorge, who had lately been careless or wanton enough
publicly to declare his regret that any of their temples
should be allowed to stand; and they seized him in the
streets and trampled him to death. They next slew
Dracontius, the prefect of the Alexandrian mint, whom
they accused of overturning a pagan altar within that
building. Their anger was then turned against Diodorus,
who was employed in building a church on a waste spot
of ground that had once been sacred to the worship of
Mithra, but had since been given by the Emperor Con-
stantius to the Christians. In clearing the ground, the
workmen had turned up a number of human bones that
had been buried there in former ages, and these had been
brought forward by the Christians in reproach against
the pagans as so many proofs of human sacrifices. In his

224 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Christian zeal, Diodorus also had wounded at the same
time their pride and superstition by cutting off the single
lock from the heads of the young Egyptians. This lock
had in the time of Ramses been the mark of youthful
royalty; under the Ptolemies the mark of high rank;
but was now common to all. Diodorus treated it as an
offence against his religion. For this he was attacked
and kiUed, with George and Dracontius. The mob car-
ried the bodies of the three murdered men upon camels to
the side of the lake, and there burned them, and threw
the ashes into the water, for fear, as they said, that a
church should be built over their remains, as had been
sometimes done, even at that early date, over the bodies
of martyrs.

When the news of this outrage against the laws was
brought to the philosophical emperor, he contented him-
self with threatening by an imperial edict that if the
offence were repeated, he would visit it with severe pun-
ishment. But in every act of Julian we trace the scholar
and the lover of learning, George had employed his
wealth in getting together a large library, rich in his-
torians, rhetoricians, and philosophers of all sects; and,
on the murder of the bishop, Julian wrote letter after
letter to Alexandria, to beg the prefect and his friend
Porphyrins to save these books, and send them to him
in Cappadocia. He promised freedom to the librarian if
he gave them up, and torture if he hid them; and fur-
ther begged that no books in favour of Christianity
should be destroyed, lest other and better books should
be lost with them.

A TOnNG EGYPTIAN WEARING THE KOTAL LOCK.

TEIUMPH OF ATHANASIUS 227

There is too much reason to believe that the friends
of Athanasius were not displeased at the murder of the
Bishop George and their Arian fellow-Christians; at
any rate they made no effort to save them, and the same
mob that had put to death George as an enemy to pagan-
ism now joined his rival, Athanasius, in a triumphal
entry into the city, when, with the other Egyptian
bishops, he was allowed to return from banishment.
Athanasius could brook no rival to his power; the civil
force of the city was completely overpowered by his
party, and the Arian clergy were forced to hide them-
selves, as the only means of saving their lives. But,
while thus in danger from their enemies, the Arians pro-
ceeded to elect a successor to their murdered bishop,
and they chose Lucius to that post of honour, but of
danger. Athanasius, however, in reality and openly
fiUed the office of bishop; and he summoned a synod at
Alexandria, at which he re-admitted into the church
Lucifer and Eusebius, two bishops who had been ban-
ished to the Thebaid, and he again decreed that the three
persons in the Trinity were of one substance.

Though the Emperor Julian thought that George, the
late bishop, had deserved all that he suffered, as having
been zealous in favour of Christianity, and forward in
putting down paganism and in closing the temples, yet
he was still more opposed to Athanasius. That able
churchman held his power as a rebel by the help of the
Egyptian mob, against the wishes of the Greeks of Alex-
andria and against the orders of the late emperor; and
Jtdian made an edict, ordering that he should be driven

228 THE CHEISTIAJ^ PERIOD IN EGYPT

out of the city within twenty-four hours of the command
reaching Alexandria. The prefect of Egypt was at first
unable, or unwilling, to enforce these orders against the
wish of the inhabitants; and Athanasius was not driven
into banishment till Julian wrote word that, if the re-
bellious bishop were to be found in any part of Egypt
after a day then named, he would fine the prefect and the
officers under him one hundred pounds weight of gold.
Thus Athanasius was for the fourth time banished from
Alexandria.

Though the Christians were out of favour with the
emperor, and never were employed in any office of trust,
yet they were too numerous for him to venture on a
persecution. But Julian allowed them to be ill-treated
by his prefects, and took no notice of their complaints.
He made a law, forbidding any Christians being educated
in pagan literature, believing that ignorance would stop
the spread of their religion. In the churches of Grreece,
Asia Minor, and Syria, this was felt as a heavy grievance ;
but it was less thought of in Egypt. Science and learn-
ing were less cultivated by the Christians in Alexandria
since the overthrow of the Arian party; and a little later,
to charge a writer with Graecizing was the same as saying
that he wanted orthodoxy.

Julian was a warm friend to learning and philosophy
among the pagans. He recalled to Alexandria the physi-
cian Zeno, who in the last reign had fled from the Geor-
gian faction, as the Christians were then called. He
founded in the same city a college for music, and ordered
the Prefect Ecdicius to look out for some young men

OVEETHEOW OF EGYPTLOf PAGANISM 229

of skill in tliat science, particularly from among the
pupils of Dioscorus ; and he allotted them a maintenance
from the treasury, with rewards for the most skilful.
At Canopus, a pagan philosopher, Antoninus, the son
of Eustathius, taking advantage of the turn in public
opinion, and copying the Christian monks of the The-
baid, drew round him a crowd of followers by his self-
denial and painful tortiu-e of the body. The Alexan-
drians flocked in crowds to his dwelling; and such was
his character for holiness that his death, in the beginning
of the reign of Theodosius, was thought by the Egyptians
to be the cause of the overthrow of paganism.

But Egyptian paganism, which had slumbered for
fifty years under the Christian emperors, was not again
to be awaked to its former life. Though the wars be-
tween the several cities for the honour of their gods,
the bull, the crocodile, or the fish, had never ceased, all
reverence for those gods was dead. The sacred animals,
in particular the bulls Apis and Mnevis, were again
waited upon by their priests as of old; but it was a vain
attempt. Not only was the Egyptian religion over-
thrown, but the Thebaid, the country of that religion,
was fallen too low to be raised again. The people of Up-
per Egypt had lost all heart, not more from the tyranny
of the Roman government in the north than from the
attacks and settlement of the Arabs in the south. All
changes in the country, whether for the better or the
worse, were laid to the charge of these latter unwelcome
neighbours; and when the inquiring traveller asked to
be shown the crocodile, the river-horse, and the other

230 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

animals for which Egypt had once been noted, he was
told with a sigh that they were seldom to be seen in the
Delta since the Thebaid had been peopled with the
Blenunyes. Falsehood, the usual vice of slaves, had
taken a deep hold on the Egyptian character. A denial
of their wealth was the means by which they usually
tried to save it from the Roman tax-gatherer; and an
Egyptian was ashamed of himself as a coward if he could
not show a back covered with stripes gained in the at-
tempt to save his money. Peculiarities of character
often descend unchanged in a nation for many centuries ;
and, after fourteen hundred years of the same slavery,
the same stripes from the lash of the tax-gatherer still
used to be the boast of the Egyptian peasant. Cyrene
was already a desert; the only cities of note in Upper
Egypt were Koptos, Hermopolis, and Antinoopolis; but
Alexandria was still the queen of cities, though the large
quarter called the Bruchium had not been rebuilt; and
the Serapeum, with its library of seven hundred thousand
volumes, was, after the capitol of Rome, the chief build-
ing in the world.

This temple of Serapis was situated on a rising
ground at the west end of the city, and, though not built
like a fortification, was sometimes called the citadel of
Alexandria. It was entered by two roads; that on one
side was a slope for carriages, and on the other a grand
flight of a hundred steps from the street, with each step
wider than that below it. At the top of this flight of
steps was a portico, in the form of a circular roof, upheld
by four columns. Through this was the entrance into

THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY 231

the great courtyard, in the middle of which stood the
roofless hall or temple, surrounded by columns and porti-
coes, inside and out. In some of the inner porticoes were
the bookcases for the library which made Alexandria

AN EGYPTIAN WATEK - CAEKIEK.

the very temple of science and learning, while other
porticoes were dedicated to the service of the ancient
religion. The roofs were ornamented with gilding, the
capitals of the columns were of copper gilt, and the walls

232 THE CHRISTIAJSf PERIOD IN EGYPT

were covered witli paintings. In the middle of the inner
area stood one lofty column, which could be seen by all
the country roimd, and even from ships some distance
out at sea. The great statue of Serapis, which had been
made under the Ptolemies, having perhaps marble feet,
but for the rest built of wood, clothed with drapery, and
glittering with gold and silver, stood m one of the cov-
ered chambers, which had a small window so contrived
as to let the sun's rays kiss the lips of the statue on the
appointed occasions. This was one of the tricks em-
ployed in the sacred mysteries, to dazzle the worshipper
by the sudden blaze of light which on the proper occa-
sions was let into the dark room. The temple itself,
with its fountain, its two obelisks, and its gilt
ornaments, has long since been destroyed; and the col-
umn in the centre, under the name of Pompey's Pillar,'
alone remains to mark the spot where it stood, and is
one of the few works of Greek art which in size and
strength vie with the old Egyptian monuments.

The reign of Julian, instead of raising paganism to
its former strength, had only shown that its life was
spent; and under Jovian (a. d. 363—364) the Christians
were again brought into power. A Christian emperor,
however, would have been but little welcome to the
Egyptians if, like Constantius, and even Constantine in
his latter years, he had leaned to the Arian party; but
Jovian soon showed his attachment to the Nicene creed,
and he re-appointed Athanasius to the bishopric of
Alexandria, But though Athanasius regained his rank,

See Volume X, page 317.

DIFFERENCES OF CEEED AND RACE 233

yet the Arian bishop Lucius was not deposed. Each
party in Alexandria had its own bishop; those who
thought that the Son was of the same substance with the
Father looked up to Athanasius, while those who gave
to Jesus the lower rank of being of a similar substance
to the Creator obeyed Lucius.

This curious metaphysical proposition was not, how-
ever, the only cause of the quarrel which divided Egypt
into such angry parties. The creeds were made use of
as the watchwords in a political struggle. Blood, lan-
guage, and geographical boundaries divided the parties;
and religious opinions seldom cross these unchanging
and inflexible lines.

Every Egyptian believed in the Mcene creed and
the incorruptibility of the body of Jesus, and hated
the Alexandrian Greeks; while the more refined Greeks
were as united in explaining away the Mcene creed by
the doctrine of the two natures of Christ, and in despising
the ignorant Egyptians. Christianity, which speaks so
forcibly to the poor, the unlearned, and the slave, had
educated the Egyptian population, had raised them in
their own eyes; and, as the popular party gained
strength, the Arians lost ground in Alexandria. At the
same time the Greeks were falling off in learning and
in science, and in all those arts of civilisation which had
given them the superiority. Like other great political
changes, this may not have been understood at the time ;
but in less than a himdred years it was found that the
Egyptians were no longer the slaves, nor the Greeks the
masters.

234 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

On the death of Jovian, when Valentinian divided the
Roman empire with his brother, he took Italy and the
West for his own kingdom, and gave to Valens Egypt
and the Eastern provinces, in which Greek was the lan-
guage of the government. Each emperor adopted the
religion of his capital; Valentinian held the Nicene
faith, and Valens the Arian faith; and unhappy Egypt
was the only part of the empire whose religion differed
from that of its rulers. Had the creeds marked the
limits of the two empires, Egypt would have belonged
to Rome; but, as geographical boundaries and language
form yet stronger ties, Egypt was given to Constan-
tinople, or rather to Antioch, the nearer of the two
Eastern capitals.

By Valens, Athanasius was forced for the fifth time
to fly from Alexandria, to avoid the displeasure which
his disobedience again drew down upon him. But his
flock again rose in rebellion in favour of their popular
bishop; and the emperor was either persuaded or fright-
ened into allowing him to return to his bishopric, where
he spent the few remaining years of his life in peace.
Athanasius died at an advanced age, leaving a name
more famous than that of any one of the emperors under
whom he lived. He taught the Christian world that there
was a power greater than that of kings, namely the
Church. He was often beaten in the struggle, but every
victory over him was followed by the defeat of the civil
power; he was five times banished, but five times he
returned in triumph. The temporal power of the Church
was in its infancy; it only rose upon the conversion

THE INFLUENCE OF ATHANASIUS 235

of Constantine, and it was weak compared to wliat it
became in after ages; but, when the Emperor of Ger-
many did penance barefoot before Pope HUdebrand, and
a king of England was whipped at Becket's tomb, we only
witness the full-grown strength of the infant power that
was being reared by the Bishop of Alexandria. His
writings are numerous and wholly controversial, chiefly
against the Arians. The Athanasian creed seems to have
been so named only because it was thought to contain
his opinions, as it is known to be by a later author.

On the death of Athanasius, the Homoousian party
chose Peter as his successor in the bishopric, overlooking
Lucius, the Arian bishop, whose election had been ap-
proved by the emperors Julian, Jovian, and Valens. But
as the Egyptian church had lost its great champion, the
emperor ventured to re-assert his authority. He sent
Peter to prison, and ordered all the churches to be given
up to the Arians, threatening with banishment from
Egypt whoever disobeyed his edict. The persecution
which the Homoousian party throughout Upper Egypt
then suffered from the Arians equalled, says the eccle-
siastical historian, anything that they had before suf-
fered from the pagans. Every monastery ia Egypt was
broken open by Lucius at the head of an armed force,
and the cruelty of the bishop surpassed that of the
soldiers. The breaking open of the monasteries seems
to have been for the purpose of making the inmates bear
their share in the military service of the state, rather
than for any religious reasons. When Constantine em-
braced Christianity, he immediately recognised all the

236 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

religious scruples of its professors ; and not only bishops
and presbyters but all laymen who had entered the
monastic orders were freed from the duty of serving in
the army. But under the growing dislike of military
service, and the difficulty of finding soldiers, when to
escape from the army many called themselves Christian
monks, this excuse could no longer be listened to, and
Valens made a law that monastic vows should not save
a man from enlistment. But this law was not easily
carried into force in the monasteries on the borders of
the desert, which were often well-built and well-guarded
fortresses; and on Mount Mtria, in particular, many
monks lost their lives in their resistance to the troops
that were sent to fetch recruits.

The monastic institutions of Egypt had already
reached their full growth. They were acknowledged by
the laws of the empire as ecclesiastical corporations,
and allowed to hold property; and by a new law of this
reign, if a monk or nun died without a will or any known
kindred, the property went to the monastery as heir
at law. One of the most celebrated of these monasteries
was on Tabenna, where Pachomius had gathered round
him thirteen hundred followers, who owned him as the
founder of their order, and gave him credit for the gift
of prophecy. His disciples in the other monasteries of
Upper Egypt amounted to six thousand more. Anuph
was at the head of another order of monks, and he boasted
that he could by prayer obtain from heaven whatever
he wished. Hor was at the head of another monastery,
where, though wholly unable to read or write, he spent

MONASTICISM 239

his life in singing psalms, and, as his followers and
perhaps he himself believed, in working miracles. Sera-
pion was at the head of a thousand monks in the Ar-
sinoite nome, who raised their food by their own labour,
and shared it with their poorer neighbours. Near Nitria,
a place in the Mareotic nome which gave its name to the
nitre springs, there were as many as fifty cells ; but those
who aimed at greater solitude and severer mortification
withdrew farther into the desert, to Scetis in the same
nome, a spot already sanctified by the trials and triumphs
of St. Anthony. Here, in a monastery surrounded by the
sands, by the side of a lake whose waters are Salter than
the brine of the ocean, with no grass or trees to rest
the aching eye, where the dazzling sky is seldom relieved
with a cloud, where the breezes are too often laden with
dry dust, these monks cultivated a gloomy religion, with
hearts painfully attuned to the scenery around them.
Here dwelt Moses, who in his youth had been a remark-
able sinner, and in his old age became even more re-
markable as a saint. It was said that for six years
he spent every night in prayer, without once closing his
eyes in sleep; and that one night, when his cell was
attacked by foiu* robbers, he carried them aU off at once
on his back to the neighbouring monastery to be pmi-
ished, because he would himself hurt no man. Benjamin
also dwelt at Scetis; he consecrated oU to heal the
diseases of those who washed with it, and during the
eight months that he was himself dying of a dropsy, he
touched for their diseases all who came to the door of
his cell to be healed. Hellas carried fire in his bosom

240 THE CHEISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

without burning his clothes. Elias spent seventy years
in solitude on the borders of the Arabian desert near
Antinoopolis. Apelles was a blacksmith near Achoris;
he was tempted by the devU in. the form of a beautiful
woman, but he scorched the tempter's face with a red-
hot iron. Dorotheus, who though a Theban had settled
near Alexandria, mortified his flesh by trying to Hve
without sleep. He never willingly lay down to rest, nor
indeed ever slept till the weakness of the body sunk
under the efforts of the spirit. Paul, who dwelt at
Pherma, repeated three hundred prayers every day, and
kept three hundred pebbles in a bag to help him in his
reckoning. He was the friend of Anthony, and when
dying begged to be wrapt in the cloak given him by that
holy monk, who had himself received it as a present
from Athanasius. His friends and admirers claimed for
Paul the honour of being the first Christian hermit, and
they maintained their improbable opinion by asserting
that he had been a monk for ninety-seven years, and
that he had retired to the desert at the age of sixteen,
when the Church was persecuted in the reign of Valerian.
All Egypt believed that the monks were the especial
favourites of Heaven, that they worked miracles, and
that divine wisdom flowed from their lips without the help
or hindrance of human learning. They were all Ho-
moousians, believing that the Son was of one substance
with the Father; some as trinitarians holding the opinions
of Athanasius; some as Sabellians believing that Jesus
was the creator of the world, and that his body therefore
was not liable to corruption; some as anthropomorphites

THE HIPPODROME 241

believing God was of human form like Jesus; but aU
warmly attached to the Mcene creed, denying the two
natures of Christ, and hating the Arian Greeks of Alex-
andria and the other cities. Gregory of Nazianzmn
remarks that Egypt was the most Christ-loving of coun-
tries, and adds with true simplicity that, wonderful to
say, after having so lately worshipped bulls, goats, and
crocodiles, it was now teaching the world the worship
of the Trinity in the truest form.

The pagans, who were now no longer able to worship
publicly as they chose, took care to proclaim their opin-
ions indirectly in such ways as the law could not reach.
In the hippodrome, which was the noisiest of the places
where the people met in public, they made a profession
of their faith by the choice of which horses they bet on;
and Christians and pagans alike showed their zeal for
religion by hooting and clapping of hands. Prayers and
superstitious ceremonies were used on both sides to add
to the horses' speed; and the monk Hilarion, the pupil
of Anthony, gained no little credit for sprinkling holy
water on the horses of his party, and thus enabling
Christianity to outnm paganism in the hippodrome at
Gaza.

During these reigns of weakness and misgovemment,
it was no doubt a cruel policy rather than humanity that
led the tax-gatherers to collect the tribute in kind. More
could be squeezed out of a ruined people by taking what
they had to give than by requiring it to be paid in copper
coin. Hence Valens made a law that no tribute through-
out the empire should be taken in money; and he laid

242 THE CHKISTIiLN PERIOD IN EGYPT

a new land-tax upon Egypt, to the amount of a soldier's
clotMng for every thirty acres.

The Saracens ^ had for some time past been encroach-
ing on the Eastern frontiers of the empire, and had only
been kept back by treaties which proved the weakness
of the Romans, as the armies of Constantinople were
still caUed, and which encouraged the barbarians in their
attacks. On the death of their king, the command over
the Saracens feU to their Queen Msevia, who broke the
last treaty, laid waste Palestine and Phoenicia with her
armies, conquered or gained over the Arabs of Petra,
and pressed upon the Egyptians at the head of the Red
Sea. On this, Valens renewed the truce, but on terms
still more favourable to the invaders. Many of the
Saracens were Christians, and by an article of the treaty
they were to have a bishop granted them for their church,
and for this purpose they sent Moses to Alexandria to
be ordained. But the Saracens sided with the Egyptians,
in religion as well as policy, against the Arian Grreeks.
Hence Moses refused to be ordained by Lucius, the pa-
triarch of Alexandria, and chose rather to receive his
appointment from some of the Homoousian bishops who
were living in banishment in the Thebaid. After this
advance of the barbarians the interesting city of Petra,
which since the time of Trajan had been in the power
or the friendship of Rome or Constantinople, was lost
to the civilised world. This rocky fastness, which was

^ The name Saraceni was given by the Greeks and Komans to the nomadic
Arabs who lived on the borders of the desert. During the Middle Ages, the
Muhammedans, coming from apparently the same localities, were also called
Saracens.

CHKISTIANITY DECEEED

243

ornamented with temples, a triumplial arch, and a
theatre, and had been a bishop's see, was henceforth
closed against all travellers; it had no place in the map
tUl it was discovered by Burckhardt in our own days
without a human being dwelling in it, with oleanders
and tamarisks choking up its entrance through the cliff,
and with brambles trailing their branches over the rock-
hewn temples.

The reign of Theodosius, which extended from 379

TEMPLE COUKTTAED, MEDINET ABU.

to 395, is remarkable for the blow then given to paganism.
The old religion had been sinking even before Chris-
tianity had become the religion of the emperors; it had
been discouraged by Constantine, who had closed many
of the temples; but Theodosius made a law in the first
year of his reign that the whole of the empire should
be Christian, and should receive the trinitarian faith.
He soon afterwards ordered that Sunday should be kept
holy, and forbade all work and law-proceedings on that
day; and he sent Cynegius, the prefect of the palace.

244 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

into Egypt, to see these laws carried into effect in that
province.

The wishes of the emperor were ably followed up by
Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria. He cleansed the
temple of Mithra, and overthrew the statues in the cele-
brated temple of Serapis, which seemed the very citadel
of paganism. He also exposed to public ridicule the
mystic ornaments and statues which a large part of his
fellow-citizens still regarded as sacred. It was not, how-
ever, to be supposed that this could be peaceably borne by
a people so irritable as the Alexandrians. The students
in the schools of philosophy put themselves at the head
of the mob to stop the work of destruction, and to re-
venge themselves upon their assailants, and several
battles were fought in the streets between the pagans
and the Christians, in which both parties lost many lives;
but as the Christians were supported by the power of
the prefect, the pagans were routed, and many whose
rank would have made them objects of punishment were
forced to fly from Alexandria.

No sooner had the troops under the command of the
prefect put down the pagan opposition than the work
of destruction was again carried forward by the zeal
of the bishop. The temples were broken open, their orna-
ments destroyed, and the statues of the gods melted
for the use of the Alexandrian church. One statue of an
Egyptian god was alone saved from the wreck, and was
set up in mockery of those who had worshipped it; and
this ridicule of their religion was a cause of greater
anger to the pagans than even the destruction of the

THE LIBRARY DESTEOYED 245

other statues. The great statue of Serapis, which was
made of wood covered with plates of metal, was knocked
to pieces by the axes of the soldiers. The head and limbs
were broken off, and the wooden trunk was burnt
in the amphitheatre amid the shouts and jeers of the
bystanders. A conjectured fragment of this statue is
now in the British Museum.

In the plunder of the temple of Serapis, the great
library of more than seven hundred thousand volumes
was wholly broken up and scattered. Orosius, the
Spaniard, who visited Alexandria in the next reign, may
be trusted when he says that he saw in the temple the
empty shelves, which, within the memory of men
then living, had been plundered of the books that had
formerly been got together after the library of the
Bruchium was burnt by Julius Caesar. In a work of such
lawless plunder, carried on by ignorant zealots, many of
these monuments of pagan genius and learning must
have been wilfully or accidentally destroyed, though the
larger number may have been carried off by the Chris-
tians for the other public and private libraries of the
city. How many other libraries this city of science may
have possessed we are not told, but there were no doubt
many. Had Alexandria during the next two centuries
given birth to poets and orators, their works, the off-
spring of native genius, might perhaps have been written
without the help of libraries; but the labours of the
mathematicians and grammarians prove that the city
was still well furnished with books, beside those on the
Christian controversies.

246 THE CHEISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

When the Christians were persecuted by the pagans,
none but men of unblemished lives and unusual strength
of mind stood to their religion in the day of trial, and suf-
fered the penalties of the law; the weak, the ignorant, and
the vicious readily joined ia the superstitions required
of them, and, embracing the religion of the stronger
party, easily escaped punishment. So it was when the
pagans of Alexandria were persecuted by Theophilus;
the chief sufferers were the men of learning, in whose
minds paganism was a pure deism, and who saw nothing
but ignorance and superstition on the side of their op-
pressors; who thought their worship of the Trinity only
a new form of polytheism, and jokingly declared that
they were not arithmeticians enough to understand it.
Olympius, who was the priest of Serapis when the temple
was sacked, and as such the head of the pagans of Alex-
andria, was a man in every respect the opposite of the
Bishop Theophilus. He was of a frank, open counte-
nance and agreeable manners; and though his age might
have allowed him to speak among his followers in the
tone of command, he chose rather in his moral lessons
to use the mild persuasion of an equal; and few hearts
were so hardened as not to be led into the paths of duty
by his exhortations. Whereas the furious monks, says
the indignant pagan, were men only in form, but swine
in manners. Whoever put on a black coat, and was not
ashamed to be seen with dirty linen, gained a tyrannical
power over the minds of the mob, from their belief in
his holiness; and these men attacked the temples of the
gods as a propitiation for their own enormous sins. Thus

CHEISTIANITY IN THE TEMPLES 247

each party reproached the other, and often unjustly.
Among other religious frauds and pretended miracles of
which the pagan priests were accused, was that of having
an iron statue of Serapis hanging in the air in a chamber
of the temple, by means of a loadstone fixed in the ceil-
ing. The natural difficulties shield them from this charge,
but other accusations are not so easily rebutted.

After this attack upon the pagans, their religion was
no longer openly taught in Alexandria. Some of the
more zealous professors withdrew from the capital to
Canopus, about ten miles distant, where the ancient
priestly learning was still taught, unpersecuted because
unnoticed; and there, under the pretence of studying
hieroglyphics, a school was opened for teaching magic
and other forbidden rites. When the pagan worship
ceased throughout Egypt, the temples were very much
used as churches, and in some cases received in their
ample courtyard a smaller church of Greek architecture,
as in that of Medinet Abu. In other cases Christian
ornaments were added to the old walls, as in the rock
temple of Kneph, opposite to Abu Simbel, where the
figure of the Saviour with a glory round his head has
been painted on the ceiling. The Christians, in order
to remove from before their eyes the memorials of the
old superstition, covered up the sculpture on the walls
with mud from the ISTile and white plaster. This coating
we now take away, at a time when the idolatrous figures
are no longer dangerous to religion, and we find the
sculpture and painting fresh as when covered up four-
teen hundred years ago.

248

THE CHEISTIAI^ PERIOD IN EGYPT

It would be unreasonable to suppose that the Egyp-
tians, upon embracing Christianity, at once threw off
aU of their pagan rites. Among other customs that
they stiU clung to, was that of making mummies of the
bodies of the dead. St. Anthony had tried to dissuade
the Christian converts from that practice; not because
the mummy-cases were covered with pagan inscriptions.

