arent that the Egyptian
women were enabled to display their fair forms yet more openly by means
of this clothing.

[Illustration: 081.jpg ALEXANDRIAN LADY, ATTIRED IN BOMBYX SILK]

Cos continued always in the power of the Ptolemies, who used it as a
royal fortress, occasionally sending their treasures and their children
there as to a place of safety from Alexandrian rebellion; and there the
silk manufacture flourished in secret for two or three centuries.
When it ceased is unknown, as it was part of the merchants' craft to
endeavour to keep each branch of trade to themselves, by concealing the
channel through which they obtained their supply of goods, and many of
the dresses which were sold in Rome under the emperors by the name of
Coan robes may have been brought from the East through Alexandria.

One of the most valuable gifts which Egypt owed to Ptolemy was its
coinage. Even Thebes, "where treasures were largest in the houses" never
was able to pass gold and silver from hand to hand without the trouble
of weighing, and the doubt as to the fineness of the metal. The Greek
merchants who crowded the markets of Canopus and Alexandria must have
filled Lower Egypt with the coins of the cities from whence they came,
all unlike one another in stamp and weight; but, while every little city
or even colony of Greece had its own coinage, Egypt had as yet very few
coins of its own. We are even doubtful whether we know by sight those
coined by the Persians In the early years of Ptolemy's government
Ptolemy had issued a very few coins bearing the names of the young kings
in whose name he held the country, but he seems not to have coined any
quantity of money till after he had himself taken the title of king. His
coins are of gold, silver, and bronze, and are in a fine style of Greek
workmanship. Those of gold and silver bear on one side the portrait of
the king, without a beard, having the head bound with the royal diadem,
which, unlike the high priestly crown of the native Egyptian kings, or
the modern crown of gold and precious stones, is a plain riband tied in
a bow behind. On the other side they have the name of Ptolemy Soter, or
King Ptolemy, with an eagle standing upon a thunderbolt, which was only
another way of drawing the eagle and sun, the hieroglyphical characters
for the title Pharaoh.

[Illustration: 082.jpg EGYPTIAN COINAGE]

The gold coins of Egypt were probably made in Alexandria. The coins
are not of the same