464 DIOCLESIAN'S PILLAR. 
them. Yet it may be no very hazardous conjecture to fix the site 
of it in the open space that is marked No. ^, 3, in the plan of the 
ruins. It is indeed possible that here may have been the temple 
of Serapis, and the palace may have been close to the column, but 
the descriptions of the Greek and Arabic authors are so vague, that 
it is impossible to do more than conjecture on the subject. 
The column of Dioclesian has been described by every author ; 
but the French, while in possession of Alexandria, at length ascer- 
tained its dimensions ; to the English, however, they left the honour 
of decyphering the inscription, and of proving beyond controversy, 
that Dioclesian was the emperor to whom it was dedicated, and 
whose statue, on its summit, must have formed a most conspicuous 
object from every part of the country, and served as a still better 
land-mark than the pillar alone, which, nevertheless, is now a most 
useful guide to navigators approaching the low, sandy shore of 
Egypt. For several days Mr. Salt occupied himself in copying 
the inscription, giving the true shape to every letter, and marking 
its relative position to the others. This was done with less dif- 
ficulty than we expected, for by applying chalk to all the rough 
indents, and then wiping over the whole lightly with a wet spunge, 
the white remained on the letters, but was washed from the polished 
surface, and the smaller hollows formed in the granite, by the wind 
from the sea. It is a most mortifying circumstance, that after having 
completed the work, I should not be able to present it to the public ; 
but the paper is mislaid, nor can all my researches discover it. I 
can therefore only state, that in the last line the name of the exarch 
of Egypt was not Pompeius, for that the third letter of his name 
was undoubtedly a sigraa. I cannot but express my astonishment 
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