Egyptian religion; and the priests now put upon it the name of
Philip Arridaeus, for whom Ptolemy was nominally governing Egypt.

[Illustration: 052.jpg TOMBS OF THE SACRED BULLS]

The Egyptians, who during the last two centuries had sometimes seen
their temples plundered and their trade crushed by the grasping tyranny
of the Persian satraps, and had at other times been almost as much hurt
by their own vain struggles for freedom, now found themselves in the
quiet enjoyment of good laws, with a prosperity which promised soon to
equal that of the reigns of Necho or Amasis. It is true that they had
not regained their independence and political liberty; that, as compared
with the Greeks, they felt themselves an inferior race, and that they
only enjoyed their civil rights during the pleasure of a Greek autocrat;
but then it is to be remembered that the native rulers with whom Ptolemy
was compared were the kings of Lower Egypt, who, like himself, were
surrounded by Greek mercenaries, and who never rested their power on the
broad base of national pride and love of country; and that nobody
could have hoped to see a Theban king arise to bring back the days
of Thutmosis and Ramses. Thebes was every day sinking in wealth and
strength; and its race of hereditary soldiers, proud in the recollection
of former glory, who had, after centuries of struggles, been forced
to receive laws from Memphis, perhaps yielded obedience to a Greek
conqueror with less pain than they did formerly to their own vassals of
Lower Egypt.

Ptolemy's government was in form nearly the same in Alexandria as in the
rest of Egypt, but in reality it was wholly different. His sway over the
Egyptians was supported by Greek force, but over the Greeks it rested
on the broad base of public opinion. Every Greek had the privilege of
bearing arms, and of meeting in the gymnasium in public assembly, to
explain a grievance, and petition for its redress. The citizens and
the soldiers were the same body of men; they at the same time held the
force, and had the spirit to use it. But they had no senate, no body
of nobles, no political constitution which might save their freedom in
after generations from the ambitious grasp of the sovereign, or from
their own degeneracy. While claiming to be equal among themselves they
were making themselves slaves; and though at present the government so
entirely bore the stamp of their own will that they might fancy they
enjoyed a democracy