DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0080
44 TOPOGRAPHY OF THEBES. [Chap. I.
The first step towards the decline and fall of this
city was, as we learn from Diodorus, the preference
given to Memphis; and the removal of the seat of
government thither, and subsequently to Sais and
Alexandria, proved as disastrous to the welfare as
the Persian invasion to the splendor of the capital
of Upper Egypt. Commercial wealth, on the ac-
cession of the Ptolemies, began to flow through
other channels; Coptos and Apollinopolis* succeeded
to the lucrative trade of Arabia,f and Ethiopia no
longer contributed to the revenues of Thebes. And
its subsequent destruction, after a three years' siege,
by Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death-blow to the
welfare and existence of this capital, which was
thenceforth scarcely deemed an Egyptian city.
Some few repairs were, however, made to its dila-
pidated temples, by Euergetes II. and some of the
later Ptolemies, but it remained depopulated, and
at the time of Strabo's visit was already divided
into small and detached villages.
The principal part of the city, properly so called,^
evident marks of the action of fire, are frequently met with be-
neath the ruins of their fallen walls.
* Qoos, Apollinopolis parva, was, in Aboolfidda's time, the next
city, in size and consequence, to Fostat, or old Misr (strangely
misnamed old Cairo).
f It is highly probable that the Egyptians traded, at a very re-
mote period, with the coast of Arabia, from whence a considerable
quantity of spices and aromatics, constantly in use in Egypt, we're
imported ; but this trade was greatly extended by the Ptolemies
and Caesars.
| " Part of it is on the Arabian side, in which is the city, and
part on the opposite bank."—Strabo, xvii.
The first step towards the decline and fall of this
city was, as we learn from Diodorus, the preference
given to Memphis; and the removal of the seat of
government thither, and subsequently to Sais and
Alexandria, proved as disastrous to the welfare as
the Persian invasion to the splendor of the capital
of Upper Egypt. Commercial wealth, on the ac-
cession of the Ptolemies, began to flow through
other channels; Coptos and Apollinopolis* succeeded
to the lucrative trade of Arabia,f and Ethiopia no
longer contributed to the revenues of Thebes. And
its subsequent destruction, after a three years' siege,
by Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death-blow to the
welfare and existence of this capital, which was
thenceforth scarcely deemed an Egyptian city.
Some few repairs were, however, made to its dila-
pidated temples, by Euergetes II. and some of the
later Ptolemies, but it remained depopulated, and
at the time of Strabo's visit was already divided
into small and detached villages.
The principal part of the city, properly so called,^
evident marks of the action of fire, are frequently met with be-
neath the ruins of their fallen walls.
* Qoos, Apollinopolis parva, was, in Aboolfidda's time, the next
city, in size and consequence, to Fostat, or old Misr (strangely
misnamed old Cairo).
f It is highly probable that the Egyptians traded, at a very re-
mote period, with the coast of Arabia, from whence a considerable
quantity of spices and aromatics, constantly in use in Egypt, we're
imported ; but this trade was greatly extended by the Ptolemies
and Caesars.
| " Part of it is on the Arabian side, in which is the city, and
part on the opposite bank."—Strabo, xvii.