ON INTRODUCED ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 83 



cessful also in his naval enterprises ; but amid warlike operations, he 

 continued to bestow great attention on the encouragement of Litera- 

 ture and on the increase of the Alexandrian Library. 



The commencement of Roman Literature is referred, by general con- 

 sent, to the first dramatic exhibition of Livius Andronicus, in " B. C. 

 240." This writer was however by birth a Greek : but twenty-two 

 years later, both he and the four native Roman writers, Ncevius, 

 Plautus, Ennius, and Cato, were all living. 



In " B. C. 222," the accession of Ptolemy IV., or Ptolemy Philo- 

 pator, took place. He built the temple at Akhmin ; continued that 

 at Dakkeh in Nubia ; and founded the great temple at Edfu : his 

 name in hieroglyphic characters occurs also on buildings at Esneh and 

 Karnac ; on some restorations at Luxor ; and on the small temple of 

 Athyr, situated upon the western declivity of the river valley at 

 Thebes. 



The petalion of Plautus (Curcul.), is referred by Stapel to the "ma- 

 labrathrum" of Horace, Ovid, Andromachus, and Claudius Ptolemaeus; 

 an article of importation from India. — Identified by Ainslie and 

 Royle, and described by them as consisting of the dried leaves of 

 Laurus cassia, mixed sometimes with those of L. cinnamomum.* 



In " B. C. 205," the accession of Ptolemy V., or Ptolemy Epiphanes, 

 took place. During his reign, a large amount of building was accom- 

 plished; especially at Philce, Edfu, Esneh, and Thebes. He founded 

 the temple at Ombos : and his name occurs in the Greek inscription 

 dedicating the small temple at Philse to Aesculapius. 



The Eosetta Stone is dated in the " ninth year of the reign of Ptolemy 

 Epiphanes." It is inscribed with a decree in hieroglyphic and also in 

 demotic writing, with a Greek translation ; and has proved the means 

 of recovering the art of reading hieroglyphic characters. 



In " B. C. 181," the accession of Ptolemy VI., or Ptolemy Philo- 

 metor, took place. During his reign, temples were erected or con- 

 tinued at Paremboleh in Nubia, at Philee, Ombos, Edfu, Koos, and 



* The verbena of Plautus, Terentius, Livius, Propertius, and Pliny, has been iden~ 

 tified with the " peristereona " of Cratevas and Dioscorides; a word having a like 

 signification with the " phassochorton " of the modern Greeks, Prasium majus. This 

 plant, moreover, has been found growing at Rome, as appears from Persoon. — I have 

 met with no evidence, that it is known in Egypt. 



