to the Theban castle, which marked the frontier a few miles above Tanis, and which appears to have occupied the site of the present town of Dahroot*; and its name, Heptanomis, was derived from the seven nomes, or districts, it contained, which were those of Memphis, Aphroditopolis, Crocodilopolis, or Arsinoë, Heracleopolis, Oxyrinchus, Cynopolis, and Hermopolis.

The limits of the Thebaïd remained the same, and extended to the cataracts of Syene; but it appears that the Oases were all attached to the province of Heptanomis. † The chief towns of the three provinces were Thebes ‡, Memphis, and Heliopolis; and from these three, as I have already observed, the bench of judges was elected.

According to Diodorus §, the celebrated Sesostris was the first who divided the country into nomes; but it is more reasonable to suppose, that long before his time, or at least before that of Remeses the Great, all necessary arrangements for

*Or Dahroot e'Shereéf, which stands near the mouth of the Bahr Yoósef. Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 386., where I have shown the probability of its being the Thebaïca Phylace (pvλakn).

Ptolemy (lib. iv. c. 5.) says, the two Oases were attached to the Antinoïte nome, though it did not exist under this name in the time of the Pharaohs. The Oasis of Ammon was not, of course, in Egypt. By the "two Oases" he probably means those of El Khargeh and e'Dakhleh, the great and the western Oasis, rather than the former and the little Oasis.

Thebes and the land around it composed two nomes, one on the east and the other on the west bank: the former called "Thebarum nomus," the latter "Pathyrites," which probably derived its name from Athyr, who is so frequently said in the sculptures to be the president of that side of the river.

§ This, as usual, involves the question concerning Remeses the Great; and it is difficult to decide, whether we ought to attribute the actions recorded of Sesostris to this monarch of the 18th, or to another of a previous dynasty. Vide suprà, vol. i. p. 74.

the organisation of the provinces had already been made, and that this was one of the first plans suggested for the government of the country.

The office of nomarch was at all times of the highest importance, and to his charge were committed the management of the lands, and all matters relating to the internal administration of the district. He regulated the assessment and levying of the taxes, the surveying of the lands, the opening of the canals, and all other agricultural interests of the country, which were under the immediate superintendence of certain members of the priestly order; and, as his residence was in the chief town of the nomet, all causes respecting landed property, and other accidental disputes, were referred to him, and adjusted before his tribunal. The division of the country into thirty-six parts, or nomes, continued to be maintained till a late period, since in Strabo's time ‡ the number was still the same; ten, says the geographer, being assigned to the Thebaïd, ten to the Delta, and sixteen § to the intermediate province: though some changes were afterwards introduced both in the nomes and provinces of Egypt. The nomes, he adds, were

*The Turkish system of ruling Egypt was by twenty-four beys (beks) or governors of districts, under whom were the kashefs and qymaqams. The number of beys is now no longer twenty-four, as in the time of the Memlooks.

This agrees with the definition of a nome given by St. Cyril of Alexandria: "A nome, according to the Egyptians, includes a city, its suburbs, and the villages within the district." Cellar. ii. lib. iv. 6, 7. We are not, however, to understand that the word nome is Egyptian. Strabo, lib. xvii.

These were the sixteen præfectures which, according to Pliny,

subdivided into toparchiæ, or local governments, and these again into minor jurisdictions; and we may conclude, that the three offices of nomarchs, toparchs, and the third or lowest grade, answered to those of bey, kashef, and qýmaqám of the present day. The distinctive appellation of each nome, in later times at least, was derived from the chief town, where the governor resided, and the rank of each nomarch depended on the extent of his jurisdiction. But of the state of Egypt in the early period of its history we have little or no information; owing to the uncivilised condition of neighbouring states, to the indifference of those Greeks who visited it, or to the loss of their writings, and above all to the jealousy of the Egyptians * towards foreigners, to whom little or no information was imparted respecting the institutions and state of the country.

Like the Chinese, they prevented all strangers from penetrating into the interior; and if any Greek was desirous of becoming acquainted with the philosophy of their schools, he was tolerated, rather than welcomed, in Egypt; and those who traded with them were confined to the town of Naucratis t, in the same manner that Europeans

* Strabo, lib. xvii.

The Egyptians pretending to grant a privilege to this town, obliged all Greek traders to repair to it. (Herodot. ii. 179.) The Turks confined European ambassadors in the Seven Towers for their protection. The Ionian and Carian troops of Psamaticus had a place assigned to them a little below Bubastis, called "the camp," and were afterwards removed by Amasis to Memphis. Herodotus says they were the first foreigners who were allowed to settle in the country. Herodot. ii. 154.

are now obliged to live in the Frank quarter of a Turkish, or a Chinese, city. And when, after the time of Amasis and the Persian conquest, foreigners became better acquainted with the country, its ancient institutions had begun to lose their interest, and the Egyptians mourned under a victorious and cruel despot. Herodotus, it is true, had ample opportunity of examining the state of Egypt during his visit to the country; but he has failed to give us much insight into its laws and institutions; and little can be gleaned from any author, except Diodorus, who, at least, deserves the credit of having collected, under far less favourable circumstances, much curious information upon this interesting subject.

Strabo mentions some of the offices which existed in Egypt in his time; but, though he asserts that many of them were the same as under the Ptolemies, we are by no means certain that they answer to those of an earlier period. "Under the eparch," says the geographer, "who holds the rank of a king, is the dicæodotes, that is, the lawgiver or chancellor, and another officer, who is called the privy-purse, or private accountant, whose business it is to take charge of every thing that is left without an owner*, and which falls of right to the emperor. These two are also attended by freedmen and stewards of Cæsar, who are entrusted with affairs of greater or less magnitude.... But of the natives who are employed in the government of the different cities, the principal

is the exagétes, or expounder, who is dressed in purple, and is honoured according to the usages of the country, and takes care of what is necessary for the welfare of the city: the register, or writer of commentaries: the archidicastes, or chief judge : and, fourthly, the captain of the night.*"

From all that can be collected on this subject, we may conclude, that in early times, after the king, the senate, and others connected with the court, the principal persons employed in the management of affairs were the judges of different grades, the rulers of provinces and districts, the government accountants, the chief of the police, and those officers immediately connected with the administration of justice, the levying of taxes, and other similar employments; and that the principal part of them were chosen either from the sacerdotal or the military class.

During the reigns of the latter Ptolemies, considerable abuses crept into the administrative system; intrigues, arising out of party spirit and conflicting interests, corrupted men's minds: integrity ceased to be esteemed every patriotic feeling became extinguished: the interests of the community were sacrificed to the ambition of a successful candidate for a disputed throne: and the hope of present advantage blinded men to future consequences. New regulations were adopted to suppress the turbulent spirit of the times: the

* Strabo, lib. xvii. This officer answers to the Bash-agha of modern Egypt, who goes the rounds of the town at night, and is the chief of the police.