DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0164
148
every other that I have seen at Thebes, hi the representation of
the determined resistance made by the Egyptian army, headed
by their monarch, to an enemy who is attempting to invade their
country by sea. The sovereign, alighted from his car and at-
tended by his sons, has already laid low ten of the invaders who
had effected a landing, tramples on their necks, and is assisting,
with the arrows shot from his bow, the active exertions of his
own fleet. The Egyptians are seen equally successful on the
sea as on shore: their boats are already crowded with prisoners,
who have exchanged their round shields, spears and daggers, for
handcuffs. The usual punishments and offerings to the Gods oc-
cupy the two following compartments. There are other pictures
of sieges, where the signal of fire is held out from the fortresses
in token of submission.
When the capital of Egypt was divided into a number of towns
and villages, the principal of these on the Western side of the
river appear to have centred about that quarter of the antient
city called The Memnonion, and chiefly near the two great tem-
ples I have just described. The last of these (Medinet-Abou)
has, it appears, preserved till this day the name of " The City."
The inhabitants from time to time deserted both these places,
and the villages around them, as the distance from the scat of
government rendered the situation every year more and more in-
convenient, and less profitable. And the severe treatment that
Thebes and its dependencies experienced at different times under
the capricious reigns of the Ptolemies, together with the encou-
ragements offered to those who settled nearer the coast of the
Mediterranean for the benefit of the trade from Europe, or near
to Coptos to carry on that with India, equally contributed to
check the prosperity of this city. Yet, notwithstanding these
disadvantages, we have sufficient proofs that in the early ages of
. . Christianity
every other that I have seen at Thebes, hi the representation of
the determined resistance made by the Egyptian army, headed
by their monarch, to an enemy who is attempting to invade their
country by sea. The sovereign, alighted from his car and at-
tended by his sons, has already laid low ten of the invaders who
had effected a landing, tramples on their necks, and is assisting,
with the arrows shot from his bow, the active exertions of his
own fleet. The Egyptians are seen equally successful on the
sea as on shore: their boats are already crowded with prisoners,
who have exchanged their round shields, spears and daggers, for
handcuffs. The usual punishments and offerings to the Gods oc-
cupy the two following compartments. There are other pictures
of sieges, where the signal of fire is held out from the fortresses
in token of submission.
When the capital of Egypt was divided into a number of towns
and villages, the principal of these on the Western side of the
river appear to have centred about that quarter of the antient
city called The Memnonion, and chiefly near the two great tem-
ples I have just described. The last of these (Medinet-Abou)
has, it appears, preserved till this day the name of " The City."
The inhabitants from time to time deserted both these places,
and the villages around them, as the distance from the scat of
government rendered the situation every year more and more in-
convenient, and less profitable. And the severe treatment that
Thebes and its dependencies experienced at different times under
the capricious reigns of the Ptolemies, together with the encou-
ragements offered to those who settled nearer the coast of the
Mediterranean for the benefit of the trade from Europe, or near
to Coptos to carry on that with India, equally contributed to
check the prosperity of this city. Yet, notwithstanding these
disadvantages, we have sufficient proofs that in the early ages of
. . Christianity