service of Isis, Serapis, and the bull Apis; while the new and better alphabet, removing the readers' thoughts from the old superstitions, were found to be a valuable help to the spread of the new religion. (13) It was only on the ancient hieroglyphics thus falling into disuse that the Greeks of Alexandria, almost for the Fig. 110. Hieratic Writing. 2V?J<z>09/Jul}Qiu༼Z.2》 Fig. 111.-Enchorial Writing. first time, had the curiosity to study the principles on which Strom. v. they were written. Clemens Alexandrinus, who thought no branch of knowledge unworthy of his attention, gives a slight account of them, nearly agreeing with the results of our modern discoveries. He mentions the three kinds of writing; first, the hieroglyphic (see Fig. 10§\; secondly, the hieratic (see Fig. 110), which is nearly the same, but written with a pen, and less ornamental than the carved figures; and thirdly, the epistolographic, or common alphabetic writing, now usually called the enchorial (see Fig. 111). He then divides the hieroglyphic into the alphabetic and the symbolic; and lastly, he divides the symbolic characters into the imitative, the figurative, and those formed like riddles. As instances of these last we may quote, for the first, the three zigzag lines, which by simple imitation mean "Water;" for the second, the oval, which means a Name," because kings' names were written within ovals; and for the third, a cup with three anvils, which mean "Lord of Battles," because "Cup" and "Lord" have nearly the same sound NEB, and "Anvils" and "Battles" have nearly the same sound, MESHE (see Fig. 112). Eusebius, 66 (14) In this reign Pantænus of Athens, a Stoic philosopher, held the first place among the Christians of Eccl. Hist. Alexandria. He is celebrated for uniting the study of heathen learning with a religious zeal which led him to preach Christianity in India, or rather Abyssinia. He introduced a taste for philosophy among the Christians; and, though Athenagoras rather deserves that honour, he was called the founder of the catechetical school, which gave birth to the series of learned Christian writers that flourished in Alexandria for the next century. To have been a learned man and a Christian, and to have encouraged learning among the catechists in his schools, may seem deserving of no great praise. Was the religion of Jesus to spread ignorance and darkness over the world? But we must remember that a new religion cannot be introduced without some danger that learning and science may get forbidden, together with the ancient superstitions which had been taught in the same schools; we shall hereafter see that in the quarrels between pagans and Christians, and again between the several sects of Christians, learning was often reproached with being unfavourable to true religion; and then it will be granted that it was no small merit to have founded a school in which learning and Christianity went hand in hand for nearly two centuries. Pantænus has left no writings of his own, and is best known through his pupil or fellow-student Clemens. He is said to have brought with him to Alexandria, from the Jewish Christians that he met with on his travels, a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel in the original Hebrew, a Hieronywork now unfortunately lost, which if we possessed mus, Catal. it would settle for us the disputed point, whether or no it contained all that now bears that apostle's name in the Greck translation. Scriptor. (15) The learned, industrious, and pious Clemens, who, to distinguish him from Clemens of Rome, is usually called Clemens Alexandrinus, succeeded Pantænus in the catechetical school, and was at the same time a voluminous writer. He was in his philosophy a Platonist, though sometimes called of the Eclectic school. He has left an Address to the Gentiles, a treatise on Christian behaviour called Pedagogus, and eight books of Stromata, or collections, which he wrote to describe the perfect Christian or Gnostic, to furnish the believer with a model for his imitation, and to save him from being led astray by the sects of Gnostics "falsely so called." By his advice, and by the imitation of Christ, the Christian is to step forward from faith, through love, to knowledge; from being a slave, he is to become a faithful servant and then a son; he is to become at last a god walking in the flesh. In these writings Clemens pleads the cause of learning, both as a Christian and a scholar, saying that all science is sent from heaven as the true foundation of religion; and he does not scruple to quote Plato for philosophical arguments, while quoting the New Testament for its religious truths. He points out to us the passage in Plato, which we could never otherwise have found, in which that philosopher was said to have taught the doctrine of the trinity. "When Plato says, All things are around the King of all, and all things Dionys. il.) are because of him, and he is the cause