Mining operations. Drought and Trajan's Liberality. the gold which remained behind was patiently melted and purified in earthen crucibles.' The miners were slaves, criminals, and prisoners, fettered and closely guarded, while the lash was held over them by a hardhearted taskmaster. The silver mines, according to the same author, produced annually 3200 myriads or minae.2 Mines of copper, iron, and lead were also wrought in the deserts which lay in the vicinity of the Red Sea, and there were also procured chalk and sulphur. Egypt was thus richly furnished with the elements of greatness, in its abundance of food and of the precious metals. Supported by its agriculture, and enriched by its commerce and conquests, it was prepared to advance in arts and science, to erect those works of wonder which its climate has so marvellously preserved, and which bear upon them a record of the history of the kings and people who dwelt in this wondrous river-land-in the valley of the Nile. 3 But, on the other hand, it is plain that any great inequality in the periodical floods of the Nile must have always produced disastrous consequences to Egypt. Strabo, indeed, says, that through various contrivances of canals, reservoirs, and embankments, any irregularities in the inundation were rectified. Yet occasionally all art failed, and the wisdom of Egypt could not save it from dearth. The famine in the days of Joseph is plainly attributable to Nilotic variation or failure; and in later times similar seasons of scarcity have afflicted the country. In the reign of Trajan a horrible calamity of this nature occurred. Pliny, in his panegyric on that emperor, has depicted it with peculiar terseness and power, and has not neglected to glorify the idol of his own imagination, while his Roman pride proves its characteristic insolence, over the crouching vassals of a distant and degraded province. "The Egyptians," says he, "who gloried that they needed neither sun nor rain to produce their corn, and who believed they might confidently contest the prize of plenty with the most fruitful countries of the world, were condemned to an unexpected drought and a fatal sterility, from the greatest part of their territories being deserted, and left unwatered by the Nile, whose inundation is the source and standard of their abundance. They then implored that assistance from their prince, which they had been accustomed to expect only from their river. The delay of their relief was no longer than that which employed a courier to bring the melancholy news to Rome; and one would have imagined that this misfortune had befallen them only to display with greater lustre the generosity and goodness of Cæsar. It was an ancient and general opinion, that our city could not subsist 13. 11-18. Agatharchides, an author of the time of the Ptolemies, wrote a treatise on "the Erythraean Sea," in the reign of Ptolemy Soter II. In this book he furnishes an account of the gold mines of Egypt, which Diodorus seems to have copied. 3 xvii. A mina was 1 lb. 5 oz. 6 dwt. English. Let them pride. without provisions drawn from Egypt. This vain and proud nation boasted, that, though conquered, they nevertheless fed their conquerors; that, by means of their river, either abundance or scarcity were entirely at their own disposal. But we now have returned the Nile his own harvests, and given him back the provisions he sent us. Let the Egyptians be then convinced by their own experience, that Roman they are not necessary to us, and are only our vassals. know that their ships do not so much bring us the provision we stand in need of, as the tribute which they owe us. And let them never forget that we can do without them, but that they can never do without us. This most fruitful province had been ruined, had it not worn the Roman chains! The Egyptians in their sovereign found a deliverer and a father. Astonished at the sight of their granaries filled without any labour of their own, they were at a loss to know to whom they owed this foreign and gratuitous plenty. The famine of a people, though at such a distance from us, yet so speedily stopped, served only to let them feel the advantage of living under our empire. The Nile may in other times have diffused more plenty in Egypt, but never more glory upon us. May heaven, content with this proof of the people's patience, and the prince's generosity, restore for ever back to Egypt its ancient fertility."1 We have taken this free version from the "Ancient History" of Rollin, Vol. I., page 51; but we subjoin the pithy and eloquent original.