Corn. 
205 
The matchless wealth of ancient Egypt is supposed to have 
arisen from its corn. It may be learnt, from the interesting 
history of Joseph, as well as from the narrative of the ten 
plagues, how famous Egypt was in those days for its wheat. 
Some, indeed, believe that country to have been the parent of 
this species of grain, and certainly the earliest historic allusions 
to it are in connection with that land, whence, it is conjectured, 
it spread along the shores of the Mediterranean. Under the 
wise administration of Joseph, Egypt was able to supply neigh¬ 
bouring nations, in a time of wide-spread famine, with the re¬ 
quisite corn, and in later ages served as a vast granary for the 
Roman and Eastern empires. The belief that their subjects 
would not be able to subsist without Egyptian grain is said 
to have induced the Roman emperors to protect the Nile’s 
fruitful home. This same river, however, which enabled Egypt 
to feed Rome and Constantinople, the then two most populous 
cities in the world, sometimes reduced its own inhabitants to 
the direst extremities ; and, as it has been remarked, it is 
astonishing that the wise foresight which, in fruitful years, 
had made provision for seasons of sterility, should not have 
taught the wise politicians to adopt similar precautions against 
the contingency of the failure of the Nile. Pliny, in his eulogy 
on the Emperor Trajan, paints in glowing but undoubtedly 
exaggerated colours, not merely the extremity to which Egypt 
was reduced by a famine in the reign of that prince, but also 
the magnificent help which he rendered it. “ The Egyptians,” 
says this Latin author, “ who gloried that they needed neither 
sun nor rain to produce their corn, and who believed they might 
confidently contest the prize of plenty with the most fruitful 
countries of the world, were condemned to an unexpected 
drought and a fatal sterility, from the greater part of their 
territories being deserted and left unwatered by the Nile, 
whose inundation is the source and standard of their abun¬ 
dance. They then implored that assistance from their prince 
which they had been accustomed only to expect from their 
river. The delay of their relief was no longer than that which 
employed a courier to bring the melancholy news to Rome ; 
and one would have imagined that this misfortune had befallen 
them only to display with greater lustre the generosity and 
goodness of Caesar. It was an ancient and general opinion 