CHRISTIAN PICTURE AT ABTT SIMBEL.

but he boldly asserted, what a very little reading would
have disproved, that every mode of treating a dead body,
beside burial, was forbidden in the Bible. St. Augustine,
on the other hand, well understanding that the immortal-
ity of the soul without the body was little likely to be un-
derstood or valued by the ignorant, praises the Egyptians
for that very practice, and says that they were the only
Christians who really believed in the resurrection from
the dead. The tapers burnt before the altars were from

CLERGY AND LAITY 249

the earliest times used to light up the splendours of the
Egyptian altars, in the darkness of their temples, and
had been burnt in still greater numbers in the yearly-
festival of the candles. The playful 'custom of giving
away sugared cakes and sweetmeats on the twenty-fifth
day of Tybi, our twentieth of January, was then changed
to be kept fourteen days earlier, and it still marks the
Feast of Epiphany or Twelfth-night. The division of
the people into clergy and laity, which was unknown to
Greeks and Romans, was introduced into Christianity
in the fourth century by the Egyptians. While the rest
of Christendom were clothed in woollen, linen, the com-
mon dress of the Egyptians, was universally adopted
by the clergy as more becoming to the purity of their
manners. At the same time the clergy copied the Egyp-
tian priests in the custom of shaving the crown of the
head bald.

The new law in favour of trinitarian Christianity was
enforced with as great strictness against the Arians as
against the pagans. The bishops and priests of that
party were everywhere turned out of their churches,
which were then given up to the Homoousians. Theo-
dosius smnmoned a council of one hundred and fifty
bishops at Constantinople, to re-enact the Mcene creed;
and in the future religious rebellions of the Egyptians
they always quoted against the Greeks this council of
Constantinople, with that of Mcsea, as the foundation
of their faith. By this religious policy, Theodosius did
much to delay the fall of the empire. He won the friend-
ship of his Egyptian subjects, as well as of their Saracen

250 THE CHEISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

neighbours, all of whom, as far as they were Christian,
held to the Mcene creed. Egypt became the safest of
his provinces; and, when his armies had been recruited
with so many barbarians that they could no longer be
trusted, these new levies were marched into Egypt under
the command of Hormisdas, and an equal number of
Egyptians were drafted out of the army of Egypt, and
led into Thessaly.

When the season came for the overflow of the Nile,

MANFALOOT, SHOWING THE HEIGHT OP THE NILE IN SUMMER.

in the first summer after the destruction of the temples,
the waters happened to rise more slowly than usual; and
the Egyptians laid the blame upon the Christian emperor,
who had forbidden their sacrificing the usual offerings in
honour of the river-god. The alarm for the loss of their
crops carried more weight in the religious controversy
than any arguments that could be brought against pagan
sacrifices; and the anger of the people soon threatened a
serious rebellion. Evagrius the prefect, being disturbed
for the peace of the country, sent to Constantinople
for orders; but the emperor remained firm; he would

MATHEMATICS 261

make no change in the law against paganism, and the
fears of the Egyptians and Alexandrians were soon put
an end to by a most plenteous overflow.

Since the time of Athanasius, and the overthrow of
the Arian party in Alexandria, the learning of that city
was wholly in the hands of the pagans, and was chiefly
mathematical. Diophantus of Alexandria is the earliest
writer on algebra whose works are now remaining to
us, and has given his name to the Diophantine problems.
Pappus wrote a description of the world, and a com-
mentary on Ptolemy's Almagest, beside a work on geom-
etry, published under the name of his Mathematical Col-
lections. Theon, a professor in the museum, wrote on
the smaller astrolabe— the instrument then used to meas-
ure the star orbits— and on the rise of the Nile, a
subject always of interest to the mathematicians of
Egypt, from its importance to the husbandman. From
Theon 's astronomical observations we learn that the
Alexandrian astronomers stiU made use of the old Egyp-
tian movable year of three hundred and sixty-five days
only, and without a leap-year. Paul the Alexandrian
astrologer, on the other hand, uses the Julian year of
three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, and he
dates from the era of Diocletian. His rules for telling
the day of the week from the day of the month, and for
telling on what day of the week each year began, teach
us that our present mode of dividing time was used in
Egypt. HorapoUo, the grammarian, was also then a
teacher in the schools of Alexandria. He wrote in the
Koptic language a work in explanation of the old

252 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

hieroglypMcs, which has gained a notice far beyond its
deserts, because it is the only work on the subject that
has come down to us.

The only Christian writings of this time, that we
know of, are the paschal letters of Theophilus, Bishop of
Alexandria, which were much praised by Jerome, and by
him translated into Latin. They are full of bitter re-
proaches against Origen and his writings, and they
charge him with having treated Jesus more cruelly than
Pilate or the Jews had done. John, the famous monk
of the Thebaid, was no writer, though believed to have
the gift of prophecy. He was said to have foretold the
victory of Theodosius over the rebel Maximus; and, when
the emperor had got together his troops to march against
Eugenius, another rebel who had seized the passes of the
Julian Alps, he sent his trusty eunuch Eutropius to fetch
the holy Egyptian, or at least to learn from him what
would be the event of the war. John refused to go to
Europe, but he told the messenger that Theodosius would
conquer the rebel, and soon afterwards die; both of which
came to pass as might easily have been guessed.

On the death of Theodosius, in 395, the Roman empire
was again divided. Arcadius, his elder son, ruled Egypt
and the East, while Honorius, the younger, held the
West; and the reins of government at once passed from
the ablest to the weakest hands. But the change was
little felt in Egypt, which continued to be governed by
the patriarch Theophilus, without the name but with
very nearly the power of a prefect. He was a bold and
wicked man, but as his religious opinions were for the

THE OEIGENIST CONTROVERSY 253

Homoousians as against the Arians, and his political feel-
ings were for the Egyptians as against the Greeks, he
rallied to his government the chief strength of the prov-
ince. As the pagans and Arians of Alexandria were no
longer worthy of his enmity, he fanned into a flame a
new quarrel which was then breaking out in the Egyptian
church. The monks of Upper Egypt, who were mostly
ignorant and unlettered men, were anthropomorphites,
or believers that God was in outward shape like a man.
They quoted from the Jewish Scriptures that he made
man in his own image, in support of their opinion. They
held that he was of a strictly human form, like Jesus,
which to them seemed fully asserted in the Mcene creed.
In this opinion they were opposed by those who were
better educated, and it suited the policy of Theophilus
to side with the more ignorant and larger party. He
branded with the name of Origenists those who argued
that God was without form, and who quoted the writings
of Origen in support of their opinion. This naturally
led to a dispute about Origen's orthodoxy; and that
admirable writer, who had been praised by all parties
for two hundred years, and who had been quoted as
authority as much by Athanasius as by the Arians, was
declared to be a heretic by a council of bishops. The
writings of Origen were accordingly forbidden to be
read, because they contradicted the anthropomorphite
opinions.

The quarrel between the Origenists and the anthro-
pomorphites did not end in words. A proposition in
theology, or a doubt in metaphysics, was no better cause

264 THE CHEISTIAIT PEEIOD UsT EGYPT

of civil war than the old quarrels about the buU Apis
or the crocodile ; but a change of religion had not changed
the national character. The patriarch, finding his part/
the stronger, attacked the enemy in their own monas-
teries; he marched to Mount Nitria at the head of a
strong body of soldiers, and, enrolling under his banners
the anthropomorphite monks, attacked Dioscorus and the
Origenists, set fire to their monasteries, and laid waste
the place.

Theophilus next quarrelled with Peter, the chief of the
Alexandrian presbyters, whom he accused of admitting
to the sacraments of the church a woman who had not
renoimced the Manichean heresy; and he then quarrelled
with Isidorus, who had the charge of the poor of the
church, because he bore witness that Peter had the
orders of Theophilus himself for what he did.

In this century there was a general digging up of
the bodies of the most celebrated Christians of former
ages, to heal the diseases and strengthen the faith of the
living; and Constantinople, which as the capital of the
empire had been ornamented by the spoils of its subject
provinces, had latterly been enriching its churches with
the remains of numerous Christian saints. The tombs
of Egypt, crowded with mummies that had lain there
for centuries, could of course furnish relics more easily
than most countries, and in this reign Constantinople
received from Alexandria a quantity of bones which were
supposed to be those of the martyrs slain in the pagan
persecutions. The archbishop John Chrysostom received
them gratefully, and, though himself smarting under the

DEGENERATION OF ALEXANDRIA 255

reproach that he was not orthodox enough, for the super-
stitious Egyptians, he thanks G-od that Egypt, which
sent forth its grain to feed its hungry neighbours, could
also send the bodies of so many martyrs to sanctify their
churches.

We have traced the faU of the G-reek party in Alex-
andria, in the victories over the Arians during the relig-
ious quarrels of the last hundred years; and in the
laws we now read the city's loss of wealth and power.
The corporation of Alexandria was no longer able to bear
the expense of cleansing the river and keeping open the
canals; and four hundred so Z^'^Zi— about twelve hundred
dollars— were each year set apart from the custom-house
duties of the city for that useful work.

The arrival of new settlers in Alexandria had been
very much checked by the less prosperous state of the
coimtry since the reign of Diocletian. We still find,
however, that many of the men of note were not born
in Egypt. Paulus, the physician, was a native of ^gina.
He has left a work on diseases and their remedies. The
chief man of learning was Synesius, a platonic philoso-
pher whom the patriarch Theophilus persuaded to join
the Christians. As a platonist he naturally leaned
towards many of the doctrines of the popular religion,
but he could not believe in a resurrection; and it was
not tUl after Theophilus had ordained him Bishop of
Ptolemais near Cyrene that he acknowledged the truth
of that doctrine. ]!^or would he then put away or dis-
own his wife, as the custom of the Church required; in-
deed, he accepted the bishopric very unwUhngly. He was

256 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

as fond of playful sport as he was of books, and very
much disliked business. He has left a volume of writ-
ings, which has saved the names of two prefects of
Cyrene; the one Anysius, under whose good discipline
even the barbarians of Hungary behaved like Eoman
legionaries, and the other Pseonius, who cultivated
science in this barren spot. To encourage Pseonius in
his praiseworthy studies he made him a present of an
astrolabe, to measure the distances of the stars and
planets, an instrument which was constructed under
the guidance of Hypatia.

Trade and industry were checked by the unsettled
state of the country, and misery and famine were spread-
ing over the land. The African tribes of Mazices and
Auxoriani, leaving the desert in hope of plunder, overran
the province of Libya, and laid waste a large part of the
Delta. The barbarians and the sands of the desert were
alike encroaching on the cultivated fields. Nature
seemed changed. The valley of the Nile was growing
narrower. Even within the valley the retreating waters
left behind them harvests less rich, and fever more putrid.
The quarries were no longer worth working for their
building stone. The mines yielded no more gold.

On the death of Arcadius, his son Theodosius was
only eight years old, but he was quietly acknowledged as
Emperor of the East in 408, and he left the government
of Egypt, as heretofore, very much in the hands of the
patriarch. In the fifth year of his reign Theophilus died;
and, as might be supposed, a successor was not appointed
without a struggle for the double honour of Bishop of

THE CONSECEATION OF CYEIL

267

Alexandria and Governor of Egypt. The remains of the
Greek and Arian party proposed Timotheus, an arch-
deacon in the church; but the Egyptian party were
united in favour of Cyril, a young man of learning and
talent, who had the advantage of being the nephew of
the late bishop. Whatever were the forms by which the

QUARRIES AT TOORAH ON THE NIX-E.

election should have been governed, it was in reality
settled by a battle between the two parties in the streets;
and though Abundantius, the military prefect, gave the
weight of his name, if not the strength of his cohort, to
the party of Timotheus, yet his rival conquered, and
Cyril was carried into the cathedral with a pomp more
like a pagan triumph than the modest ordination of a
bishop.

258 THE CHKISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Cyril was not less tyrannical in his bishopric than
his uncle had been before him. His first care was to put a
stop to all heresy in Alexandria, and his second to banish
the Jews. The theatre was the spot in which the riots
between Jews and Christians usually began, and the
Sabbath was the time, as being the day on which the
Jews chiefly crowded in to see the dancing. On one
occasion the quarrel in the theatre ran so high that the
prefect with his cohort was scarcely able to keep them
from blows; and the Christians reproached the Jews
with plotting to burn down the churches. But the Chris-
tians were themselves guilty of the very crimes of which
they accused their enemies. The next morning, as soon
as it was light, Cyril headed the mob in their attacks
upon the Jewish synagogues; they broke them open and
plundered them, and in one day drove every Jew out
of the city. N"o Jew had been allowed to live in Alex-
andria or any other city without paying a poll-tax, for
leave to worship his Grod according to the manner of his
forefathers; but religious zeal is stronger than the love
of money; the Jews were driven out, and the tax lost
to the city.

Orestes, the prefect of Alexandria, had before wished
to check the power of the bishop; and he in vain tried
to save the Jews from oppression, and the state from
the loss of so many good citizens. But it was useless
to quarrel with the patriarch, who was supported by the
religious zeal of the whole population. The monks of
Mount Mtria and of the neighbourhood burned with a
holy zeal to fight for Cyril, as they had before fought

Street and Mosque of Mahdjiar

.ii'^'Uiy^

Street and Mosque of Mahdjiar

CIVIL ABB ECCLESIASTICAL STRIFE 259

for TheopMlus; and when they heard that a jealotisy
had sprung up between the civil and ecclesiastical au-
thorities, more than five hundred of them marched into
Alexandria to avenge the affronted bishop. They met
the prefect Orestes as he was passing through the streets
in his open chariot, and began reproaching him with
being a pagan and a Grreek. Orestes answered that he
was a Christian, and he had been baptised at Constanti-
nople. But this only cleared him of the lesser charge,
he was certainly a Greek; and one of these Egyptian
monks taking up a stone threw it at his head, and the
blow covered his face with blood. They then fled from
the guards and people who came up to help the wounded
prefect; but Anamonius, who threw the stone, was taken
and put to death with torture. The grateful bishop
buried him in the church with much pomp; he declared
him to be a martyr and a saint, and gave him the name
of St. Thaumasius. But the Christians were ashamed
of the new martyr: and the bishop, who could not with-
stand the ridicule, soon afterwards withdrew from him
the title.

Bad as was this behaviour of the bishop and his
friends, the most disgraceful tale still remains to be told.
The beautiful and learned Hypatia, the daughter of
Theon the mathematician, was at that time the ornament
of Alexandria and the pride of the pagans. She taught
philosophy publicly in the platonic school which had
been founded by Ammonius, and which boasted of Plo-
tinus as its pupil. She was as modest as she was graceful,
eloquent, and learned; and though, being a pagan, she

260 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

belonged to neither of the rival Christian parties, yet,
as she had more hearers among the Greek friends of
the prefect than among the ignorant followers of the
bishop, she became an object of jealousy with the Ho-
moousian party. A body of these Christians, says the
orthodox historian, attacked this admirable woman in the
street; they dragged her from her chariot, and hurried
her off into the church named Caesar's temple, and there
stripped her and murdered her with some broken tiles.
She had written commentaries on the mathematical
works of Diophantus, and on the conic sections of Apollo-
nius. The story of her life has been related in the nine-
teenth century by Charles Kingsley in the novel which
bears her name.

Arianism took refuge from the Egyptians within the
camps of the Greek soldiers. One church was dedicated
to the honour of St. George, the late bishop, within the
lofty towers of the citadel of Babylon, which was the
strongest fortress in Egypt; and a second in the city
of Ptolemais, where a garrison was stationed to collect
the toll of the Thebaid. St. George became a favourite
saint with the Greeks in Egypt, and in those spots where
the Greek soldiers were masters of the churches this
Arian and unpopular bishop was often painted on the
walls riding triumphantly on horseback and slaying the
dragon of Athanasian error. On the other hand, in
Alexandria, where his rival's politics and opinions held
the upper hand, the monastery of St. Athanasius was
built in the most public spot in the city, probably that
formerly held by the Soma or royal burial-place; and

CHKYSOSTOM AND PALLADIUS 261

in Thebes a cathedral churcli was dedicated to St. Atha-
nasius within the great courtyard of Medinet-Abu, where
the small and paltry Greek columns are in strange con-
trast to the grand architecture of Ramses m. which
surrounds them.

In former reigns the Alexandrians had been in the
habit of sending embassies to Constantinople to complain
of tyranny or misgovemment, and to beg for a redress
of grievances, when they thought that justice could be
there obtained when it was refused in Alexandria. But
this practice was stopped by Theodosius, who made a
law that the Alexandrians should never send an embassy
to Constantinople, unless it were agreed to by a decree
of the town council, and had the approbation of the
prefect. The weak and idle emperor would allow no
appeal from the tyranny of his own governor.

We may pass over the banishment of John Chrys-
ostom, Bishop of Constantinople, as having less to do
with the history of Egypt, though, as in the cases of
Arius and Nestorius, the chief mover of the attack upon
him was a bishop of Alexandria, who accused him of
heresy, because he did not come up to the Egyptian
standard of orthodoxy. But among the bishops who
were deposed with Chrysostom was Palladius of Galatia,
who was sent a prisoner to Syene. As soon as he was
released from his bonds, instead of being cast down by
his misfortunes, he proposed to take advantage of the
place of his banishment, and he set forward on his travels
through Ethiopia for India, in search of the wisdom of
the Brahmins. He arrived in safety at Adule, the port

262 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

on the Red Sea in latitude 15°, now known as Zula, where
he made acquaintance with Moses, the bishop of that city,
and persuaded him to join him in his distant and difficult
voyage.

From Adule the two set sail in one of the vessels
employed in the Indian trade; but they were unable to
accomplish their purpose, and Palladius returned to
Egypt worn out with heat and fatigue, having scarcely
touched the shores of India. On his return through
Thebes he met with a traveller who had lately returned
from the same journey, and who consoled him under
his disappointment by recounting his own failure in the
same undertaking. His new friend had himself been a
merchant in the Indian trade, but had given up business
because he was not successful in it; and, having taken
a priest as his companion, had set out on the same voyage
in search of Eastern wisdom. They had sailed to Adule
on the Abyssinian shore, and then travelled to Auxum,
the capital of that country. From that coast they set
sail for the Indian ocean, and reached a coast which they
thought was Taprobane or Ceylon. But there they were
taken prisoners, and, after spending six years in slavery,
and learning but little of the philosophy that they were
in search of, were glad to take the first opportunity of
escaping and returning to Egypt. Palladius had travelled
in Egypt before he was sent there into banishment, and
he had spent many years in examining the monasteries
of the Thebaid and their rules, and he has left a history of
the lives of many of those holy men and woman, addressed
to his friend Lausus.

THE EGYPTIAN MONKS 263

When Nestorius was deposed from the bishopric of
Constantinople for refusing to use the words " Mother of
God " as the title of Jesus' mother, and for falling short
in other points of what was then thought orthodoxy, he
was banished to Hibe in the Great Oasis. While he was
living there, the Great Oasis was overnm by the Blem-
myes, the Roman garrison was defeated, and those that
resisted were put to the sword. The Blemmyes pillaged
the place and then withdrew; and, being themselves at
war with the Maziees, another tribe of Arabs, they kindly
sent their prisoners to the Thebaid, lest they should faU
into the hands of the latter. Nestorius then went to
Panopolis to show himself to the governor, lest he should
be accused of running away from his place of banishment,
and soon afterwards he died of the sufferings brought on
by these forced and painful journeys through the desert.

About the same time Egypt was visited by Cassianus,
a monk of Gaul, in order to study the monastic institu-
tions of the Thebaid. In his work on that subject he
has described at length the way of life and the severe
rules of the Egyptian monks, and has recommended them
to the imitation of his countrymen. But the natives of
Italy and the West do not seem to have been contented
with copying the Theban monks at a distance. Such was
the fame of the Egyptian monasteries that many zealots
from Italy flocked there, to place themselves under the
severe discipKne of those holy men. As these Latin
monks did not understand either Koptic or Greek, they
found some difficulty in regulating their lives with the
wished-for exactness; and the rules of Pachomius, of

264

THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

Theodorus, and of Oresiesis, the most celebrated of the
founders, were actually sent to Jerome at Rome, to be
by him translated into Latin for the use of these settlers
in the Thebaid. These Latin monks made St. Peter a
popular saint in some parts of Egypt; and in the temple
of Asseboua, in Nubia, when the Christians plastered
over the figure of one of the old gods, they painted in
its place the Apostle Peter holding the key in his hand.

They did not alter the rest
UU ^-4^ of the sculpture; so that
Ramses II. is there now seen
presenting his offering to
the Christian saint. The
mixed group gives us proof
of the nation's decline in art
rather than of its improve-
ment in religion.

Among the monks of
Egypt there were also some
men of learning and industry, who in their ceUs in the
desert had made at least three translations of the New
Testament into the three dialects of the Koptic language;
namely, the Sahidic of Upper Egypt, the Bashmuric of
the Bashmour province of the eastern half of the Delta,
and the Koptic proper of Memphis and the western half
of the Delta. To these were afterwards added the Acts
of the council of Nicsea, the lives of the saints and mar-
tyrs, the writings of many of the Christian fathers, the
rituals of the Koptic church, and various treatises on
religion.

EAMSE8 II. AND ST. PETER.

COPIES OF THE BIBLE 265

Other monks were as busy in making copies of the
Greek manuscripts of the Old and New Testament; and,
as each copy must have needed the painful labour of
months, and often years, their industry and zeal must
have been great. Most of these manuscripts were on
papyrus, or on a manufactured papyrus which might be
called paper, and have long since been lost ; but the three
most ancient copies on parchment which are the pride
of the Vatican, the Paris library, and the British Museum,
are the work of the Alexandrian penmen.

Copies of the Bible were also made in Alexandria for
sale in western Europe; and all our oldest manuscripts
show their origin by the Egyptian form of spelling in
some of the words. The Beza manuscript at Cambridge,
and the Clermont manuscript at Paris, which have Greek
on one side of the page and Latin on the other, were writ-
ten in Alexandria. The Latin is that more ancient version
which was in use before the time of Jerome, and which he
corrected, to form what is now called the Latin Vulgate.
This old version was made by changing each Greek word
into its corresponding Latin word, with very little re-
gard to the different characters of the two languages. It
was no doubt made by an Alexandrian Greek, who had
a Very sKght knowledge of Latin.

Already the papyrus on which books were written
was, for the most part, a manufactured article and might
claim the name of paper. In the time of Pliny in the
first century the sheets had been made in the old way;
the slips of the plant laid one across the other had been
held together by their own sticky sap without the help

266 THE CHEISTIAJsr PERIOD IN EGYPT

of glue. In the reign of Aurelian, in the third century,
if not earlier, glue had been largely used in the manu-
facture; and it is probable that at this time, in the fifth
century, the manufactured article almost deserved the
name of paper. But this manufactured papyrus was
much weaker and less lasting than that made after the
old and more simple fashion. No books written upon it
remain to us. At a later period, the stronger fibre of
flax was used in the manufacture, but the date of this
improvement is also unknown, because at first the paper
so made, like that made from the papyrus fibre, was
also too weak to last. It was doubtless an Alexandrian
improvement. Flax was an Egyptian plant; paper-mak-
ing was an Egyptian trade; and Theophilus, a Roman
writer on manufactures, when speaking of paper made
from fiax, clearly points to its Alexandrian origin, by
giving it the name of Greek parchment. Between the
papyrus of the third century, and the strong paper of the
eleventh century, no books remain to us but those written
on parchment.

The monks of Mount Sinai suffered much during these
reigns of weakness from the marauding attacks of the
Arabs. These men had no strong monastery; but hun-
dreds of them lived apart in single cells in the side of the
mountains round the valley of Feiran, at the foot of
Mount Serbal, and they had nothing to protect them
but their poverty. They were not protected by Egypt,
and they made treaties with the neighbouring Arabs,
like an independent republic, of which the town of Feiran
was the capital. The Arabs, from the Jordan to the Eed

SACKED INSCEIPTIONS

267

Sea, made robbery the employ-
ment of their lives, and they
added much to the voluntary
sufferings of the monks. Nilus,
a monk who had left his family
in Egypt, to spend his life in
prayer and study on the spot
where Moses was appointed the
legislator of Israel, describes
these attacks upon his brethren,
and he boasts over the Israelites
that, notwithstanding their suf-
ferings, the monks spent their
whole lives cheerfully in those
very deserts which Grod's chosen
people could not even pass
through without murmuring.
Nilus has left some letters and
exhortations. It was then, prob-
ably, that the numerous inscrip-
tions were made on the rocks at
the foot of Mount Serbal, and on
the path towards its sacred peak,
which have given to one spot the
name of Mokatteb, or the val-
ley of writing. A few of these
inscriptions are in the Greek
language.

The Egyptian physicians had
of old always formed a part of

THE PAPYRUS PLANT.

268 THE CHEISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

the priesthood, and they seem to have done much the
same after the spread of Christianity. We find some
monks named Parabalani, who owned the Bishop of Alex-
andria as their head, and who united the offices of physi-
cian and nurse in waiting on the sick and dying. As they
professed poverty they were maintained by the state and
had other privileges; and hence it was a place much
sought after, and even by the wealthy. But to lessen this
abuse it was ordered by an imperial rescript that none
but poor people who had been rate-payers should be
Parabalani; and their number was limited, first to five
hundred, but afterwards, at the request of the bishop, to
six hundred. A second charitable institution in Alex-
andria had the care of strangers and the poor, and was
also managed by one of the priests.

Alexandria was fast sinking in wealth and popula-
tion, and several new laws were now made to lessen its
difficulties. One was to add a hundred and ten bushels
of grain to the daily alimony of the city, the supply on
which the riotous citizens were fed in idleness. By a sec-
ond and a third law the five chief men in the corporation,
and eveiy man that had filled a ciAdc office for thirty
years, were freed from all bodily pimishment, and only
to be fined when convicted of a crime. Theodosius built
a large church in Alexandria, which was called after his
name; and the provincial judges were told in a letter
to the prefect that, if they wished to earn the emperor's
praise, they must not only restore those btdldings which
were falling through age and neglect but must also build
new ones.

THE PEEIPATETICS 269

Though the pagan philosophy had been much dis-
couraged at Alexandria by the destruction of the temples
and the cessation of the sacrifices, yet the philosophers
were stUl allowed to teach in the schools. Syrianus was
at the head of the Platonists, and he wrote largely on
the Orphic, Pythagorean, and Platonic doctrines. In his
Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics he aims at show-
ing how a Pythagorean or a Platonist would successfully
answer Aristotle's objections. He seems to look upon
the writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, and lambKchus as
the true fountains of Platonic wisdom, quite as much as
the works of the great philosopher who gave his name
to the sect. Syrianus afterwards removed to Athens,
to take charge of the Platonic school in that city, and
Athens became the chief seat of Alexandrian Platonism.

Olympiodorus was at the same time imdertaking the
task of formiag a Peripatetic school in Alexandria, in
opposition to the new Platonism, and he has left some
of the fruits of his labour in his Commentaries on Aris-
totle. But the Peripatetic philosophy was no longer
attractive to the pagans, though after the fall of the cate-
chetical school it had a strong following of Christian
disciples. Olympiodorus also wrote a history, but it
has long since been lost, with other works of a second-
rate merit. He was a native of the Thebaid, and travelled
over his country. He described the Grreat Oasis as still
a highly cultivated spot, where the husbandman watered
his fields every third day in summer, and every fifth day
in winter, from weUs of two and three hundred feet in
depth, and thereby raised two crops of barley, and often

270 THE CHRISTIA2T PEEIOD IN EGYPT

three of millet, in a year. Olympiodorus also travelled
beyond Syene into Nubia, with some danger from the
Blemmyes, but he was not able to see the emerald mines,
which were worked on Mount Smaragdus in the Arabian
desert between Koptos and Berenice, and which seem
to have been the chief object of his journey.

