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We shall first describe the harbour-line, and next | Anton. 69.) Between Lochias and the Great Mole the interior of the city.

The harbour-line commenced from the east with the peninsular strip Lochias, which terminated seaward in a fort called Acro-Lochias, the modern Pharillon. The ruins of a pier on the eastern side of it mark an ancient landing-place, probably belonging to the Palace which, with its groves and gardens, occupied this Peninsula. Like all the principal buildings of Alexandreia, it commanded a view of the bay and the Pharos. The Lochias formed, with the islet of Antirhodus, the Closed or Royal Port, which was kept exclusively for the king's gallies, and around the head of which were the Royal Dockyards. West of the Closed Port was the Poseideion or Temple of Neptune, where embarking and returning mariners registered their vows. The northern point of this temple was called the Timonium, whither the defeated triumvir M. Antonius retired after his flight from Actium in B. c. 31. (Plut.

(Heptastadium) was the Greater Harbour, and on the western side of the Mole was the Haven of Happy Return (etvooTos), connected by the basin (Ki6wтos, chest) with the canal that led, by one arm, to the Lake Mareotis, and by the other to the Canobic arm of the Nile. The haven of "Happy Return" fronted the quarter of the city called Rhacôtis. It was less difficult of access than the Greater Harbour, as the reefs and shoals lie principally NE. of the Pharos. Its modern name is the Old Port. From the Poseideion to the Mole the shore was lined with dockyards and warehouses, upon whose broad granite quays ships discharged their lading without the intervention of boats. On the western horn of the Eunostus were public granaries.

Fronting the city, and sheltering both its harbours, lay the long narrow island of Pharos. It was a dazzling white calcareous rock, about a mile from Alexandreia, and, according to Strabo, 150 stadia

ALEXANDREIA.

from the Canobic mouth of the Nile. At its eastern point stood the far-famed lighthouse, the work of Sostrates of Cnidus, and, nearer the Heptastadium, was a temple of Phtah or Hephaestus. The Pharos was begun by Ptolemy Soter, but completed by his successor, and dedicated by him to "the gods Soteres," or Soter and Berenice, his parents. (Strab. p. 792.) It consisted of several stories, and is said to have been four hundred feet in height. The old light-house of Alexandreia still occupies the site of its ancient predecessor. A deep bay on the northern side of the island was called the "Pirates' Haven," from its having been an early place of refuge for The islets which Carian and Samian mariners. stud the northern coast of Pharos became, in the 4th and 5th centuries A. D., the resort of Christian anchorites. The island is said by Strabo to have been nearly desolated by Julius Caesar when he was besieged by the Alexandrians in B. c. 46. (Hirt. B. Alex. 17.)

The Pharos was connected with the mainland by an artificial mound or causeway, called, from its length (7 stadia, 4270 English feet, or of a mile), the Heptastadium. There were two breaks in the Mole to let the water flow through, and prevent the accumulation of silth; over these passages bridges were laid, which could be raised up at need. The temple of Hephaestus on Pharos stood at one extremity of the Mole, and the Gate of the Moon on the mainland at the other. The form of the Heptastadium can no longer be distinguished, since modern Alexandreia is principally erected upon it, and upon the earth which has accumulated about its piers. It probably lay in a direct line between fort Caffarelli and the island.

Interior of the City. Alexandreia was divided
into three regions. (1) The Regio Judaeorum. (2)
The Brucheium or Pyrucheium, the Royal or Greek
Quarter. (3) The Rhacôtis or Egyptian Quarter.
This division corresponded to the three original con-
stituents of the Alexandrian population (Tpía yévn,
After
Polyb. xxxiv. 14; Strab. p. 797, seq.)
B. C. 31 the Romans added a fourth element, but
this was principally military and financial (the garri-
son, the government, and its official staff, and the
negotiatores), and confined to the Region Brucheiun.
1. Regio Judaeorum, or Jews' Quarter, occupied
the NE. angle of the city, and was encompassed by
the sea, the city walls, and the Brucheium. Like
the Jewry of modern European cities, it had walls
and gates of its own, which were at times highly
necessary for its security, since between the Alexan-
drian Greeks and Jews frequent hostilities raged,
inflamed both by political jealousy and religious
hatred. The Jews were governed by their own
Ethnarch, or Arabarches (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 7. § 2,
10. § 1, xviii. 6. § 3, xix. 5. § 2, B. J. ii. 18. § 7),
by a sanhedrim or senate, and their own national
laws. Augustus Caesar, in B. c. 31, granted to the
Alexandrian Jews equal privileges with their Greek
fellow citizens, and recorded his grant by a public
inscription. (Id. Antiq. xii. 3, c. Apion. 2.) Philo
Judaeus (Legat. in Caium) gives a full account of
They
the immunities of the Regio Judaeorum.
were frequently confirmed or annulled by succes-
sive Roman emperors. (Sharpe, Hist. of Egypt,
p. 347, seq. 2nd edit.)

