of the Arabic
dynasty bearing the names of Abgarus and Mannus, which we afterwards
find there. This dynasty is obviously connected with the settlement
of many Arabs by Tigranes the Great in the region of Edessa,
Callirrhoe, Carrhae (Plin. H. N. v. 20, 85; ax, 86; vi. 28, 142);
respecting which Plutarch also (Luc. 21) states that Tigranes,
changing the habits of the tent-Arabs, settled them nearer to his
kingdom in order by their means to possess himself of the trade.
We may presumably take this to mean that the Bedouins, who were
accustomed to open routes for traffic through their territory and
to levy on these routes fixed transit-dues (Strabo, xvi. 748), were
to serve the great-king as a sort of toll-supervisors, and to levy
tolls for him and themselves at the passage of the Euphrates.
These "Osrhoenian Arabs" (-Orei Arabes-), as Pliny calls them,
must also be the Arabs on Mount Amanus, whom Afranius subdued
(Plut. Pomp. 39).

8. The disputed question, whether this alleged or real testament
proceeded from Alexander I (d. 666) or Alexander II (d. 673), is
usually decided in favour of the former alternative. But
the reasons are inadequate; for Cicero (de L. Agr. i. 4, 12; 15, 38;
16, 41) does not say that Egypt fell to Rome in 666, but that it
did so in or after this year; and while the circumstance that
Alexander I died abroad, and Alexander II in Alexandria, has led
some to infer that the treasures mentioned in the testament in
question as lying in Tyre must have belonged to the former, they
have overlooked that Alexander II was killed nineteen days after
his arrival in Egypt (Letronne, Inscr, de I'Egypte, ii. 20), when
his treasure might still very well be in Tyre. On the other hand
the circumstance that the second Alexander was the last genuine
Lagid is decisive, for in the similar acquisitions of Pergamus,
Cyrene, and Bithynia it was always by the last scion of
the legitimate ruling family that Rome was appointed heir. The ancient
constitutional law, as it applied at least to the Roman client-
states, seems to have given to the reigning prince the right of
ultimate disposal of his kingdom not absolutely, but only in
the absence of -agnati- entitled to succeed. Comp. Gutschmid's remark
in the German translation of S. Sharpe's History of Egypt, ii. 17.

Whether the testament was genuine or spurious, cannot be ascertained,
and is of no great moment; there are no special reasons for
assuming a forgery.

9.