Proclus came to Alexandria about the end of this
reign, and studied many years under Olympiodorus, but
not to the neglect of the platonic philosophy, of which
he afterwards became such a distinguished ornament and
support. The other Alexandrians under whom Proclus
studied were Hero, the mathematician, a devout and
religious pagan, Leonas, the rhetorician, who introduced
him to all the chief men of learning, and Orion, the gram-
marian, who boasted of his descent from the race of
Theban priests. Thus the pagans still held up their heads
in the schools. Nor were the ceremonies of their relig-
ion, though unlawful, wholly stopped. In the twenty-
eighth year of this reign, when the people were assembled
in a theatre at Alexandria to celebrate the midnight
festival of the Nile, a sacrifice which had been forbidden
by Constantine and the council of Nicsea, the building
fell beneath the weight of the crowd, and upwards of five
hundred persons were killed by the fall.

It will be of some interest to review here the ma-
chinery of officers and deputies, civil as weU as military,
by which Egypt was governed under the successors of
Constantine. The whole of the Eastern empire was placed
under two prefects, the pretorian prefect of the East
and the pretorian prefect of Illyricum, who, living at

CIVIL AITD MILITARY GOVERNMENT 273

Constantinople, like modem secretaries of state, made
edicts for the government of tlie provinces and heard
the appeals. Under the prefect of the East were fif-
teen consular provinces, together with Egypt, which
was not any longer under one prefect. There was no
consular governor in Egypt between the prefect at Con-
stantinople and the six prefects of the smaller provinces.
These provinces were Upper Libya or Cyrene, Lower
Libya or the Oasis, the Thebaid, ^gyptiaca or the west-
ern part of the Delta, Augustanica or the eastern part
of the Delta, and the Heptanomis, now named Arcadia,
after the late emperor. Each of these was under an
Augustal prefect, attended by a Princeps, a Cornicula-
rius, an Adjutor, and others, and was assisted in civil
matters by a Commentariensis, a corresponding secre-
tary, a secretary ah actis, with a crowd of numerarii or
clerks.

The military government was imder a count with two
dukes, with a number of legions, cohorts, troops, and
wedges of cavalry, stationed in about fifty cities, which,
if they had looked as well in the field as they do upon
paper, would have made Theodosius II. as powerful as
Augustus. But the number of Greek and Roman troops
was small. The rest were barbarians who held their own
lives at smaU price, and the lives of the unhappy Egyp-
tians at still less. The Greeks were only a part of
the fifth Macedonian legion, and Trajan's second legion,
which were stationed at Memphis, at Parembole, and
at Apollinopolis; while from the names of the other
cohorts we learn that they were Franks, Portuguese,

274 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Germans, Quadri, Spaniards, Britons, Moors, Vandals,
Gauls, Sarmati, Assyrians, Galatians, Africans, Numid-
ians, and others of less known and more remote places.
Egypt itself f urnislied the Egyptian legion, part of which
was in Mesopotamia, Diocletian's third legion of The-
bans, the first Maximinian legion of Thebans which was
stationed in Thrace, Constantine's second Flavian legion
of Thebans, Valens' second Felix legion of Thebans, and
the Julian Alexandrian legion, stationed in Thrace. Be-
side these, there were several bodies of native militia,
from Abydos, Syene, and other cities, which were not
formed into legions. The Egyptian cavalry were a first
and second Egyptian troop, several bodies of native arch-
ers mounted, three troops on dromedaries, and a body of
Diocletian's third legion promoted to the cavalry. These
Egyptian troops were chiefly Arab settlers in the The-
baid, for the Kopts had long since lost the use of arms.
The Kopts were weak enough to be trampled on; but
the Arabs were worth bribing by admission into the
legions. The taxes of the province were collected by a
number of counts of the sacred largesses, who were under
the orders of an officer of the same title at Constantinople,
and were helped by a body of counts of the exports and
imports, prefects of the treasury and of the mints, with
an army of clerks of all titles and all ranks. From this
government the Alexandrians were exempt, living under
their own military prefect and corporation, and, instead
of paying any taxes beyond the custom-house duties at
the port, they received a bounty in grain out of the taxes
of Egypt.'

POLITICAL DIVISIONS 276

Soon after this we find tlie political division of Egypt
slightly altered. It is then divided into eight govern-
ments; the Upper Thebaid with eleven cities under a
duke; the Lower Thebaid with ten cities, including the
Great Oasis and part of the Heptanomis, under a general;
Upper Libya or Cyrene under a general; Lower Libya
or Parsetonium under a general; Arcadia, or the remain-
der of the Heptanomis, under a general; ^gyptiaca, or
the western half of the Delta, under an AugustaUan pre-
fect; the first Augustan government, or the rest of the
Delta, under a Corrector; and the second Augustan gov-
ernment, from Bubastis to the Red Sea, under a general.
We also meet with several military stations named after
the late emperors: a Maximianopolis and a Dioclesian-
opolis in the Upper Thebaid; a Theodosianopolis in the
Lower Thebaid, and a second Theodosianopolis in Ar-
cadia. But it is not easy to determine what villages were
meant by these high-sounding names, which were per-
haps only used in official documents.

The empire of the East was gradually sinking in
power during this long and quiet reign of Theodosius II. ;
but the empire of the West was being hurried to its fall
by the revolt of the barbarians in every one of its wide-
spread provinces. Henceforth in the weakness of the
two countries Egypt and Rome are wholly separated.
After having influenced one another in politics, in litera-
ture, and in religion for seven centuries, they were now
as little known to one another as they were before the
day when Fabius arrived at Alexandria on an embassy
from the senate to Ptolemy Philadelphus.

276 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Theological and political quarrels, \mder the name
of the Homoousian and Arian controversy, had nearly-
separated Egypt from the rest of the empire during the
reigns of Constantius and Valens, but they had been
healed by the wisdom of the first Theodosius, who gov-
erned Egypt by means of a popular bishop; and the
policy which he so wisely began was continued by his
successors through weakness. But in the reign of Mar-
cian (450—457) the old quarrel again broke out, and,
though it was imder a new name, it again took the form
of a religious controversy. Cyril, the Bishop of Alex-
andria, died in the last reign; and as he had succeeded
his imcle, so on his death the bishopric fell to Dioscorus,
a relation of his own, a man of equal religious violence
and of less learning, who differed from him only in the
points of doctrine about which he should quarrel with
his fellow-Christians. About the same time Eutyches,
a priest of Constantinople, had been condemned by his
superiors and expeUed from the Church for denying the
two natures of Christ, and for maintaining that he was
truly God, and in no respect a man. This was the opinion
of the Egyptian church, and therefore Dioscorus, the
Bishop of Alexandria, who had no right whatever to med-
dle in the quarrels at Constantinople, yet, acting on the
forgotten rule that each bishop's power extended over
all Christendom, undertook of his own authority to ab-
solve Eutyches from his excommunication, and in return
to excommunicate the Bishop of Constantinople who had
condemned him. To settle this quarrel, a general council
was summoned at Chalcedon; and there six hundred and

EGYPT EXCOMMUNICATED 277

thirty-two bishops met and condenmed the faith of Euty-
ches, and further explained the Nicene creed, to which
Eutyches and the Egyptians always appealed. They ex-
communicated Eutyches and his patron Dioscorus, who
were banished by the emperor; and they elected Prote-
rius to the then vacant bishopric of Alexandria.

In thus condemning the faith of Eutyches, the Greeks
were excommunicating the whole of Egypt. The Egyp-
tian belief in the one nature of Christ, which soon after-
wards took the name of the Jacobite faith from one of
its popular supporters, might perhaps be distinguished
by the microscopic eye of the controversialist from the
faith of Eutyches; but they equally fell under the con-
demnation of the council of Chalcedon. Egypt was no
longer divided in its religious opinions. There had been
a party who, though Egyptian in blood, held the Arian
and haK- Arian opinions of the Greeks, but that party
had ceased to exist. Their religion had puUed one way
and their political feelings another; the latter were found
the stronger, as being more closely rooted to the soil;
and their religious opinions had by this time fitted them-
selves to the geographical boundaries of the country.
Hence the decrees of the council of Chalcedon were re-
jected by the whole of Egypt; and the quarrel between
the Chalcedonian and Jacobite party, like the former
quarrel between the Athanasians and the Arians, was
little more than another name for the unwillingness of
the Egyptians to be governed by Constantinople.

Proterius, the new bishop, entered Alexandria sup-
ported by the prefect Elorus at the head of the troops..

278 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

But this was the signal for a revolt of the Egyptians,
who overpowered the cohort with darts and stones; and
the magistrates were driven to save their lives in the
celebrated temple of Serapis. But they found no safety
there; the mob surrounded the building and set fire to
it, and burned alive the Greek magistrates and friends
of the new bishop; and the city remained in the power
of the rebellious Egyptians. When the news of this ris-
ing reached Constantinople the emperor sent to Egypt
a further force of two thousand men, who stormed Alex-
andria and sacked it like a conquered city, and estab-
lished Proterius in the bishopric. As a punishment upon
the city for its rebellion, the prefect stopped for some
time the public games and the allowance of grain to the
citizens, and only restored them after the return to peace
and good order.

In the weak state of the empire, the Blemmyes, and
Nubades, or IsTobatse, had latterly been renewing their
inroads upon Upper Egypt; they had overpowered the
Romans, as the Greek and barbarian troops of Constan-
tinople were always called, and had carried off a large
booty and a number of prisoners. Maximinus, the impe-
rial general, then led his forces against them; he defeated
them, and made them beg for peace. The barbarians
then proposed, as the terms of their surrender, never to
enter Egypt while Maximinus commanded the troops in
the Thebaid; but the conqueror was not contented with
such an unsatisfactory submission, and would make no
treaty with them till they had released the Roman pris-
oners without ransom, paid for the booty that they had

TREATY WITH THE NUBIANS 279

taken, and given a number of the nobles as hostages.
On this Maximinus agreed to a truce of a hundred
years.

The people now called the Nubians, living on both
sides of the cataract of Syene, declared themselves of
the true Egyptian race by their religious practices. They
had an old custom of going each year to the temple of
Isis on the isle of Elephantine, and of carrying away
one of the statues with them and re-
turning it to the temple when they had
consulted it. But as they were now being
driven out of the province, they bargained
with Maximinus for permission to visit
the temple each year without hindrance
from the Roman guards. The treaty was
written on papyrus and nailed up in this
temple. But friendship in the desert, says the proverb,
is as weak and wavering as the shade of the acacia tree ;
this truce was no sooner agreed upon than Maximinus
fell ill and died; and the Nubades at once broke the
treaty, regained by force their hostages, who had not yet
been carried out of the Thebaid, and overran the province
as they had done before their defeat.

By this success of the Nubians, Christianity was
largely driven out of Upper Egypt; and about seventy
years after the law of Thedosius I., by which paganism
was supposed to be crushed, the religion of Isis and
Serapis was again openly professed in the Thebaid, where
it had perhaps always been cultivated in secret. A cer-
tain master of the robes in one of the Egyptian temples

ISIS AS
THE DOG STAR.

280 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

came at tMs time to the temple of Isis in the island of
Philse, and his votive inscription there declares that he
was the son of Pachomius, a prophet, and successor by
direct descent from a yet more famous P'achomius, a
prophet, who we may easily believe was the Christian
prophet who gathered together so many followers in the
island of Tabenna, near Thebes, and there founded an
order of Christian monks. These Christians now all
returned to their paganism. Nearly all the remains of
Christian architecture which we meet with in the The-
baid were built during the hundred and sixty years be-
tween the defeat of the Nubians by Diocletian, and their
victories in the reign of Marcian.

The Nubians were far more civilised than their neigh-
bours, the Blemmyes, whom they were usually able to
drive back into their native deserts. We find an inscrip-
tion in bad Greek, in the great temple at Talmis, now
the village of Kalabshe, which was probably written
about this time. A conqueror of the name of Silco there
declares that he is king of the Nubians and all the Ethi-
opians; that in the upper part of his kingdom he is called
Mars, and in the lower part Lion; that he is as great as
any king of his day; that he has defeated the Blemmyes
in battle again and again; and that he has made him-
self master of the coimtry between Talmis and Primis.
While such were the neighbours and inhabitants of the
Thebaid, the fields were only half-tilled, and the desert
was encroaching on the paths of man. The sand was
filling up the temples, covering the overthrown statues,
and blocking up the doors to the tombs; but it was at

JACOBITE REBELLION 281

the same time saving, to be dug out in after ages, those
records which the living no longer valued.

On the death of the Emperor Marcian, the Alexan-
drians, taking advantage of the absence of the military
prefect Dionysius, who was then fighting against the
Nubades in Upper Egypt, renewed their attack upon the
Bishop Proterius, and deposed him from his office. To
fill his place they made choice of a monk named Timo-
theus ^lurus, who held the Jacobite faith, and, having
among them two deposed bishops, they got them to or-
dain him Bishop of Alexandria, and then led him by force
of arms into the great church which had formerly been
called Caesar's temple. Upon hearing of the rebellion,
the prefect returned in haste to Alexandria; but his ap-
proach was only the signal for greater violence, and the
enraged people murdered Proterius in the baptistery,
and hung up his body at the Tetrapylon in mockery.
This was not a rebellion of the mob. Timotheus was
supported by the men of chief rank in the city; the
Honorati who had borne state offices, the PoUtici who
had borne civic offices, and the Navicularii, or contractors
for the freight of the Egyptian tribute, were all opposed
to the emperor's claim to appoint the officer whose duties
were much more those of prefect of the city than patri-
arch of Egypt. With such an opposition as this, the
emperor would do nothing without the greatest caution,
for he was in danger of losing Egypt altogether. But
so much were the minds of all men then engrossed in
ecclesiastical matters that this political struggle wholly
took the form of a dispute in controversial divinity, and

282 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

the emperor wrote a letter to the chief bishops in Chris-
tendom to ask their advice in his difficulty. These theo-
logians were too busily engaged in their controversies
to take any notice of the danger of Egypt's revolting
from the empire and joining the Persians; so they
strongly advised Leo not to depart from the decrees of
the council of Chalcedon, or to acknowledge as Bishop
of Alexandria a man who denied the two natures of
Christ. Accordingly, the emperor again risked breaking
the slender ties by which he held Egypt; he banished
the popular bishop, and forced the Alexandrians to re-
ceive in his place one who held the Chalcedonian faith.

On the death of Leo, he was succeeded by his grand-
son, Leo the Younger, who died in 473, after a reign of
one year, and was succeeded by his father Zeno, the son-
in-law of the elder Leo. Zeno gave himself up at once
to debauchery and vice, while the empire was harassed
on all sides by the barbarians, and the provinces were
roused into rebellion by the cruelty of the prefects. The
rebels at last found a head in Basilicus, the brother-in-
law of Leo. He declared himself of the Jacobite faith,
which was the faith of the barbarian enemies, of the
barbarian troops, and of the barbarian allies of the em-
pire, and, proclaiming himself emperor, made himself
master of Constantinople without a battle, and drove
Zeno into banishment in the third year of his reign.

The first step of Basilicus was to recall from banish-
ment Timotheus ^lurus, the late Bishop of Alexandria,
and to restore him to the bishopric (a. d. 477) . He then
addressed to him and the other recalled bishops a cir-

CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES 283

cular letter, in which he repeals the decrees of the council
of Chalcedon, and re-establishes the Nicene creed, declar-
ing that Jesus was of one substance with the Father, and
that Mary was the mother of God. The march of Timo-
theus to the seat of his own government, from Constan-
tinople whither he had been summoned, was more like
that of a copqueror than of a preacher of peace. He
deposed some bishops and restored others, and, as the
decrees of the council of Chalcedon were the particular
objects of his hatred, he restored to the city of Ephesus
the patriarchal power which that synod had taken away
from it. Basilicus reigned for about two years, when
he was defeated and put to death by Zeno, who regained
the throne.

As soon as Zeno was again master of the empire, he
re-established the creed of the council of Chalcedon, and
drove away the Jacobite bishops from their bishoprics.
Death, however, removed Timotheus ^lurus before the
emperor's orders were put in force in Alexandria, and
the Egyptians then chose Peter Mongus as his successor,
in direct opposition to the orders from Constantinople.
But the emperor was resolved not to be beaten; the bish-
opric of Alexandria was so much a civil office that to
have given up the appointment to the Egyptians would
have been to allow the people to govern themselves; so
he banished Peter, and recalled to the head of the Church
Timotheus Salophaciolus, who had been living at Cano-
pus ever since his loss of the bishopric.

But, as the patriarch of Alexandria enjoyed the eccle-
siastical revenues, and was still in appearance a teacher

284 THE CHRISTIAI^ PERIOD IN EGYPT

of religion, the Alexandrians, in recollection of the former
rights of the Church, still claimed the appointment.
They sent John, a priest of their own faith and dean of
the church of John the Baptist, as their ambassador
to Constantinople, not to remonstrate against the late
acts of the emperor, but to beg that on future occasions
the Alexandrians might be allowed the old privilege of
choosing their own bishop. The Emperor Zeno seems
to have seen through the ambassador's earnestness, and
he first bound him by an oath not to accept the bishopric
if he should even be himself chosen to it, and he then
sent him back with the promise that the Alexandrians
should be allowed to choose their own patriarch on the
next vacancy. But imfortunately John's ambition was
too strong for his oath, and on the death of Timotheus,
which happened soon afterwards, he spent a large sum
of money in bribes among the clergy and chief men of
the city, and thereby got himself chosen patriarch. On
this, the emperor seems to have thought only of punish-
ing John, and he at once gave up the struggle with the
Egyptians. Believing that, of the two patriarchs who
had been chosen by the people, Peter Mongus, who was
living in banishment, would be found more dutiful than
John, who was on the episcopal throne, he banished John
and recalled Peter; and the latter agreed to the terms
of an imperial edict which Zeno then put forth, to heal
the disputes in the Egyptian church, and to recall the
province to obedience. This celebrated peace-making
edict, usually called the Henoticon, is addressed to the
clergy and laity of Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and the

THE HENOTICON

285

Pentapolis, and is an agreement between the emperor
and the bishops who countersigned it, that neither party
should ever mention the decrees of the council of Chal-
cedon, which were the great stumbling-block with the
J]gyptians. But in all other points the Henoticon is little

STREET SPRINKLER AT ALEXANDRIA.

■short of a surrender to the people of the right to choose
their own creed; it styles Mary the mother of God, and
allows that the decrees of the council of Nicaea and Con-
stantinople contain all that is important of the true faith.
John, when banished by Zeno, like many of the former

286 THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

deposed bishops, fled to Rome for comfort and for help.
There he met with the usual support; and Felix, Bishop
of Eome, wrote to Constantinople, remonstrating with
Zeno for dismissing the patriarch. But this was only a
small part of the emperor's want of success in his at-
tempt at peace-making; for the crafty Peter, who had
gained the bishopric by subscribing to the peace-mak-
ing edict, was no sooner safely seated on his episco-
pal throne than he denounced the council of Chalcedon
and its decrees as heretical, and drove out of their mon-
asteries all those who still adhered to that faith. Nepha-
lius, one of these monks, wrote to the emperor at Con-
stantinople in complaint, and Zeno sent Cosmas to the
bishop to threaten him with his imperial displeasure,
and to try to re-establish peace in the Church. But the
arguments of Cosmas were wholly unsuccessful; and
Zeno then sent an increase of force to Arsenius, the mili-
tary prefect, who settled the quarrel for the time by
sending back the most rebellious of the Alexandrians as
prisoners to Constantinople.

Soon after this dispute Peter Mongus died, and for-
tunately he was succeeded in the bishopric by a peace-
maker. Athanasius, the new bishop, very unlike his
great predecessor of the same name, did his best to heal
the angry disputes in the Church, and to reconcile the
Egyptians to the imperial government.

Hierocles, the Alexandrian, was at this time teach-
ing philosophy in his native city, where his zeal and
eloquence in favour of Platonism drew upon him the
anger of the Christians and the notice of the government.

HIEEOCLES THE PLATONIST 287

He was sent to Constantinople to be punislied for not
believing in Christianity, for it does not appear that,
like the former Hierocles, he ever wrote against it. There
he bore a public scourging from his Christian torturers,
with a courage equal to that formerly shown by their
forefathers when tortured by his. When some of the
blood from his shoulders flew into his hand, he held it
out in scorn to the judge, saying with Ulysses, ** Cyclops,
since human flesh has been thy food, now taste this wine."
After his pimishment he was banished, but was soon
allowed to return to Alexandria, and there he again
taught openly as before. Paganism never wears so fair
a dress as in the writings of Hierocles; his commentary
on the Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans is full of the
loftiest and purest morality, and not less agreeable are
the fragments that remain of his writings on our duties,
and his beautiful chapter on the pleasures of a married
life. In the Facetiae of Hierocles we have one of the
earliest jest-books that has been saved from the wreck
of time. It is a curious proof of the fallen state of learn-
ing; the Sophists had long since made themselves ridic-
ulous; books alone will not make a man of sense; and
in the jokes of Hierocles the blunderer is always called a
man of learning.

^tius, the Alexandrian physician, has left a large
work containing a full account of the state of Egyptian
medicine at this time. He describes the diseases and
their remedies, quoting the recipes of numerous authors,
from the King Nechepsus, Galen, Hippocrates, and Dios-
corides, down to Archbishop Cyril. He is not wholly free

288 THE CHRISTIAJN PERIOD IN EGYPT

from superstition, as when making use of a green jasper
set in a ring; but he observes that the patients recovered
as soon when the stone was plain as when a dragon was
engraved upon it according to the recommendation of
Nechepsus. In Nile water he finds every virtue, and does
not forget dark paint for the ladies' eyebrows, and Cleo-
patra-wash for the face.

Anastasius, the next emperor, succeeding in 491, fol-
lowed the wise policy which Zeno had entered upon in
the latter years of his reign, and he strictly adhered to-
the terms of the peace-making edict. The four patriarchs
of Alexandria who were chosen during this reign, John,,
a second John, Dioscorus, and Timotheus, were all of the
Jacobite faith; and the Egyptians readily believed that
the emperor was of the same opinion. When called upon
by the quarrelling theologians, he would neither reject
nor receive the decrees of the council of Chalcedon, and
by this wise conduct he governed Egypt without any
religious rebellion during a long reign.

The election of Dioscorus, however, the third patri-
arch of this reign, was not brought about peaceably. He
was the cousin of a former patriarch, Timotheus ^lurus,
which, if we view the bishopric as a civil office, might
be a reason for the emperor's wishing him to have the
appointment. But it was no good reason with the Alex-
andrians, who declared that he had not been chosen ac-
cording to the canons of the apostles; and the magis-
trates of the city were forced to employ the troqps to lead
him in safety to his throne. After the first ceremony,
he went, as was usual at an installation, to St. Mark's

THE INSTALLATION OF DIOSCOEUS 289

Church, and there the clergy robed him in the patriarchal
state robes. The grand procession then moved through
the streets to the church of St. John, where the new
bishop went through the communion service. But the
city was much disturbed during the whole day, and in
the riot Theodosius, the son of CaUiopus, a man of Au-
gustalian rank, was killed by the mob. The Alexandrians
treated the affair as murder, and punished with death
those who were thought guilty; but the emperor looked
upon it as a rebellion of the citizens, and the bishop
was obliged to go on an embassy to Constantinople to
appease his just anger.

Anastasius, who had deserved the obedience of the
Egyptians by his moderation, pardoned their ingratitude
when they offended; but he was the last Byzantine em-
peror who governed Egypt with wisdom, and the last
who failed to enforce the decrees of the coimcil of Chal-
cedon. It may well be doubted whether any wise con-
duct on the part of the rulers could have healed the
quarrel between the two countries, and made the Egyp-
tians forget the wrongs that they had suffered from the
Creeks.

In the tenth year of the reign of Anastasius, a. d. 501,
the Persians, after overrunning a large part of Syria
and defeating the Roman generals, passed Pelusium and
entered Egypt. The army of Kobades laid waste the
whole of the Delta up to the very waUs of Alexandria.
Eustatius, the military prefect, led out his forces against
the invaders and fought many battles with doubtful suc-
cess; but as the capital was safe the Persians were at

290 THE CHEISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

last obliged to retire, leaving the people ruined as much
by the loss of a harvest as by the sword. Alexandria
suffered severely from famine and the diseases which
followed in its train; and history has gratefully recorded
the name of Urbib, a Christian Jew of great wealth, who
relieved the starving poor of that city with his boimty.
Three hundred persons were crushed to death in the
church of Arcadius on Easter Sunday in the press of the
crowd to receive his alms. As war brought on disease
and famine, they also brought on rebellion. The people
of Alexandria, in want of grain and oil, rose against the
magistrates, and many lives were lost in the attempt to
queU the riots.

In the early part of this history we have seen ambi-
tious bishops quickly disposed of by banishment to
the Great Oasis ; and again, as the country became more
desolate, criminals were sufficiently separated from the
rest of the empire by being sent to Thebes. Alexandria
was then the last place in the world in which a pretender
to the throne would be allowed to live. But Egypt was
now ruined; and Anastasius began his reign by banish-
ing, to the fallen Alexandria, Longinus, the brother of
the late king, and he had him ordained a presbyter, to
mark him as unfit for the throne.

Julianus, who was during a part of this reign the
prefect of Egypt, was also a poet, and he has left us a
mmaber of short epigrams that form part of the volume
of Greek Anthology which was published at Constan-
tinople soon after this time. Christodorus of Thebes
was another poet who joined with Julianus in praising

ILLUMINATED BOOKS

291

the Emperor Anastasius. He also removed to Constanti-
nople, tlie seat of patronage; and the fifth book of the
Greek Anthology contains his epigrams on the winners
in the horse-race in that city and on the statues which
stood around the public gymnasium. The poet's song,
like the traveller's tale, often related the wonders of the
river Nile. The overflowing waters first manured the
fields, and then watered the crops, and lastly carried the

ILLUSTRATIONS PBOM COPT OF DI08C0BIDBS.

grain to market; and one writer in the Anthology, to
describe the country life in Egypt, tells the story of a
sailor, who, to avoid the dangers of the ocean, turned
husbandman, and was then shipwrecked in his own
meadows.

The book-writers at this time sometimes illuminated
their more valuable parchments with gold and silver
letters and sometimes employed painters to ornament
them with small paintings. The beautiful copy of the

292 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

work of Dioscorides on Plants in the library at Vienna
was made in tMs reign for the Princess Juliana of Con-
stantinople. In one painting the figure of science or
invention is holding up a plant, while on one side of her
is the painter drawing it on his canvas, and on the other
side is the author describing it in his book. Other paint-
ings are of the plants and animals mentioned in the book.
A copy of the Book of Genesis, also in the library at
Vienna, is of the same class and date. A large part of
it is written in gold and silver; and it has eighty-eight
small paintings of various historical subjects. In these
the story is well told, though the drawing and perspec-
tive are bad and the figures crowded. But these Alexan-
drian paintings are better than those made in Rome or
Constantinople at this time.

