Plotinus as its pupil. She was as modest
as she wras graceful, eloquent, and learned; and though, being a pagan,
she belonged to neither of the rival Christian parties, yet, as she
had more hearers among the Greek friends of the prefect than among the
ignorant followers of the bishop, she became an object of jealousy with
the Homoousian party. A body of these Christians, says the orthodox
historian, attacked this admirable woman in the street; they dragged
her from her chariot, and hurried her off into the church named Caesar's
temple, and there stripped her and murdered her with some broken tiles.
She had written commentaries on the mathematical works of Diophantus,
and on the conic sections of Apollonius. The story of her life has been
related in the nineteenth century by Charles Kingsley in the novel which
bears her name.

Arianism took refuge from the Egyptians within the camps of the Greek
soldiers. One church was dedicated to the honour of St. George, the late
bishop, within the lofty towers of the citadel of Babylon, which was
the strongest fortress in Egypt; and a second in the city of Ptolemais,
where a garrison was stationed to collect the toll of the Thebaid. St.
George became a favourite saint with the Greeks in Egypt, and in those
spots where the Greek soldiers were masters of the churches this Arian
and unpopular bishop was often painted on the walls riding triumphantly
on horseback and slaying the dragon of Athanasian error. On the other
hand, in Alexandria, where his rival's politics and opinions held the
upper hand, the monastery of St. Athanasius was built in the most public
spot in the city, probably that formerly held by the Soma or royal
burial-place; and in Thebes a cathedral church was dedicated to St.
Athanasius within the great courtyard of Medinet-Abu, where the
small and paltry Greek columns are in strange contrast to the grand
architecture of Ramses III. which surrounds them.

In former reigns the Alexandrians had been in the habit of sending
embassies to Constantinople to complain of tyranny or misgovernment, and
to beg for a redress of grievances, when they thought that justice could
be there obtained when it was refused in Alexandria. But this practice
was stopped by Theodosius, who made a law that the Alexandrians should
never send an embassy to Constantinople, unless it were agreed to by a
decree of the town council, and had the approbation of the prefect. The
weak and idle emperor woul