Cleopatra | Page 6

miles. The outline of the coast was formerly, as it still continues to be, very irregular, and the water shallow. Extended banks of sand protruded into the sea, and the sea itself, as if in retaliation, formed innumerable creeks, and inlets, and lagoons in the land. Along this irregular and uncertain boundary the waters of the Nile and the surges of the Mediterranean kept up an eternal war, with energies so nearly equal, that now, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years since the state of the contest began to be recorded, neither side has been found to have gained any perceptible advantage over the other. The river brings the sands down, and the sea drives them incessantly back, keeping the whole line of the shore in such a condition as to make it extremely dangerous and difficult of access to man.
It will be obvious, from this description of the valley of the Nile, that it formed a country which in ancient times isolated and secluded, in a very striking manner, from all the rest of the world. It was wholly shut in by deserts, on every side, by land; and the shoals, and sand-bars, and other dangers of navigation which marked the line of the coast, seemed to forbid approach by sea. Here it remained for many ages, under the rule of its own native ancient kings. Its population was peaceful and industrious. Its scholars were famed throughout the world for their learning, their science, and their philosophy.
It was in these ages, before other nations had intruded upon its peaceful seclusion, that the Pyramids were built, and the enormous monoliths carved, and those vast temples reared whose ruined columns are now the wonder of mankind. During these remote ages, too, Egypt was, as now, the land of perpetual fertility and abundance. There would always be corn in Egypt, wherever else famine might rage. The neighboring nations and tribes in Arabia, Palestine, and Syria, found their way to it, accordingly, across the deserts on the eastern side, when driven by want, and thus opened a way of communication. At length the Persian monarchs, after extending their empire westward to the Mediterranean, found access by the same road to Pelusium, and thence overran and conquered the country. At last, about two hundred and fifty years before the time of Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, when he subverted the Persian empire, took possession of Egypt, and annexed it, among the other Persian provinces, to his own dominions. At the division of Alexander's empire, after his death, Egypt fell to one of his generals, named Ptolemy. Ptolemy made it his kingdom, and left it, at his death, to his heirs. A long line of sovereigns succeeded him, known in history as the dynasty of the Ptolemies--Greek princes, reigning over an Egyptian realm. Cleopatra was the daughter of the eleventh in the line.
The capital of the Ptolemies was Alexandria. Until the time of Alexander's conquest, Egypt had no sea-port. There were several landing-places along the coast, but no proper harbor. In fact Egypt had then so little commercial intercourse with the rest of the world, that she scarcely needed any. Alexander's engineers, however, in exploring the shore, found a point not far from the Canopic mouth of the Nile where the water was deep, and where there was an anchorage ground protected by an island. Alexander founded a city there, which he called by his own name. He perfected the harbor by artificial excavations and embankments. A lofty light-house was reared, which formed a landmark by day, and exhibited a blazing star by night to guide the galleys of the Mediterranean in. A canal was made to connect the port with the Nile, and warehouses were erected to contain the stores of merchandise. In a word, Alexandria became at once a great commercial capital. It was the seat, for several centuries, of the magnificent government of the Ptolemies; and so well was its situation chosen for the purposes intended, that it still continues, after the lapse of twenty centuries of revolution and change, one of the principal emporiums of the commerce of the East.

CHAPTER II.
THE PTOLEMIES.
The dynasty of the Ptolemies.--The founder.--Philip of Macedon.--Alexander.--The intrigue discovered.--Ptolemy banished.--Accession of Alexander.--Ptolemy's elevation.--Death of Alexander.--Ptolemy becomes King of Egypt.--Character of Ptolemy's reign.--The Alexandrian library.--Abdication of Ptolemy.--Ptolemy Philadelphus.--Death of Ptolemy.--Subsequent degeneracy of the Ptolemies.--Incestuous marriages of the Ptolemy family.--Ptolemy Physcon.--Origin of his name.--Circumstances of Physcon's accession.--Cleopatra.--Physcon's brutal perfidity.--He marries his wife's daughter.--Atrocities of Physcon.--His flight.--Cleopatra assumes the government.--Her birth-day.--Barbarity of Physcon.--Grief of Cleopatra.--General character of the Ptolemy family.--Lathyrus. --Terrible quarrels with his mother.--Cruelties of Cleopatra. --Alexander kills her.--Cleopatra a type of the family.--Her two daughters.--Unnatural war.--Tryphena's hatred of her sister.--Taking of Antioch.--Cleopatra flees to a temple.--Jealousy of Tryphena.--Her resentment increases.--Cruel and sacrilegious murder.--The moral condition of mankind not degenerating.
The founder