With the spread of Christianity theatrical representa-
tions had been gradually going out of use. The Greek
tragedies, as we see in the works of ^schylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides, those models of pure taste in poetry, are
founded on the pagan mythology; and in many of them
the gods are made to walk and talk upon the stage.
Hence they of necessity fell under the ban of the clergy.
As the Christians became more powerful the several
cities of the empire had one by one discontinued these
popular spectacles, and horse-races usually took their
place. But the Alexandrians were the last people to
give up a favourite amusement; and by the end of this
reign Alexandria was the only city in the empire where
tragic and comic actors and Eastern dancers were to be
seen in the theatre.

THE LAST OF THE PHAEOS 293

The tower or lighthouse on the island of Pharos, the
work of days more prosperous than these, had latterly
been sadly neglected with the other buildings of the
country. For more than seven hundred years, the pilot
on approaching this flat shore after dark had pointed
out to his shipmate what seemed a star on the horizon,
and comforted him with the promise of a safe entrance
into the haven, and told him of Alexander's tower. But
the waves breaking against its foot had long since car-
ried away the outworks, and laid bare the foundations;
the wall was undermined and its fall seemed close at
hand. The care of Anastasius, however, surrounded it
again with piles and buttresses; and this monument of
wisdom and science, which deserved to last for ever, was
for a little while longer saved from ruin. An epigram
in the Anthology informs us that Ammonius was the
name of the builder who performed this good work, and
to him and to Neptune the grateful sailors then raised
their hands in prayer and praise.

In 518 Justin I. succeeded Anastasius on the throne
of Constantinople, and in the task of defending the em-
pire against the Persians. And this task became every
year more difficult, as the Greek population of his Egyp-
tian and Asiatic provinces fell off in numbers. For some
years after the division of the empire under the sons of
Constantine, Antioch in Syria had been the capital from
which Alexandria received the emperor's cormnands.
The two cities became very closely united; and now that
the Greeks were deserting Antioch, a part of the Syrian
church began to adopt the more superstitious creed of

294 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Egypt. Severus, Bishop of Antioch, was successful in
persuading a large party in the Syrian church to deny
the humanity of Christ, and to style Mary the mother
of God. But the chief power in Antioch rested with the
opposite party. They answered his arguments by threats
of violence, and he had to leave the city for safety. He
fled to Alexandria, and with him began the friendship
between the two churches which lasted for several cen-
turies. In Alexandria he was received with the honour
due to his religious zeal. But though in Antioch his
opinions had been too Egyptian for the Syrians, in Alex-
andria they were too Syrian for the Egyptians. The
Egyptians, who said that Jesus had been crucified and
died only in appearance, always denied that his body
was liable to corruption. Severus, however, argued that
it was liable to corruption before the resurrection; and
this led him into a new controversy, in which Timotheus,
the Alexandrian bishop, took part against his own more
superstitious flock, and sided with his friend, the Bishop
of Antioch. Severus has left us, in the Syriac language,
the baptismal service as performed in Egypt. The priest
breathes three times into the basin to make the water
holy, he makes three crosses on the child's forehead, he
adjures the demons of wickedness to quit him, he again
makes three crosses on his forehead with oU, he again
blows three times into the water in the form of a cross,
he anoints his whole body with oil, and then plunges
him in the water. Many other natives of Syria soon fol-
lowed Severus to Alexandria; so many indeed that as
Greek literature decayed in that city, Syriac literature

ECCLESIASTICAL STRIFE 296

rose. Many Syrians also came to study the religious
life in the monasteries of Egypt, and after some time
the books in the library of the monastery at Mount Mt-
ria were found to be half Arabic and half Syriac.

Justin, the new emperor, again lighted up in Alex-
andria the flames of discord which had been allowed to
slumber since the publication of Zeno's peace-making
edict. But in the choice of the bishop he was not able
to command without a struggle. In the second year of
his reign, on the death of Titnotheus, the two parties
again found themselves nearly equal in strength; and
Alexandria was for several years kept almost in a state
of civil war between those who thought that the body
of Jesus had been liable to corruption, and those who
thought it incorruptible. The former chose G-aianas,
whom his adversaries called a Manichean; and the latter
Theodosius, a Jacobite, who had the support of the pre-
fect; and each of these in his turn was able to drive
his rival out of Alexandria.

Those Persian forces which in the last reign overran
the Delta were chiefly Arabs from the opposite coast of
the Red Sea. To make an end of these attacks, and to
engage their attention in another quarter, was the nat-
ural wish of the statesmen of Constantinople; and for
this purpose Anastasius had sent an embassy to the
Homeritse on the southern coast of Arabia, to persuade
them to attack their northern neighbours. The Homer-
itse held the strip of coast now called Hadramout. They
were enriched, though hardly civilised, by being the
channel along which much of the Eastern trade passed

296 THE CHKISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

from India to the Nile, to avoid the difficiilt navigation
of the ocean. They were Jewish Arabs, who had little
in conunon with the Arabs of Yemen, but had frequent
intercourse with Abyssinia and the merchants of the
Red Sea. Part of the trade of Solomon and the Tyrians
was probably to their coast. To this distant and little
tribe the Emperor of Constantinople now sent a second
pressing embassy. Julianus, the ambassador, went up
the Nile from Alexandria, and then crossed the Red Sea,
or Indian Sea as it was also called, to Arabia. He was
favourably received by the Homeritse. Arethas, the king,
gave him an audience in grand barbaric state. He was
standing in a chariot drawn by four elephants; he wore
no clothing but a cloth of gold around his loins; his arms
were laden with costly armlets and bracelets; he held
a shield and two spears in his hands, and his nobles stood
around him armed, and singing to his honour. When
the ambassador delivered the emperor's letter, Arethas
kissed the seal, and then kissed Julianus himself. He
accepted the gifts which Justin had sent, and promised
to move his forces northward against the Persians as
requested, and also to keep the route open for the trade
to Alexandria.

Justinian, the successor of Justin in 527, settled the
quarrel between the two Alexandrian bishops by sum-
moning them both to Constantinople, and then sending
them into banishment. But this had no effect in heal-
ing the divisions in the Egyptian church; and for the
next half-century the two parties ranged themselves, in
their theological or rather political quarrel, under the

JUSTINIA2T AND THE JACOBITES 297

names of their former bishops, and called themselves
Gaianites and Theodosians. Nor did the measures of
Justinian tend to lessen the breach between Egypt and
Constantinople. He appointed Paul to the bishopric,
and required the Egyptians to receive the decrees of
the council of Chalcedon.

After two years Paul was displaced either by the
emperor or by his flock; and Zoilus was then seated on
the episcopal throne by the help of the imperial forces.
He maintained his dangerous post for about six years,
when the Alexandrians rose in open rebellion, overpow-
ered the troops, and forced bim to seek safety in
flight; and the Jacobite party then turned out all the
bishops who held the Greek faith.

When Justinian heard that the Jacobites were mas-
ters of Egypt he appointed Apollinarius to the joint
office of prefect an,d patriarch of Alexandria, and sent
him with a large force to take possession of his bishopric.
Apollinarius marched into Alexandria in full military
dress at the head of his troops; but when he entered the
church he laid aside his arms, and putting on the pa-
triarchal robes began to celebrate the rites of his relig-
ion. The Alexandrians were by no means overawed by
the force with which he had entered the city; they pelted
"him with a shower of stones from every comer of the
church, and he was forced to withdraw from the build-
ing in order to save his life. But three days afterwards
the bells were rung through the city, and the people were
summoned to meet in the church on the following Sunday,
to hear the emperor's letter read. When Sunday came

298 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

the whole city flocked to hear and to disobey Jus-
tinian's orders. Apollinarius began his address by
threatening his hearers that, if they continued obstinate
in their opinions, their children should be made orphans
and their widows given up to the soldiery; and he was
as before stopped with a shower of stones. But this
time he was prepared for the attack; this Christian
bishop had placed his troops in ambush round the church,
and on a signal given they rushed out on his unarmed
flock, and by his orders the crowds within and without
the church were put to rout by the sword, the soldiers
waded up to their knees in blood, and the city and whole
country yielded its obedience for the time to bishops
who held the Greek faith.

Henceforth the Melchite or royalist patriarchs, who
were appointed by the emperor and had the authority
of civil prefects, and were supported by the power of
the military prefect, are scarcely mentioned by the his-
torian of the Koptic church. They were too much en-
gaged in civil affairs to act the part of ministers of
religion. They collected their revenues principally in
grain, and carried on a large export trade, transporting
their stores to those parts of Europe where they would
bring the best price. On one occasion we hear of a small
fleet belonging to the church of Alexandria, consisting
of thirteen ships of about thirty tons burden each, and
bearing ten thousand bushels of grain, being overtaken
by a storm on the coast of Italy. The princely income
of the later patriarchs, raised from the churches of all
Egypt under the name of the offerings of the pious, some-

THE KOPTIC LITUEGY 299

times amounted to two thousand pounds of gold, or four
hundred thousand dollars. But while these Melchite or
royalist bishops were enjoying the ecclesiastical revenues,
and administering the civil affairs of the diocese and of
the great monasteries, there was a second bishop who
held the Jacobite faith, and who, having been elected
by the people according to the ancient forms of the
Church, equally bore the title of patriarch, and admin-
istered in his more humble path to the spiritual wants
of his flock. The Jacobite bishop was always a monk.
At his ordination he was declared to be elected by the
popular voice, by the bishops, priests, deacons, monks,
and all the people of Lower Egypt; and prayers were
offered up through the intercession of the Mother of
God, and of the glorious Apostle Mark. The two churches
no longer used the same prayer-book. The Melchite
church continued to use the old liturgy, which, as it
had been read in Alexandria from time immemorial, was
called the liturgy of St. Mark, altered however to declare
that the Son was of the same substance with the Father.
But the Koptic church made use of the newer liturgies
by their own champions. Bishop CyrU, Basil of Csesarea,
and Gregory Nazianzen. These three liturgies were all
in the Koptic language, and more clearly denied the two
natures of Christ. Of the two churches the Koptic had
less leamiag, more bigotry, and opinions more removed
from the teachings of the New Testament; but then the
Koptic bishop alone had any moral power to lead the
minds of his flock towards piety and religion. Had the
emperors been at all times either humane or poUtie

300 THE CHRISTIAJSr PERIOD IN EGYPT

enough to employ bishops of the same religion as the
people, they would, perhaps have kept the good-will of
their subjects; but as it was, the Koptic church, smart-
ing under its insults, and forgetting the greater evils
of a foreign conquest, would sometimes look with longing
eyes to the condition of their neighbours, their brethren
in faith, the Arabic subjects of Persia.

The Christianity of the Egyptians was mostly super-
stition; and as it spread over the land it embraced the
whole nation within its pale, not so much by purifying
the pagan opinions as by lowering itself to their level,
and fitting itself to their corporeal notions of the Creator.
This was in a large measure induced by the custom of
using the old temples for Christian churches; the form
of worship was in part guided by the form of the build-
ing, and even the old traditions were engrafted on the
new religion. Thus the traveller Antonius, after visit-
ing the remarkable places in the Holy Land, came to
Egypt to search for the chariots of the Egyptians who
pursued Moses, petrified into rocks at the bottom of the
Eed Sea, and for the footsteps left in the sands by the
infant Jesus while he dwelt in Egypt with his parents.
At Memphis he enquired why one of the doors m the
great temple of Phtah, then used as a church, was always
closed, and he was told that it had been rudely shut
against the infant Jesus five hundred years before, and
mortal strength had never since been able to open it.

The records of the empire declared that the first
Caesars had kept six hundred and forty-five thousand
men under arms to guard Italy, Africa, Spain, and Egypt,

POLICY OF JUSTINIAN 301

a number perhaps much larger than the truth; but Jus-
tinian could with difficulty maintain one himdred and
fifty thousand ill-disciplined troops, a force far from large
enough to hold even those provinces that remained to
him. During the latter half of his reign the eastern
frontier of this falling empire was sorely harassed by
the Persians under their king Chosroes. They overran
Syria, defeated the army of the empire in a pitched battle,
and then took Antioch, . By these defeats the military
roads were stopped; Egypt was cut off from the rest of
the empire and could be reached from the capital only
by sea. Hence the emperor was driven to a change in
his religious policy. He gave over the persecution of
the Jacobite opinions, and even went so far ia one of
his decrees as to call the body of Jesus incorruptible, as
he thought that these were the only means of keepiag
the allegiance of his subjects or the friendship of his
Arab neighbours, all of whom, as far as they were Chris-
tians, held the Jacobite view of the Mcene creed, and
denied the two natures of Christ.

As the forces of Constantinople were driven back by
the victorious armies of the Persians, the emperors had
lost, among other fortresses, the capital of Arabia Naba-
tasa, that curious rocky fastness that well deserved the
name of Petra, and which had been garrisoned by Romans
from the reign of Trajan till that of Valens. On this loss
it became necessary to fortify a new frontier post on
the Egyptian side of the Elanitic Gulf. Justinian then
built the fortified monastery near Mount Sinai, to guard
the only pass by which Egypt could be entered without

302

THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

the help of a fleet; and when it was found to be com-
manded by one of the higher points of the mountain he
beheaded the engineer who built it, and remedied the
fault, as far as it could be done, by a small fortress on the
higher ground. This monastery was held by the Egyp-
tians, and maintained out of the Egyptian taxes. IWhen
the Egyptians were formerly masters of their own coun-
try, before the Persian and Greek conquests, they were
governed by a race of priests, and the temples were their

rOKTRBSS NEAK MOUNT SINAI.

only fortresses. The temples of Thebes were the citadels
of the capital, and the temples of Elephantine guarded
the frontier. So now, when the military prefect is too
weak to make himself obeyed, the emperor tries to govern
through means of the Christian priesthood; and when
it is necessary for the Egyptians to defend their own
frontier, he builds a monastery and garrisons it with
monks.

Part of the Egyptian trade to the East was carried on
through the islands of Ceylon and Socotra; but it was
chiefly in the hands of uneducated Arabs of Ethiopia,

THE HEXUMIT^ 303

-who were little able to communicate to the world much
knowledge of the countries from which they brought their
highly valued goods. At Ceylon they met with traders
from beyond the Ganges and from China, of whom they
bought the silk which Eiu^opeans had formerly thought
a product of Arabia. At Ceylon was a Christian church,
with a priest and a deacon, frequented by the Christians
from Persia, while the natives of the place were pagans.
The coias there used were Roman, borne thither by the
course of trade, which during so many centuries carried
the gold and silver eastward. The trade was lately turned
more strongly iato this channel because a war had sprung
up between the two tribes of Jewish Arabs, the Hex-
imaitae of Abyssinia on the coast of the Red Sea near
Adule, and the Homeritae who dwelt in Arabia on the
opposite coast, at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The Homeritae had quarrelled with the Alexandrian mer-
chants in the Indian trade, and had kUled some of them
as they were passing their mountains from India to the
country of the Hexumitge.

Immediately after these murders the HexumitaB found
the trade injured, and they took up arms to keep the
passage open for the merchants. Hadad their king
crossed the Red Sea and conquered his enemies; he put
to death Damianus, the King of the Homeritse, and made
a new treaty with the Emperor of Constantinople. The
HexumitsB promised to become Christians. They sent
to Alexandria to beg for a priest to baptise them, and
to ordain their preachers; and Justinian sent John, a
man of piety and high character, the dean of the church

304 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

of St. John, who returned with the ambassadors and be-
came bishop of the Hexumitse.

It was possibly this conquest of the Homeritae by
Hadad, King of the Hexumitae, which was recorded on
the monument of Adule, at the foot of the inscription set
up eight centuries earlier by Ptolemy Euergetes. The
monument is a throne of white marble. The conqueror,
whose name had been broken away before the inscription
was copied, there boasts that he crossed over the Red
Sea and made the Arabians and Sabaeans pay him tribute.
On his own continent he defeated the tribes to the north
of him, and opened the passage from his own country
to Egypt; he also marched eastward, and conquered the
tribes on the African incense coast ; and lastly, he crossed
the Astaborus to the snowy mountains in which that
branch of the Nile rises, and conquered the tribes between
that stream and the Astapus. This valuable inscription,
which teUs us of snowy mountains within the tropics, was
copied by Cosmas, a merchant of Alexandria, who passed
through Adule on his way to India.

Former emperors, Anastasius and Justin, had sent
several embassies to these nations at the southern end
of the Red Sea; to the Homeritse, to persuade them to
attack the Persian forces in Arabia, and to the Hexumitse,
for the encouragement of trade. Justinian also sent an
embassy to the Homeritae under Abram; and, as he was
successful in his object, he entrusted a second embassy
to Abram 's son. Nonnosus landed at Adule on the
Abyssinian coast, and then travelled inward for fifteen
days to Auxum, the capital. This country was then called

TRADE RESTRICTIONS 306

Ethiopia; it had gained the name which before belonged
to the valley of the Nile between Egypt and Meroe. On
his way to Auxnm, he saw troops of wild elephants,
to the number, as he supposed, of five thousand. After
delivering his message to Elesbaas, then King of Auxum,
he crossed the Red Sea to Caisus, King of the Homeritae,
a grandson of that Arethas to whom Justin had sent
his embassy. Notwithstanding the natural difficulties of
the journey, and those arising from the tribes through
which he had to pass, Nonnosus performed his task suc-
cessfully, and on his return home wrote a history of his
embassies.

The advantage gained to the Hexumitae by their inva-
sion of the HomeritsB was soon lost, probably as soon
as their forces were withdrawn. The trade through the
country of the Homeritae was again stopped; and such
was the difficulty of navigation from the incense coast
of Africa to the mouths of the Indus, that the loss was
severely felt at Auxum, Elesbaas therefore undertook
to repeat the punishment which had been before inflicted
on his less civilised neighbours, and again to open the
trade to the merchants from the Nile. It was whUe he
was preparing his forces for this invasion that Cosmas,
the Alexandrian traveller, passed through Adule; and
he copied for the King of Auxum the inscription above
spoken of, which recorded the victories of his prede-
cessor over the enemies he was himself preparing to
attack.

The invasion by Elesbaas, or Elesthaeus as he is also
named, was immediately successful. The Homeritae were

306 THE CHEISTIAJS" PERIOD IN EGYPT

conquered, their ruler was overthrown; and, to secure
their future obedience, the conqueror set over these
Jewish Arabs an Abyssinian Christian for their king.
Esimaphseus was chosen for that post; and his first duty
was to convert his new subjects to Christianity. Political
reasons as well as religious zeal would urge him to this
undertaking, to make the conquered bear the badge of
the conqueror. For this purpose he engaged the assist-
ance of Gregentius, a bishop, who was to employ his
learning and eloquence in the cause. Accordingly, in the
palace of Threlletum, in the presence of their new king,
a pubHc dispute was held between the Christian bishop
and Herban, a learned Jew. Gregentius has left us an
account of the controversy, in which he was wholly suc-
cessful, being helped, perhaps, by the threats and prom-
ises of the king. The arguments used were not quite the
same as they would be now. The bishop explained the
Trinity as the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Mind or
Father, and resting on the Word or Son, which was then
the orthodox view of this mysterious doctrine. On the
other hand, the Jew quoted the Old Testament to show
that the Lord their God was one Lord. It is related that
suddenly the Jews present were struck blind. Their
sight, however, was restored to them on the bishop's
praying for them; and they were then all thereby con-
verted and baptised on the spot. The king stood god-
father to Herban, and rewarded him with a high office
under his government.

Esimaphseus did not long remain King of the Ho-
meritffi. A rebellion soon broke out against him, and he

KING ^IZAJSTAS 307

was deposed. Elesbaas, King of Auxum, again sent an
army to recall the Homeritse to their obedience, but this
time the army joined in the revolt; and Elesbaas then
made peace with the enemy, in hopes of thus gaining
the advantages which he was unable to grasp by force
of arms. From a Ureek inscription on a monument at
Auxum we learn the name of ^izanas, another king of

PYRAMID OF MEDCM.

that country, who also called himself, either truly or
boastfully, king of the opposite coast. He set up the
monument to record his victories over the Bougsetse, a
people who dwelt between Auxum and Egypt, and he
styles himself the invincible Mars, king of kings. King
of the Hexumitae, of the Ethiopians, of the Sabseans, and
of the Homeritse. These kings of the Hexumitse orna-
mented the city of Auxiun with several beautiful and

308 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

lofty obelisks, each made of a single block of granite
like those in. Egypt.

Egypt in its mismanaged state seemed to be of little
value to the empire save as a means of enriching the
prefect and the tax-gatherers; it yielded very little
tribute to Constantinople beyond the supply of grain, and
that by no means regularly. To remedy these abuses
Justinian made a new law for the government of the
province, with a view of bringing about a thorough re-
form. By this edict the districts of Menelaites and
Mareotis, to the west of Alexandria, were separated from
the rest of Egypt, and they were given to the prefect
of Libya, whose seat of government was at Paraetonium,
because his province was too poor to pay the troops re-
quired to guard it. The several governments of Upper
Egypt, of Lower Egypt, of Alexandria, and of the troops
were then given to one prefect. The two cohorts, the
Augustalian and the Ducal, into which the two Roman
legions had gradually dwindled, were henceforth to be
imited under the name of the Augustalian Cohort, which
was to contain six hundred men, who were to^ecure the
obedience and put down any rebellion of the Egyptian
and barbarian soldiers. The somewhat high pay and priv-
ileges of this favoured troop were to be increased; and,
to secure its loyalty and to keep out Egyptians, nobody
was to be admitted into it till his fitness had been inquired
into by the emperor's examiners. The first duty of the
cohort was to collect the supply of grain for Constanti-
nople and to see it put on board the ships; and as for
the supply which was promised to the Alexandrians, the

THE LEVY OF GRAIN 309

magistrates were to collect it at their own risk, and by
means of their own cohort. The grain for Constantinople
was required to be in that city before the end of August,
or within four months after the harvest, and the supply
for Alexandria not more than a month later. The prefect
was made answerable for the full collection, and whatever
was wanting of that quantity was to be levied on his
property and his heirs, at the rate of one soUdus for three
artabcB of grain, or about three dollars for fifteen bushels;
while in order to help the collection, the export of grain
from Egjrpt was forbidden from every port but Alexan-
dria, except in small quantities. The grain required for
Alexandria and Constantinople, to be distributed as a
free gift among the idle citizens, was eight hundred
thousand artahce, or four millions of bushels, and the cost
of collecting it was fixed at eighty thousand solidi, or
about three hundred thousand dollars. The prefect was
ordered to assist the collectors at the head of his cohort,,
and if he gave credit for the taxes which he was to collect
he was to bear the loss himself. If the archbishop in-
terfered, to give credit and screen an unhappy Egyptian,,
then he was to bear the loss, and if his property was
not enough the property of the Church was to make it
good; but if any other bishop gave credit, not only was
his property to bear the loss, but he was himself to be
deposed from his bishopric; and lastly, if any riot or
rebellion should arise to cause the loss of the Egyptian
tribute, the tribunes of the Augustalian Cohort were to
be punished with forfeiture of all property, and the cohort,
was to be removed to a station beyond the Danube.

310 THE CHEISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

Such was the new law which Justinian, the great
Roman lawgiver, proposed for the future government of
Egypt. The Egyptians were treated as slaves, whose
duty was to raise grain for the use of their masters
at Constantinople, and their taskmasters at Alexandria.
They did not even receive from the government the
usual benefit of protection from their enemies, and they
felt bound to the emperor by no tie either of love or
interest. The imperial orders were very little obeyed
beyond those places where the troops were encamped;
the Arabs were each year pressing closer upon the
valley of the Nile, and helping the sands of the desert
to defeat the labours of the disheartened husbandmen;
and the Greek language, which had hitherto followed
and marked the route of commerce from Alexandria
to Syene, and to the island of Socotra, was now but
seldom heard in Upper Egypt. The Alexandrians were
sorely harassed by Hsephsestus, a lawyer, who had risen
by court favour to the chief post in the city. He made
monopolies in his own favour of all the necessaries of
life, and secured his ill-gotten gains by ready loans of
part of it to Justinian. His zeal for the emperor was
at the cost of the Alexandrians, and to save the public
granaries he lessened the supply of grain which the citi-
zens looked for as a right. The city was sinking fast;
and the citizens could ill bear this loss, for its population,
though lessened, was still too large for the fallen state
of Egypt.

The grain of the merchants was shipped from Alex-
andria to the chief ports of Europe, between Constan-

EGYPTIAN TEADE WITH BEITAIN" 311

tinople in the east and Cornwall in the west. Britain had
been left by the Romans, as too remote for them to hold
in their weakened condition; and the native Britons were
then struggling against their Saxon invaders, as ia a
distant comer of the world, beyond the knowledge of the
historian. But to that remote country the Alexandrian
merchants sailed every year with grain to purchase tin,
enlightening the natives, while they only meant to enrich
themselves. Under the most favourable circumstances
they sometimes performed the voyage in twenty days.
The wheat was sold in Cornwall at the price of a bushel
for a piece of silver, perhaps worth about twenty cents,
or for the same weight of tin, as the tin and the silver
were nearly of equal worth. This was the longest of the
ancient voyages, being longer than that from the Red
Sea to the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean; and it
had been regularly performed for at least eight centuries
without ever teaching the British to venture so far from
their native shores.

The suffering and riotous citizens made Alexandria a
very unpleasant place of abode for the prefect and magis-
trates. They therefore built palaces and baths for their
own use, at the public cost, at Taposiris, about a day's
journey to the west of the city, at a spot yet marked by
the remains of thirty-six marble columns, and a lofty
tower, once perhaps a lighthouse. At the same time it
became necessary to fortify the public granaries against
the rebellious mob. The grain was brought from the Nile
by barges on a canal to the village of Chgereum, and thence
to a part of Alexandria named Phialse, or The Basins,

312 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

where the public granaries stood. In all riots and re-
bellions this place had been a natural point of attack;
and often had the starving mob broken open these build-
ings, and seized the grain that was on its way to Con-
stantinople. But Justinian surrounded them with a
strong wall against such attacks for the future, and at
the same time he rebuilt the aqueduct that had been
destroyed in one of the sieges of the city.

In civil smts at law an appeal had always been al-
lowed from the prefect of the province to the emperor,
or rather to the prefect of the East at Constantinople;
but as this was of course expensive, it was found neces-
sary to forbid it when the sum of money in dispute was
small. Justinian forbade all Egyptian appeals for sums
less than ten pounds weight of gold, or about two thou-
sand five hundred dollars; for smaller sums the judg-
ment of the prefect was to be final, lest the expense
should swallow up the amount in dispute.

In this reign the Alexandrians, for the first time
within the records of history, felt the shock of an earth-
quake. Their naturalists had very fairly supposed that
the loose alluvial nature of the soil of the Delta was the
reason why earthquakes were unknown in Lower Egypt,
and believed that it would always save them from a mis-
fortune which often overthrew cities in other countries,
Pliny thought that Egypt had been always free from
earthquakes. But this shock was felt by everybody in the
city; and Agathias, the Byzantine historian, who, after
reading law in the university of Beirut, was finishing his
studies at Alexandria, says that it was strong enough to

THE END OF THE PAGAN SCHOOLS

313

make the inliabitants all run into the street for fear the
houses should fall upon them.

