DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0425
409
shields were formed. After the Augustan age, rolls of papyrus were in
common use among the Romans, and it is therefore probable that it was a
book of that kind which Gordian gave to the Quaestor; and the same terms
in Homer may bear the same application : if so, the fatal recommendation
conveyed by the king of Corinth to him of Lycia was a writing on papyrus,
accompanied perhaps with some rude outline of a picture, and folded up in
the same manner as those which are now found in Egypt. The intercourse
indeed between Greece and Egypt was not yet become very frequent, and
probably the trade, if any, was very inconsiderable; nor need we suppose that
the use of letters in the former country was as yet familiar to any but the
highest ranks of people: and this seems to account for the general silence
of Homer on the subject.
Note B, page 1 l~
Herodotus states the military force of Egypt, tbat is those which were
furnished under the names of Calasiries and Hermotibies, from the districts
where they chiefly resided, at four hundred and ten thousand men : but in
time of peace it would appear that only two thousand were annually selected
from this corps, to act as guards near the king's person, when they received
a daily maintenance in addition to the portion of land allotted to each indi-
vidual of the whole military establishment.
This allotment of land was equal to twelve aroura?, free from all im-
position. As this small share does not seem to coincide with the account of
Diodorus Siculus, who, in speaking of the antient division of the land of
Egypt, says it was distributed into three parts, of which one was the ex-
clusive property of the military—it has been conjectured that this change
in their circumstances may have taken place at some remote period, perhaps
that in which Pharaoh became sole possessor of all the land except that of
the priests, in return for the corn he was able to distribute in the time of
scarcity; and that afterwards a certain portion of it was restored to the
former proprietors, in return for stipulations they might make, engaging
them to military service.
3C It
shields were formed. After the Augustan age, rolls of papyrus were in
common use among the Romans, and it is therefore probable that it was a
book of that kind which Gordian gave to the Quaestor; and the same terms
in Homer may bear the same application : if so, the fatal recommendation
conveyed by the king of Corinth to him of Lycia was a writing on papyrus,
accompanied perhaps with some rude outline of a picture, and folded up in
the same manner as those which are now found in Egypt. The intercourse
indeed between Greece and Egypt was not yet become very frequent, and
probably the trade, if any, was very inconsiderable; nor need we suppose that
the use of letters in the former country was as yet familiar to any but the
highest ranks of people: and this seems to account for the general silence
of Homer on the subject.
Note B, page 1 l~
Herodotus states the military force of Egypt, tbat is those which were
furnished under the names of Calasiries and Hermotibies, from the districts
where they chiefly resided, at four hundred and ten thousand men : but in
time of peace it would appear that only two thousand were annually selected
from this corps, to act as guards near the king's person, when they received
a daily maintenance in addition to the portion of land allotted to each indi-
vidual of the whole military establishment.
This allotment of land was equal to twelve aroura?, free from all im-
position. As this small share does not seem to coincide with the account of
Diodorus Siculus, who, in speaking of the antient division of the land of
Egypt, says it was distributed into three parts, of which one was the ex-
clusive property of the military—it has been conjectured that this change
in their circumstances may have taken place at some remote period, perhaps
that in which Pharaoh became sole possessor of all the land except that of
the priests, in return for the corn he was able to distribute in the time of
scarcity; and that afterwards a certain portion of it was restored to the
former proprietors, in return for stipulations they might make, engaging
them to military service.
3C It