White, Joseph; White, Joseph [Editor]: Aegyptiaca, or observations on certain antiquities of Egypt (Band 1): The history of Pompey's pillar elucidated (Oxford, 1801)

66

iEGYPTIACA.

PART I.

than a century : and hence arifes one ftrong proof, that
a knowledge of Arabic may be made peculiarly fub-
fervient to the illuftration of Egyptian antiquities.

But are there no paffages, it may be afked, in Greek
or Latin authors, which corroborate the evidence of
Arabic writers refpedling the Site of the Serapeum ? I
anfwer, that certainly there are ; though their meaning
has hitherto been wholly overlooked, and perhaps would
for ever have been loft in obfcurity, had not a ray of
light broken in from the Eaft. Such, however, is the
accumulated force of thefe paffages, when properly con-
fidered, as to leave no room to doubt that the Temple
of Serapis was contiguous to what is commonly called
the Pillar of Pompey.