centre, not only of international commerce and an entrepot between Asia
and Europe, but also a centre of intellectual culture. The policy of
Alexander to remove the barriers between the Greeks and the Asiatics,
and to pave the way for the union of the races of his vast empire, was
continued by the Lagidae dynasty in Egypt. With her independence and
native dynasties, Egypt had also lost her political strength and unity;
she retained, however, her ancient institutions, her customs, and
religious system. The sway of Persian dominion had passed over her
without overthrowing this huge rock of sacerdotal power which, deeply
rooted with many ramifications, seemed to mock the wave of time. Out
of the ruins of political independence still towered the monuments
of civilisation of a mighty past which gave to this country moral
independence, and prevented the obliteration of nationality. It would
have mattered very little in the vast empire of Alexander if one
province had a special physiognomy. It was different, however, with the
Lagidae: their power was concentrated in Egypt, and they were therefore
compelled to obliterate the separation existing between the conquering
and the conquered races, and fuse them, if possible, into one. A
great obstacle which confronted the Macedonian rulers in Egypt was
the religion of the country. The interest and the policy of the Lagidae
demanded the removal of this obstacle, not by force but by diplomacy.
Greek gods were therefore identified with Egyptian; Phtah became
Hephaestos; Thot, Hermes; Ra, Helios; Amon, Zeus; and, in consequence of
a dream which commanded him to offer adoration to a foreign god, Ptolemy
Soter created a new Greek god who was of Egyptian origin. Osiris at that
period was the great god of Egypt; Memphis was the religious centre of
the cult of Apis, the representative of Osiris, and who, when living,
was called Apis-Osiris, and when dead Osiris-Apis. Cambyses had killed
the god or his representative: it was a bad move. Alexander made
sacrifices to him: Ptolemy Soter did more. He endeavoured to persuade
the Egyptians that Osirapi or Osiris-Apis was also sacred to the Greeks,
and to identify him with some Greek divinity. There was a Greek deity
known as Serapis, identified with Pluton, the god of Hades. Serapis,
by a clever manouvre, a _coup de religion_, was identified with
Osiris-Apis. The lingual similarity and the fact that Osirapi was the
god of the Egyptian Hades made the