ondemned to hard labor in the
public works or in the mines, or was branded and transported to the
Oasis. According to Strabo, the system was so admirably managed, "that
art contrived sometimes to supply what nature denied, and, by means of
canals and embankments, there was little difference in the quantity of
land irrigated, whether the inundation was deficient or abundant."
"If," continues the geographer, "it rose only to the height of eight
cubits, the usual idea was that a famine would ensue, fourteen being
required for a plentiful harvest; but when Petronius was praefect of
Egypt twelve cubits gave the same abundance, nor did they suffer from
want even at eight;" and it may be supposed that long experience had
taught the ancient Egyptians to obtain similar results from the same
means, which, neglected at a subsequent period, were revived, rather
than, as Strabo thinks, first introduced, by the Romans.

In some parts of Egypt the villages were liable to be overflowed when
the Nile rose to more than an ordinary height, by which the lives and
property of the inhabitants were endangered, and when their crude
brick houses had been long exposed to the damp the foundations gave
way, and the fallen walls, saturated with water, were once more mixed
with the mud from which they had been extracted. On these occasions
the blessings of the Nile entailed heavy losses on the inhabitants,
for, according to Pliny, "if the rise of water exceeded sixteen
cubits famine was the result, as when it only reached the height of
twelve." In another place he says, "a proper inundation is of sixteen
cubits * * * * in twelve cubits the country suffers from famine, and
feels a deficiency even in thirteen; fourteen cause joy, fifteen
security, sixteen delight; the greatest rise of the river to this
period being of eighteen cubits, in the reign of Claudius; the least
during the Pharsalic war."

The land being cleared of the water, and presenting in some places a
surface of liquid mud, in others nearly dried by the sun and the
strong northwest winds (that continue at intervals to the end of
Autumn and commencement of Winter), the husbandman prepared the ground
to receive the seed, which was either done by the plow and hoe, or by
more simple means, according to the nature of the soil, the quality of
the produce they intended to cultivate, or the time the land had
remained under water.

When the levels were low and the water had continued long upon