Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 202

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Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts that it contained, in the reign of King Amasis3549, 20,000 inhabited cities: in our day they are still very numerous, though no longer of any particular note. Still however we find the following ones mentioned as of great renown—the city of Apollo3550; next, that of Leucothea3551; then Great Diospolis3552, otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates; Coptos3553, which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia; then the town of Venus3554, and then another town of Jupiter3555. After this comes Tentyris3556, below which is Abydus3557, the royal abode of Memnon, and famous for a temple of Osiris3558, which is situate in Libya3559, at a distance from the river of seven miles and a half. Next to it comes Ptolemais3560, then Panopolis3561, and then another town of Venus3562, and, on the Libyan side, Lycon3563, where the mountains form the boundary of the province of Thebais. On passing these, we come to the towns of Mercury3564, Alabastron3565, the town of Dogs3566, and that of Hercules already mentioned3567. We next come to Arsinoë3568, and Memphis3569, which has been previously mentioned; between which last and the Nome of Arsinoïtes, upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids, the Labyrinth3570 on Lake Mœris, in the construction of which no wood was employed, and the town of Crialon3571. Besides these, there is one place in the interior, on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of the Sun3572.

(10.) With the greatest justice, however, we may lavish our praises upon Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great on the shores of the Egyptian Sea, upon the soil of Africa, at twelve miles’ distance from the Canopic Mouth and near Lake Mareotis3573; the spot having previously borne the name of Rhacotes. The plan of this city was designed by the architect Dinochares3574, who is memorable for the genius which he displayed in many ways. Building the city upon a wide space3575 of ground fifteen miles in circumference, he formed it in the circular shape of a Macedonian chlamys3576, uneven at the edge, giving it an angular projection on the right and left; while at the same time he devoted one-fifth part of the site to the royal palace.

Lake Mareotis, which lies on the south side of the city, is connected by a canal which joins it to the Canopic mouth, and serves for the purposes of communication with the interior. It has also a great number of islands, and is thirty miles across, and 150 in circumference, according to Claudius Cæsar. Other writers say that it is forty schœni in length, making the schœnum to be thirty stadia; hence, according to them, it is 150 miles3577 in length and the same in breadth.

There are also, in the latter part of the course of the Nile, many towns of considerable celebrity, and more especially those which have given their names to the mouths of the river—I do not mean, all the mouths, for there are no less than twelve of them, as well as four others, which the people call the False Mouths3578. I allude to the seven more famous ones, the Canopic3579 Mouth, next to Alexandria, those of Bolbitine3580, Sebennys3581, Phatnis3582, Mendes3583, Tanis3584, and, last of all, Pelusium3585. Besides the above there are the towns of Butos3586, Pharbæthos3587, Leontopolis3588, Athribis3589, the town of Isis3590, Busiris3591, Cynopolis3592, Aphrodites3593, Sais3594, and Naucratis3595, from which last some writers call that the Naucratitic Mouth, which is by others called the Heracleotic, and mention it instead3596 of the Canopic Mouth, which is the next to it.