Minutes of Proceedings. 207 



of his sister, just before the great expedition, if we should not rather, 

 with Heeren, call it the great "foray," which was recorded on the 

 marble of Adule. The letter is sent home by some one serving in the 

 campaign, and describes the capture of a town in Cilicia, and the 

 subsequent entry of the Egyptian troops, first into Seleukeia, on the 

 Orontes, and afterwards into Antioch. There are in the letter some 

 sentences which it is not easy to understand ; two different cities — 

 Seleukeia — seem to be mentioned without any distinctive addition to 

 either name, and there is reference to an Epigenes, who, if he be the 

 same who appears in Polybius as an officer of Seleucus Keraunos and 

 of Antiochus the Great, ought to have been on the Syrian side, while 

 he seems to have been on the Egyptian. But, on the whole, there 

 can, I think, be no doubt that Dr. Mahaffy has quite correctly in- 

 terpreted the passage, which accordingly, in his later historical 

 volume, he has been able to use as contributing, in some small degree, 

 to our knowledge of the reigTi of Euergetes. 



Lastly, in Mr. Petrie's find, comes a very numerous body of more 

 or less fi'agmentary documents relating to private or official business — 

 wills, contracts, leases, receipts, taxing accounts, complaints addressed 

 to the authorities, official correspondence, family letters, and the like. 

 These papers have to do with the everyday affairs of the Macedonian 

 and other members of a military colony which had been settled by 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus in the Arsinoite nome on land probably reclaimed 

 from Lake Moeris. "We really know nothing, whatever may be 

 conjectured, as to the exact circumstances and influences which led to 

 the formation of this settlement. But, looking through Dr. Mahaffy's 

 eyes, and studying with him these business documents, we do really 

 gain a considerable insight into the life of the colonists, the trans- 

 actions which went on among them, and their relations to the public 

 authorities. It may be supposed to diminish the value of this informa- 

 tion that it relates only to a peculiar and specially situated part of the 

 population of Egypt ; but I think that we may safely generalise, at 

 least as to the conduct of the administration, from the methods 

 pursued here to those followed in dealing with the whole Egyptian 

 people. The ideas we gather from these papyri quite fall in with the 

 impressions we obtain fi'om the Eevenue Laws of Philadelphus, since 

 discovered, as to the bureaucratic government and fiscal system of the 

 country at large. 