2. Brucherum, or Pyrucheium (Bpuxeîov, Пupo-
Xelov, Salmasius, ad Spartian. Hadrian. c. 20), the
Royal or Greek Quarter, was bounded to the S. and
E. by the city walls, N. by the Greater Harbour,

ALEXANDREIA.

and W. by the region Rhacôtis and the main street
which connected the Gate of the Sun with that of
the Moon and the Heptastadium. It was also sur-
rounded by its own walls, and was the quarter in
which Caesar defended himself against the Alex-
andrians. (Hirtius, B. Alex. 1.) The Brucheium
was bisected by the High Street, which ran from the
Canobic Gate to the Necropolis, and was supplied
with water from the Nile by a tunnel or aqueduct,
which entered the city on the south, and passed a
little to the west of the Gymnasium. This was the
quarter of the Alexandrians proper, or Hellenic citi-
were contained the most conspicuous of the public
zens, the Royal Residence, and the district in which
buildings. It was so much adorned and extended
by the later Ptolemies that it eventually occupied
one-fifth of the entire city. (Plin. v. 10. s. 11.) It
contained the following remarkable edifices: On the
Lochias, the Palace of the Ptolemies, with the smaller
palaces appropriated to their children and the adja-
cent gardens and groves. The far-famed Library
and Museum, with its Theatre for lectures and
public assemblies, connected with one another and
with the palaces by long colonnades of the most
costly marble from the Egyptian quarries, and
adorned with obelisks and sphinxes taken from the
Pharaonic cities. The Library contained, according
to one account, 700,000 volumes, according to
another 400,000 (Joseph. Antiq. xii. 2; Athen. i.
p. 3); part, however, of this unrivalled collection was
lodged in the temple of Serapis, in the quarter Rha-
côtis. Here were deposited the 200,000 volumes
collected by the kings of Pergamus, and presented
by M. Antonius to Cleopatra. The library of the
Museum was destroyed during the blockade of Julius
Caesar in the Brucheium; that of the Serapeion
was frequently injured by the civil broils of Alex-
andreia, and especially when that temple was de-
A. D. It was finally destroyed by the orders of the
stroyed by the Christian fanatics in the 4th century
khalif Omar, A. D. 640. The collection was begun
by Ptolemy Soter, augmented by his successors,
and respected, if not increased, by the Cae-
for the worst of the Lagidae were patrons of litera-
ture,
sars, who, like their predecessors, appointed and sala-
ried the librarians and the professors of the Museum.
The Macedonian kings replenished the shelves of the
Library zealously but unscrupulously, since they laid
an embargo on all books, whether public or private
property, which were brought to Alexandreia, retained
In this way Ptolemy Euergetes (B. C. 246
the originals, and gave copies of them to their proper
owners.
221) is said to have got possession of authentic
copies of the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides, and to have returned transcripts of them to
the Athenians, with an accompanying compensation
of fifteen talents. The Museum succeeded the once
renowned college of Heliopolis as the University of
Egypt. It contained a great hall or banqueting
room (olkos μéyas), where the professors dined in
common; an exterior peristyle, or corridor (Teρiжα-
TO), for exercise and ambulatory lectures; a theatre
where public disputations and scholastic festivals
were held; chambers for the different professors; and
possessed a botanical garden which Ptolemy Phila-
Apollon. vi. 24), and a menagerie (Athen. xiv. p.
delphus enriched with tropical flora (Philostrat. Vit.
654). It was divided into four principal sections,-
poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine,—and
enrolled among its professors or pupils the illustrious
names of Euclid, Ctesibius, Callimachus, Aratus,

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quays of the Tiber presented no such spectacle as the Emporium. In the seventh century, when the Arabs entered Alexandreia, the Brucheium was in ruins and almost deserted.

