312.jpg THE SPHINX]

All who were banished for their crimes or who went away to escape from
trial, all runaway slaves, all ruined debtors, found a place of safety
in Alexandria; and by enrolling themselves in the Egyptian army they
joined in bonds of fellowship with thousands like themselves, who made
it a point of honour to screen one another from being overtaken by
justice or reclaimed by their masters. With such men as these, together
with some bands of robbers from Syria and Cilicia, had the ranks of the
Egyptian army latterly been recruited. These were now joined by a
number of soldiers and officers from the army of Gabinius, who liked the
Egyptian high pay and lawlessness better than the strict discipline of
the Romans. As, in this mixed body of men, the more regular courage
and greater skill in war was found among the Romans, they were chiefly
chosen as officers, and the whole had something of the form of a Roman
army. These soldiers in Alexandria were above all law and discipline.

The laws were everywhere badly enforced, crimes passed unpunished, and
property became unsafe. Robberies were carried on openly, and the only
hope of recovering what was stolen was by buying it back from the thief.
In many cases, whole villages lived upon plunder, and for that purpose
formed themselves into a society, and put themselves under the orders of
a chief; and, when any merchant or husbandman was robbed, he applied to
this chief, who usually restored to him the stolen property on payment
of one-fourth of its value.

As the country fell off in wealth, power, and population, the schools
of Alexandria fell off in learning, and we meet with few authors whose
names can brighten the pages of this reign. Apollonius of Citium,
indeed, who had studied surgery and anatomy at Alexandria under Zopyrus,
when he returned to Cyprus, wrote a treatise on the joints of the body,
and dedicated his work to Ptolemy, king of that island. The work is
still remaining in manuscript.

[Illustration: 314.jpg]

[Illustration: 314b.jpg BEARERS OF EVIL TIDINGS]

Beside his name of Neus Dionysus, the king is in the hieroglyphics
sometimes called Philopator and Philadelphus; and in a Greek inscription
on a statue at Philae he is called by the three names, Neus Dionysus,
Philopator, Philadelphus. The coins which are usually thought to be his
are in a worse style of art than those of the kings before him. He
died in B.C. 51, in the twenty-ninth year of