-" Ægyptus alendis augendisque seminibus ita gloriata est, ut nihil imbribus coloque deberet: siquidem proprio semper amne perfusa, nec alio genere aquarum solita pingvescere quàm quas ipse devexerat, tantis segetibus induebatur, ut cum feracissimis terris quasi nunquam cessura certaret: hæc inopia siccitate usque ad injuriam sterilitatis exaruit, quia piger Nilus cunctanter alveo sese ac languidè extulerat : ingentibus quoque tunc quidem ille fluminibus conferendus. Hinc pars magna terrarum mergi palanti amne consueta alto pulvere incanduit. Frustrà tunc Ægyptus nubila optavit, cœlumque respexit, quum ipse fœcunditatis parens contractior et exilior iisdem ubertatem ejus anni angustiis quibus abundantiam suam cohibuisset. Neque enim solùm vagus ille expanditor amnis intra usurpata semper collium substiterat atque hæserat, sed supino etiam ac detinenti solo, placido se mollique lapsu refugum abstulerat: nec dum satis humentes terras addiderat arendibus. Igitur inundatione, id est ubertate, regio fraudata, sic opem Cæsaris invocavit, ut solet amnem suum: nec longius illi adversorum fuit spatium quàm dum nuntiat. Tam velox, Cæsar, potentia tua est, támque in omnia pariter intenta bonitas et accincta, ut tristius aliquod seculo tuo passis ad remedium salutemque sufficiat ut scias. Ómnibus equidem gentibus fertiles annos gratasque terras precor: crediderim tamen per hunc Egypti statum tuas fortunam vires experiri, tuamque vigilantiam expectare voluisse. Nam quum omnia ubique secunda merearis, nónne manifestum est, siquid adversi cadat, tuis laudibus, tuisque virtutibus materiem campumque prosterni, quum secunda felices, adversa magnos probent? Percrebuerat antiquitus, urbem nostram nisi opibus Ægypti ali sustentarique non posse: superbiebat ventosa et insolens natio, quòd victorem quidem populum pasceret tamen, quodque in suo flumine, in suis manibus vel abundantia nostra vel fames esset. Refudimus Nilo suas copias: recepit frumenta quæ miserat, deportatasque messes revexit. Discat igitur Ægyptus credatque; experimento, non alimenta se nobis sed tributa præstare: sciat se non esse P. R. necessariam, et tamen serviat. Post hæc, si volet Nilus, amet alveum suum, et fluminis modum servet: nihil hoc ad urbem, ac ne ad Ægyptum quidem, nisi ut inde navigia inania et vacua et similia redeuntibus, hinc plena et onusta et qualia solent venire, mittantur, conversoque munere maris hinc potius venti ferentes, et brevis cursus optentur," &c. OUR object here is only to admit a very brief sketch of the most famous localities and towns of ancient Egypt-places of note either from their situation, history, or monuments. Our imaginary pilgrimage will carry us to Egypt was of old very populous, and swarmed with towns and Population. villages. According to Diodorus it had 18,000 cities in more ancient times, but numbered 30,000 in the days of the Ptolemies. The priests assured Herodotus that prior to the Persian conquest 20,000 inhabited towns filled their prosperous country. Josephus affirms that in Vespasian's time Egypt contained seven millions and a-half of population over and above that of Alexandria. The Greek poet Theocritus has displayed his ingenuity in crowding into three hexameter verses the numeration of 33,333 cities that owned the sway of Ptolemy Philadelphus— Τρεῖς μέν οἱ πολίων ἑκατοντάδες ἐνδέδμηνται, Τῶν πάντον Πτολεμαῖος ἀγάνως ἐμβασιλεύει —Idyll. xvii. 83. The climate, fertility, and opulence of the kingdom are proofs that it was populated by myriads, though there be without doubt some exaggeration in the preceding statements. Egypt was truly a busy world; the great artery of the nation's life was the Nile; and all along its banks, city, town, village, and hamlet were crowded with an active, ingenious, and industrious people. It was a teeming hive of soldiers, farmers, artizans, and labourers. Alas! what a contrast now; its larger cities are squalid in aspect, and its poor and scanty rural population often finds an awkward and comfortless home among the hoary ruins of— "The oldest fabrics reared by hand of man, Built ere Art's dawn on Europe's shores began." Under the Ptolemies, and probably at a very early period, the Provinces. whole country was divided into thirty-six Nomes or Provinces,2 and that division was maintained till the invasion of the Saracens. The number and extent of the Nomes, however, fluctuated a little at various periods. The following table gives the Greek, Egyptian, and Arabian names of these Provinces, in the order in which they occur along the course of the Nile; and the same order is observed in the subjoined account of the most remarkable places which they contain. 1 Shelly's Alastor. 2 Diod. Sic., i. § 54; Strabo, xvii. 1. |