continued, their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any
circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the
western parts of Africa; but it appears, by the event, that the progress
of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest
barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains,
whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with
a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and
violence. Diocletian, on his side, opened the campaign in Egypt by the
siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of
the Nile into every quarter of that immense city, and rendering his
camp impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed
his reiterated attacks with caution and vigor. After a siege of eight
months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the
clemency of the conqueror, but it experienced the full extent of his
severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous
slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a
sentence either of death or at least of exile. The fate of Busiris and
of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria: those proud
cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched
by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms
and by the severe order of Diocletian. The character of the Egyptian
nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could
alone justify this excessive rigor. The seditions of Alexandria had
often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since
the usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly
relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of
AEthiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the Island of
Meroe and the Red Sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposition
was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive. Yet in the public
disorders, these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity
of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed
to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome. Such had been the unworthy
allies of the Egyptians; and while the attention of the state was
engaged in more serious wars, their vexations inroads might again harass
the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a
suitable adversary, Diocletian pers