352 Fragments on Egyptian Litefatura, 



who reigned jointly. I have never known the double date to 

 occur, where on\y one. sovereign was named. There is a second 

 date used in the monuments of the reign of Physcon ; his years 

 are reckoned only from his brother's capture by Antiochus, 

 when he was first elevated to the throne by the Alexandrians;: 

 there is no second year from his brother's death ever recorded. 

 Yet, if a double date regarded the different epochs, from which 

 a sovereign's reign might be said to commence, we can scarcely 

 conceive a case in which it would be more likely to be employed 

 that in that of Physcon. I would, therefore, explain the date, 

 last mentioned, *' the 19th year of Cleopatra, which is the 5 th^ 

 of Ptolemy Caesar;" not " the 19th year of Cleopatra, count- 

 ing from her father's death, but the 5th from her brother's 

 death." •}|(nsl»m<)a'io 



It is strange that Dr. Young should hsxe supposed the- last- 

 number to be 4 instead of 5. It is the figure which Champol- 

 lion gives for 5, in Kosegarten's work ; and it is that which stands 

 for^uein the 29th line of the Rosetta inscription; though Dr. 

 Young has here unfortunately attached to it an upright line be- 

 longing to the following word, thus making the Enchorial "5'' 

 to resemble a Hebrew " He " instead of a " Resh." This 

 mistake would have been of less consequence, if it had not led 

 to others; but in deciphering, one error is almost sure to M*-'^^ 

 duce several. In the 75th and 76th plates of hieroglyphics is ' 

 another date, which Dr. Young first explained as " the seventK 

 year" of Cleopatra and Ptolemy Caesar (Quar. Journ^'NiS:'^ 

 II., 315,) and afterwards in his posthumous work, as " the 

 year VI." with a mark of doubt, and an observation that ** we 

 should most naturally read * year VIII.,' which would be th&\. 

 year after Cleopatra's death." (Ench. Diet p. 37.) Cleopatra 

 certainly perished in her 22nd year; consequently, if her son's 

 4th year was her 19th, his 8th would be beyond the limits of 

 her reign. The figure, nevertheless, is a most distinctly formed 

 •* eight;" and this is only to be accounted for by making the' 

 5th, and not the 4th, of the young king to coincide with th6' 

 19th of his mother. His 8th would then be her 22nd. We 

 may, therefore, fairly conclude that the first year of Ptolemy 

 Caesar was the 15th of Cleopatra, that is, 287 Phil, or 3a Bit?!' 

 Their 22nd and 8th year was 3^ B.C., in the beginning of whith' 



