in all parts of Egypt: for it does
not appear that Christian prayers were publicly read in the Egyptian
language before the quarrel between the two churches made the Kopts
unwilling to use Greek prayers. The liturgy there read was probably very
nearly the same as that afterwards known as the _Liturgy of St. Mark_.
This is among the oldest of the Christian liturgies, and it shows its
country by the prayer that the waters of the river may rise to their
just measure, and that rain may be sent from heaven to the countries
that need it.

We learn from the historians that eight months were allowed to pass
between the death of Aurelian and the choice of a successor; and during
this time the power rested in the hands of his widow. The sway of a
woman was never openly acknowledged in Rome, but the Alexandrians and
Egyptians were used to female rule, and from contemporary coins we learn
that in Egypt the government was carried on in the name of the Empress
Severina. The last coins of Aurelian bear the date of the sixth year of
his reign, and the coins of Severina are dated in the sixth and seventh
years. But after Tacitus was chosen emperor by his colleagues of the
Roman senate, and during his short reign of six months (A.D. 276), his
authority was obeyed by the Egyptian legions under Probus, as is fully
proved by the Alexandrian coins bearing his name, all dated in the first
year of his reign.

[Illustration: 167.jpg COIN OF SEVERINA]

On the death of Tacitus, his brother Florian hoped to succeed to the
imperial power, and was acknowledged in the same year by the senate and
troops of Rome. But when the news reached Egypt it was at once felt by
the legions that Probus, both by his own personal qualities and by the
high state of discipline of the army under his command, and by his
success against the Egyptian rebels, had a better claim to the purple
than any other general. At first the opinion ran round the camp in a
whisper, and at last the army spoke the general wish aloud; they
snatched a purple cloak from a statue in one of the temples to throw
over him, they placed him on an earthen mound as a tribunal, and against
his will saluted him with the title of emperor. The choice of the
Egyptian legions was soon approved of by Asia Minor, Syria, and Italy;
Florian was put to death, and Probus shortly afterwards marched into
Gaul and Germany, to quiet those provinces.

After a year or two, Probus was recalled into Egypt by hearin