20 THE GREAT EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION. 
The turning point was, evidently, the end of the war with Antiochus of Syria, 198 B. C. 
(year 7 of the king). The large army! under Skopas became free at this moment and could be 
used against the rebels.?» These, in all probability, had no uniform plan of defense. On the other 
hand, the numerous water-courses splitting up the Delta made it difficult for the royal troops to 
deal promptly a decisive blow. As such the capture of Lykopolis, in the year 8, is represented 
by the Rosetta stone. ‘This inscription, dated in the 9th year of Epiphanes, month 6 (196 
B. C.), describes the king as in possession of Memphis and of a great part at least, possibly all, 
of the Delta. Apparently also a good stretch of land south of Memphis was in the hands of the 
king; otherwise the coronation ceremony at Memphis would appear out of place. That coro- 
nation seems to have been almost contemporary with the decree; likewise the victory of 
year 8 over the rebels in Lykopolis, which secured apparently the possession of the Delta, must 
have preceded it rather directly. That it was this victory which brought wider parts of Egypt 
to subjection is visible from Ros. Gr. 29: the debts of the temples must be overlooked by the 
Ptolemaic government to year 8 (demot. 1. 17 corrects this to “year 9,’’ perhaps because the 
demotic version, out of flattery, wished to bring that benefit near to the date of the coronation; 
probably because the actual subjection of the rebellious regions was very near to the beginning 
of year 9, as said above). 
The remarkable report on this military operation is as follows (Rosetta stone, Greek 1. 21): 
Tapaytwdopevos (1. 22) de DEMOTIC TEXT (1. 12) 
kal eis AbKwy rod, THY EV TH 
Bovatpitn ) hv KaTecAnupevn 
Kal WKXUPWMEVN Tp os 
ToNLopkiar, OTAwY 6€ Tapalécer 
dayiteoTéepa Kal TH GdAAF 
xopnyla macy, ws av éx moXOU 
(l. 23) xpévov euveotnkulas 
TNS a\OTPLOT TOS TOLS 
émicuvaxbetow eis = adTny 
aoeBeow of oav els Te 
Ta lepa xkat Tovs ev 
AiyitTw Karotkouvtas mo\\a 
KaKa  ouvuyTeTeNeopévor Kal 
av (1. 24) tTixabioas xapaciv 
Te Kal Tadpots Kal TeElxeow 
avTnv.. aEtohoyots TeptéAaGer. 

1 Determined with the sign: ‘‘bad, hostile,’ owing to the special sense of the context. 
2In the meantime the Alexandrian government had to keep the soldiers, the Egyptian Macedonians and Greeks, as well as the 
Before the description of the reforms, Ros., 12, mentions rais re éavrov duvdueow rePrravOpam nKe 
mercenaries, in good will by liberality. 
But moving to Lycopolis in the 
Busirite (nome), which had been 
captured and fortified for a siege 
and with a rich store of weapons 
and all other equipment, as for a 
long time enmity (i. e., all hostile 
elements) had been gathered by 
the impious men collected into it, 
who had committed much evil to 
the temples and the inhabitants 
of Egypt, and encamping against 
(the city), he surrounded it with 
remarkable mounds and ditches 
and walls. 
(12) He went to the city of Shekan 
(13) [which had been captured] 
and equipped(?)*® by the impious 
people (with?) all [fortifications?], 
there being much outfit, all 
preparations, in its middle. 
He besieged the mentioned (lit. 
named) city with wall (and) 
dam/(s) (?)* (on its) outside be- 
cause of the impious people who 
were in it, who were leaders of 
doing much violence against 
Egypt, having deserted the way 
of the commandments of the 
king and the commandments 
(14) of the gods. 
magats. All modern translators have understood this: “‘he has shown himself liberal as far as he could,” or, “with all his resources,” 
etc. The demotic translation is, however (1. 7): ‘“‘he has given more and more (wh-f ly) gift(s) (fp) to the whole army (#migtt) which 
(was) in his high power.”’ Likewise the hieroglyphic text renders (Damanhur, 12) dvvayeow by ‘‘to the soldiers (read Ss in place of rd). 
This looks at first like an incredible mistake, but at close examination proves to be the only correct sense of the obscurely worded 
Greek text. The decree characteristically hints that before all liberality and kindness to the native masses the king first did good to 
those who had the first claim, the Macedonians and Greeks constituting the nobility and the officials the ruling classes. This 
thought is expressed so awkwardly, obscurely, and hastily, possibly because it was embarrassing to state in that decree, which. 
represented the thanks of the masses of the Egyptian natives (p. 19), that the government once had shown some consideration to them. 
3 Correct, ’tb to sbi ? ‘ 
4 The word wn is suspicious. Read t(i)n=tn below? 
4 