Aristophanes and Aristarchus, the critics and grammarians, the two Heros, Ammonius Saccas, Polemo, Clemens, Origen, Athanasius, Theon and his celebrated daughter Hypatia, with many others. Amid the turbulent factions and frequent calamities 3. The Rhacôtis, or Egyptian Quarter, occupied of Alexandreia, the Museum maintained its reputa- the site of the ancient Rhacôtis. Its principal buildtion, until the Saracen invasion in A. D. 640. The ings were granaries along the western arm of the emperors, like their predecessors the Ptolemies, kept cibotus or basin, a stadium, and the Temple of Sein their own hands the nomination of the President rapis. The Serapeion was erected by the first or of the Museum, who was considered one of the four second of the Ptolemies. The image of the god, chief magistrates of the city. For the Alexandrian which was of wood, was according to Clemens (CleLibrary and Museum the following works may be con- mens Alex. Protrept. c. 4. § 48), inclosed or plated sulted; - Strab. pp. 609, 791, seq.; Vitruv. vii. over with layers of every kind of metal and precious prooem.; Joseph. Antiq. xii. 2, c. Apion. ii. 7; stones: it seems also, either from the smoke of inClem. Alex. Strom. i. 22; Cyrill. Hieros. Catechet. cense or from varnish, to have been of a black colour. iv. 34; Epiphan. Mens. et Pond. c. 9; Augustin. Its origin and import are doubtful. Serapis is someCiv. D. xviii. 42; Lipsius, de Biblioth. § ii.; Bo- times defined to be Osiri-Apis; and sometimes the namy, Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. ix. 10; Matter, Sinopite Zeus, which may imply either that he l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. i. p. 47; Fabric. Bibl. was brought from the hill Sinopeion near Memphis, Graec. vol. iii. p. 500. or from Sinope in Pontus, whence Ptolemy Soter or Philadelphus is said to have imported it to adorn his new capital. That the idol was a pantheistic emblem may be inferred, both from the materials of which it was composed, and from its being adopted by a dynasty of sovereigns who sought to blend in one mass the creeds of Hellas and Egypt. The Serapeion was destroyed in A. D. 390 by Thephilus, patriarch of Alexandreia, in obedience to the rescript of the emperor Theodosius, which abolished paganism (Codex Theodos. xvi. 1, 2).* The Coptic population of this quarter were not properly Alexandrian citizens, but enjoyed a franchise inferior to that of the Greeks. (Plin. Epist. x. 5. 22, 23; Joseph. c. Apion. c. 2. § 6.) The Alexandreia which the Arabs besieged was nearly identical with the Rhacôtis. It had suffered many calamities both from civil feud and from foreign war. Its Serapeion was twice consumed by fire, once in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and again in that of Commodus. But this district survived both the Regio Judaeorum and the Brucheium.