of all that is good; and the things which are second are around the second; and the things which are third are around the third; I cannot but understand that the holy trinity was meant; that the third was the Holy Spirit, and the second the Son, through whom all things were made according to the will of the Father." Strom. v. (Epist. ad (16) But Clemens was not wholly free from the mysticism which was the chief mark of the Gnostic sect. He Strom. vi. th ught much of the sacred power of numbers. Abraham Ten had three hundred and eighteen servants when he rescued Lot, which when written in Greek numerals thus, ITH, formed the sacred sign for the name of Jesus. was a perfect number, and is that of the commandments given to Moses. Seven was a glorious number, and there are seven Pleiades, seven planets, seven days in the week; and the two fishes and five barley loaves, with which the multitude were miraculously fed, together make the number of years of plenty in Egypt under Joseph. Clemens also quotes several lines in praise of the seventh day, which he says were from Homer, Hesiod, and Callimachus; but here there is reason to believe that he was deceived by the pious fraud of Aristobulus, or some other zealous Jew, as no such lines are now to be found in the pagan poets. His judgment was not equal to his learning and piety; and in his writings many an addition is made to the simple religion which Jesus taught and practised. Zoega, (17) During the reign of PERTINAX, which lasted only three months, we find no traces of his power in Egypt, except the money which the Alexandrians coined in his name. It seems to have been the duty of the Egypt. prefect of the mint, as soon as he heard of an emperor's death, to lose no time in issuing coins in the name of his successor. It was one of the means to proclaim and secure the allegiance of the province for the new emperor. A.D. 194. Spartianus, A.D. 194. (18) During the reign of Commodus, Pescennius Niger had been at the head of the legion that was emVit. Pescen- ployed in Upper Egypt in stopping the inroads of nii. their troublesome neighbours, who already sometimes bore the name of Saracens. He was a hardy soldier, and strict in his discipline, while he shared the labours of the field and of the camp with the men under him. He would not allow them the use of wine; and once when the troops that guarded the frontier at Syene sent to ask for it, he bluntly answered, "You have got the Nile to drink, and cannot possibly want more." Once, when a cohort had been routed by the Saracens, the men complained that they could not fight without wine; but he would not relax in his discipline; "Those who have just now beaten you," said Niger, "drink nothing but water." He gained the love and thanks of the people of Upper Egypt by thus bridling the lawlessness of the troops; and they gave him his statue cut in black basalt, in allusion to his name Niger. This statue was placed in his Roman villa. (19) But on the death of Pertinax, when Septimius Severus declared himself emperor in Pannonia, NIGER, who was then in the province of Syria, did the same. Egypt and the Egyptian legions readily and heartily joined his party which made it unnecessary for him to stay in that part of the empire; so he marched upon Greece, Thrace, and Macedonia. But there, after a few months, he Vit. Severi. Spartianus, was met by the army of his rival, who also sent a second army into Egypt; and he was defeated and slain at Cyzicus in Mysia, after having been acknowledged as emperor in Egypt and Syria for perhaps a year and a few months. We find no Alexandrian coins of Niger, although we cannot allow a shorter space of time to his reign than one whole year, together with a few months of the preceding and following years. Within that time Severus had to march upon Rome against his first rival Julian, to punish the prætorian guards, and then to conquer Niger. A.D. 196. (20) After the death of his rival, when SEVERUS was the undisputed master of the empire, and was no longer wanted in the other provinces, he found leisure to visit Egypt; and, like other active-minded travellers, he examined the pyramids of Memphis and the temples at Thebes, and laughed at the worship of Serapis and the Egyptian animals. His visit to Alexandria was marked by many new laws. Now that the Greeks of that city, crushed beneath two centuries of foreign rule, had lost any remains of courage or of pride that could make them feared by their Roman master, he relaxed part of the strict policy of Augustus. He gave them a senate and a municipal form of government, a privilege that had hitherto been refused in distrust to that great city, though freely granted in other provinces J. Malala where rebellion was less dreaded. He also orna mented the city with a temple to Rhea, and with a public bath, which was named after himself the Bath of Severus. (21) The quick succession of three usurping emperors VOL. II. P |