The reign of Justinian is remarkable for another blow
then given to paganism throughout the empire, or at
least through those parts of the empire where the em-
peror's laws were obeyed. Under Justinian the pagan

schools were again and from that
time forward closed. Isidorus
the platonist and Salustius the
Cynic were among the learned
men of greatest note who then
withdrew from Alexandria. Isi-
dorus had been chosen by Marinus
as his successor in the platonic
chair at Athens, to fill the high
post of the platonic successor; but
he had left the Athenian school
to Zenodotus, a pupil of Proclus,
and had removed to Alexandria.
Salustius the Cynic was a Syrian,
who had removed with Isidorus
from Athens to Alexandria. He
was virtuous in his morals though
jocular in his manners, and as ready in his witty attacks
upon the speculative opinions of his brother philosophers
as upon the vices of the Alexandrians. These learned
men, with Damascius and others from Athens, were
kindly received by the Persians, who soon afterwards,
when they made a treaty of peace with Justinian, gen-
erously bargained that these men, the last teachers of

A MODERN HOUSE IN THE DELTA
AT ROSETTA.

314 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

paganism, should be allowed to return home, and pass
the rest of their days in quiet.

After the flight of the pagan philosophers, but little
learning was left in Alexandria. One of the most re-
markable men in this age of ignorance was Cosmas, an
Alexandrian merchant, who wished that the world should
not only be enriched but enlightened by his travels.
After making many voyages through Ethiopia to India
for the sake of gain, he gave up trade and became a monk
and an author. When he writes as a traveller about the
Christian churches of India and Ceylon, and the inscrip-
tions which he copied at Adule in Abyssinia, everything
that he tells us is valuable; but when he reasons as a
monk, the case is sadly changed. He is of the dogmatical
school which forbids all inquiry as heretical. He fights
the battle which has been so often fought before and
since, and is even still fought so resolutely, the battle
of religious ignorance against scientific knowledge. He
sets the words of the Bible against the resTilts of science;
he denies that the world is a sphere, and quotes the Old
Testament against the pagan astronomers, to show that
it is a plane, covered by the firmament as by a roof, above
which he places the kingdom of heaven. His work is
named Christian Topography, and he is himself usually
called Cosmas Indicopleustes, from the country which
he visited.

During the latter years of the government of Apolli-
narius, such was his unpopularity as a spiritual bishop
that both the rival parties, the Gaianites and the Theodo-
sians, had been building places of worship for themselves,

COINS OF JUSTESTIAN 316

and the more zealous Jacobites had quietly left the
churches to Apollinarius and the Royalists. But on the
death of an archdeacon they again came to blows with
the bishop; and a monk had his beard torn off his chin
by the Gaianites in the streets of Alexandria. The em-
peror was obliged to interfere, and he sent the Abbot
Photinus to Egypt to put down this rebellion, and heal
the quarrel in the Church. Apollinarius died soon after-
wards, and Justinian then appointed John to the joint
office of prefect of the city and patriarch of the Church.
The new archbishop was accused of being a Manichean;
but this seems to mean nothing but that he was too much
of the Egyptian party, and that, though he was the im-
perial patriarch, and not acknowledged by the Koptic
church, yet his opinions were disliked by the Greeks.
On his death, which happened in about three years, they
chose Peter, who held the Jacobite or Egyptian opinions,
and whose name is not mentioned in the Greek lists of
the patriarchs. Peter's death occurred in the same year
as that of the emperor.

Under Justinian we again find some small traces of a
national coinage in Egypt. Ever since the reign of Dio-
cletian, the old Egyptian coinage had been stopped, and
the Alexandrians had used money of the same weight,
and with the same Latin inscriptions, as the rest of the
empire. But under Justinian, though the inscriptions on
the coins are still Latin, they have the name of the city
in Greek letters. Like the coins of Constantinople, they
have a cross, the emblem of Christianity; but while the
other coins of the empire have the Greek numeral letters,

316

THE CHRISTIAJSr PEKIOD IN" EGYPT

E, I, K, A, or M, to denote the value, meaning 5, 10, 20,
30, or 40, the coins of Alexandria have the letters 1 B
for 12, showing that they were on a different system of
weights from those of Constantinople. On these the head
of the emperor is in profile. But later in his reign the
style was changed, the coins were made larger, and the
head of the emperor had a front face. On these larger
coins the numeral letters are A T for 33. We thus learn
that the Alexandrians at this time paid and received
money rather by weight than by tale, and avoided all

COINS OF JUSTINIAN.

depreciation of the currency. As the early coins marked
12 had become lighter by wear, those which were meant
to be of about three times their value were marked 33.

Diu-ing the period from 566 to 602 Justin II. reigned
twelve years, Tiberius reigned four years, and Mauricius,
his son-in-law, twenty; and under these sovereigns the
empire gained a little rest from its enemies by a rebelhon
among the Persians, which at last overthrew their king
Chosroes. He fled to Mauricius for help, and was by
him restored to his throne, after which the two kingdoms
remained at peace to the end of his reign.

The Emperor Mauricius was murdered by Phocas,
who, in 602, succeeded him on the throne of Constan-
tinople. No sooner did the news of his death reach

EEIGN OF HEEACLIUS 317

Persia than Chosroes, the son of Hormuz, who had mar-
ried Maria, the daughter of Mauricius, declared the
treaty with the Romans at an end, and moved his forces
against the new emperor, the murderer of his father-in-
law. During the whole of his reign Constantinople was
kept in a state of alarm and almost of siege by the Per-
sians; and the crimes and misfortunes of Phocas alike
prepared his subjects for a revolt. In the seventh year
Alexandria rebelled in favour of the young Heraclius,
son of the late prefect of Cyrene; and the patriarch of
Egypt was slain in the struggle. Soon afterwards Hera-
clius entered the port of Constantinople with his fleet,
and Phocas was put to death after an unfortunate reign
of eight years, in which he had lost every province of
the empire.

During the first three years of the reign of Heraclius,
Theodoras was Bishop of Alexandria; but upon his death
the wishes of the Alexandrians so strongly pointed to
John, the son of the prefect of Cyprus, that the emperor,
yielding to their request, appointed him to the bishopric.
Alexandria was not a place in which a good man could
enjoy the pleasures of power without feeling the weight
of its duties. It was then suffering under all those evils
which usually befall the capital of a sinking state. It
had lost much of its trade, and its poorer citizens no
longer received a free supply of grain. The unsettled
state of the country was starving the larger cities, and
ihe population of Alexandria was suffering from want of
employment. The civil magistrates had removed their
palace to a distance. But the new bishop seemed formed

318 THE CHEISTIAN PEEIOD IN EGYPT

for these unfortunate times, and, though appointed by
the emperor, he was in every respect worthy of the free
choice of the citizens. He was foremost in every work of
benevolence and charity. The five years of his govern-
ment were spent in lightening the sufferings of the peo-
ple, and he gained the truly Christian name of John the
Almsgiver. Beside his private acts of kindness he estab-
lished throughout the city hospitals for the sick and
almshouses for the poor and for strangers, and as many
as seven lying-in hospitals for poor women. John was-
not less active in outrooting all that he thought heresy.

The first years of the reign of Heraclius are chiefly
marked by the successes of the Persians. While Chos-
roes, their king, was himself attacking Constantinople,^
one general was besieging Jerusalem and a second over-
running Lower Egypt. Crowds fled before the invading
army to Alexandria as a place of safety, and the famine
increased as the province of the prefect grew narrower
and the population more crowded. To add to the dis-
tress the Mle rose to a less height than usual; the sea-
sons seemed to assist the enemy in the destruction of
Egypt. The patriarch John, who had been sending
money, grain, and Egyptian workmen to assist in the
pious work of rebuilding the church of Jerusalem which
the Persians had destroyed, immediately found aU his
means needed, and far from enough, for the poor of Alex-
andria. On his appointment to the bishopric he found
in its treasury eight thousand pounds of gold; he had
in the course of five years received ten thousand more
from the offerings of the pious, as his princely ecclesi-

PEESIAN INVASION 319

astical revenue was named; but this large sum of four
million doUars had aU been spent in deeds of generosity
or charity, and the bishop had no resource but borrow-
ing to relieve the misery with which he was surrounded.
In the fifth year the unbelievers were masters of Jeru-
salem, and in the eighth they entered Alexandria, and
soon held aU the Delta; and in that year the grain which
had hitherto been given to the citizens of Constantiaople
was sold to them at a small price, and before the end
of the year the supply from Egypt was whoUy stopped.

When the Persians entered Egypt, the patrician
Mcetas, having no forces with which he could withstand
their advance, and knowing that no succour was to be
looked for from Constantinople, and finding that the
Alexandrians were unwiUing to support him, fled with
the patriarch John the Almsgiver to Cyprus, and left
the province to the enemy. As John denied that the Son
of Cod had suffered on the cross, his opinions would seem
not to have been very unlike those of the Egyptians;
but as he was appointed to the bishopric by the emperor,
though at the request of the people, he is not counted
among the patriarchs of the Koptic church; and one of
the first acts of the Persians was to appoint Benjamin,
a Jacobite priest, who already performed the spiritual
office of Bishop of Alexandria, to the public exercise of
that duty, and to the enjoyment of the civil dignity and
revenues.

The troops with which Chosroes conquered and held
Egypt were no doubt in part Syrians and Arabs, people
with whom the fellahs or labouring class of Egyptians

320 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

were closely allied in blood and feelings. Hence arose
the readiness with which the whole country yielded when
the Roman forces were defeated. But hence also arose
the weakness of the Persians, and their speedy loss of
this conquest when the Arabs rebelled. Their rule, how-
ever, in Egypt was not quite unmarked in the history
of these dark ages.

At this time Thomas, a Syrian bishop, came to Alex-
andria to correct the Syriac version of the New Testa-
ment, which had been made about a century before by
Philoxenus. He compared the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles
with the G-reek manuscripts in the monastery of St. An-
thony in the capital; and we still possess the fruits of
his learned labour, in which he altered the ancient text
to make it agree with the newer Alexandrian manu-
scripts. Prom his copy the Philoxenian version is now
printed. A Syriac manuscript of the New Testament
written by Alexandrian penmen in the sixth year of
Heraclius, is now to be seen in the library of the Au-
gustan friars in Rome. At the same time another Syrian
scholar, Paul of Tela, in Mesopotamia, was busy in the
Alexandrian monastery of St. Zacchseus in translating
the Old Testament into Syriac, from the Septuagint
Greek; and he closes his labours with begging the reader
to pray for the soul of his friend Thomas. Such was
now the reputation of the Alexandrian edition of the
Bible, that these scholars preferred it both to the orig-
inal Hebrew of the Old and to the earlier manuscripts
of the New Testament. Among other works of this time
were the medical writings of Aaron the physician of

THE PEESIANS DEFEATED 321

Alexandria, formerly written in Syriac, and afterwards
much valued by the Arabs. The Syrian monks in num-
bers settled in the monastery of Mount Nitria; and in
that secluded spot there remained a colony of these
monks for several centuries, kept up by the occasional
arrival of newcomers from the churches on the eastern
side of the Euphrates.

For ten years the Egyptians were governed by the
Persians, and had a patriarch of their own religion and
of their own choice; and the building of the Persian
palace in Alexandria proves how quietly they lived Tinder
their new masters. But Heraclius was not idle imder his
misfortunes. The Persians had been weakened by the
great revolt of the Arabs, who had formed their chief
strength on the side of Constantinople and Egypt; and
Heraclius, leading his forces bravely against Chosroes,
drove him back from Syria and became in his turn the
invader, and he then recovered Egypt. The Jacobite
patriarch Benjamin fled with the Persians; and Her-
aclius appointed George to the bishopric, which was
declared to have been empty since John the Ahnsgiver
fled to Cyprus.

The revolt of the Arabs, which overthrew the power
of the Persians in their western provinces and for a time
restored Egypt to Constantinople, was the foundation
of the mighty empire of the caliphs; and the Hegira,
or flight of Muhammed, from which the Arabic historians
coimt their lunar years, took place in 622, the twelfth
year of Heraclius. The vigour of the Arab arms rapidly
broke the Persian yoke, and the Moslems then overran

322 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD IN EGYPT

every province in the neighbourhood. This was soon
felt by the Eomans, who found the Arabs, even in the
third year of their freedom, a more formidable enemy
than the Persians whom they had overthrown; and, after
a short struggle of only two years, Heraclius was forced
to pay a tribute to the Moslems for their forbearance
in not conquering Egypt. For eight years he was willing
to purchase an inglorious peace by paying tribute to the
caliph; but when his treasure failed him and the pay-
ment was discontinued, the Arabs marched against the
nearest provinces of the empire, offering to the inhabit-
ants their choice of either paying tribute or receiving
the Muhammedan religion; and they then began on their
western frontier that rapid career of conquest which
they had already begun on the eastern frontier against
their late masters, the Persians.

OBNAMENT FSOM THE POBCH OF THE SULTAN HASSAN.

CHAPTER m

EGYPT DURING THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

The Rise of Muhammedanism : The Arabic Conquest of Egypt:
The Ommayad and Abbasid Dynasties.

T'HE course of history now fol-
lows the somewhat unevent-
ful period which introduced
Arabian rule into the valley of
the Mle. It is only necessary
to remind the reader of the strik-
ing incidents in the life of Mu-
hammad. He was born at Mecca,
in Arabia, in July, 571, and spent
his earliest years in the desert. At the age of twelve he
travelled with a caravan to Syria, and probably on this
occasion first came into contact with the Jews and Chris-
tians. After a few youthful adventures, his poetic and

323

OHNAMBNT FROM THE MOSQUE
OF BERKUK.

324 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

religious feelings were awakened by study. He gave him-
self up to profound meditation upon both the Jewish and
Christian ideals, and subsequently beholding the arch-
angel Gabriel in a vision, he proclaimed himself as a
prophet of God. After preaching his doctrine for three
years, and gaining a few converts (the first of whom was
his wife, Khadija), the people of Mecca rose against him
and he was forced to flee from the city in 614. New
visions and subsequent conversions of influential Arabs
strengthened his cause, especially in Medina, whither
Muhammed was forced to flee a second time from Mecca
in 622, this second flight being known as the Hegira, from
which dates the Muhammedan era. In the next year,
at Medina, he built his first mosque and married Ayesha,
and in 624 was compelled to defend his pretensions by
an appeal to arms. He was at first successful, and there-
upon appointed Friday as a day of public worship, and,
being embittered against the Jews, ordered that the
attitude of prayer should no longer be towards Jeru-
salem, but towards his birthplace, Mecca. In 625 the
Muhammedans were defeated by the Meccans, but one
tribe after another submitted to him, and after a series
of victories Muhammed prepared, in 629, for further
conquests in Syria, but he died in 632 before they could
be accomplished. His successors were known as caliphs,
but from the very first his disciples quarrelled about
the leadership, some affirming the rights of Ali, who
had married Muhammed 's daughter, Fatima, and others
supporting the claims of Abu Bekr, his father-in-law.
There was also a religious quarrel concerning certain

COIN or ALL

SUNNITES AND SHIITES 325

oral traditions relating to the Koran, or the Muham-
medan sacred scriptures. Those who accepted the tradi-
tion were known as Sunnites, and those who rejected
it as Shiites, the latter being the supporters of Ali, both
sects, however, being known as Moslems or Islamites.
Omar, a Simnite, obtained the leader-
ship in 634, and proceeded to carry
out the prophet's ambitious schemes
of conquest. He subdued succes-
sively Syria, Palestine, and Phce-
nicia, and in 639 directed operations
against Egypt. The general in
charge of this expedition was Amr,
who led four thousand men against Pelusium, which
surrendered after a siege of thirty days. This easy
victory was crowned by the capture of Alexandria. Amr
entered the city on December 22, 640, and he seems to
have been surprised at his own success. He immediately
wrote to the caliph a letter in which he says:

" I have conquered the town of the West, and I can-
not recount all it contains within its walls. It contains
four thousand baths and twelve thousand venders of
green vegetables, four thousand Jews who pay tribute,
and four thousand musicians and mountebanks."

Amr was anxious to conciliate and gain the affection
of the new subjects he had added to the caliph's empire,
and during his short stay in Alexandria received them
with kindness and personally heard and attended to their
demands. It is commonly believed that in this period
the Alexandrian Library was dismantled; but, as we

326 THE MUHAMMEDAJSr PERIOD

have already seen, the books had been destroyed by the
zeal of contending Christians. The story that attributes
the destruction of this world-famous institution to the
Arabian conquerors is so much a part of history, and
has been so generally accepted as correct, that the tra-
ditional version should be given here.

Among the inhabitants of Alexandria whom Amr had
so well received, says the monkish chronicler, was one

John the Grammarian, a learned
Greek, disciple of the Jacobite sect,
who had been imprisoned by its
persecutors. Since his disgrace, he
had given himself up entirely to
study, and was one of the most
assiduous readers in the famous
library. With the change of masters
he believed the rich treasure would be speedily dispersed,
and he wished to obtain a portion of it himself. So,
profiting by the special kindness Amr had shown him,
and the pleasure he appeared to take in his conversation,
he ventured to ask for the gift of several of the philo-
sophic books whose removal would put an end to his
learned researches.

At first Amr granted this request without hesitation,
but in his gratitude John the Grammarian expatiated
so imwisely on the extreme rarity of the manuscripts
and their inestimable value, that Amr, on reflection,
feared he had overstepped his power in granting the
learned man's request. " I will refer the matter to the
caliph," he said, and thereupon wrote immediately to

COIN OP OMAR.

THE FOUNDING OF FOSTIt 327

Omar arid asked the caliph for his commands conceming
the disposition of the whole of the precious contents of
the library.

The caliph's answer came quickly. "If," he wrote,
" the books contain only what is in the book of God
(the Koran), it is enough for us, and these books are
useless. If they contain anything contrary to the holy
book, they are pernicious. In any case, bum them."

Amr wished to organise his new government, and,
having left a sufficient garrison in Alexandria, he gave
orders to the rest of his army to leave the camp in
the town and to occupy the interior of Egypt. " Where
shall we pitch our new camp? " the soldiers asked each
other, and the answer came from all parts, " Round the
general's tent." The army, in fact, did camp on the
banks of the Nile, in the vicinity of the modem Cairo^
where Amr had ordered his tent to be left; and round
this tent, which had become the centre of reunion, the
soldiers built temporary huts which were soon changed
into soM, permanent habitations. Spacious houses were
built for the leaders, and palaces for the generals, and
this collection of buildings soon became an important
military town, with strongly marked Muhammedan
characteristics. It was called Postat (tent) in memory
of the event, otherwise imimportant, which was the
origin of its creation. Amr determined' to make his new
town the capital of Egypt; whilst still preserving the
name of Fostat, he added that of Misr,— a title always
borne by the capital of Egypt, and which Memphis had
hitherto preserved in spite of the rivalry of Alexandria.

328 THE MUHAMMEDAJSr PERIOD

Fostat was then surrounded by fortifications, and
Amr took up Ms residence there, forming various estab-
lishments and giving himself up entirely to the organ-
isation of the vast province whose government the caliph
had entrusted to him. The personal tax, which was the
only one, had been determined in a fixed manner by the
treaty of submission he had concluded with the Kopts;
and an imimportant ground rent on landed property was
added in favour of the holy towns of Mecca and Medina,
as well as to defray some expenses of local admin-
istration.

Egypt was entirely divided into provincial districts,
all of which had their own governor and administrators
taken from among the Kopts themselves. The lands
which had belonged to the imperial government of Con-
stantinople, and those of the Grreeks who had abandoned
Egypt or been killed in the war against the Mussulmans,
were either declared to be the property of the new gov-
ernment or given out again as fiefs or rewards to the
chief of&cers of the army. All these lands were leased
to the Koptic farmers, and the respective rights of the
new proprietors or tenant farmers and of the peasant
proprietors were determined by decisive and invariable
rules. Thus the agricultural population enjoyed under
the Mussulmans a security and ease which replaced the
tyrannical annoyances and arbitrary exactions of the
Christian agents of the treasury of Constantinople; for,
in fact, little by little, there had disappeared under these
Greek agents the sound principles of the old adminis-
tration that had been established by the wise kings of

OLD CAIRO (rOSTAl).

DIVANS ESTABLISHED 331

ancient Egypt, and which the Ptolemies had scrupulously
preserved, as did also the first governors under the
Caesars.

After all these improvements in the internal admin-
istration, the governor turned his attention to the ques-
tion of justice, which until that moment had been subject
to the decision of financial agents, or of the soldiers
of the Greek government. Amr now created permanent
and regular tribunals composed of honourable, inde-
pendent, and enlightened men, who enjoyed public
respect and esteem. To Amr dates back the first of those
divans, chosen from the elite of the population, as sureties
of the fairness of the cadis, which received appeals
from first judgments to confirm them, or, in the case
of wrongful decisions, to alter them. The decrees of
the Arab judges had force only for those Mussulmans
who formed a part of the occupying army. "Whenever a
Koptie inhabitant was a party in an action, the Koptic
authorities had the right to intervene, and the parties
were judged by their equals in race and religion.

One striking act of justice succeeded in winning for
Amr the hearts of all. Despite the terror inspired by
the religious persecutions which Heraclius had carried on
with so much energy, one man, the Koptic patriarch
Benjamin, had bravely kept his faith intact. He belonged
to the Jacobite sect and abandoned none of its dogmas,
and in their intolerance the all-powerful Melchites did
not hesitate to choose him as their chief victim. Ben-
jamin was dispossessed of his patriarchal throne, his
liberty and life were threatened, and he only succeeded

332 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

in saving both by taking flight. He lived thus forgotten
in the various refuges that the desert monasteries
afforded him, while Heraclius replaced him by an ardent
supporter of the opinions favoured at court. The whole
of Egypt was then divided into two churches separated
from each other by an implacable hatred. At the head of
the Melchites was the new patriarch, who was followed
by a few priests and a small number of partisans who
were more attached to him by fear than by faith. The
Jacobites, on the other hand, comprised the immense ma-
jority of the population, who looked upon the patriarch
as an intruder chosen by the emperor. The church still
acknowledged as its real head Benjamin, the patriarch
who had been for thirteen years a wanderer, and whose
return was ardently desired. This wish found public
expression as soon as the downfall of the imperial power
in Egypt permitted its free manifestation. Amr listened
to the supplications that were addressed to him, and,
turning out the usurper in his turn, recalled Benjamin
from his long exile and replaced him on the patriarchal
throne.

But even here Amr's protection of the Koptic religion
did not end. He opened the door of his Mussulman town,
and allowed them to live in Fostat and to build churches
there in the midst of the Mussulman soldiers, even when
Islamism was still without a temple in the city, or
a consecrated place worthy of the religion of the
conquerors.

Amr at length resolved to build in his new capital a
magnificent mosque in imitation of the one at Mecca.

THE MOSQUE OF AME,

333

Designs were speedily drawn up, the location of the new
temple being, according to Arab authors, that of an
ancient pyre consecrated by the Persians, and which had
been in ruins since the time of the Ptolemies. The
monuments of Memphis had often been, pillaged by

A MODERN KOPT.

Grreek and Roman emperors, and now they were once
again despoiled to furnish the mosque of Amr with the
beautiful colonnades of marble and porphyry which
adorn the walls, and on which, the Arab historians
assure us, the whole Koran was written in letters of
gold.

334 THE MUHAMMEDAN PEEIOD

Omar died in 644, and under his successor, Othman,
the Arabian conquests were extended in Northern Africa.
Othman dying in 656, the claims of Ali were warmly
supported, but not universally recognised, many looking
to Muawia as an acceptable candidate for the caliphate.
This was especially the view of the Syrian Muham-
medans, and in 661 Muawia I. was elected caliph. He
promptly transferred the capital from Medina to Damas-
cus, and became in fact the founder of a dynasty known
as the Ommayads, the new caliph being a descendant of
the famous Arabian chieftain Ommayad. Egypt ac-
knowledged the new authority and remained quiet and
submissive. It furnished Abd el-Malik, who became
caliph in 685, not only with rich subsidies and abundant
provisions, but also with part of his troops.

The attachment of the Egyptians to their new mas-
ters wa^ chiefly owing to the gentleness and wisdom of
Abd el- Aziz ibn Merwan, who administered the country
after Amr was put to death in 689. He visited all the
provinces of Egypt, and, arriving at Alexandria, he or-
dered the building of a bridge over the canal, recognising
the importance of this communication between the town
and coimtry.

Benefiting by the religious liberty that Mussulman
sovereignship had secured them, the Kopts no longer
attended to the quarrels of their masters. They only
occupied themselves in maintaining the quiet peaceful-
ness they had obtained by regular payment of their
taxes, and by supplying men and commodities when
occasion demanded it. During the reign of Abd el-Malik

THE KOPTIC CHURCH

335

in Egypt the only remarkable event there was the elec-
tion, in 688, of the Jacobite Isaac as patriarch of Alex-
andria. The Koptic clergy give him no other claim to
historical remembrance than the formulating of a decree

MOSQUE OF AMR.

ordaining " that the patriarch can only be inaugurated
on a Sunday."

Isaac was succeeded by Simon the Syrian, whom the
Koptic church looks upon as a saint, and for whom is

336 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

claimed the power of reviving the dead. He neverthe-
less died from the effects of poison given him at the
altar by some jealous rival. Arab historians relate how
deputies came to Simon from India to ask for a bishop
and some priests. The patriarch refused to comply with
this request, but Abd el-Aziz, thinking that this rela-
tion with India might prove politically useful, gave the
order to other and more docUe priests.

The patriarchal seat was empty for three years after
the death of Simon. The Kopts next appointed a pa-
triarch named Alexander, who held the office for a little
over twenty years. The Koptic writers who recount
the history of this patriarch mention their discontent
with the governor Abd el-Aziz. The monks and other
members of the clergy had grown very numerous in
Egypt and claimed to be exempt from taxation. Abd
el- Aziz, whose yearly tax was fixed, thought it unjust
that the poorest classes of the people should be made
to pay while the priests, the bishop, and the patriarch,
all possessing abundance, should be privileged by ex-
emption. He therefore had a census made of aU the
monks and put on them a tax of one dinar (about $2.53),
while he exacted from the patriarch an annual payment
of three thousand dinars, or about $7,600. This act of
justice was the cause of many complaints among the
clergy, but they were soon suppressed and were without
result.

After more than twenty years of a prosperous gov-
ernment of Egypt, Abd el-Aziz ibn Merwan died at
Fostat in the year 708 (a. h. 86) at the very time when,

THE CALIPH WALID

337

COIN OF ABU BEKR.

with many fresh plans for the future, he had completed
the building of a large and magnificent palace called
ed-Dar el-mudahaba (the golden house), and a quarter
of the town called Suk el-hammam (the pigeon market).
The Caliph Abd el-Malik felt deeply
the loss of this brother, whose qual-
ities he highly appreciated and whom
he had appointed as his successor.

