s even later,
in the ensuing year. Now, this period coincides with that at which the
low state of the waters of the Nile must have rendered the canal
useless for the passage of Cleopatra's fleet. Her extreme terror would
not allow her to wait until the rise of the Nile again rendered the
canal navigable, and she resolved on transporting her fleet to the Red
Sea by land. It must be observed, however, that the project could
hardly have occurred to Cleopatra as feasible, unless she had been well
aware that vessels often passed from the Mediterranean into the Red
Sea. The project was abandoned, as the Arabs of Petra burned the first
ships that Cleopatra attempted to transport; and Antony soon persuaded
her that his affairs were by no means so desperate as she supposed.

[1] Memoire sur l'Isthme de Suez, dans la Revue des deux Mondes, tom.
xxvii. 223.

[2] Plutarch in Anton., Sec. 81.--Langhorn's Translation, in 1 vol.,
p. 656.

[3] Plutarch in Anton., Sec. 69.--Translation, p. 652.

The canal was of far too great importance to the prosperity of Egypt,
and the revenues of the country were too immediately connected with its
existence, as one of the highways for exporting the produce of the
Delta, for the Romans to neglect its conservation. It is true that the
Romans never paid much attention to commerce, which they despised; and
during the long period they governed their immense empire in comparative
tranquillity, they did less to improve and extend its relations than any
other people of antiquity. But they were always peculiarly attentive to
preserve every undertaking which was connected with the agricultural
industry and land revenue of their provinces. Unless, therefore, their
attention had been directed to the canal of Suez, either as an important
military line of communication, or as an instrument for displaying the
pride and power of the empire, it would have undergone no improvement
under the Roman emperors.

It happened, however, that when Trajan became anxious to display his
magnificence in adorning Rome with new buildings, that the fashion of
the times rendered the granite and the porphyry in the neighbourhood of
the Red Sea indispensable. To obtain the immense columns, and the
enormous porphyry vases, which were then admired, with sufficient
celerity and in sufficient quantity, it became necessary to render the
canal navigable for a longer period of time every year. In order to
effect this, Trajan constructed