the Nile by barges on a canal to the village of Chaereum, and
thence to a part of Alexandria named Phialae, or _The Basins_, where the
public granaries stood. In all riots and rebellions this place had been
a natural point of attack; and often had the starving mob broken
open these buildings, and seized the grain that was on its way to
Constantinople. But Justinian surrounded them with a strong wall
against such attacks for the future, and at the same time he rebuilt the
aqueduct that had been destroyed in one of the sieges of the city.

In civil suits at law an appeal had always been allowed from the prefect
of the province to the emperor, or rather to the prefect of the East
at Constantinople; but as this was of course expensive, it was found
necessary to forbid it when the sum of money in dispute was small.
Justinian forbade all Egyptian appeals for sums less than ten pounds
weight of gold, or about two thousand five hundred dollars; for smaller
sums the judgment of the prefect was to be final, lest the expense
should swallow up the amount in dispute.

In this reign the Alexandrians, for the first time within the records
of history, felt the shock of an earthquake. Their naturalists had very
fairly supposed that the loose alluvial nature of the soil of the Delta
was the reason why earthquakes were unknown in Lower Egypt, and believed
that it would always save them from a misfortune which often overthrew
cities in other countries. Pliny thought that Egypt had been always free
from earthquakes. But this shock was felt by everybody in the city;
and Agathias, the Byzantine historian, who, after reading law in the
university of Beirut, was finishing his studies at Alexandria, says that
it was strong enough to make the inhabitants all run into the street for
fear the houses should fall upon them.

The reign of Justinian is remarkable for another blow then given to
paganism throughout the empire, or at least through those parts of the
empire where the emperor's laws were obeyed.

[Illustration: 313.jpg A MODERN HOUSE IN THE DELTA AT ROSETTA]

Under Justinian the pagan schools were again and from that time forward
closed. Isidorus the platonist and Salustius the Cynic were among the
learned men of greatest note who then withdrew from Alexandria. Isidorus
had been chosen by Marinus as his successor in the platonic chair at
Athens, to fill the high post of the platonic successor; but he had left
the Athenian school to Zen