He now named as his heir to the
caliphate Walid, his eldest son, and
replaced Abd el- Aziz in the govern-
ment of Egypt with his second son,
Abd Allah ibn Abd el-Malik. The Kopts hoped to ob-
tain from the new governor the repeal of the act that
exacted yearly tribute from the clergy, but Abd Allah
did not think it fair to grant this unjust discrimination
against the poorer classes of the Egyptians. Those
monks who have written the history
of the patriarchs have therefore
painted Abd Allah in even blacker
colours than they did his predeces-
sor. For the rest, Abd Allah only
held the reins of government in
Egypt imtil the death of his father,
which occurred a few months later.

Suleiman succeeded his brother Walid I. The new
caliph vigorously put into execution all the plans his
brother had formed for the propagation of the religion
of the Prophet. In the first year of his reign he con-
quered Tabaristan and Georgia, and sent his brother

COIN OP OTHMAN.

338

THE MUHAMMEDAI^ PERIOD

Maslama to lay fresh siege to Constantinople. On his
accession to the throne Suleiman placed the government
of Egypt in the hands of Assama ibn Yazid, with the
title of agent-general of finances.

The Koptic clerical historians, according to their
usual habit, portray this governor as stiU worse than
his predecessors, but in this case the Mussulman au-
thorities are in agreement in accusing him of the most
iniquitous extortions and most barbarous massacres.
The gravest reproach they bring against him is that,
calling all the monks together, he told thehi that not

only did he intend to
maintain the old regula-
tions of Abd el- Aziz, by
which they had to pay an
annual tax of one dinar
($2.53), but also that they
would be obliged to receive yearly from his agents an
iron ring bearing their name and the date of the finan-
cial transaction, for which ring they were to make per-
sonal contribution. He forced the wearing of this ring
continually, and the hand found without this strange
form of receipt was to be cut off. Several monks who
endeavoured to evade this strict order were pitilessly
mutilated, while a number of them, rebelling against
the payment of the tax, retired into convents, think-
ing they could safely defraud the treasury. Assama,
however, sent his soldiers to search these retreats, and
all the monks found without rings were beheaded or
put to death by the bastinado.

COIN OP MALIK.

A NEW jSTILOMETEE

339

Careful about all that related to the Egyptian rev-
enues, Assama commanded the keeping up of the vari-
ous Nilometers, which stiU served to regulate the assess-
ment of the ground tax. In the year 718 he learned
that the Nilometer established at Helwan, a little below
Fostat, had fallen in, and hastened to report the fact

CITADEL OF OAIKO (FOStSt).

to the caliph. By the orders of this prince the ruined
Nilometer was abandoned, and a new one built at the
meridional point of the island now called Rhodha, just
between Fostat and Gizeh. But of all the financial trans-
actions of Assama, the one that vexed most the inhab-
itants of Egypt, and which brought down on him the
most violent and implacable hatred, was the ordinance
by which all ascending or descending the Nile were

340 THE MUHAMMEDAII PEEIOD

obliged to provide themselves with a passport bearing
a tax. This exorbitant claim was carried out with an
abusive and arbitrary sternness. A poor widow, the
Oriental writers say, was travelling up the Nile with
her son, having with her a correct passport, the payment
of which had taken nearly all she possessed. The young
man, while stretched along the boat to drink of the
river's water, was seized by a crocodile and swallowed,
together with the passport he carried in his breast. The
treasury officers insisted that the wretched widow should
take a fresh one ; and to obtain payment for it she sold
all she had, even to the very clothes she wore. Such
intolerable exactions and excesses ended by thoroughly
rousing the indignant Egyptians. The malcontents as-
sembled, and a general revolt would have been the result
but for the news of the death of the Caliph Suleiman
(717), which gave birth to the hope that justice might
be obtained from his successor.

The next caliph was Omar II., a grandson of Merwan
I., who had been nominated as his successor by Suleiman.
In his reign the Muhammedans were repulsed from Con-
stantinople, and the political movement began which
finally established the Abbasid dynasty at Baghdad.
Omar dying in the year 720, Yazid II., a son of Abd el-
Malik, succeeded to the caliphate, and reigned for four
years, history being for the most part silent as to the
general condition of Egypt under these two caliphs.
It is recorded that in the year 720, one of Yazid 's broth-
ers, by name Muhammed ibn Abd el-Malik, ruled over
Egypt, The Kopts complained of his rule, and declared

CONSTANT CHANGE OF GOVEENOES

341

that during the whole reign of Yazid ibn Abd el-MaUk

the Christians were persecuted, crosses overthrown, and

churches destroyed.

Yazid was succeeded, in 724 a. d., by his brother

Hisham, surnamed Abu'l-Walid, the fourth son of Abd

el-Malik to occupy the throne
[fy^ of Islam, who, having been ap-
pointed by his brother as his
successor, took possession of
f|' the throne on the very day of
his death. Muhanuned was re-
placed in Egypt by his cousin,
Hassan ibn Yusuf, who only
held office for three years, re-
signing voluntarily in the year
730 A. D., or 108 of the Hegira.
The Caliph Hisham replaced
him by Hafs ibn Walid, who
was deposed a year later, and

A CBOCODILB USED AS A TALISMAN.

in the year 109 of the Hegira
the caliph appointed in his place Abd el-Malik ibn Rifa,
who had already governed Egypt during the caliphate
of Walid I. Hisham made many changes in the gov-
ernorship of Egypt, and amid a succession of rulers
appointed Handhala to the post. He had already been
governor of Egypt under Yazid 11. He administered
the province for another six years, and, according to the
Christian historians of the East, pursued the same course
of intolerance and tyranny that he had adopted when
he governed Egypt for the first time under Yazid.

342 THE MUHAMMEDAliT PEEIOD

The Caliph Hisham enjoined Handhala to be gentle
with his subjects and to treat the Christians with kind-
ness, but far from conforming with these wise and kindly
intentions, he overwhelmed them with vexations and
tyrannous acts. He doubled the taxes by a general
census, subjecting not only men but also their animals
to an impost. The receipts for the new duty had to be
stamped with the impression of a lion, and every Chris-
tian found without one of these documents was deprived
of one of his hands.

In the year 746 (a. h. 124) , on being informed of these
abuses, the caliph deprived him of the government of
Egypt, and, giving him the administration of Mauritania,
appointed as his successor Hafs ibn Walid, who, accord-
ing to some accounts, had previously governed Egypt for
sixteen years, and who had left pleasanter recollections
behind him. Hafs, however, now only held office for a
year.

Nothing of political importance happened in Egypt
under the long reign of Hisham, the only events noticed
by the Christian historians being those which relate
solely to their ecclesiastical history. The 108th year
of the Hegira saw the death of Alexander, the forty-third
Koptic Patriarch of Alexandria. Since the conquest of
Egypt by Omar, for a period of about twenty-four years,
the patriarchate had been in the hands of the Jacobites;
all the bishops in Egypt belonged to that sect, and they
had established Jacobite bishops even in N'ubia, which
they had converted to their religion. The orthodox Chris-
tians elected Kosmas as their patriarch. At that time

THE ABBASIDS 343

the heretics had taken possession of all the churches in
Egypt, and the patriarch only retained that of Mar-Saba,
or the Holy Sabbath. Kosmas, by his solicitations, ob-
tained from Hisham an order to his financial adminis-
trator in Egypt, Abd Allah ibn es-Sakari, to see that all
the churches were returned to the sect to which they
belonged.

After occupying the patriarchal throne for only fif-
teen months, Kosmas died. In the 109th year of the
Hegira (a.d. 727—28) Kosmas was succeeded by the
patriarch Theodore. He occupied the seat for eleven
years. His patriarchate was a period of peace and quiet
for the church of Alexandria, and caused a temporary
cessation of the quarrels between the Melchites and the
Jacobites. A vacancy of six years followed his death
until, in the year 127 of the Hegira (749 a. d.), Ibn KhalU
was promoted to the office of patriarch, and held his seat
for twenty-three years.

Walid II. succeeded to the caliphate in the year 749.
One of his first acts was to take the government of Egypt
from Hafs, in spite of the kindness of his rule, the wis-
dom and moderation of which had gained for him the
affection of all the provinces which he governed. He
was replaced by Isa ibn Abi Atta, who soon created a
universal discontent, as his administrative measures
were oppressive.

In the year 750 the Ommayads were supplanted by
the Abbasids, who transferred the capital from Damascus
to Baghdad. The first Abbasid caliph was Abu '1- Abbas,
who claimed descent from Abbas, the uncle of Muham-

344 THE MUHAMMEDAN PEKIOD

med. The caliph Merwan II., the last of the Onunayads,
in his flight from his enemies came to Egypt and sent
troops from Fostat to hold Alexandria. He was now
pursued to his death by the Abbasid general Salih ibn
Ali, who took possession of Fostat for the new dynasty
in 750. The change from the Ommayad to the Abbasid
caliphs was effected with little difficulty, and Egypt con-
tinued to be a province of the caKphate and was ruled
by governors who were mostly Arabs or members of the
Abbasid family.

Abu '1- Abbas, after being inaugurated, began his rule
by recalling all the provincial governors, whom he re-
placed by his kinsmen and partisans. He entrusted the
government of Egypt to his paternal uncle, Salih ibn Ali,
who had obtained the province for him. Salih, however,
did not rule in person, but was represented by Abu Aun
Abd el-Malik ibn Yazid, whom he appointed vice-gov-
ernor. The duties of patriarch of Alexandria were then
performed by Michel, commonly called Khail by the
Kopts. This patriarch was of the Jacobite sect and the
forty-fifth successor of St. Mark : he held the office about
three years. He in turn was succeeded by the patriarch
Myna, a native of Semennud (the ancient Sebennytus).

In the year 754 Abu '1- Abbas died at the age of thirty-
two, after reigning four years, eight months, and twenty-
six days, the Arabian historians being always very
precise in recording the duration of the reign of the
caliphs. He was the first of the caliphs to appoint a
vizier, the Onmiayad caliphs employing only secretaries
during their administration. The successor of Abu'l-

INCREASED TAXATION 345

Abbas was Ms brother Abu Jafar, sumamed El-Man-
sur. Three years after his accession he took the govern-
ment of Egypt from his imcle, and in less than seven
years Egypt passed successively through the hands of
six different governors. These changes were instigated
by the mistrustful disposition of the caliph, who saw
in every man a traitor and conspirator, dismissing on
the slightest provocation his most devoted adherents,
some of whom were even put to death by his orders. His
last choice, Yazid ibn Hatim, governed Egypt for eight
years, and the caliph bestowed the title of Prince of
Egypt (Emir Misri) upon him, which title was also
borne by his successors.

These continual changes in the government of Egypt
had not furthered the prosperity and weU-being of the
inhabitants. Each ruler, certain of speedy dismissal,
busied himself with his personal affairs to the detriment
of the country, anxious only to amass by every possible
means sufficient money to compensate him for his inevi-
table deposition. Moreover, each governor increased the
taxation levied by his predecessor. Such was the greed
and rapacity of these governors that every industry was
continually subjected to increased taxation; the work-
ing bricklayer, the vender of vegetables, the camel-driver,
the gravedigger, all callings, even that of mendicant,
were taxed, and the lower classes were reduced to eating
dog's flesh and human remains. At the moment when
Egypt, unable to support such oppression longer, was
on the verge of insurrection, the welcome tidings of the
death of El-Mansur arrived.

346 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

Muhanuned el-Mahdi, son of El-Mansur, succeeded
his father and was the third caliph of the house of Abbas.
He was at Baghdad when his father expired near Mecca,
but, despite his absence, was immediately proclaimed
caliph. El-Mahdi betrayed in his deeds that same fickle-
ness which had signalised the caliphate of his father,
El-Mansur. He appointed a different governor of Egypt
nearly every year. These many changes resulted prob-
ably from the political views held by the caliph, or per-
haps he already perceived the tendency shown by each
of his provinces to separate itself from the centre of
Islamism. Perhaps also he already foresaw those di-
visions which destroyed the empire about half a century
later. Thus his prudence sought, in allowing but a short
period of power to each governor, to prevent their
strengthening themselves sufficiently in their provinces
to become independent.

Egypt remained calm and subdued under these con-
stant changes of government. Syria and the neighbour-
ing provinces followed suit, and the Caliph el-Mahdi
profited by this peaceful state of things to attack the
Emperor of the Greeks. His second son, Harun, under-
took the continuation of this war, and the young prince
displayed such talent and bravery that he gained brilliant
victories, and returned to Baghdad after having cap-
tured several cities from the Greeks, overthrown their
generals, and forced Constantinople to pay an annual
tribute of seventy thousand dinars (about $180,000).
The Caliph el-Mahdi rewarded Harun by solemnly nam-
ing him the future successor of his eldest son, Musa

HAEUN EE-EASHID

347

el-Hadi, whom he had just definitely declared his heir
to the throne. Shortly after this decision, el-Mahdi died,
in the year 785, having reigned ten years and two months.

Musa el-Hadi, his eldest son, succeeded htm, being
the fourth caliph of the race of Abbasids. On ascending
the throne, he withdrew the government of Egypt from
Fadl ibn Salih, appointing
in his place Ali ibn Sulei-
man, also a descendant of
Abbas. El-Hadi plotted
against the claims of Ha-
run to the succession, but
he died before his plans
had matured, and Harun
became caliph in the
year 786.

The reign of Harun
er-Rashid was the most
brilliant epoch of the em-
pire of Islamism, and his
glory penetrated from the
far East to the western
countries of Europe,

where his name is still celebrated. Harun seems to have
been as reluctant as his father and grandfather were
before him to leave a province too long in the hands of
a governor, and he even surpassed them in his precau-
tionary measures. In the year 171 of the Hegira, he
recalled Ali ibn Suleiman, and gave the government of
Egypt to Musa ibn Isa, a descendant of the Caliph Ali.

DOCK OP AN ARABIAN HOUSE.

348 THE MUHAMMEDAJ^ PERIOD

Thereafter the governors were changed on an average
of once a year, and their financial duties were separately
administered. Musa ibn Isa, however, held the appoint-
ment of Grovernor of Egypt on three separate occasions,
and of his third period Said ibn Batrik tells the following
anecdote :

" While Obaid Allah ibn el-Mahdi was ruling in
Egypt," he relates, " he sent a beautiful young Koptic
slave to his brother, the caliph, as a gift. The Egyptian
odalisk so charmed the caliph that he fell violently in
love with her. Suddenly, however, the favourite was
laid prostrate by a malady which the court physicians
could neither cure nor even diagnose. The girl insisted
that, being Egyptian, only an Egyptian physician could
cure her. The caliph instantly ordered his brother to
send post haste the most skilful doctor in Egypt. This
proved to be the Melchite patriarch, for in those days
Koptic priests practised medicine and cultivated other
sciences. The patriarch set out for Baghdad, restored
the favourite to health, and in reward received from the
caliph an imperial diploma, which restored to the ortho-
dox Christians or Melchites all those privileges of which
they had been deprived by the Jacobite heretics since
their union with the conqueror Amr ibn el-Asi."

If this story be true, one cannot but perceive the plot
skilfully laid and carried out by the powerful clergy,
to whom any means, even the sending of a concubine to
the caliph, seemed legitimate to procure the restoration
of their supremacy and the humiliation of their adver-
saries.

THE SHAFITES

349

The year 204 of the Hegira was memorable for the
death of the Iman Muhammed ibn Idris, sm-named esh-
Shafi, This celebrated doctor was the founder of one
of the four orthodox sects which recognised the Moslem
religion, and whose followers take the name " Shafites "
from their chief. The
Iman esh-Shafi died at
Fostat when but forty-
three years old. His dog-
mas are more especially fol-
lowed in Egypt, where his
sect is still represented and
presided over by one of the
four Imans at the head of
the famous Mosque Jam el-
Azar, or mosque of flowers.

The distance of Egypt
from Baghdad, the caliph's capital, was the cause of
the neglect of many of his commands, and upon more
than one occasion was his authority slighted. Thus it
happened that for more than five years the government
of Egypt was in the hands of Abd Allah ibn es-Sari,
whom the soldiers elected, but whose appointment was
never confirmed by the caliph. Abd Allah ibn Tahir, the
son of the successful general, had, in the year a. h. 210,
settled at Belbeys in Egypt. With a large number of
partisans, he assumed almost regal privileges. In 211
A. H. he proceeded to Eostat and there dismissed Abd
Allah ibn es-Sari and replaced him by Ayad ibn Ibrahim,
whom he also dismissed the following year, giving the

A VEILED BEAUTY.

360 THE MUHAMMEDAIf PERIOD

governorship to Isa ibn Yazid, surnamed el-Jalud. In
the year 213, the Caliph el-Mamim ordered Abd Allah
ibn Tahir to retire, and confided the government of Egypt
and also that of Syria to his o^vn brother el-Mutasim,
third son of the Caliph Harun er-Rashid.

In the year 218 of the Hegira (a, d. 833), Muhammed
el-Mutasim succeeded his brother el-Mamun. He was
the first caliph who brought the name of God into his
surname. On ascending the throne, he assumed the title
el-Mutasim b'lUah, that is " strengthened by God," and
his example was followed by all his successors.

Prom the commencement of this reign, el-Mutasim
b'lllah was forced to defend himself against insurgents
and aspirants to the caliphate. In the year 219 of the
Hegira, Kindi, the Governor of Egypt, died, and the
caliph named his son, Mudhaffar ibn Kindi, as his suc-
cessor. Mudhaffar ibn Kindi, dying the following year,
was succeeded by Musa, son of Abu '1- Abbas, surnamed
esh-Shirbani by some writers, esh-Shami (the Syrian)
by others. In the year 224 Musa was recalled and his
place taken by Malik, surnamed by some el-Hindi (the
Indian), by others ibn el-Kindi. A year later the caliph
dismissed Mahk, and sent Ashas to Egypt in his place.
This was the last governor appointed by el-Mutasim
b'lllah, for the caliph died of fever in the year 227 of
the Hegira.

Oriental historians have noticed that the numeral
eight affected this caliph in a singular manner. Between
himself and Abbas, the head of his house, there were
eight generations; he was bom in the month of Shaban,

THE LIFE OF MUTAMMA

351

the eighth month of the Mussulman year; he was the
eighth Abbasidian caliph, and ascended the throne in
the year 218, aged thirty-eight years and eight months;
he reigned eight years, eight months, and eight days,
and died in the forty-eighth year of his age, leaving eight
sons and eight daughters. He fought in eight battles,

TOMB OF A SHEIKH.

and on his death eight million dinars and eighty thousand
dirhems were discovered in his private treasury. It is
this singular coincidence which gave him the name
Mutamma.

But a sadder fatality exercised its influence over the
€aliph Mutamma, for from him dates the beginning of
the decadence of his dynasty, and to him its first cause

352 THE MUHAMMEDAJ^ PERIOD

may be ascribed. The fact is, Mutasim was uneducated,
without ability, and lacking in moral principles; he
was unable even to write. Endowed with remarkable
strength and muscles of iron, he was able, so Arab his-
torians relate, to lift and carry exceptionally heavy
weights; to this strength was added indomitable courage
and love of warfare, fine weapons, horses, and warriors.
This taste led him, even before the death of his father,
to organise a picked corps, for which he selected the
finest, handsomest, and strongest of the young Turkish
slaves taken in war, or sent as tribute to the caliph.

The vast nation, sometimes called Turks, sometimes
Tatars, was distributed, according to all Oriental geog-
raphers, over all the countries of N'orthem Asia, from
the river Jihun or Oxus to Kathay or China. That the
Turks and the Arabs, both bent upon a persistent policy
of conquest, should come into more or less hostile contact
was inevitable. The struggle was a long one, and during
the numerous engagements many prisoners were taken
on both sides. Those Turks who fell into the hands of
the Arabs were sent to the different provinces of their
domain, where they became slaves of the chief emirs
and of the caliphs themselves, where, finding favour in
the eyes of the caliphs, they were soon transferred to
their personal retinue. The distrust which the caliphs
felt for the emirs of their court, whose claims they were
only able to appease by making vassals of them, caused
them to commit the grave error of confiding in these alien
slaves, who, barbaric and illiterate as they were, now
living in the midst of princes, soon acquired a knowledge

Janizary of the Guard

Etching by A. Fabres

Janizary of the Guard

Etching by A. Fabres

TULUN 353

of Muhanunedanism, the sciences, and, above all, the
politics of the country.

It was not long before they were able to fiU the most
responsible positions, and, given their freedom by the
caliphs, were employed by the government according
to their abilities. Not only were they given the chief
positions at court, but the government of the principal
provinces was entrusted to them. They repaid these
favours later by the blackest ingratitude, especially
when the formation of a Turkish guard brought a number
of their own countrymen under their influence. Ever
anxious to augment his own body-guard, and finding the
number of Turks he annually received as tribute insuf-
ficient, el-Mutasim purchased a great many for the pur-
pose of training them for that particular service. But
these youths speedily abused the confidence shown them
by the caliph, who, perceiving that their insolence was
daily growing more insupportable to the inhabitants of
Baghdad, resolved to leave the capital, rebuild the an-
cient city of Samarrah and again make it the seat of
the empire.

At this time the captain of the caliph's guard was
one Tulun, a freedman, whom fate would seem to have
reduced to servitude for the purpose of showing that
a slave might found a dynasty destined to rule over
Egypt and Syria. Tulun belonged to the Toghus-ghur,
one of the twenty-four tribes composing the population
of Turkestan. His family dwelt near Lake Lop, in Little
Bukhara. He was taken prisoner in battle by ISTuh ibn
Assad es-Samami, then in command at Bukhara. This

354 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

prince, who was subject to tlie Caliph Mamim, paid an
annual tribute of slaves, Turkish horses, and other val-
uables. In the year 815 a. d., Tulun was among the slaves
sent as tribute to the caliph, who, attracted by his bear-
ing, enrolled him in Ms own body-guard.

Before long he had so gained the caliph's confidence
that Mamun gave him his freedom and the command
of the guard, at the same time appointing him Emir
es-sitri, prince of the veil or curtain. This post, which
was a mark of the greatest esteem, comprised the charge
of the personal safety of the sovereign, by continually
keeping watch without the curtain or rich drapery which
hung before the private apartments, and admitting no
one without a special order. Tulun spent twenty years
at the court of el-Mamun and of his successor, Mutasim,
and became the father of several children, one of which,
Ahmed ibn Tulun/ known later as Abu 1 'Abbas, was
the founder of the Tulunide djoiasty in Egypt and Syria.

Before Ahmed ibn Tulun had reached an age to take
part in political affairs, two caliphs succeeded Mutasim
b'lUali. The first was his son Harun abu Jafar, who,
upon his accession, assumed the surname el-Wathik
b'lllah (trusting in Grod). Wathik carried on the tra-

^ Ahmed ibn Tulun was, according to some historians, born at Baghdad in the
year 220 of the Hegira, in the third year of the reign of el -Mutasim b' Illah.
Others claim Samarrah as his birthplace. His mother, a young Turkish slave,
was named Kassimeh, or some say, Hachimeh. Some historians have denied
that Ahmed was the son of Tulun, one of them, Suyuti, in a manuscript be-
longing to Marcel, quotes Abu Asakar in confirmation of this assertion, who
pretends he was told by an old Egyptian that Ahmed was the son of a Turk
named Mahdi and of Kassimeh, the slave of Tulun. Suyuti adds that Tulun
adopted the child on account of his good qualities, but this statement is unsup-
ported and seems contradicted by subsequent events.

THE KINGDOM DIVIDED 355

ditional policy of continually changing the governors
of the provinces, and, dying in the year 847, was suc-
ceeded by his haK-brother Mutawakkil. In the following
year the new caKph confided the government of Egypt
to Anbasa, but dismissed him a few months later in
favour of his own son el-Muntasir ibn el-Mutawakkil,
whom two years afterwards the caliph named as his suc-
cessor to the throne. El-Mimtasir was to be immediately
succeeded by his two younger brothers, el-Mutazz b'll-
lah and el-Mujib b'lllah.

Mutawakkil then proceeded to divide his kingdom,
giving Africa and all his Eastern possessions, from the
frontier of Egypt to the eastern boundary of his states,
to his eldest son. His second son, el-Mutazz, received
Khorassan, Tabaristan, Persia, Armenia, and Aderbaijan
as his portion, and to el-Mujib, his third son, he gave
Damascus, Hemessa, the basin of the Jordan, and Pal-
estine,

These measures, by which the caliph hoped to satisfy
the ambitions of his sons, did not have the desired effect.
Despite the immense concessions he had received, el-
Muntasir, anxious to commence his rule over the whole
of the Islam empire, secretly conspired against his father
and meditated taking his life. Finding that in Egypt
he was too far from the scene of his intrigues, he deputed
the government of that country to Yazid ibn Abd Allah,
and returned to his father's court to encourage the mal-
contents and weave fresh plots. His evU schemes soon
began to bear fruit, for, in the year 244 of the Hegira,
Ms agents stirred up the Turkish soldiery at Damascus

356

THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

to insurrection on the ground of deferred payment.
Whereupon the caliph paid them the arrears, and left
Damascus to retire to Samarrah.

THE MOSQUE OF IBN TDLUN, CAIRO.

At length, in the year 861 (a. h. 247), Mutawakkil
discovered the scarcely concealed treachery of his son,
and reproved him publicly. Some days later the caliph
was murdered at night by the captain of his Turkish
Guard, and Muntasir, who is commonly supposed to have

THE NEW NILOMETER 357

instigated tlie crime, was immediately proclaimed as Ms
successor in the government.

The most important event in Egypt during the reign
of Mutawakkil was the falling in of the Nilometer at
Fostat. This disaster was the result of an earthquake
of considerable violence, which was felt throughout
Syria. The caliph ordered the reconstruction of the
Nilometer, which was accomplished the same year, and
the Nilometer of the Island of Rhodha was then called
Magaz el-jedid, or the New Nilometer.

After reigning scarcely a year, Mimtasir himself suc-
cumbed, most probably to poison, and his cousin Ahmed
was elected to the caliphate by the Turkish soldiery, with
the title of Mustain. During his brief reign the Moslems
were defeated by the Byzantines at Awasia, and in 866
the Turkish soldiers revolted against the caliph and
elected his brother Mutazz in his place. Mustain was,
however, allowed to retire to Ma'szit. He was permitted
to take an attendant with him, and his choice fell upon
Ahmed, the son of Tulun, already mentioned. Ahmed
served the dethroned prince truly, and had no part in
the subsequent murder of this imhappy man.

In the meantime the mother of Ahmed had married
the influential General Baik-Bey, and when the latter
was given the rulership of Egypt in the year 868 a. d.
(254 A. H.), he sent his stepson as proxy, according to
the custom of the time. On the 23d Ramadhan 254 (15th
September, 868), Ahmed ibn Tulun arrived at Postat.
He encountered great difficulties, and discovered that at
Alexandria and also in other districts there were inde-

358 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

pendent emirs, who were not directly under the ruler.
Soon after his arrival an insurrection broke out in Upper
Egypt. Ahmed showed himself born to the place; he
crushed the uprising and also suppressed a second revolt
that was threatening. By degrees he cleverly under-
mined the power of his colleagues, and made his own
position in Postat secure.

