2 lie Macedonians. — The rule of Alexander's suc- cessors, the Ptolemies, brought Egypt again into the advantageous position attained for her in some degree by the 26th Dynasty. Now, however, the Greek element became the dominant factor in her prosperity ; tlie ancient native culture gradually faded and retreated from the North, where Alex- andria, the new capital, had become tlie centre of the Hellenic world. But the wide dominions of the Ptolemies were not to be retained by a series of rulers so degenerate as those of the house of Lagus soon became. After a century of good government and unequalled prosperity (323-222),
the political fortunes of Egypt began again to decline and anarchy to spread throughout the country. Insurrections followed each other in constant succession, whUe treachery and murder shortened tlie reigns of many of the kings. At length the Romans, under whose toleration the Lagides liiul for a century and a half existed, were able, by the victory of Octavius over Anthony and Cleopatra (30), to assume the actual govern- ment of the country, which remained thenceforth a part of the empire, either of Rome or of Byzan- tium, until conquered by the Saracens A.D. 642.
ix. Egypt's Relations with Asia.— Our sources of knowledge are (1) for the primitive periods, chiefly inferences from the foreign words already in use in the ancient (religious) texts, especially tlie names of cereals, woods, oils, etc., known to have been not native ; (2) under the Dynasties of tlie Old Kingdom we have early evidence from the mines of Sinai,* where the troublesome nomad tribes were known as Ss (cf. ? nf»'), from a 5th (?) Dynasty fresco depicting the capture of a Syrian fortress, and from at least one biographical narra- tive— that of Wni, Dyn. 6 — recounting several mili- tary and commercial expeditions to Syria, the land of the "miv (root probably "to, 'boomerang,' not Dj;). We here read of the fruitfulness of the land through which the Egyptian army marched, and it is evident the description is that of S. Palestine. The same text teUs, too, of a journey by sea to the Phoenician coast ; (3) under the Middle Kingdom Dynasties we can see that a considerable intercourse is arising. Embassies come with presents from Semitic chiefs and are received by the king or the nobles (Beni-Hasan), and no doubt many groups of nomads had by this time crossed the frontier and got leave, as they did later (^Eg. Zeitschr. xxvii. 125), to settle in the Delta. Journeys into Pales- tine became so frequent that they formed the sub- ject for a story — founded, no doubt, upon fact, and popular for many centuries — whence many details of Syrian desert life at the time may be learned (S'nht). The tribes among which the hero of this story passes many years are called by the general term sti, 'archers (cf. Babyl. sutl). Egyptian traders visited them, and the conditions of life appear very similar to those of the modern Beda- win. (4) But the relations of Egypt with her northern neighbours were revolutionized by the Hyksos invasion and the long series of military expeditions which followed. The language receives a very strong admixture of foreign (not exclusively Semitic) loan-words, and is forced even to evolve a new system of orthography for their reproduc- tion. Syrian slaves — females, at least, ' 'ml— met with in the households of the Middle Kingdom, are now employed in great numbers. Asiatic textile work, weapons, vases (pottery and metal), musical instruments, besides various wines, beers, oils, breads, etc., are imported from Syria, Asia Minor, and possibly even lands farther west, and preferred to the native products. The native names even of many objects are discarded and replaced by corresponding foreign terms. Syrian deities — Baal, Astarte, Anat, Resheph — are gradu- ally admitted to places beside the Egyptian gods, and the Pharaohs appear now and then under their special protection.
The countries whence these new influences emanate, bear in the Egyptian texts of different epochs difl'erent names, many of which are confus- ing and elude exact definition. All Syria, as fat as the Euphrates, is divided into the countries ol Upper (Southern) and Lower (Northern) Blnic (cf the more ancient Tnw and the cuneif. Ticlnu). Palestine proper bears also the name U'rw, origin ally only the designation of the southern (later • See .iEg. ZeUschr. xxiv. 78.
EGYPT
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Philistine) coast. PhcEnicia, on the other hand, was known by the name D'hi, and, together with the still more northerly coast, by the vaguer term ^Ldi, 'the Circular (land),' perhaps from the form of the Gulf of Issus. Kft was the name, perhaps, of Cilicia, perhaps of the N. Syrian coasts. Certain peoples whom we find, under the 19th Dj'nasty, among the allies of the Hittites, have been local- ized in \V. Asia Minor ; the Ewk' Lycians, D'rdny Dardanians, Yicnn' lonians, J/c't/iv's' Achsans,* and others. The ditticult designation Jf'icnbw, found in the oldest literature, appears to embrace the peoples of the North in the vaguest way ; only in late epochs was it used for the Hellenic race. C3'pru8, whence much copjjcr was imported, is 'sy, a i)art of it /r«'-Alasia. Mesopotamia was, until the New Kingdom, practically unknown to Ejryiit ; then we begin to read of presents passing; between the court of Egypt and those of iiftr-Babyfon, called in the Ainarna letters Shankhar {6"ng'r ^i•:c') or Karduniash, and /wwr- Assyria. Asia east of these was always unknown to Egypt.