he city. The
Arabs, when they heard of what had happened, returned in the night,
surrounded the place, came upon the Greeks from above, by paths known
only to themselves, and overcame them with such slaughter that, out of
the four thousand six hundred men, only fifty returned to Antigonus to
tell the tale.

The Nabataeans then sent to Antigonus to complain of this crafty attack
being made upon Petra after they had received from him a promise of
friendship. He endeavoured to put them off their guard by disowning the
acts of his general; he sent them home with promises of peace, but at
the same time sent forward his son Demetrius, with four thousand horse
and four thousand foot, to take revenge upon them, and again seize their
city. But the Arabs were this time upon their guard; the nature of
the place was as unfavourable to the Greek arms and warfare as it was
favourable to the Arabs; and these eight thousand men, the flower of the
army, under brave Demetrius, were unable to force their way through the
narrow pass into this remarkable city.

Had Antigonus been master of the sea, he might perhaps have marched
through the desert along the coast of the Mediterranean to Pelusium,
with his fleet to wait upon his army, as Perdiccas had done. But
without this, the only way that he could enter Egypt was through the
neighbourhood of Petra, and then along the same path which the Jews are
supposed to have followed; and the stop thus put upon the invasion of
Egypt by this little city shows us the strength of Ptolemy's eastern
frontier. Antigonus then led his army northward, leaving the kingdom of
Egypt unattacked.

This retreat was followed by a treaty of peace between these generals,
by which it was agreed that each should keep the country that he then
held; that Cassan-der should govern Macedonia until Alexander AEgus, the
son of Alexander the Great, should be of age; that Lysimachus should
keep Thrace, Ptolemy Egypt, and Antigonus Asia Minor and Palestine; and
each wishing to be looked upon as the friend of the soldiers by whom
his power was upheld, and the whole of these wide conquests kept in awe,
added the very unnecessary article, that the Greeks living in each of
these countries should be governed according to their own laws.

All the provinces held by these generals became more or less Greek
kingdoms, yet in no one did so many Greeks settle as in Lower Egypt.
Though the rest of Egypt was governed by Egyptian laws and ju