In the Brucheium also stood the Caesarium, or Temple of the Caesars, where divine honours were paid to the emperors, deceased or living. Its site is still marked by the two granite obelisks called "Cleopatra's Needles," near which is a tower perhaps not inappropriately named the "Tower of the Romans." Proceeding westward, we come to the public granaries (Caesar, B. Civ. iii. 112) and the Mausoleum of the Ptolemies, which, from its containing the body of Alexander the Great, was denominated Soma (Zwμa, or Zua, Strab. p. 794). The remains of the Macedonian hero were originally inclosed in a coffin of gold, which, about B. C. 118, was stolen by Ptolemy Soter II., and replaced by one of glass, in which the corpse was viewed by Augustus in B. C. 30. (Sueton. Octav. 18.) A building to which tradition assigns the name of the "Tomb of Alexander" is found among the ruins of the old city, but its site does not correspond with that of the Soma. It is much reverenced by the Moslems. In form it resembles an ordinary sheikh's tomb, and it stands to the west of the road leading from the Frank Quarter Of the remarkable beauty of Alexandreia (ʼn ka^» to the Pompey's-Pillar Gate. In the Soma were also 'Aλeçávdpeia, Athen. i. p. 3), we have the testideposited the remains of M. Antonius, the only alien mony of numerous writers who saw it in its prime. admitted into the Mausoleum (Plut. Ant. 82). In Ammianus (xxii. 16) calls it "vertex omnium civithis quarter also were the High Court of Justice (Di- tatum;" Strabo (xvii. p. 832) describes it as μéyiocasterium), in which, under the Ptolemies, the senate τον ἐμπορεῖον τῆς οἰκουμένης; Theocritus (Idyll. assembled and discharged such magisterial duties as xvii.), Philo (ad Flacc. ii. p. 541), Eustathius (II a nearly despotic government allowed to them, and B.), Gregory of Nyssa (Vit. Gregor. Thaumaturg.), where afterwards the Roman Juridicus held his and many others, write in the same strain. (Comp. court. A stadium, a gymnasium, a palaestra, and an Diodor. xvii. 52; Pausan. viii. 33.) Perhaps, howamphitheatre, provided exercise and amusement for ever, one of the most striking descriptions of its the spectacle-loving Alexandrians. The Arsinoeum, effect upon a stranger is that of Achilles Tatius in on the western side of the Brucheium, was a monu- his romance of Cleitophon and Leucippe (v. 1). Its ment raised by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the memory dilapidation was not the effect of time, but of the of his favourite sister Arsinoë; and the Panium was hand of man. Its dry atmosphere preserved, for cena stone mound, or cone, with a spiral ascent on the turies after their erection, the sharp outline and gay outside, from whose summit was visible every quarter colours of its buildings; and when in A. D. 120 the of the city. The purpose of this structure is, how- emperor Hadrian surveyed Alexandreia, he beheld ever, not ascertained. The edifices of the Brucheium almost the virgin city of the Ptolemies. (Spartian. had been so arranged by Deinocrates as to command a prospect of the Great Harbour and the Pharos. In its centre was a spacious square, surrounded by cloisters and flanked to the north by the quays the Emporium, or Alexandrian Exchange. Hither, for nearly eight centuries, every nation of the civilized world sent its representatives. Alexandreia had inherited the commerce of both Tyre and Carthage, and collected in this area the traffic and speculation of three continents. The Romans admitted Alexandreia to be the second city of the world; but the

The following references will aid the reader in forming his own opinion respecting the much controverted question of the origin and meaning of Serapis:- Tac. Hist. iv. 84; Macrob. Sat. i. 29; Vopiscus, Saturnin. 8; Amm. Marc. xx. 16; Plut. Is. et Osir. cc. 27, 28; Lactant. Inst. i. 21; Clem. Alex. Cohort. ad Gent. 4. § 31, Strom. i. 1; August. Civ. D. xviii. 5; Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. x. p. 500; Gibbon, D. and F. xxviii. p. 113.

ALEXANDREIA.

ALEXANDREIA.

Hadrian. c. 12.) It suffered much from the intestine | called Пroλeuats. (Vit. Apoll. Rhod. ed. Brunk.)
feuds of the Jews and Greeks, and the Brucheium The senate was elected from the principal members
was nearly rebuilt by the emperor Gallienus, A. D. of the wards (Anuóra). Its functions were chiefly
260-8. But the zeal of its Christian population judicial. In inscriptions we meet with the titles
ἀρχιδικάστης, ἀγοράνομος, &c. Letronne, Recueil
was more destructive; and the Saracens only com- γυμνασιάρχης, δικαιοδότης, ὑπομνηματόγραφος,
pleted their previous work of demolition.
des Inscr. Gr. et Lat. de l'Egypte, vol. i. 1842,
Paris; id. Recherches pour servir à l'Histoire de
Egypte, &c. Paris, 1823-8.) From the reign
of Augustus, B. c. 31, to that of Septimius Seve-
rus, A. D. 194, the functions of the senate were
suspended, and their place supplied by the Roman
Juridicus, or Chief Justice, whose authority was
'jus buleutarum."
inferior only to that of the Praefectus Augustalis.
(Winkler, de Jurid. Alex. Lips. 1827-8.) The
latter emperor restored the
(Spartian. Severus, c. 17.)

