the theatre and singers; what scenes on that long canal to Canobus, lined with luxurious inns,
where barks full of pleasure-seekers revelled in the cool shade of the banks, or sped to
Canobus, that scene of all dissipation and luxury, proverbial even in those days! And yet, close
by, on the shores of Lake Mareotis, as if in grim contrast, were the chosen retreats of that
sternly ascetic Jewish party, the Therapeutæ,7 whose views and practices in so many points
were kindred to those of the Essenes in Palestine!
3. The average passage from Alexandria to Puteoli was twelve days, the ships touching at Malta and in
Sicily. It was in such a ship, the `Castor and Pollux' carrying wheat, that St. Paul sailed from Malta to
Puteoli, where it would be among the first arrivals of the season.
4. They bore, painted on the two sides of the prow, the emblems of the gods to whom they were
dedicated, and were navigated by Egyptian pilots, the most renowned in the world. One of these
vessels is described as 180 by 45 feet and of about 1,575 tons, and is computed to have returned to its
owner nearly 3,000l. annually. (Comp. Friedländer, u.s. vol. ii. p. 131, &c.) And yet these were small
ships compared with those built for the conveyance of marble blocks and columns, and especially of
obelisks. One of these is said to have carried, besides an obelisk, 1,200 passenger, a freight of paper,
nitre, pepper, linen, and a large cargo of wheat.
5. The journey took about three months, either up the Nile, thence by caravan, and again by sea; or else
perhaps by the Ptolemy Canal and the Red Sea.
6. It included gold -dust, ivory, and mother-of-pearl from the interior of Africa, spices from Arabia, pearls
from the Gulf of Persia, precious stones and byssus from India, and silk from China.
7. On the existence of the Therapeutes comp. Art. Philo in Smith & Wace's Dict. of Chr. Biogr. vol. iv.
This sketch of Alexandria will help us to understand the surroundings of the large mass of Jews
settled in the Egyptian capital. Altogether more than an eighth of the population of the country
(one million in 7,800,000) was Jewish. Whether or not a Jewish colony had gone into Egypt at
the time of Nebuchadnezzar, or even earlier, the great mass of its residents had been attracted
by Alexander the Great,8 who had granted the Jews equally exceptional privileges with the
Macedonians. The later troubles of Palestine under the Syrian kings greatly swelled their
number, the more so that the Ptolemies, with one exception, favoured them. Originally a special
quarter had been assigned to the Jews in the city - the `Delta' by the eastern harbour and the
Canobus canal - probably alike to keep the community separate, and from its convenience for
commercial purposes. The priveleges which the Ptolemies had accorded to the Jews were
confirmed, and even enlarged, by Julius Cæsar. The export trade in grain was now in their
hands, and the harbour and river police committed to their charge. Two quarters in the city are
named as specially Jewish - not, however, in the sense of their being confined to them. Their
Synagogues, surrounded by shady trees, stood in all parts of the city. But the chief glory of the
Jewish community in Egypt, of which even the Palestinians boasted, was the great central
Synagogue, built in the shape of a basilica, with double colonnade, and so large that it needed a
signal for those most distant to know the proper moment for the responses. The different trade
guilds sat there together, so that a stranger would at once know where to find Jewish employers
or fellow-workmen.9 In the choir of this Jewish cathedral stood seventy chairs of state,
encrusted with precious stones, for the seventy elders who constituted the eldership of