J ^^'^^-^. dfornell lllniueirstty Hihrary 3tliaca, SJcui ^ork vtv ^3 1924 092 921 109 | -^l^^J i.a. '"^ fe^ 'i \ 1 \ _ ^^4 y^M r<WX^^^-*^^, <. / ; ::^^ 1>5 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092921109 Prayer to Isis Painted bv Alexander Cabanel ; m^S3aS^^S3£^BB3^BSHeB3ES3BSH3B3B3SaSSSSS3SSB, £d History of Egypt From 330 B. C. to the Present Time By S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel Member of the Ecole Langues Orientales, Paris Russian, German, French Orientalist and Philologist CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Volume I. LONDON THE GROLIER SOCIETY PUBLISHERS lEBttion l!CatiDTiale Copies Limited to One Thousand for England and America 5\(b. .25.3 Copyright, ICJ04 By The Grolier Society Vri(;5i,rv)Hii V'l/Ui M PREFACE Professor Maspero closes Ms History of Egypt with the conquest of Alexander the Grreat. There is a sense of dramatic fitness in this selection, for, with the com- ing of the Macedonians, the sceptre of authority passed for ever out of the hand of the Egyptian. For sev- eral centuries the power of the race had been declin- ing, and foreign nations had contended for the vast treasure-house of Egypt. Alexander found the Persians virtually rulers of the land. The ancient people whose fame has come down to us through cepturies untarnished had been forced to bow beneath the yoke of foreign masters, and nations of alien blood were henceforth to dominate its history. The first Ptolemy founded a Macedonian or Greek dynasty that maintained supremacy in Egypt until the year 30 b. c. His successors were his lineal descendants, and to the very last they prided themselves on their Greek origin; but the government which they estab- lished was essentially Oriental in character. The names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra convey an Egyptian rather than a Greek significance; and the later rulers of the dynasty were true Egyptians, since their ancestors had lived in Alexandria for three full centuries. In the year 30 b. c. Augustus Csesar conquered the last of the Ptolemies, the famous Cleopatra. Augustus made Egypt virtually his private province, and drew from it resources that were among the chief elements of Yi PREFACE his power. After Augustus, the Eomans continued in control untn the coming of the Saracens under Amr, in the seventh century. Various dynasties of Moham- medans, covering a period of several centuries, main- tained control imtil the Mamluks, in 1250, overthrew the legitimate rulers, to be themselves overthrown three centuries later by the Turks under Selim I. Turkish rule was maintained until near the close of the eight- eenth century, when the French, under Napoleon Bona- parte, invaded Egypt. In 1806, after the expulsion of the French by the English, the famous Mehemet Ali destroyed the last vestiges of Mamluk power, and set up a quasi-independent sovereignty which was not dis- turbed until toward the close of the nineteenth century. The events of the last twenty-five years, comprising a short period of joint control of Egypt by the French and English, followed by the British occupation, are fresh in the mind of the reader. What may be termed the modern history of Egypt covers a period of more than twenty-two centuries. During this time the native Egyptian can scarcely be said to have a national history, but the land of Egypt, and the races who have become . acclimated there, have passed through many interesting phases. Professor Maspero completes the history of antiquity in that dra- matic scene in which the ancient Egyptian makes his last futile struggle for independence. But the NUe Val- ley has remained the scene of the most important events where the strongest nations of the earth contended for supremacy. It is most interesting to note that the PREFACE vii invaders of Egypt, wMle impressing their military stamp upon the natives, have been mastered in a very real sense by the spell of Egypt's greatness; but the language, the key to ancient learning and civilisation, still remained a well-guarded secret. Here and there one of the Ptole- mies or Greeks thought it worth his while to master the hieroglyphic writing. Occasionally a Roman of the later period may have done the same, but such an accomplish- ment was no doubt very unusual from the first. The subordinated Egyptians therefore had no resource but to learn the language of their conquerors, and presently it came to pass that not even the native Egyptian re- membered the elusive secrets of his own written lan- guage. Egyptian, as a spoken tongue, remained, in a modified form, as Koptic, but at about the beginning of our era the classical Egyptian had become a dead lan- guage. No one any longer wrote in the hieroglyphic, hieratic, or demotic scripts; in a word, the hieroglyphic writing was forgotten. The reader of Professor Mas- pero 's pages has had opportunity to learn how this secret was discovered in the