itable
territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the
stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of
the empire. The treaty long subsisted; and till the establishment of
Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was
annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the Isle of Elephantine, in
which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or
invisible powers of the universe. [48]

[Footnote 40: Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243) decides, in his
usual manner, that the Quinque gentiani, or five African nations, were
the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the inoffensive province of
Cyrene.]

[Footnote 41: After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a
dagger, and immediately leaped into the flames. Victor in Epitome.]

[Footnote 42: Tu ferocissimos Mauritaniae populos inaccessis
montium jugis et naturali munitione fidentes, expugnasti, recepisti,
transtulisti. Panegyr Vet. vi. 8.]

[Footnote 43: See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de Bel.
Alexandrin c. 5.]

[Footnote 44: Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in Chron.
Antioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt was pacified
by the clemency of Diocletian.]

[Footnote 45: Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction several
years sooner and at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion
against the Romans.]

[Footnote 46: Strabo, l. xvii. p. 172. Pomponius Mela, l. i. c. 4.
His words are curious: "Intra, si credere libet vix, homines magisque
semiferi Aegipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri."]

[Footnote 47: Ausus sese inserere fortunae et provocare arma Romana.]

[Footnote 48: See Procopius de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19. Note: Compare,
on the epoch of the final extirpation of the rites of Paganism from
the Isle of Philae, (Elephantine,) which subsisted till the edict of
Theodosius, in the sixth century, a dissertation of M. Letronne,
on certain Greek inscriptions. The dissertation contains some very
interesting observations on the conduct and policy of Diocletian
in Egypt. Mater pour l'Hist. du Christianisme en Egypte, Nubie et
Abyssinie, Paris 1817--M.]

At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the
Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many
wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding
reigns. [49] One very remarkable edict which he published, instead of
being condemne