When Muaf&k was nominated commander-in-chief of
the West by his brother Mustamid (elected caliph in 870),
Ahmed managed to secure the good-will of the vizier
of the caliph and thus to obtain the command in Egypt.
He kept the regent in Baghdad in a state of compla-
cency, occasionally sending him tribute; but, as wars
with the Sinds began to trouble the caliphate, he did not
think it worth while to trouble himself further about
Baghdad, and decided to keep his money for himself.
Muafi&k was not the man to stand this, and prepared
to attack Ahmed, but the disastrous results of the last
war had not yet passed away. When the army intended
for Egypt was camping in Mesopotamia, there was not
enough money to pay the troops, and the undertaking
had to be deferred.

Ahmed had a free hand over the enormous produce
of Egypt. The compulsory labour of the industrious
Kopt brought in a yearly income of four million gold
dinars ($10,120,000), and yet these people felt them-
selves better off than formerly on account of the greater
order and peace that existed under his energetic gov-
ernment. It cannot be denied that Ahmed in the course
of years became much more extravagant and luxurious,

THE MOSQUE OF TULUN

359

but he used Ms large means in some measure for the
betterment of the country. He gave large sums not only
for the erection of palaces and barracks, but also for hos-
pitals and educational advancement. To this day is to

SANCTtTART OP THE MOSQUE OP IBN TULUN.

be seen the mosque of Ibn Tulun, built by him in the
newer part of Fostat,-a district which was later an-
nexed to the town of Cairo.

The numerous wars in which Muaffik was involved
gave Ahmed the opportunity of extending his power

'MO THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

beyond the boundaries of Egypt. The ruler of the ca-
liphate of Damascus died in the year 897, and soon after
Ahmed marched into Syria, and, with the exception of
Antioch, which had to be taken by force, the whole coun-
try fell inta the hands of the mighty emir. The com-
manders of isolated districts did not feel themselves
encouraged to offer any resistance, for they had no feel-
ing of faithfulness for the government, nor had they
any hope of assistance from Baghdad.

The trimnphant march of Tulim was hindered in the
year 879 by bad news from Fostat. One of his sons.
El- Abbas, had quarrelled with his father, and had
marched to Barca, with troops which he led afterwards
to disaster, and had taken with him money to the amount
of 1,000,000 dinars ($2,530,000). He thought himself
safe from his enraged father there, but the latter quickly
returned to Fostat, and the news of the ample prepara-
tions which he was hastening for the subjection of his
rebel son caused El- Abbas to place himself still farther
out of his reach. He suddenly attacked the state of
Ibrahim II. (the Aghlabite), and caused serious trouble
with his soldiery in the eastern districts of Tripolis,
The neighbouring Berbers gave Ibrahim their assistance,
and Abbas was defeated and retreated to Barca in 880.
He remained there some time until an army sent by
Ahmed annihilated his troops and he himself was taken
prisoner.

The rebellion of his son was the turning-point in
Ahmed's career: Lulu, his general in Mesopotamia, de-
serted him for Muaffik, and an endeavour to conquer

DEATH OF TULUN 361

Mecca was frustrated by the unexpected resistance of
nmnbers of newly arrived pilgrims. Ahmed now caused
the report to be spread that Muaffik was a conspirator
against the representatives of the Prophet, thus depriv-
ing him of his dignity. The emir had also besieged in
vain at Tarsus his former general Jasman, who had
become presumptuous on account of his victory over the
Byzantines. He would eventually have made up for this

THE MOSQUE OP IBN TtJLUN.

defeat, but an illness overcame him while encamped
before Tarsus. He obeyed his doctor's orders as little
as the caliph's, and his malady, aggravated by improper
diet, caused his death in his fifty-first year at Postat
in 884, whither he had withdrawn. He left seventeen
sons,— enough to assure a dynasty of a hundred years.
Khumarawaih, who inherited the kingdom, had not
many of his father's characteristics. He was a good-

362 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

natured, pleasure-loving young man, barely twenty years
old, and with a marked distaste for war. He did, how-
ever, notwithstanding his peace-loving proclivities, fight
the caliph's forces near Damascus, and defeat them,
never having seen a battle before. The emir fled from
the scene in a panic.

When Muatadid became caliph in 892, he offered his
daughter Katr en-Neda (Dewdrop) in marriage to the
caliph's son. The Arabic historians relate that Khuma-
rawaih was fearful of assassination, and had his couch
guarded by a trained Uon, but he was finally put to death
(a. h. 282), according to some accounts by women, and
according to others by his eunuchs. The death of Khu-
marawaih was the virtual downfall of the Tulunid
dynasty.

The officers of the army then at first made Gaish
Abu'l-Asakir (one of Khumarawaih's sons) emir; but,
when this fourteen-year-old boy seemed incapable of
anything but stupid jokes, they put his brother Harun
on the throne. Every commanding officer, however, did
as he liked. Rajib, the commander of the army of de-
fence, declared himself on the side of the caliph, and
the Syrian emirs gave themselves up to his general,
Muhammed ibn Suleiman, without any resistance. At
the close of the year he was before Postat, and at the
same time a fleet appeared at Damietta. A quarrel arose
amongst Harun 's body-guard, in which the unlucky
prince was killed (904). His uncle Shaiban, a worthy
son of Ahmed, made a last stand, but was obliged to give
in to the superior force.

a u tij T n d r h'^ ^4; . i i\ \o -j • i p - < - i /.

Mosque of Ahmed ibn Tulun

\,l^

-i^f^ii-1 ndi ^s^Ux^

Mosque of Ahmed ibn Tulun

~^?^i^.

THE IKSHIDITE DYNASTY 363

Miihaimned behaved with his Turks in the most out-
rageous way in Fostat: the plundering was unrestrained,
and that part of Fostat which Ahmed had built was
ahnost entirely destroyed. The adherents of the reign-
ing family were grossly maltreated, many of them killed,
and others sent to Baghdad. The governors changed in
rapid succession; disorder, want, and wretchedness ex-
isted throughout the entire country west of the caliph's
kingdom. At this period the provinces of the empire
had already fallen into the hands of the numerous minor
princes, who, presuming on the caliph's weakness, had
declared themselves independent sovereigns. Nothing
remained to the Abbasids but Baghdad, a few neigh-
bouring provinces, and Egypt.

Under the Caliphs Muktadir, Kahir, and Eahdi,
Egypt had an almost constant change of governors. One
of them, Abu Bekr Muhammed, ultimately became the
founder of a new dynasty,— the Ikshidite,— destined to
rule over Egypt and Syria, Abu Bekr Muhammed was
the son of Takadj, then governor of Damascus. His
father had been chief emir at the court of the Tulunid
princes, and, after the fall of this dynasty, remained in
Egypt, where he occupied a post under the government.
Intrigues, however, drove him to Syria, whither his
partisans followed him. He first entered the army of
the caliph, and, capturing the town of Ramleh, was given
the governorship of Damascus as reward. His son Abu
Bekr Muhammed did not go to Egypt to fulfil the duties
with which he had been invested, and only retained the
title for one month. He was subsequently reinstated, and

364 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

this time repaired thither. But Ahmed ibn Kighlagh,
who was then governing Egypt, refused to retire and was
only defeated after several engagements, when he and
his followers proceeded to Barca in Africa.

In the year 328 of the Hegira, the caliph Eadhi be-
stowed the honour of Emir el-Umara (Prince of Princes)
upon Muhammed ibn Raik. This officer, discontented
with the government of Palestine, led an army into Syria
and expelled Badra, the lieutenant of Muhammed el-
Ikshid. The latter left Egypt at once, entrusting the
government of that country to his brother, el-Hassan,
and brought his forces to Paramah, where the troops of
Muhammed ibn Raik were already stationed. Thanks
to the mediation of several emirs, matters were con-
cluded peacefully, and Muhammed el-Ikhshid returned
to Postat. Upon his arrival, however, he learnt that
Muhammed ibn Raik had again left Damascus and was
preparing to march upon Egypt.

This intelligence obliged Muhammed el-Ikshid to
return at once to Syria. He encountered the advance-
guard of the enemy and promptly led the attack; his
right wing was scattered, but the centre, commanded by
himself, remained firm, and Muhanuned ibn Raik re-
treated towards Damascus. Husain, brother of el-Ikshid,
lost his life in the combat. Despite the enmity between
them, Muhammed ibn Raik sent his own son to el-Ikshid,
charged with messages of condolence for the loss he had
sustained and bearing proposals of peace. Muhammed el-
Ikshid received the son of his enemy with much respect,
and invested him with a mantle of honour. He then

DAMASCUS CAPTURED 365

consented to cede Damascus, in consideration of an an-
nual tribute of 140,000 pieces of gold, and the restoration
of all that portion of Palestine between Ramleh and the
frontiers of Egypt. After having concluded all the ar-
rangements relative to this treaty, Muhammed el-Ikshid
returned to Egypt in the year 329 of the Hegira.

The Caliph Rahdi died in the same year (940 a. p.).
He was thirty years of age, and had reigned six years,
ten months, and ten days. His brother, Abu Ishak
Ibrahim, succeeded him, and
was henceforth known by the
name of Muttaki, A year later
Muhammed el-Ikshid was ac-
knowledged Prince of Egypt
by the new caliph. Shortly
after, he learnt that his former enemy, Muhammed ibn
Raik had been killed by the Hamdanites; he thereupon
seized the opportunity to recover those provinces he had
granted him, and, marching into Syria, captured Damas-
cus and all the possessions he had relinquished upon the
conclusion of their treaty. Feeling now that his position
was secure, he caused his son Kasim to be recognised
by the emirs and the entire army as his successor.

The year 332 of the Hegira was a disastrous one in
Baghdad. The office of Prince of Princes, bestowed
according to the caprice of the Turkish officers upon
any of their leaders, was now become a position superior
even to that of caliph. It was held at this time by a
Turk named Turun, who so oppressed the caliph Muttaki
that the latter was forced to fly from his capital and

COIN OF ABU BEKS.

366 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

retire to Mosul. He then besought help from the Ham-
danites, who immediately rallied their forces and, ac-
companied by the caliph, marched upon Baghdad. They
were, however, completely routed by Turun and obliged
to retreat. Muttaki showed his gratitude to the two
princes by conferring a mantle of honour upon them,
which, for some time past, had been the only gift that
Islam sovereigns had been able to bestow.

Leaving Mosul, the caliph proceeded to Rakkah, and
there was invited by Turun to return to Baghdad. See-
ing that his adherents, the Hamdanites, were greatly
discouraged by their recent reverses, Muttaki resolved
to accept the offer. When Muhammed el-Ikshid heard
this, he hastened to Rakkah and offered the caliph refuge
in Egypt. But the caliph refused, agreeing, however,,
as Muhammed el-Ikshid promised to supply him with
the necessary funds, not to return to Baghdad and place
himself in the power of Turun. In spite of his promise,,
when Turun, fearing that the caliph had found powerful
friends, came to him, and, casting himself before Muttaki^
paid him all the homage due to an Islam sovereign, he
allowed himself to be overruled, and accompanied Turim
back to Baghdad. Hardly had the unfortunate caliph
set foot in his capital when he was murdered, after reign-
ing four years and eleven months. Turun now pro-
claimed Abd Allah Abu'l Kasim, son of Muttaki, caliph,
who, after a short and uneventful reign, was succeeded
by his uncle, Abu'l Kasim el-Fadhl, who was the last of
the Abbasid caliphs whom Egjrpt acknowledged as suze-
rains.

BATTLE OF MAAKKAH 367

After Muttaki's return to Baghdad, Muhammed el-
Ikshid remained for some time in Damascus, and then
set out for Egypt. His return was signalised by the war
with Saif ed-Dowlah, Prince of Hamdan. The campaign
was of varying success. After a disastrous battle, in
which the Egyptians lost four thousand men as prisoners,
Muhammed el-Ikshid left Egypt with a numerous army
and arrived at Maarrah. Saif ed-Dowlah determined to
decide the war with one desperate effort, and first se-
cured the safety of his treasure, his baggage, and his ha-
rem by sending them to Mesopotamia. Then he marched
upon el-Ikshid, who had taken his position at Kinesrin.

Muhammed divided his forces into two corps, plac-
ing in the vanguard all those who carried lances; he
himself was in the rear with ten thousand picked men.
Saif ed-Dowlah charged the vanguard and routed it, but
the rear stood firm; this resistance saved el-Ikshid from
total defeat. The two armies separated after a some-
what indecisive engagement, and Saif ed-Dowlah, who
could claim no advantage save the capture of his adver-
saries' baggage, went on to Maubej, where he destroyed
the bridge, and, entering Mesopotamia, proceeded
towards Rakkah; but Muhammed el-Ikshid was already
stationed there, and the hostile armies, separated only
by the Euphrates, faced one another for several days.

Negotiations were then opened, and peace was con-
cluded. The conditions were that Hemessa, Aleppo,
and Mesopotamia should belong to Saif ed-Dowlah, and
all the country from Hemessa to the frontiers of Egypt
remain in the possession of Muhammed el-Ikshid. A

368 THE MUHAMMEDAIf PEEIOD

trench was dug between Djouchna and Lebouah, in those
places where there were no natural boundaries, to mark
the separation of the two states. To ratify this solemn
peace, Saif ed-Dowlah married the daughter of Muham-
med el-Ikshid; then each prince returned to his own
province. The treaty was, however, almost immediately
set aside by the Hamdanites, and el-Ikshid, forced to
retrace his steps, defeated them in several engagements
and seized the town of Aleppo.

Thus we see that the year 334 of the Hegira (a. d. 946)
was full of important events, to which was soon added
the death of Muhammed el-Ikshid. He died at Damas-
cus, in the last month of the year (Dhu'1-Kada), aged
sixty, and had reigned eleven years, three months, and
two days. He was buried at Jerusalem. Muhammed
el-Ikshid was a man possessing many excellent talents,
and chiefly renowned as an admirable soldier. Brave,
without being rash, quick to calculate his chances, he
was able always to seize the advantage. On the other
hand, however, he was so distrustful and timid in the
privacy of his palace that he organised a guard of eight
thousand armed slaves, one thousand of whom kept con-
stant watch. He never spent the entire night in the
same apartment or tent, and no one was ever permitted
to know the place where he slept.

We are told that this prince could muster four hun-
dred thousand men; although historians do not definitely
specify the boundaries of his empire, which, of course,
varied from time to time, we may nevertheless believe
that his kingdom, as that of his predecessors, the Tulun-

HIDDEN TKEASUEES 369

ites, extended over Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Meso-
potamia, as far as the Euphrates, and even included a
large portion of Arabia. The Christians of the East
charge him with supporting his immense army at their
expense, and persecuting and taxing them to such an
extent that they were forced to sell many possessions
belonging to their Church before they could pay the
required sums.

But, if we may credit a contemporary historian more
worthy of belief, these expenses were covered by the
treasure Muhammed el-Ikshid himself discovered. In
fact, el-Massudi, who died at Cairo in the year 346 of
the Hegira, relates that el-Ikshid, knowing much treas-
ure to be buried there, was greatly interested in the
excavation of the subterraneous tombs of the ancient
Egyptian kings. ** The prince," he adds, '' was fortu-
nate enough to come across a portion of those tombs,
consisting of vast rooms magnificently decorated. There
he found marvellously wrought figures of old and young
men, women, and children, having eyes of precious stones
and faces of gold and silver."

Muhammed el-Ikshid was succeeded by his son, Abu'l
Kasim Muhammed, surnamed Ungur. The prince being
only an infant, Kafur, the favourite minister of the late
caliph, was appointed regent. This Kafur was a black
slave purchased by el-Ikshid for the trifling sum of
twenty pieces of gold. He was intelligent, zealous, and
faithful, and soon won the confidence of his master.
Nobility of race in the East appertains only to the de-
scendants of the Prophet, but merit, which may be found

370 THE MUHAMM.EDAN PERIOD

in prince and subject alike, often secures the higliest
positions, and even the throne itself for those of the
humblest origin. Such was the fate of Kafur. He
showed taste for the sciences, and encouraged scholars;
he loaded the poets with benefits, and they sang his
praises without measure so long as he continued his
favours, but satirised him with equal vigour as soon as
his munificence diminished. Invested with supreme au-
thority, Kafur served the young prince with a devotion
and fidelity worthy of the highest praise. His first step
was to dismiss Abu Bekr Muhammed, the receiver of
the Egyptian tributes, against whom he had received
well-merited complaints. In his place he appointed a
native of Mardin, also called Muhammed, of whose hon-
esty and kindliness he was well aware. He then took his
pupil to Egypt, which country they reached in the month
of Safar in the year 335 of the Hegira.

Saif ed-Dowlah, hearing of the death of Muhammed
el-Ikshid, and the departure of Ungur, deemed this a
favourable opportunity to despoil his brother-in-law;
he therefore marched upon Damascus, which he cap-
tured; but the faithful Kafur promptly arrived upon
the scene with a powerful army, and, routing Saif ed-
Dowlah, who had advanced as far as Ramleh, drove him
back to Rakkah, and relieved Damascus. The remainder
of the reign of Ungur passed peacefully, thanks to the
watchfulness and wise government of Kafur.

In the year 345 of the Hegira, the King of Nubia
invaded the Egyptian territories, advancing to Syene,
which he pillaged and laid waste. Kafur at once des-

DEFEAT OF THE NUBIANS

371

patched his forces overland and along the Nile, and
simultaneously ordered a detachment embarking from
the Red Sea to proceed along the southern coast, attack
the enemy in the rear and completely cut ofe their retreat.
The Nubians, thus surprised on all sides, were defeated
and forced to retreat, leaving the fortress of Rym, now
known as Ibrim, and situated fifty miles from Syene,

MOSQUE TOMB NEAR STENE.

in the hands of the Egyptians. No other events of note
took place during the lifetime of Ungur, who, having
reigned fourteen years and ten days, died in the year
349 of the Hegira, leaving his brother Ali, sumamed
Abu'l-Hasan, as his successor.

The reign of Abu'l-Hasan Ali, the second son of
Muhammed el-Ikshid, lasted but five years. His name,
as that of his brother Ungur (Abu Hurr), is but little

372 THE MUHAMMEDAN PEEIOD

known in history. Kafur was also regent during tlie
reign of Abu'l-Hasan Ali.

In the year 352 of the Hegira, Egypt was stricken
with a disastrous famine. The rise of the Nile, which
the previous year had been but fifteen cubits, was this
year even less, and suddenly the waters fell without
irrigating the country. Egypt and the dependent prov-
inces were thus afflicted for nine consecutive years. Dur-
ing this time, whilst the people were agitated by fear
for the future, a rupture took place between Abu'l-Hasan
Ali and Kafur. This internal disturbance was soon fol-
lowed by war; and in the year 354 the G-reeks of Con-
stantinople, led by the Emperor Nicepherous Phocas,
advanced into Syria. They took Aleppo, then in the
possession of the Hamdanites, and, encountering Saif
ed-Dowlah, overthrew him also. The governor of Da-
mascus, Dalim el-Ukazly, and ten thousand men came
to the rescue of the Hamdanites, but Phocas beat a re-
treat on hearing of his approach.

Abu'l-Hasan Ali died in the year 355 of the Hegira.
The regent Kafur then ascended the throne, assuming
the surname el-Ikshid. He acknowledged the paramount
authority of the Abbasid caliph, Muti, and that poten-
tate recognised his supreme power in the kingdom of
Egypt. During the reign of Kafur, which only lasted
two years and four months, the greater portion of Said
was seized by the Patimites, already masters of Payum
and Alexandria, and the conquerors were on the point
of encroaching still farther, when Kafur died in the year
357 A. H. Ahmed, sumamed Abu'l Pawaris, the son of

ADVENT OF THE EATIMITES 373

Abu'l-Hasan Ali, and consequently grandson of Mu-
hanuned el-Ikshid, succeeded Kafur.

The prince was only eleven years old, and therefore
incapable of properly controlling Egypt, Syria, and his
other domains. Husain, one of his relatives, invaded
Syria, but in his turn driven back by the Karmates,
returned to Egypt and strove to depose Ahmed. These
divisions in the reigning family severed the ties which
imited the provinces of the Egyptian kingdom. To ter-
minate the disturbances, the emirs resolved to seek the
protection of the Fatimites. The latter, anxious to secure
the long-coveted prize, gladly rendered assistance, and
Husain was forced to return to Syria, where he took
possession of Damascus, and the unfortunate Ahmed lost
the throne of Egypt.

With him perished the Ikshid dynasty, which, more
ephemeral even than that of the Tulunid, flourished only
thirty-four years and twenty-four days.

The period upon which this history is now about to
enter is of more than usual interest, for it leads immedi-
ately to the centuries during which the Arabic forces
came into contact with the forces of Western Europe.
The town and the coast of Mauritania were then ruled
by the Fatimites, a dynasty independent of the Abbasid
caliphs of Baghdad. The Fatimites belonged to the
tribes of Koramah, who dwelt in the mountains situated
near the town of Fez in the extreme west of Africa.
In the year 269 of the Hegira, they began to extend their
sway in the western regions of Africa, pursuing their
conquests farther east. The Fatimite caliph Obaid Allah

374 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

and Ms son Abu'l Kasim cherished designs not only upon
Egypt, but even aimed at the destruction of the Abbasid
caliphate, these plans being so far successful as to leave
the Patimites in secure possession of Alexandria, and
more or less in power in Fayum.

The Fatimite caliphs had lofty and pretentious claims
to the allegiance of the Moslem world. They traced their
descent from Fatima, a daughter of the Prophet, whom
Muhanuned himself regarded as one of the four perfect
women. At the age of fifteen she married Ali, of whom
she was the only wife, and the partisans of Ali, as we
have seen, disputed with Omar the right to the leader-
ship of Islam upon the Prophet's death. Critics are not
wanting who dispute the family origin of Obaid Allah,
but his claim appears to have been unhesitatingly ad-
mitted by his own immediate followers. The Fatimite
successes in the Mediterranean gave them a substantial
basis of political power, and doubtless this outward and
material success was more important to them than their
claim to both a physical and mythical descent from the
founder of their religion.

Some accounts trace the descent of Obaid from Abd
Allah ibn Maimun el-Kaddah, the founder of the Ismail-
ian sect, of which the Carmathians were a branch. The
IsmaUians may be best regarded as one of the several
sects of Shiites, who originally were simply the parti-
sans of Ali against Omar, but by degrees they became
identified as the upholders of the Koran against the
validity of the oral tradition, and when, later, the whole
of Persia espoused the cause of Ali, the Shiite belief

THE ISMAILIANS AND THE IMANS 375

became tinged with all kinds of mysticism. The Ismail-
ians believed, for instance, in the coming of a Messiah,
to whom they gave the name Mahdi, and who would one
day appear on earth to establish the reign of justice,
and revenge the wrongs done to the family of Ali. The
Ismailians regarded Obaid himself as the Mahdi, and
they also believed in incarnations of the " universal
soul," which in former ages had appeared as the He-
brew Prophets, but which to the Muhammedan mani-
fested itself as imans. The iman is properly the leader
of public worship, but it is not so much an office as a
seership with mystical attributes. The Muhammedan
imans so far have numbered eleven, the twelfth, and
greatest (El-Mahdi), being yet to come. The Ismailians
also introduced mysticism into the interpretation of the
Koran, and even taught that its moral precepts were
not to be taken in a literal sense. Thus the Fatimite
caKphs founded their authority upon a combination of
political power and superstition,

Abu'l Kasim, who ruled at Alexandria, was suc-
ceeded in 945 by his son, El-Mansur. Under his reign
the Fatimites were attacked by Abu Yazid, a Berber,
who gathered around him the Sunnites, and the revo-
lutionaries succeeded in taking the Fatimite capital
Kairwan. El-Mansur, however, soon defeated Abu Yazid
in a decisive battle and rebuilt a new city, Mansuria,
on the site of the modem Cairo, to commemorate the
event. Dying in 953, he was succeeded by Muiz ad-Din.

Muiz came to the throne just at the time when dissen-
sions as to the succession were undermining the Ikshid

376 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

dynasty. Seizing the opportunity in the year 969, Muiz
equipped a large and well-armed force, with a formidable
body of cavalry, the whole under the command of Abu'l-
Husain Gohar el-Kaid, a native of Greece and a slave
of his father El-Mansur. This general, on his arrival
near Alexandria, received a deputation from the inhab-
itants of Postat charged to negotiate a treaty. Their
overtures were favourably entertained, and the conquest
of the coimtry seemed probable without bloodshed. But
while the conditions were being ratified, the Ikshidites
prevailed on the people to revoke their offer, and the
ambassadors, on their return, were themselves compelled
to seek safety in flight.

Gohar el-Kaid incurred no delay in pushing his troops
forward. He forced the passage of the Nile a few miles
south of El-Gizeh at the head of his troops, and the
Ikshidites suffered a disastrous defeat. To the honour
of the African general, it is related that the inhabitants
of Postat were pardoned and the city was peaceably
occupied. The submission of the rest of Egypt to Muiz
was secured by this victory. In the year 359 a. h. Syria
was also added to his domains, but shortly after was
overrun by the Carmathians. The troops of Muiz met
with several reverses, Damascus was taken, and those
lawless freebooters, joined by the Ikshidites, advanced
to Ain Shems. In the meanwhile, Gohar had fortified
Cairo (the new capital which he had founded immedi-
ately north of Fostat) and taken every precaution to
repel the invaders; a bloody battle was fought in the
year 361 before the city walls, without any decisive re-

THE UNIVERSITY OE CAIRO 377

suit. Later, however, Gohar obtained a victory over the
enemy which proved to be a decisive one.

Muiz subsequently removed his court to his new
kingdom. In Ramadhan 362, he entered Cairo, bringing
with him the bodies of his three predecessors and vast
treasure. Muiz reigned about two years in Egypt, dying
in the year 365 a. h. He is described as a warlike and
ambitious prince, but, notwithstanding, he was especially
distinguished for justice and was fond of learning. He
showed great favour to the Christians, especially to
Severus, Bishop of El-Ashmunein, and the patriarch
Ephrem; and under his orders, and with his assistance,
the church of the Mu'aUakah, in Old Misr, was rebuilt.
He executed many useful works (among others render-
ing navigable the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which is
still called the canal of Muiz), and occupied himself in
embellishing Cairo. Gohar, when he foimded that city,
built the great mosque named El-Azhar, the university
of Egypt, which to this day is crowded with students
from all parts of the Moslem world.

Aziz Abu-Mansur Nizar, on coming to the throne of
his father, immediately despatched an expedition against
the Turkish chief El-Eftekeen, who had taken Damascus
a short time previously. Gohar again commanded the
army, and pressed the siege of that city so vigorously
that the enemy called to their aid the Carmathians.
Before this united army he was forced to retire slowly
to Ascalon, where he prepared to stand a siege; but,
being reduced to great straits, he purchased his liberty
with a large sum of money. On his return from thi«

378 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

disastrous campaign, Aziz took command in person, and,
meeting the enemy at Ramleli, was victorious after a
bloody battle; while El-Eftekeen, being betrayed into
his hands, was with Arab magnanimity received with
honour and confidence, and ended his days in Egypt in
affluence. Aziz followed his father's example of lib-
erality. It is even said that he appointed a Jew his
vizier in Syria, and a Christian to the same post in Egypt.
These acts, however, nearly cost him his life, and a pop-
ular tumult obliged him to disgrace both these officers.
After a reign of twenty-one years of great internal pros-
perity, he died (a. h. 386) in a bath at BUbeis, while
preparing an expedition against the Greeks who were
ravaging his possessions in Syria. Aziz was distin-
guished for moderation and mildness, but his son and
successor rendered himself notorious for very opposite
qualities.

