EGYPT.—AN INTRODUCTION. 
which the patriarchs might have seen, and which we can still see—the original traces 
on stone, from which we can yet read much of the history of those who left them 
there three thousand years ago. 
This discovery confirms the accounts given to us by Herodotus, from existing sources 
of his information. But to us it has a deeper interest. In some of these records 
already discovered we see their relation to the people of Israel. The condition of 
the Egyptians is found to be in perfect accordance with the patriarchal period of 
the sacred writings, and the conquest and captivity of the Jews under Rehoboam. 
And while it supports tradition, and confirms the historical periods of Egypt, it records 
her religion, illustrates her customs, preserves the names and dates, and represents 
the conquests of her Pharaohs, more than a thousand years before any fact is authenti¬ 
cated in the history of Greece, fifteen hundred years before the foundation of Rome, 
and nearly three thousand before the Saxon invasion of our own country. 
The early history of Egypt, after the first Persian conquest by Cambyses, is chiefly 
written in the language of another people, the Greek. It records her struggles for 
independence against her oppressors, who ruled her as a conquered province during 
the century of her first occupation by Xerxes and his successors. We then learn 
that it was recovered by the Mendesians and the Sybennite, people of the Valley 
of the Nile, who at length successfully revolted, regained their nationality, and restored 
the dynasties of her native Pharaohs. But though there was a succession of eight of 
these kings of Egypt, they altogether reigned only about sixty years, when the Persians 
reconquered the country, and held it only for a short time: for the Persian empire 
itself soon after fell before the victorious arms of Alexander the Great, and the 
Macedonians became masters of Egypt 322 B.c. Philip Aradaeus, the successor of 
Alexander, appointed Ptolemy governor of the province. Upon the breaking up of 
the Macedonian power and the division of its conquests, after the death of the son of 
Alexander, by Olympias, Ptolemy assumed the title of King of Egypt, and commenced 
that line of sovereigns which reigned there nearly three hundred years, and gave their 
name to a period of Egyptian history which continued to Cleopatra, when it became 
a part of the Roman empire. 
Under the rule of the Caesars, Egypt, as a distant province, was often the scene 
of struggles for her own independence, or that of contending parties for supremacy 
in her soil or in her govei'nment. The Ethiopians, led by their queen, Candace, 
taking advantage of the absence of the Roman legions, which, under the Prefect 
JElius Gallus, were attempting the conquest of the Arabian Peninsula, invaded Upper 
Egypt, and took many cities; but they were soon driven back. In the middle of 
the third century, another queen, Zenobia of Palmyra, claimed the throne of Egypt, 
as a descendant of the Ptolemies; and for a short time possessed it as a sovereign. 
During the Roman occupation, its emperors executed many works by which the 
country was benefited. Temples, bridges, and roads, were restored and constructed. 
Several of the Roman emperors visited Egypt; amongst them, Adrian, Severus, and 
Probus. Whilst they were there they directed the restoration and embellishment of 
many of the temples, and the erection of several in Nubia. But the disorders which 