66

For

Population of Alexandreia. Diodorus Siculus, who visited Alexandreia about B. C. 58, estimates (xvii. 52) its free citizens at 300,000, to which sum at least an equal number must be added for slaves and casual Besides Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians, residents. the population consisted, according to Dion Chrysostom, who saw the city in A. D. 69 (Orat. xxxii.), of "Italians, Syrians, Libyans, Cilicians, Aethiopians, Arabians, Bactrians, Persians, Scythians, and Indians;" and Polybius (xxxix. 14) and Strabo Áncient writers The Roman government of Alexandreia was alto(p. 797) confirm his statement. generally give the Alexandrians an ill name, as a double-tongued (Hirtius, B. Alex. 24), factious gether peculiar. The country was assigned neither The Nile(Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyran. c. 22), irascible (Phil. to the senatorian nor the imperial provinces, but adv. Flacc. ii. p. 519), blood-thirsty, yet cowardly was made dependent on the Caesar alone. Athenaeus speaks of this regulation there were valid reasons. set (Dion Cass. i. p. 621). them as a jovial, boisterous race (x. p. 420), and valley was not easy of access; might be easily dementions their passion for music and the number and fended by an ambitious prefect; was opulent and strange appellations of their musical instruments populous; and was one of the principal granaries of (id. iv. 176, xiv. p. 654). Dion Chrysostom (Orat. Rome. Hence Augustus interdicted the senatorian xxxii.) upbraids them with their levity, their insane order, and even the more illustrious equites (Tac. love of spectacles, horse races, gambling, and dissi- Ann. ii. 59) from visiting Egypt without special pation. They were, however, singularly industrious. licence. The prefect he selected, and his successors Besides their export trade, the city was full of manu- observed the rule, either from his personal adherents, factories of paper, linen, glass, and muslin (Vopisc. or from equites who looked to him alone for proSaturn. 8). Even the lame and blind had their motion. Under the prefect, but nominated by the occupations. For their rulers, Greek or Roman, they emperor, was the Juridicus (apxidikάorns), who invented nicknames. The better Ptolemies and Cae- presided over a numerous staff of inferior magisFor prefect, or perhaps the emperor alone. The Caesar sars smiled at these affronts, while Physcon and trates, and whose decisions could be annulled by the Caracalla repaid them by a general massacre. more particular information respecting Alexandreia appointed also the keeper of the public records we refer to Matter, l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 2 vols.; (vπоμνημатóураpos), the chief of the police (UKthe article "Alexandrinische Schule" in Pauly's TEPшds σTpaTηyós), the Interpreter of Egyptian nonae or warden of the markets (ἐπιμελητὴς τῶν Real Encyclopaedie; and to Mr. Sharpe's History law (¿knynτǹs waтpiŵv vouwv), the praefectus anof Egypt, 2nd ed. All these officers, as Caesarian nominees, T nóλei Xpnoiμwv), and the President of the Museum. wore a scarlet-bordered robe. (Strab. p. 797, seq.) In other respects the domination of Rome was highly conducive to the welfare of Alexandreia. Trade, which had declined under the later Ptolemies, revived and attained a prosperity hitherto unexampled: the army, instead of being a horde of lawless and oppressive mercenaries, was restrained under strict discipline: the privileges and national customs of the three constituents of its population were respected: the luxury of Rome gave new vigour to commerce with the East; the corn-supply to Italy ness of the Emporium; and the frequent inscription promoted the cultivation of the Delta and the busiof the imperial names upon the temples attested that Alexandreia at least had benefited by exchanging the Ptolemies for the Caesars.

