.D. 283, the empire fell to Carus and his
sons, Numerianus and Carinus, whose names are found on the Alexandrian
coins, but whose short reigns have left no other trace in Egypt.

[Illustration: 169.jpg COIN OF TRAJAN'S SECOND LEGION]

At this time also we find upon the coins the name of Trajan's second
Egyptian legion, which was at all times stationed in Egypt, and which,
acting upon an authority that was usually granted to the Roman legions
in the various provinces, coined money of several kinds for their own
pay.

The reign of Diocletian, beginning in A.D. 285, was one of suffering to
the Egyptians; and in the fourth year the people rose against the Roman
government, and gave the title of emperor to Achilleus, their leader
in the rebellion. Galerius, the Roman general, led an army against the
rebels, and marched through the whole of the Thebaid; but, though the
Egyptians were routed whenever they were bold enough to meet the legions
in battle, yet the rebellion was not very easily crushed. The Romans
were scarcely obeyed beyond the spot on which their army was encamped.
In the fourth year of the rebellion, A.D. 292, Diocletian came to Egypt,
and the cities of Koptos and Busiris were besieged by the emperor in
person, and wholly destroyed after a regular siege.

When Diocletian reached the southern limits of Egypt he was able to
judge of the difficulty, and indeed the uselessness, of trying to hold
any part of Ethiopia; and he found that the tribute levied there was
less than the cost of the troops required to collect it. He therefore
made a new treaty with the Nobatae, as the people between the first and
second cataracts were now called. He gave up to them the whole of Lower
Ethiopia, or the province called Nubia. The valley for seventy miles
above Syene, which bore the name of the Dodecaschonos, had been held by
Augustus and his successors, and this was now given up to the original
inhabitants. Diocletian strengthened the fortifications on the isle
of Elephantine, to guard what was thenceforth the uttermost point of
defence, and agreed to pay to the Nobatae and Blemmyes a yearly sum of
gold on the latter promising no longer to harass Upper Egypt with their
marauding inroads, and on the former promising to forbid the Blemmyes
from doing so. What remains of the Roman wall built against the inroads
of these troublesome neighbours runs along the edge of the cultivated
land on the east side of the river for some distan