Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

236 THE ARMY. . [Chap. V.

consisting of five minse * of bread, two of beef,f
and four arusters J of wine.

The total of these two corps was 410,000 men,§
at the time Egypt was most populous; but it is
not to be supposed that this force was always
employed, or even kept in pay; and the small
farms they had allotted to them were no doubt
intended as well to obviate the necessity of provid-
ing for those who were on the peace establishment,
as to encourage their possessors to industry and
active employment.|| And this circumstance ac-
counts for the statement of Diodorus,^[ that the
husbandmen of the Egyptians supplied (as among
the Athenians) the military forces of the state.
But the occupation of mechanical trades** was
contemned by and forbidden to the soldier, as
detrimental to his physical force, and suited only
to the sedentary life of an inactive townsman.
Besides, says Diodorus,f'f~ the agricultural posses-

* 5 lbs. 5 oz. 1 dwt. t 2 lbs. 2 oz. 8 grs.

I If the aruster is the same as the cotyla, these four will be
a little more than two pints English.

§ Herod, ii. s. 165, 166: where he mentions the nomes they
inhabited.

| Their land was also tilled by husbandmen, to whom it was
let, like that of the kings and priests. Diod. i. 74.

t Lib. i. s. 28.

** Herod, loe. cit. Sethos, having slighted the military class,
and deprived them of their lands, was obliged to have recourse to
the caste of townsmen, and formed his army of " shopkeepers,
artificers, and the lower people." Lib. ii. s. 141.

tt Lib. i. 13. With regard to the non-employment of merce-