CHAP. XI. HEIGHT Ol' THE INUNDATION. 103 



that a strong guard of cavalry and inflintry was 

 always in attendance for their protection ; certain 

 officers of responsibiUty were appointed to super- 

 intend them; large sums of money were annually 

 expended for their maintenance and repairs ; and 

 in the time of the Romans, any person found 

 destroying a dyke was condemned to hard labour 

 in the public works or in the mines, or to be 

 branded and transj)orted to the Oasis. According 

 to Strabo *, the system was so admirably managed, 

 *'that art contrived sometimes to supply what 

 nature denied, and, by means of canals and em- 

 bankments, there was little difference in the quantity 

 of land irrigated, whether the inundation was defi- 

 cient or abundant." If, continues the geographer, 

 it rose only to the height of 8 cubits, the usual idea 

 was that a famine would ensue; 14 being required 

 for a plentiful harvest : but when Petronius was 

 praefect of Egypt, 12 cubits gave the same abun- 

 dance, nor did they suffer from want even at 8 : 

 and it may be supposed that long experience had 

 taught the ancient Egyptians to obtain similar re- 

 sults from the same means, which, neglected at a 

 subsequent period, were revived, rather than, as 

 Strabo thinks, first introduced, by the Romans. 



In some parts of Egypt, the villages were fre- 

 quently liable to be overflowed, when the Nile 

 rose to a more than ordinary height ; by which tiie 

 lives and property of the inhabitants were en- 

 dangered; and when their crude brick houses had 

 been long exposed to the damp, the foundations 



Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 542. 

 H 4 