nineteenth century. This informa- tion is further amplified in the present volinnes, and we see how in oiu* own time the native Egyptian has regained something of his former grandeur through the careful and scientific study of monuments, inscriptions, and works of art. Thus it will appear in the curious round- ing out of the enigmatic story that the most ancient history of civilisation becomes also the newest and most modern human history. PUBLISHEE'S NOTE It should be explained that Doctor Rappoport, in pre- paring these volumes, has drawn very largely upon the authorities who have previously laboured in the same field, and in particular upon the works of Creasy, Duruy, Bbers, Lavisse, Marcel, Michaud, Neibuhr, Paton, Ram- baud, Sharp, and Weil. The results of investigations by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie and other prominent Egyptologists have been fully set forth and profusely illustrated. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY ESSAY PAGE HELLENISM AND HEBRAISM IN EGYPT UNDEE THE PTOLEMIES Alexandria as the meeting-place of Western and Eastern Culture — The blending of Jewish and Greek Ideals 3 CHAPTER I. EGYPT CONQUEKED BY THE GREEKS Alexander the Great — Cleomenes ( 332-323 b. c.) 15 CHAPTER II. ESYPT UNDER PTOLEMY SOTER Ptolemy governs Egypt, overcomes Perdiccas, and establishes a Dynasty . 31 CHAPTER III. PTOLEMY PHILADBLPHtJS (284-246 B C.) Treaty with Rome — Expansion of Trade — Alexandrian Culture — The Septuagint 101 CHAPTER IV. PTOLEMY EUERGETES, PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR, AND PTOLEMY EPIPHANES The struggle for Syria — Decline of the Dynasty — Advent of^ Roman Control 7 . 153 CONTENTS CHAPTER V. FAOB PTOLEMY PHILOM£TOR AND PTOLEMY BUKRGKTE8 II. The Syrian Invasion — The Jews and the Bible — Relations with Rome — Literature of the Age ......... 213 CHAPTER VI. THE GROWTH OF ROMAN INFLUKNCB IN EGYPT The Weakness of the Ptolemies — Egypt bequeathed to Rome — Pompey, Caesar, and Antony befriend Egypt 263 CHAPTER Vn, CLEOPATRA AND HER BROTHERS Pompey, Csesar, and Antony in Egypt — Cleopatra's Extravagance and Intrigues — Octavianus annexes Egypt — Retrospect. , 315 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Prayer to Isis Frontispiece Alexandria 15 Alexander the Great 15 Transporting grain on the Nile . ....... 19 Phtah, the God of Memphis 21 Lighthouse at Alexandria . 27 Ptolemy Soter (Lagus) 31 The D6m Palm 35 Street scene in Cairo 39 A silhouette on the Nile 40 Environs of Luxor 43 Crocodiles basking in the sun 44 A Theban Belle 49 Tombs of the Sacred BuUs 52 The God Serapis 55 Manuscript on papyrus in Hieroglyphics, Thebes ..... 56 Alexander adoring Horus 57 On the coast of the Red Sea 63 Fa?ade of the Palace of Darius, Persepolis ...... 69 Palm and sycamore : an Egyptian contrast 75 Alexandrian lady, attired in Bombyx silk 81 Coin of Ptolemy Soter, b. c. 302 . 82 Coin of Soter, -with Jupiter 83 The Chariot of Antiphilus 92 BerenicS Soter 95 Nit, Goddess of Sais 98 A Cat Mummy 99 vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGB Ptolemy II. and his first wife . ; . .101 Pharos in Old Alexandria 102 Bronze cosmetic holder 108 Osiris and Isis and the four children of Horus within a shrine . .108 View of Aswan ............ Ill Rosetta branch of the Nile 112 Temple of Philse 116 Anubis, god of the lower world . - , . .118 At the head of the Red Sea ......... 120 Dahabieh descending the Nile ......... 122 The first cataract on the Nile at Aswan (SySng) 123 An athlete disporting on a crocodile ........ 128 Modern sphinx-like face 131 Method of Egyptian draftsmanship 137 Coin with heads of Soter and Berenice ; and Philadelphus and ArsinoS . 141 Coin with heads of Soter, Philadelphus, and Berenice .... 142 Coin of Arsinoe, sister of Ptolemy II. ....... 143 A typical Nile pilot 149 Ptolemaic temple at Kom Ombo ........ 153 Statue of Neith :....] 53 An Abyssinian slave . .157 Gate at Karnak 161 Ruins of Sals 163 Gateway of Ptolemy Euergetes at Karnak . , . .169 Coin of Ptolemy III 175 Coin of Berenic8, wife of Ptolemy III 176 Temple of Hathor 187 Coin of Ptolemy Philopator .... .... 188 Coin of Arsinoe Philopator ......... 189 coin, issued under Roman Ptolemy V. ...... 196 The Rosetta Stone (British Museum) 202 Outside Rosetta ........*.... 207 A desert road between Egypt and Syria ....... 210 Coin of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes ......... 212 Temple of Antseopolis .......... 213 Ship on the Nile 213 Temple of Hermonthis 219 Garden near Heliopolis . ....... 223 Temple of Apollinopolis Magnus 228 The Apotheosis of Homer 234 Hero's rotating steam-engine ......... 235 Coin of Ptolemy V 237 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix PAGE Temple of Hathor at PhUse 241 Colored reliefs carved in the Great Temple at Philse 243 Obelisk at Heliopolis 250 Nilometer at Khodha 254 Temple of Kom Ombo 260 Temple Portico at Contra-Latopolis .......