The Government of Alexandreia. Under the Ptolemies the Alexandrians possessed at least the semblance of a constitution. Its Greek inhabitants enjoyed the privileges of bearing arms, of meeting in the Gymnasium to discuss their general interests, and to petition for redress of grievances; and they were addressed in royal proclamations as "Men of Macedon." But they had no political constitution able to resist the grasp of despotism; and, after the the Lagid house, reigns of the first three kings were deprived of even the shadow of freedom. To this end the division of the city into three nations directly contributed; for the Greeks were ever ready to take up arms against the Jews, and the Egyptians feared and contemned them both. A connubium, indeed, existed between the latter and the Greeks. (Letronne, Inscr. i. p. 99.) Of the government of the Jews by an Ethnarch and a Sanhedrim we have already spoken: how the quarter Rhacôtis was administered we do not know; it was probably under a priesthood of its own: but we find in inscriptions and in other scattered notices that the Greek population was divided into tribes (puλaí), and into wards (dnμoí). The tribes were nine in number (Αλθαΐς, Αριαδνίς, Δηιανειρίς, Διονυσίς, Εὐνείς, Θεστίς, Θοαντίς, Μαρωνίς, Σταφυλίς). (Meineke, Analecta Alexandrina, p. 346, seq. Berl. 1843.) There was, indeed, some variation in the appellations of the tribes, since Apollonius of Rhodes, the author of the Argonautica, belonged to a tribe

The History of Alexandreia may be divided into three periods. (1) The Hellenic. (2) The Roman. (3) The Christian. The details of the first of these may be read in the History of the Ptolemies (Dict. of Biogr. vol. iii. pp. 565-599). Here it will suffice to remark, that the city prospered under the wisdom of Soter and the genius of Philadelphus ; lost somewhat of its Hellenic character under Euergetes, and began to decline under Philopator, who was a mere Eastern despot, surrounded and governed by women, eunuchs, and favourites. From Epiphanes downwards these evils

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were aggravated. The army was disorganised; trade and agriculture declined; the Alexandrian people grew more servile and vicious: even the Museum exhibited symptoms of decrepitude. Its professors continued, indeed, to cultivate science and criticism, but invention and taste had expired. It depended upon Rome whether Alexandreia should become tributary to Antioch, or receive a proconsul from the senate. The wars of Rome with Carthage, Macedon, and Syria alone deferred the deposition of the Lagidae. The influence of Rome in the Ptolemaic kingdom commenced properly in B. C. 204, when the guardians of Epiphanes placed their infant ward under the protection of the senate, as his only refuge against the designs of the Macedonian and Syrian monarchs. (Justin. xxx. 2.) M. Aemilius Lepidus was appointed guardian to the young Ptolemy, and the legend" Tutor Regis" upon the Aemilian coins commemorates this trust. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 123.) | In B. C. 163 the Romans adjudicated between the brothers Ptolemy Philometor and Euergetes. The latter received Cyrene; the former retained Alexandreia and Egypt. In B. c. 145, Scipio Africanus the younger was appointed to settle the distractions which ensued upon the murder of Eupator. (Justin. xxxviii. 8; Cic. Acad. Q. iv. 2, Off. iii. 2; Diod. Legat. 32; Gell. N. A. xviii. 9.) An inscription, of about this date, recorded at Delos the existence of amity between Alexandreia and Rome. (Letronne, Inscr. vol. i. p. 102.) In B. c.97, Ptolemy Apion devised by will the province of Cyrene to the Roman senate (Liv. lxx. Epit.), and his example was followed, in B. C. 80, by Ptolemy Alexander, who bequeathed to them Alexandreia and his kingdom. The bequest, however, was not immediately enforced, as the republic was occupied with civil convulsions at home. Twenty years later Ptolemy Auletes mortgaged his revenues to a wealthy Roman senator, Rabirius Postumus (Cic. Fragm. xvii. Orelli, p. 458), and in B. C. 55 Alexandreia was drawn into the immediate vortex of the Roman revolution, and from this period, until its submission to Augustus in B. c. 30, it followed the fortunes alternately of Pompey, Gabinius, Caesar, Cassius the liberator, and M. Antonius.

