rulers of Egypt attempted to carry
their supremacy beyond the isthmus; whether under the Ptolemies or the
native kings, the distance to which her influence extended was always
practically the same, and the teaching of history enables us to note its
limits on the map with relative accuracy.*

* The development of the Egyptian navy enabled the Ptolemies
to exercise authority over the coasts of Asia Minor and of
Thrace, but this extension of their power beyond the
indicated limits only hastened the exhaustion of their
empire. This instance, like that of Mehemet Ali, thus
confirms the position taken up in the text.

The coast towns, which were in maritime communication with the ports of
the Delta, submitted to the Egyptian yoke more readily than those of the
interior. But this submission could not be reckoned on beyond Berytus,
on the banks of the Lykos, though occasionally it stretched a little
further north as far as Byblos and Arvad; even then it did not extend
inland, and the curve marking its limits traverses Coele-Syria from
north-west to south-east, terminating at Mount Hermon. Damascus,
securely entrenched behind Anti-Lebanon, almost always lay outside this
limit. The rulers of Egypt generally succeeded without much difficulty
in keeping possession of the countries lying to the south of this line;
it demanded merely a slight effort, and this could be furnished for
several centuries without encroaching seriously on the resources of the
country, or endangering its prosperity. When, however, some province
ventured to break away from the control of Egypt, the whole mechanism
of the government was put into operation to provide soldiers and the
necessary means for an expedition. Each stage of the advance beyond the
frontier demanded a greater expenditure of energy, which, with prolonged
distances, would naturally become exhausted. The expedition would
scarcely have reached the Taurus or the Euphrates, before the force
of circumstances would bring about its recall homewards, leaving but a
slight bond of vassalage between the recently subdued countries and the
conqueror, which would speedily be cast off or give place to relations
dictated by interest or courtesy. Thutmosis III. had to submit to this
sort of necessary law; a further extension of territory had hardly
been gained when his dominion began to shrink within the frontiers that
appeared to have been prescribed by nature for an empire