Hakim Abu Ali Mansur commenced his reign, ac-
cording to Moslem historians, with much wisdom, but
afterwards acquired a reputation for impiety, cruelty,
and unreasoning extravagance, by which he has been
rendered odious to posterity. He is said to have had
at the same time " courage and boldness, cowardice
and timorousness, a love for learning and vindictiveness
towards the learned, an inclination to righteousness and
a disposition to slay the righteous." He also arro-
gated to himself divinity, and commanded his subjects
to rise at the mention of his name in the congregational
prayers, an edict which was obeyed even in the holy
cities, Mecca and Medina. He is most famous in con-

THE CALIPH HAKIM

379

nection with the Druses, a sect which he founded and
which still holds him in veneration and believes in his
future return to the earth. He had made himself ob-
noxious to aU classes of his subjects when, in the year
397 A. H., he nearly lost his throne by foreign invasion.

MOSQUE OF HAKIM.

Hisham, surnamed Abu-Rekweh, a descendant of the
house of Ommaya in Spain, took the province of Barca
with a considerable force and subdued Upper Egypt.
The caliph, aware of his danger, immediately collected
his troops from every quarter of the kingdom, and
marched against the invaders, whom, after severe fighting,

380 THE MUHAMMEDAJS^ PERIOD

he defeated and put to flight. Hisham himself was
taken prisoner, paraded in Cairo with every aggravation
of cruelty, and put to death. Hakim having thus by
vigorous measures averted this danger, Egypt continued
to groan under his tyranny until the year 411 a. h., when
he fell by domestic treachery. His sister Sitt el-
Mulk had, in common with the rest of his subjects,
incurred his displeasure; and, being fearful for her life,
she secretly and by night concerted measures with the
emir Saif ed-Dowlah, chief of the guard, who very read-
ily agreed to her plans. Ten slaves, bribed by five hun-
dred dinars each ($1,260), having received their instruc-
tions, went forth on the appointed day to the desert tract
southward of Cairo, where Hakim, unattended, was in
the habit of riding, and waylaid him near the village
of Helwan, where they put him to death.

Within a week Hakim's son Ali had been raised to
the caliphate with the title of Dhahir, at the command
of Sitt el-Mulk. As Dhahir was only eighteen years
old, and in no way educated for the government, Sitt
el-Mulk took the reins of government, and was soon
looked upon as the instigator of Hakim's death. This
suspicion was strengthened by the fact that his sister
had the heir to the throne— who was at that time gov-
ernor of Aleppo— murdered, and also the chief who had
conspired with her in assassinating Hakim. She sur-
vived her brother for about four years, but the actual
ruler was the Vizier Ali el- Jar jar.

Dhahir 's reign offers many points of interest. Peace
and contentment reigned in the interior, and Syria

MUSTANSSIE 381

continued to be tlie chief point of interest to the Egyptian
politics. Both Lulu and his son Mansur, who received
princely titles from Hakim, recognised the suzerainty of
the Fatimites. Later on a disagreement arose between
Lulu's son and Dhahir. One of the former's slaves con-
spired against his master, and gave Aleppo into the
hands of the Fatimites, whose governor maintained him-
self there till 1023. In this year, however, Aleppo fell
into the power of the Benu Kilab, who defended the town
with great success against Romanus in 1030. Not till
Dhahir 's successor came to the throne in 1036 was Aleppo
reconquered by the Fatimites, but only to faU, after a
few years, again into the hands of a Kilabite, whom
the caliph was obliged to acknowledge as governor until
he of his own free will exchanged the city for several
other towns in Syria; but even then the strife about the
possession of Aleppo was not yet at an end.

Mustanssir ascended the throne at the age of four
years. His mother, although black and once a slave, had
great influence in the choice of the viziers and other
officials, and even when the caliph became of age, he
showed very few signs of independence. His reign,
which lasted sixty years, offers a constant alternation of
success and defeat. At one time his dominion was lim-
ited to the capital Cairo, at another time he was recog-
nised as lord of Africa, Sicily, Arabia, Mesopotamia,
and even of the Abbassid capital, Baghdad. A few days
later his dominion was again on the point of being ex-
tinguished. The min-der of a Turk by the negroes led
to a war between the Turkish mercenaries and the blacks

382 THE MUHAMMEDAN PERIOD

who formed the caliph's body-guard. The latter were
joined by many of the other slaves, but the Turks were
supported by the Ketama Berbers and some of the Bed-
ouin tribes, and also the Hamdanite Nasir ed-Dowlah,
who had long been in the Egyptian service. The blacks,
although supported by the caliph's mother, were com-
pletely defeated, and the caliph was forced to acknowl-
edge the authority of Nasir ed-Dowlah. He thereupon
threatened to abdicate, but when he learned that his
palace with all its treasures would then be given up to
plimder, he refrained from fulfilling his threat. The
power of the Hamdanites and the Turks increased with
every victory over the negroes, who finally could no
longer maintain themselves at all in Upper Egypt. The
caliph was treated with contempt, and had to give up
his numerous treasures, one by one, to satisfy the avarice
of his troops. Even the graves of his ancestors were
at last robbed of all they contained, and when, at last,
everything had been ransacked, even his library, which
was one of the largest and finest, was not spared. The
best manuscripts were dispersed, some went to Africa,
others were destroyed, many were damaged or purposely
mutilated by the Sunnites, simply because they had been
written by the Shiites; still others were burnt by the
Turks as worthless material, and the leather bands which
held them made into sandals.

Meanwhile war between Mustanssir and Nasir ed-
Dowlah continued to be waged in Egypt and Syria, until
at last the latter became master of Cairo and deprived
the caliph once more completely of his independence.

MUSTANSSIE'S gate at CAIRO.

COMPETING VIZIEES 385

Soon after, a conspiracy with Udeghiz, a Turkish gen-
eral, at its head, was formed against Nasir ed-Dowlah,
and he, together with his relations and followers, was
brutally murdered. Udeghiz behaved in the same way
as his predecessor had done towards the caliph, and the
latter appealed to Bedr el-Jemali for help. Bedr pro-
ceeded to Acre with his best Syrian troops, landed in
the neighbourhood of Damietta and proceeded towards
the capital, which he entered without difficulty (January,
1075). He was appointed general and first vizier, so
that he now held both the highest military and civil
authority.

In order to strengthen his position, he had all the
commanders of the troops and the highest officials mur-
dered at a ball. Under his rule, peace and order were
at last restored to Egypt, and the income of the state
was increased under his excellent government.

Bedr remained at his post till his death, and his son
El-Af dhal was appointed by Mustanssir to succeed him.
Upon the death of Mustanssir (1094), his successor
El-Mustali Abu'l Kasim retained El-Af dhal in office.
He was afterwards murdered under Emir (Decem-
ber, 1121) because, according to some, he was not
a zealous enough Shiite, but, according to others, be-
cause the caliph wished to gain possession of the enor-
mous treasures of the vizier and to be absolutely inde-
pendent. Emir was also murdered (October 1, 1130),
and was succeeded by his cousin, who ascended the
throne under the name of Hafiz, and appointed a son of
El-Afdhal as vizier, who, just as his father had done,

386 THE MUHAMMEDAN PEEIOD

soon became tlie real ruler, and did not even allow the
caliph's name to be mentioned in the prayers; where-
upon he also was murdered at the caliph's instigation.
After other viziers had met with a similar fate, and
amongst them a son of the caliph himself, at last Hafiz
ruled alone. His son and successor, Dhafir (1149—1150),
also frequently changed his viziers because they one
and all wished to obtain too much influence. The last
vizier, Abbas, murdered the caliph (March— April, 1154),
and placed El-Faiz, the five-year-old son of the dead
caliph, on the throne, but the chUd died in his eleventh
year (July, 1160). Salih, then vizier, raised Adid, a de-
scendant of Alhagiz, to the caliphate and gave him his
daughter to wife, for which reason he was murdered at
the desire of the harem. His son Adil maintained him-
self for a short time, and then El-Dhargham and Shawir
fought for the post; as the former gained the victory,
Shawir fled to Syria, called Nureddin to his aid, and
their army, under Shirkuh and Saladin, put an end in
1171 to the rule of the Fatimites.

END OF VOL. XI.

INDEX

JElius Gallus, 11

^milianus, 156, 157

Abbasids, 343

Abd AUah ibn Abd el-Malik, 337

Abd el-Aziz ibn Merwan, 334-337

Abd el-Malik, calipb, 334

Abrasax, 105

Abu Bekr Muhammad, 363

Abu'l Abbas, caliph, 343, 344

Abu Jafar (El-Mansur) caliph, 345

Abu'l-Hasan Ali, caliph, 371

Abu'l Kasim, caliph, 374, 375

Abu'l Easim Muhammed Ungur, caliph,

369-371
Abydos, 13
Abyssinia, 212
Adule, 304
^tius, 287
Agrippa, 32, 34

Ahmed Abu'l Fawaria, caliph, 372, 373
Ahmed ibn Tulun (Abu'l Abbas) 354,

357-361
Ahmed Mustain, caliph, 357
Alchemy, 49, 172
Alexander the Great, 7, 144
Alexander, Emperor of Rome, 147
Alexandria, Description of, 12, 13, 85-87,
156, 158

Philosophers of, 69-71

Centre of learning, 119-122, 190-192,
198

Caracalla punishes, 144, 145

Decline, 198, 201, 244-246, 255, 268,
277, 317
Algebra, 251
Ali, 324, 325
Alphabet, 133, 134
Alypius, 200

AmenhSthes, Statue, 14, 99, 128
Ammon, Oracle of, 70
Ammonius Saccas, 148-150
Amon-Ra, 131
Amr, 325-334
Anastasius, Emperor, 288-293

Androclus, 38

Animal worship, 77, 91, 220, 229
Annianus (Annaniah), 61
Anthracite, 50
Antinous, 93, 94, 108
Antioch, 201, 202, 293, 294
Anthropomorphites, 253
Antoninus Pius, 109
Antony, Saint, 216, 217
Apion, 38
Apis, 92

Apis bull, 8, 25, 75, 90
Apolaustiis, 126
Apollinarius, Bishop, 314, 315
Apollonius Dyscolus, 98
ApoUonins of Tyana, 70-72, 176
ApoUos, 8
Appeals, 312
Appian, 98
Arabia, 87

Arabs, Enter Egypt, 14-17, 62
Persecute Monks, 266, 267
Muhammedanism among, 321, 322
Conquer Egypt, 825-331
Contest with Turks, 352
Arcadius, Emperor, 252
Architecture, 75, 76
Arethas, 296

Arianism, 178, 179, 195, 260, 276
Arius, 122, 176, 178
Army, Roman in Egypt, 273, 274, 300,

301
Arrian, 114, 115
Asceticism, 215
Asclepiades, 126
Assama ibn Yazid, 338, 339
Astrolabe, 256
Astrology, 105, 112, 113
Astronomical well, 14
Astronomy, 110, 251
Athanasius, Opposes Arius, 196, 197

Made bishop, 197, 205, 227, 232

Deposed, 202-204, 210, 228

Rebels, 208-210, 227, 234

Fame of, 234, 235, 260

INDEX

Athenseus, 121

Athenagoras of Athens, 108

Athenodorus (Vaballathus), 161, 162

Augustus, 3, 5, 18, 21

Augustalian Cohort, 308

Aurelian, 162-167

Auxum, 212

Avidius Cassius, 118

Aziz Abu-Mansur Nizar, caliph, 377, 378

B

Babylon, Fortress, 260

Balbilius, 56, 58

Baptism, 294

Basilianus, 146, 147

Basilides, 72, 73

Beer, 51

Benjamin, patriarch, 331, 332

Bible, Editions of, 183

Copies of, 184

Versions of, 185, 213

Manuscripts of, 265, 320
Birket el Kurun, 52
Bisti, Temple, 220

Blemmyes, invade Egypt, 62, 168, 263,
278

Diocletian treats with, 170, 171
Bookmaking, 120, 121
Books, 291, 292
Brass money, 143, 166
Britain, 311

C

Caesar, Julius, 6

Calendar, 110

Calicut, 45

Caligula, 32-36

Cambyses, 93

Canals, 11, 88, 89

Candace, 15-17

Canopic jars, 127

Canopus, 127

Caracalla, visits Egypt, 143

Vengeance on Alexandria, 144-146
Chseremon, 59
Charity, 268
Chemistry, 49

Ceylon (Taprobane), 46, 262, 303
Chosroes, 317-319
Christianity, brought to Egypt, 60

Spread of, 61, 62, 90, 106-108, 123,
124, 131, 149

Hadrian on, 101

Persecuted, 141-143, 173-178

Triumph of, 192, 193, 207
Christodorus, 290
Christus Mithras, 181
Chronology, 251

Church government, 193, 202, 203
Church of St. Mary, 166
Claudian Museum, 42
Claudius, 40, 41
Claudius Ptolemy, 113
Clemens Alexandrinus, 131, 136, 137
Clemens Bomanus, 124
Clement, Bishop of Rome, 53
Cleopatra's Needles, 22
Cock-fighting, 10
Code, Roman, 83

Coins, Egyptian, 17, 30, 31, 42, 58, 68,
69, 76, 81, 108-112, 117, 125, 137,
143, 150, 151, 163, 165, 167, 173, 315,
316;

Roman, 45, 68, 66, 117

Maltese, 57
College of Music, 228, 229
Commodus, 124, 125, 127
Constans, 201, 202, 204, 206
Constantius, 201, 202, 205-208
Constantine the Great, 192
Constantine II., 201, 202
Constantinople, 198
Cornelius Gallus, 10
Cornwall, 311
Cosmas, 314
Cossyra, 57

Council of Antioch, 203
Council of Constantinople. 249
Courts, 83, 331
Creed, 233

Crocodile worship, 13, 77
Crocodilopolis, 13
Cush. See Ethiopia
Customs, stability of, 122, 123
Cybiosactes, 75
Cynopolis, 77
Cyril, bishop, 267, 258, 276

D

Dakleh, oasis of, 66

Demotic writing, 134, 135

Dhahir, caliph, 380, 381

Diocletian, 170-177

Dion, 69, 70

Dion Chrysostom, 86

Dionysius, bishop, 152, 153, 168

Dionysius of Miletus, 96

Dionysius Periegetes, 59, 60

Dioscorus, 288

Docetse, 133

Dodecashoenos, 170

Dogma, 194

Dog star, 6, 110

Domitian, 76, 80

Domitius Domitianus, 164

Drama, 292

INDEX

Druses, 379
Dyes, 49

E

Earthquake, 312
Ecclesiastical quarrels, 195-198
El-Abbas, 360
Elagabalus, 147
El-Mahdi, 375
EI-Mamun, caliph, 350
El-Mansur. See Abu Jafar
El-Muntasir ibn el-Mutawakkil, caliph,

365-357
El-Mustali Abu'l Kasim, caliph, 385
Emerald mines, 49
Emir Misri, 345
Enchorial writing, 133
Epiphany, feast of, 249
Essenes, 29
Esimaphseus, 306
Eusebius, 157, 174, 175
Eutyches, bishop, 276, 277
Explorations, 262
Ethiopia (Cush), 14-17, 49, 66

Fatimites, 373-375
Firmus, 163, 164
Flaccus Avilius, 31, 33-36
Flax, 266
Fostat, 327, 328
Fnunentius, 212

G

Galba, 66, 67

Gallienus, 155, 156

George of Cappadocia, made bishop, 210

Cruelty, 211

Death, 223

Library, 224

Canonized, 260
Germanicus, 25, 26
Gihon, river, 49
Glass windows, 163
Gnosticism, 103-106, 152, 153
Gold mines, 31
Gordian, 150
Gospel according to the Egyptians, 132,

133
Government, 270, 273, 274
Grain trade, 84, 85, 308, 309
Granaries, 311, 312
Greek alphabet, 133, 134
Greek Inythology, 21
Greek world, changes in, 187-192
Gregentius, 306
Gregory XIII., Pope, 6
Gregory, Bishop, 203, 204

H

Hadrian visits Egypt, 90

Ascends Nile, 91-94

Opinion of Christians, 101
Hagia Chem, 57
Hair-dressing, 123, 224
Hakim Abu All Mansur, caliph, 378-360
Handhala, 341, 342
Handwriting, 120
Harpocrates, 79
Harun abu Jafal el-Wathik b'lUah,

caliph, 354
Harun er-Rashid, caliph, 346, 347
Hathor, 77
Hecate. See Isis
Hegira, 321, 324
Heliopolis, 13, 93
Henoticon, 284, 285
Heraclius, Emperor, 317-321
Heresies, 180-183
Hermes Trismegistus, 131
Herod, 7

Herodes, 162, 163
Hesychius, Bishop, 183-185
Hexumitae, 212-214, 303-305
Hierachas, 183
Hieratic writing, 134, 135
Hierocles, 175, 176, 286, 287
Hieroglyphics, 25, 52, 59, 117, 128, 133-

135
Hippodrome, 116

Hisham (Abu'l Walid) caliph, 341-343
Homeric poets, 122

Homeritae, 212, 213, 295, 296, 303-305
Homoousian doctrine, 196
Horse-racing, 241
Horus, 79, 109
Horus-Ra, 106
Hypatia, 259, 260

Illuminations, 291, 292

India, 43-45

Informers, 41

Ink, 49

Inscriptions, 8, 18, 22, 23, 66, 67, 116,

172, 267, 280, 304, 307
Isis (Hecate), 21, 77, 79, 80, 97, 109, 110,

146, 220
Itinerary of Antoninus, 113, 114

Jacobites, 297-299
Jahveh, 26, 73, 106
Jerome, 219
Jesus, 105, 137
Jews, privileges, 8, 81

INDEX

In Ethiopia, 17

In Alexandria, 26-30, 40, 54

Persecuted, 32-37, 73, 74, 258

Rebellion of, 89, 90

Hadrian on, 99-101
John, bishop, 317-319
John Chrysostom, 261
John the Grammarian, 326
Josephus, 56, 73, 74
Jovian, Emperor, 232
Julian, 222-232
Julianus, 290
Julian year, 6
Julius Fermicus, 219
Julius Pollux, 122
Justin I., 293-296
Justin II., 316
Justin, 106, 107
Justinian, Emperor, 296
Juvenal, 76

K

Kafur el-Ikshid, caliph, 369-372
Khumarawath, caliph, 361, 362
Kneph, temple of, 75, 76
Kopts, 14, 117, 133, 173, 206, 264, 334
Koran, 325

L

Language, Egypt, 17, 133-136
Latopolis, temple, 52
Laws, 41, 83, 141, 228, 268, 308
Leo, Emperor, 281, 282
Leonides of Alexandria, 59
Library, Alexandrian, 59, 119, 126, 231,
245, 325-327

Rome, 81

Of George of Cappadocia, 224 ;

Of Mustanssir, 382
Licinius, 185, 186
Lighthouse, 293
Linen, 249
Liturgy, 166, 299
Louginus, 148
Lotos, 97
Lucian, 122

M

Macrianus, 155, 166
Macrinus, 146
Magi, 103
Magic, 70, 71
Magistrates, costume, 5
Mahdi, the, 375
Malta, 56, 57
Mangalore. See Muziris
Mani, 180, 182
Manicheism, 78, 79, 179-183
Manuscripts, 266, 266
Marcus Aurelius, 117-119

Mark Antony, 2, 126

Mark, the Evangelist, 60, 61

Mauricius, Emperor, 316

Mauritania, 373

Maximin, 177

Medicine, 287

Medinet-Abu, 261

Melchites, 299

Meletius, 178, 206

Memnon, statue, 99, 100

Memphis, 13, 92

Merwan II., caliph, 344

Minerals, 50

Mining, 31, 49

Miracles, 70, 72

Mithra, v^orship of, 179

Mnevis, 93

Moeris, lake of, 13, 51, 52

Monasteries, 236, 236, 239, 240, 263, 264,

301, 302
Monastlcism, 28-30, 214-218
Monks, 263, 263-267, 321, 336, 338
Mosque, 332, 333, 359
Muatadid, caliph, 362
Muavria I., caliph, 334
Muhammed, 323, 324
Muhammed el-Ikhshid, 364-369
Muhammed el-Mahdi, caliph, 346
Muhammed el-Mutasim b'lUah (Mutam-

ma), 350-362
Muhammed ibn Idris (Esh-Shafl) 349
Muiz ad-Din, caliph, 376-377
Mummies, 248, 264
Museum, 126
Musa el-Hadi, 347
Musa ibn Isa, 348
Music, 200
Musical statue, 128
Music, college of, 228
Mustanssir, caliph, 381-385
Mutamma. See Muhammed el-Mutasim
Mutawakkil, caliph, 365, 357
Muttaki, caliph, 365, 366
Muziris (Mangalore) 44
Mysticism, 137, 153, 193

N
Napata, 16
Naphtha, 49

Nasir ed'Dowlah, 382, 385
Nero, 53
Nerva, 81

Nestorius, bishop, 263
New Year's day, 6, 6
Nicopolis, 9

Nile, overflow, 5, 84, 111, 117, 200, 260,
372

Source, 49

Worship, 200 220 ; 60, 91, 256, 291
Nilometer, 11, 339, 357

INDEX

Nilus, a monk, 267
Nonnosus, 304, 305
Nobatse (Nubades), 170, 278, 279
Nubia, 170, 279, 280

O

Oasis, Great, 269, 270

Obaid Allah, caliph, 373-375

Obelisks, 10, 22, 93, 199, 308

Odenathus of Palmyra, 154-156

Olympiodorus, 269, 270

Olympius, 246

Omar, 326

Omar II., caliph, 340

Ombos, 76, 77

Ommayad dynasty, 334, 343

Onion, temple, 74

Oracle of Ammon, 70

Oracle of BSsfl, 220

Orestes, 258, 259

Orientalism, 190-192

Origen, 123, 142, 148, 149, 253

Osiris, 21, 79, 220

Otho, 68

Oxyrrhynohos, 77, 217

Fachomius, 236

Paganism, decline of, 229, 243, 269, 270,
313

Persecution, 246-249
Paintings, 292

Palladius of Galatia, 261, 262
Palmyra, 160
Famphila, 59
Pan, temple, 12
Pancrates, 97
Panopolis, 88
Pantsenus, 135, 136
Paper, 266

Papyrus, 119, 120, 265, 266
Papyrus boats, 46
Farabalani, 268
Parchment, 119, 120, 266
Passports, 340
Pastophori, 129
Patronage, 221, 222
Paul, the Apostle, 56
Paul of Tela, 320
Pergamus, library of, 126
Peripatetics, 269

Persia, 150, 289, 293, 301, 317-321
Persecution, of Jews, 32-37, 73, 74, 258

Christians, 142, 151-153, 158, 173-176,
223, 224

Pagans, 246-249
Pertinax, 137

Pescennius Niger, 137, 138
Peter Mongus, 286

Peter, St., 264

Petra, 88, 301

Petronius, 11

Pharos, 293

Philo, 36, 37, 61

Philoromus, 176

Philosophy, 188-192

Phocas, Emperor, 316

Phcenix, fable of, 52, 53, 110, 117, 219

Phtah, 92, 93

Physicians, 83, 267, 268

Plague, 154

Plato, 13

Platonists, 148

Pliny, 42-45

Plotina, 88, 151

Plutarch, 78

Poetry, 121, 122

Polemon of Loadicea, 97

Poll-tax, 258

Pompey's Pillar, 171, 172, 232

Pope, origin of title, 149

Priests, 129-132

Probus, 165, 167-169

Proclus, 270

Prophecy, 252

Provinces, 273, 275, 328

Ptolemaic system, 113

Ftolemais, 13, 14

Ptolemies, end of, 39

B

Ra, 93

Rahdi, caliph, 363-365

Eameseum, 95, 96

Ramses, 15, 25

Ramses II., 93, 264

Religion, 18, 21, 78-80, 103, 122, 128-

132, 188, 189, 276, 277
Resurrection of dead, 21, 248
Revenues, 298, 358
Rings, 80, 338
Roads, 113, 114
Rome, 80, 84, 275

S
Sacred well, 125
Saraceni, 242
Saracens, 242
Saturninus, 168, 169
Savak, 77
Scarabseus, 106
Schools, 176, 313
Sculpture, 127, 128, 247
Sebaste, temple, 22
Serapis, 12, 21, 72, 80, 101, 102, 126, 144,

230, 232, 244, 245
Serapion, 176, 239
Serapium, 126
Severina, 167

INDEX

Severus, 141

Shafltes, 349

Shiites, 325, 374

Ships, 55

Shomenuthi, 130

Sicarii, 54, 74

Silver, value of, 143

Sitt el-Mulk, 380

Sopator, 200, 201

Sothic period, 109

Statues, 99, 171, 172, 244, 245

Strabo, 11-14

Sugar, 115, 116

Suleiman, caliph, 337-340

Sunnites, 325

Superstitions, 94, 220, 221, 288, 300

Surveying, 6

Synesius, 255, 256

Syrianus, 208-210, 269

Tabenna, 236

Tabernacles, feast of, 35

Taposiris, 311

Taprobane. See Ceylon.

Taxation, 18, 41, 46, 67, 241, 242, 258,

274, 309, 328, 336, 338, 340, 345
Temple, of Serapis, 12, 126, 127, 230-
232, 245

Sebaste, 22

Tentyra, 23

Malta, 57

Dakleh, 65, 66

Jerusalem, 73

Palmyra, 160

Kneph, 247

Isis, 280
Tentyra, 23, 76, 77
Tertullian, 142

Testament, New, 132, 264, 265, 320
Testament, Old, 183-185
Tiberius, 22, 23, 26
Tiberius, Julius Alexander, 66
Titus, 65, 75
Thebaid, 125
Thebes, 13, 14, 95
Theodosius, 243-252
Theodosius II., Emperor, 256-275
Theology, 153, 194, 233
Theophilus, bishop, 244, 246, 252-254
Theophilus, 212, 213
Therapeutse, 27, 28, 61
Thomas, bishop, 320

Thot, 129

Thdtmosis III., 110
Tiberius, 316

Timotheus ^lurus, 282, 283
Tombs, 92, 96
Tonsure, 249

Trade, with India, 18, 43, 45, 46, 85, 115,
302 303

With Rome, 18, 85, 298, 310

With Arabia, 116

With Britain, 311
Trajan, 82

Treasure of Alexandria, 9
Tribute, 166, 308, 309
Trinity, doctrine of, 37, 79
Troglodytae, 14, 17
Tulun, 363, 364
Turks, 352
Typhon, 27

D
Urbib, 290
Usirtasen I., 93

Vaballathus. See Athenodorus
Valens, 234
Valentinian, 234
Valerian, 155
Ventriloquism, 71
Vespasian, 65, 68-76
Vitellius, 68

Vocal statue at Thebes, 99
Voyages, 43, 44, 55, 56, 311

W

Walid I., caliph, 337
Walid II., caliph, 343
Window-glass, 163
Wines, 50, 61
Writing, 120, 133-136

Yazid II., caliph, 340
Year, Egyptian, 6, 6
Julian, 6

Z

Zeno, Emperor, 282-284
Zenobia, 159-162
Zoega, 173