The wealth of Alexandreia in the last century B. C. may be inferred from the fact, that, in B.C. 63, 6250 talents, or a million sterling, were paid to the treasury as port dues alone. (Diod. xvii. 52; Strab. p. 832.) Under the emperors, the history of Alexandreia exhibits little variety. It was, upon the whole, leniently governed, for it was the interest of the Caesars to be generally popular in a city which commanded one of the granaries of Rome. Augustus, indeed, marked his displeasure at the support given to M. Antonius, by building Nicopolis about three miles to the east of the Canobic gate as its rival, and by depriving the Greeks of Alexandreia of the only political distinction which the Ptolemies had left them the judicial functions of the senate. The city, however, shared in the general prosperity of Egypt under Roman rule. The portion of its population that came most frequently in collision with the executive was that of the Jewish Quarter. Sometimes emperors, like Caligula, demanded that the imperial effigies or military standards should be set up in their temple, at others the Greeks ridiculed or outraged the Hebrew ceremonies. Both these causes were attended with sanguinary results, and even with general pillage and burning of the city. Alexandreia was favoured by Claudius, who added a wing to the Museum; was threatened with

a visit from Nero, who coveted the skilful applause of its claqueurs in the theatre (Sueton. Ner. 20); was the head-quarter, for some months, of Vespasian (Tac. Hist. iii. 48, iv. 82) during the civil wars which preceded his accession; was subjected to military lawlessness under Domitian (Juv. Sat. xvi.); was governed mildly by Trajan, who even supplied the city, during a dearth, with corn (Plin. Panegyr. 31. § 23); and was visited by Hadrian in A. D. 122, who has left a graphic picture of the population. (Vopisc. Saturn. 8.) The first important change in their polity was that introduced by the emperor Severus in A. D. 196. The Alexandrian Greeks were no longer formidable, and Severus accordingly restored their senate and municipal government. He also ornamented the city with a temple of Rhea, and with a public bath- - Thermae Septimianae.

Alexandreia, however, suffered more from a single visit of Caracalla than from the tyranny or caprice of any of his predecessors. That emperor had been ridiculed by its satirical populace for affecting to be the Achilles and Alexander of his time. The rumours or caricatures which reached him in Italy were not forgotten on his tour through the provinces; and although he was greeted with hecatombs on his arrival at Alexandreia in A. D. 211 (Herodian. iv. 9), he did not omit to repay the insult by a general massacre of the youth of military age. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 22; Spartian. Caracall. 6.) Caracalla also introduced some important changes in the civil relations of the Alexandrians. To mark his displeasure with the Greeks, he admitted the chief men of the quarter Rhacôtis-i. e. native Egyptians — into the Roman senate (Dion Cass. li. 17; Spartian. Caracall. 9); he patronised a temple of Isis at Rome; and he punished the citizens of the Brucheiu by retrenching their public games and their allowance of corn. The Greek quarter was charged with the maintenance of an additional Roman garrison, and its inner walls were repaired and lined with forts.

From the works of Aretacus (de Morb. Acut. i.) we learn that Alexandreia was visited by a pestilence in the reign of Gallus, A. D. 253. In 265, the prefect Aemilianus was proclaimed Caesar by his soldiers. (Trebell. Pol. Trig. Tyrann. 22, Gallien. 4.) In 270, the name of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, appears on the Alexandrian coinage; and the city had its full share of the evils consequent upon the frequent revolutions of the Roman empire. (Vopisc. Aurelian, 32.) After this period, A. D. 271, Alexandreia lost much of its predominance in Egypt, since the native population, hardened by repeated wars, and reinforced by Arabian immigrants, had become a martial and turbulent race. In A. D. 297 (Eutrop. ix. 22), Diocletian besieged and regained Alexandreia, which had declared itself in favour of the usurper Achilleus. The emperor, however, made a lenient use of his victory, and purchased the favour of the populace by an increased largess of corn. The column, now well known as Pompey's Pillar, once supported a statue of this emperor, and still bears on its base the inscription, "To the most honoured emperor, the deliverer of Alexandreia, the invincible Diocletian."

Alexandreia had its full share of the persecutions of this reign. The Jewish rabbinism and Greek philosophy of the city had paved the way for Christianity, and the serious temper of the Egyptian population sympathised with the earnestness of the new faith. The Christian population of Alexan

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