uggling against the Persians, these virtues
were wanting, and they trusted to foreign hirelings in their struggle
for freedom. The Delta was peopled by three races of men, Kopts, Greeks,
and Phoenicians, or Arabs; and even before the sceptre was given to the
Greeks by Alexander's conquests, we have seen that the Kopts had lost
the virtues needed to hold it.

[Illustration: 100.jpg TAILPIECE]

CHAPTER III.--PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS. B.C. 284-246

We know of few princes who ever mounted a throne with such fair
prospects before them as the second Ptolemy. He was born in Cos, an
island on the coast of Caria, which the Ptolemies kept as a family
fortress, safe from Egyptian rebellion and Alexandrian rudeness, and,
while their fleets were masters of the sea, safe from foreign armies. He
had been brought up with great care, and, being a younger son, was not
spoilt by that flattery which in all courts is so freely offered to the
heir. He first studied letters and philosophy under Philetas of Cos,
an author of some elegies and epigrams now lost; and as he grew up, he
found himself surrounded by all the philosophers and writers with whom
his father mixed on the easiest terms of friendship. During the
long reign of Ptolemy Soter the people had been made happy by wise
regulations and good laws, trade had been flourishing, the cities had
greatly prospered, and the fortresses had been everywhere strengthened.

[Illustration: 102.jpg PHAROS IN OLD ALEXANDRIA]

The Grecian troops were well trained, their loyalty undoubted, and the
Egyptians were enrolled in a phalanx, armed and disciplined like
the Macedonians. The population of the country was counted at seven
millions. Alexandria, the capital of the kingdom, was not only the
largest trading city in the world, but was one of the most favoured
seats of learning. It surely must have been easy to foresee that the
prince, then mounting the throne, even if but slightly gifted with
virtues, would give his name to a reign which could not be otherwise
than remarkable in the history of Egypt. But Philadelphus, though like
his father he was not free from the vices of his times and of his rank,
had more of wisdom than is usually the lot of kings; and, though we
cannot but see that he was only watering the plants and gathering
the fruit where his father had planted, yet we must at the same time
acknowledge that Philadelphus was a successor worthy of Ptolemy Soter.
He may have been in the