B. C.

380. P-se-mut.

379. Naifāauruț II.

Dynasty XXX., from Sebennytus.

378. Nekht-Heru-heb, the Nektanebês of classical writers, defeated the Persians at Mendes.

360. Tche-her, the Teôs of Manetho's list, surrendered to the Persians. He restored the temple of Khensuhetep at Thebes.

358. Nekht-neb-f, the Nektanebos of classical writers, was a great warrior and builder, and all the great temples of Egypt bear witness to his activity in the service of the gods. He opened a new quarry at Tura. He is said to have devoted himself to the pursuit of magic, and to have neglected his empire; when Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) took Pelusium he fled from his kingdom, and the Persians again ruled Egypt. Thus came to an end the rule of the last native king of Egypt.

PERSIANS.

340. Artaxerxes III. (Ochus).

338. Arses.

336. Darius III. (Codomannus) conquered by Alexander the Great at Issus.

MACEDONIANS.

332. Alexander the Great visited the Oasis of Sîwa, and was acknowledged by the god Åmen, who was worshipped there, to be the king of Egypt by

B.C.

332.

virtue of his divine birth and achievements.

We

know from Quintus Curtius* (iv, 7) that the form of the god Amen, under which the god was worshipped in the Oasis of Siwa, was different from that of any other god, and that it was in the form of an "umbilicus," ie., "umbo," "the boss of a buckler" or "shield," and was set with emeralds and other precious stones. Quite recently Prof. Naville has shown that the buckler, in the boss of which the figure of the god was placed, must have resembled the shield-shaped slabs of green stone which have been found on predynastic sites in Egypt; and he calls special attention, in proof of his argument, to the slab bearing the name of Nar-Mer, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In the centre of this is a circular hollow, wherein there was probably set, at one time, the figure of a god, after the manner of the emblem of Åmen in the Oasis of Siwa; this figure was probably stolen in ancient days. Alexander founded his great city of Alexandria close to the old town of Rakoti, opposite the Island of Pharos. He died of poison at Babylon in June, 323, and his body was taken to Alexandria and buried there. Ptolemy Lagus then became governor of Egypt, and ruled it on behalf of :

Philip II., Arrhidaeus.

Alexander.

Id quod pro deo colitur non eamdem effigiem habet quam vulgo diis artifices accommodaverunt; umbilicus similis est habitus, smaragdo et gemma coagmentatus.

THE PTOLEMIES.

Ptolemy I. Soter, the son of Lagus and Arsinoë, was born B.C. 367. He married Artacama, daughter of Artabazus, in 324, became satrap of Egypt in 325; he married Thaïs in 323, Eurydice, daughter of Antipater, in 321, and Berenice in 317, and in 304 assumed the title of Soter. He died in 283-2. He was the founder of the Alexandrian Library.

Ptolemy II. Philadelphus was born about 304. He became king in 287 or 286; he married Arsinoë, the daughter of Lysimachus of Thrace, in 285 (?); he divorced her in 280 and married his sister Arsinoë II. ; he made his son co-ruler about 267, and died about 246. He built the Pharos, founded the cities of Myos Hormos and Berenice on the Red Sea, employed Manetho, a priest of Sebennytus, to compile a history of Egypt, and caused the Hebrew Scriptures to be translated into Greek.

Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. married Berenice II. about 246; his daughter Berenice died about 238, and he himself died in 222. He was the founder of the temple of Edfû, and was a great patron of the arts, sciences, and literature. He made an expedition into Persia, and brought back the statues of the gods of Egypt which had been carried there by Cambyses. The Stele of Canopus was set up in the ninth year of his reign. This important stele, preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, is inscribed in hieroglyphic, Greek, and demotic characters, with a decree of the priesthood which was promulgated at Canopus. It sets forth the good deeds of Ptolemy III., and enumerates the benefits which he and his wife Berenice had conferred upon Egypt, thus :— I. Rich gifts and endowments to the temples. 2. Endowments for Apis, Mnevis and other sacred animals in Egypt. 3. Restoration of the statues of the gods from Persia to Egypt. 4. The maintenance of a general peace. 5. The

remission of taxes during a period of famine. 6. The free distribution of corn, which had been purchased out of the royal revenues in Cyprus, Syria and Phoenicia. In return for these benefits the priests decreed additional honours for Ptolemy III. and Berenice, and their ancestors, the appointment of a new order of priests, the creation of a four days' festival, everlasting honours to Berenice, the king's virgin daughter, the setting up of gold statues in the temples, etc. At the same time, the priests decreed a reform in the calendar, i.e., they wished to add one day in every fourth year, in order that the winter festivals might always be celebrated in the winter, and the summer festivals in the

summer.

Ptolemy IV. Philopator I. began to reign about 221 he, with the help of Sosibius, murdered Berenice, Magas, and Lysimachus in 221; he married his sister Arsinoë III. in 217, and caused her to be murdered between 209 and 205. His son Epiphanes was born in 209 or 208, and was made co-regent in 208; Ptolemy IV. died probably in 205. He added a hall to the temple which Ergamenes had built at Dakkah, in Nubia, and continued the building of the temple of Edfû. He employed elephants in his army; these came from the Eastern Sûdân by way of the sea.

Ptolemy V. Epiphanes became king of Egypt in 205; he was betrothed to Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus III. of Syria, in 199; he was crowned at Memphis in the ninth year of his reign (198); he married Cleopatra in 193, and his three children, Philometor, Cleopatra and Euergetes, were born between 186 and 181. In 181 he died of poison. In his reign Coelesyria and Palestine were lost to Egypt. The famous Decree of Memphis, a copy of which is inscribed on the Rosetta Stone, was promulgated in the ninth year of his reign.

The period of the rule of Ptolemies VI. -IX. is one of difficulty for the historian, and authorities differ as to its

details. According to Dr. Strack, Ptolemy VI. bore the title of Philometor, and Ptolemy VII. that of Eupator. This authority makes Ptolemy VI. the sole ruler of Egypt in 181; to marry his sister Cleopatra II. in 172 ; to be made prisoner by Antiochus IV. in 170; to rule conjointly with Cleopatra and Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. in 169; to be expelled from Egypt by his brother in 164; to return in 163; to rule with Cleopatra II. in the same year; and to die in 146 or 145. Dr. Strack thinks that Ptolemy VII. Eupator was born before 162, and that he reigned for a few weeks over Egypt and Cyprus jointly with Cleopatra II. Ptolemy VIII. Euergetes II. was king in Alexandria, ruling with Cleopatra II. in 170, and in 164 he was king of all Egypt; he married Cleopatra II. in 145, and ruled with her first with the title of Eupator, and later he and his wife adopted the title of "Euergetai." Ptolemy Memphites was born in 145 (?). Ptolemy VIII. married his niece Cleopatra III. in 143, and ruled, with both Cleopatras, about 133; he murdered Memphites and another son in 130, and died in 116. Onias begged permission to build an altar to the god of the Hebrews either from Ptolemy VI. or Ptolemy VII., according to the view taken of the order of succession of the rulers.

Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. (Ptolemy VIII. according to Strack) finished the building of the temple of Edfû. He reigned from B.C. 147 to 117. His nickname was "Physkon."

Ptolemy X. Soter II. (Lathyrus) was born in 142; he began to reign in 117, and married Selene in 115; he was expelled from Egypt and went to Cyprus in 106, and Ptolemy XI. Alexander I. and his mother, Cleopatra III., reigned with the title "Philometores Soteres." Cleopatra III. was murdered by her son in 101. Ptolemy XI. died about the year 87, and Ptolemy X. in 81.

Ptolemy XII. Alexander II. was born about 105; he