ome, is as yet
known only by an inscription in Pctrie.

** The site has been rediscovered by Petrie at the southern
extremity of and almost outside the town; the walls were
about 48 feet thick and 39 feet high, and the rectangular
area enclosed by them could easily contain fifty thousand
men.

It was not possible for the constitution of Naucratis to be very
homogeneous, when a score of different elements assisted in its
composition. It appears to have been a compromise between the
institutions of the Dorians and those of the Ionians. Its supreme
magistrates were called timuchi, but their length of office and
functions are alike unknown to us. The inspectors of the emporia and
markets could be elected only by the citizens of the nine towns, and it
is certain that the chief authority was not entirely in the hands either
of the timuchi or the inspectors; perhaps each quarter of the town had
its council taken from among the oldest residents. A prytanasum was open
to all comers where assemblies and banquets were held on feast-days;
here were celebrated at the public expense the festivals of Dionysos
and Apollo Komasos. Amasis made the city a free port, accessible at all
times to whoever should present themselves with peaceable intent, and
the privileges which he granted naturally brought about the closing of
all the other seaports of Egypt. When a Greek ship, pursued by pirates,
buffeted by storms, or disabled by an accident at sea, ran ashore at
some prohibited spot on the coast, the captain had to appear before the
nearest magistrate, in order to swear that he had not violated the law
wilfully, but from the force of circumstances. If his excuse appeared
reasonable, he was permitted to make his way to the mouth of the Canopic
branch of the Nile; but when the state of the wind or tide did not allow
of his departure, his cargo was transferred to boats of the locality,
and sent to the Hellenic settlement by the canals of the Delta. This
provision of the law brought prosperity to Naucratis; the whole of the
commerce of Egypt with the Greek world passed through her docks, and
in a few years she became one of the wealthiest emporia of the
Mediterranean. The inhabitants soon overflowed the surrounding country,
and covered it with villas and townships. Such merchants as refused to
submit to the rule of their own countrymen found a home in some other
part of the valley which suited them, and even Uppe