Ægypsus, a town of the Getæ, near the Danube. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 1, ltr. 8; bk. 4, ltr. 7.
Ægypta, a freedman of Cicero. Letters to Atticus, bk. 8.
Ægyptii, the inhabitants of Egypt. See: [Ægyptus].
Ægyptium mare, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the coast of Egypt.
Ægyptus, son of Belus, and brother to Danaus, gave his 50 sons in marriage to the 50 daughters of his brother. Danaus, who had established himself at Argos, and was jealous of his brother, who, by following him from Egypt into Greece, seemed envious of his prosperity, obliged all his daughters to murder their husbands the first night of their nuptials. This was executed; but Hypermnestra alone spared her husband Lynceus. Even Ægyptus was killed by his niece Polyxena. See: [Danaus], [Danaides], [Lynceus]. Ægyptus was king, after his father, of a part of Africa, which from him has been called Ægyptus. Hyginus, fables 168, 170.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 14.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 21.——An extensive country of Africa, watered by the Nile, bounded on the east by Arabia, and on the west by Libya. Its name is derived from Ægyptus brother to Danaus. Its extent, according to modern calculation, is 180 leagues from north to south, and it measures 120 leagues on the shore of the Mediterranean; but at the distance of 50 leagues from the sea, it diminishes so much as scarce to measure seven or eight leagues between the mountains on the east and west. It is divided into lower, which lies near the Mediterranean, and upper, which is towards the south. Upper Egypt was famous for the town of Thebes, but Lower Egypt was the most peopled, and contained the Delta, a number of large islands, which, from their form, have been called after the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. This country has been the mother of arts and sciences. The greatest part of Lower Egypt has been formed by the mud and sand carried down by the Nile. The Egyptians reckoned themselves the most ancient nation in the universe [See: [Psammetichus]], but some authors make them of Æthiopian origin. They were remarkable for their superstition; they paid as much honour to the cat, the crocodile, the bull, and even to onions, as to Isis. Rain never or seldom falls in this country; the fertility of the soil originates in the yearly inundations of the Nile, which rises about 25 feet above the surface of the earth, and exhibits a large plain of waters, in which are scattered here and there the towns and villages, as the Cyclades in the Ægean sea. The air is not wholesome, but the population is great, and the cattle very prolific. It is said that Egypt once contained 20,000 cities, the most remarkable of which were Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria, Pelusium, Coptos, Arsinoe, &c. It was governed by kings who have immortalized themselves by the pyramids they have raised and the canals they have opened. The priests traced the existence of the country for many thousand years, and fondly imagined that the gods were their first sovereigns, and that their monarchy had lasted 11,340 years according to Herodotus. According to the calculation of Constantine Manasses, the kingdom of Egypt lasted 1663 years from its beginning under Misraim the son of Ham, 2188 B.C., to the conquest of Cambyses, 525 B.C. Egypt revolted afterwards from the Persian power, B.C. 414, and Amyrtæus then became king. After him succeeded Psammetichus, whose reign began 408 B.C.: Nephereus, 396: Acoris, 389: Psammuthis, 376: Nepherites, 4 months, and Nectanebis, 375: Tachos, or Teos, 363: Nectanebus, 361. It was conquered by Ochus, 350 B.C.; and after the conquest of Persia by Alexander, Ptolemy refounded the kingdom, and began to reign 323 B.C.: Philadelphus, 284: Evergetes, 246: Philopater, 221: Epiphanes, 204: Philomater, 180 and 169, conjointly with Evergetes II. or Physcon, for six years: Evergetes II. 145: Lathurus Soter, and his mother Cleopatra, 116: Alexander of Cyprus, and Cleopatra, 106: Lathurus Soter restored, 88: Cleopatra II. six months, with Alexander II. 19 days, 81: Ptolemy, surnamed Alexander III. 80: Dionysius, surnamed Auletes, 65: Dionysius II. with Cleopatra III. 51: Cleopatra III. with young Ptolemy, 46, and in 30 B.C. it was reduced by Augustus into a Roman province. The history of Egypt, therefore, can be divided into three epochas: the first beginning with the foundation of the empire, to the conquest of Cambyses; the second ends at the death of Alexander; and the third comprehends the reign of the Ptolemies, and ends at the death of Cleopatra, in the age of Augustus.—Justin, bk. 1.—Hirtius, Alexandrine War, ch. 24.—Macrobius, Somnium Scipionis, bk. 1, chs. 19 & 21.—Herodian, bk. 4, ch. 9.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Herodotus, bks. 2, 3, & 7.—Theocritus, Idylls, poem 17, li. 79.—Polybius, bk. 15.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 1; bk. 14, ch. 7.—Marcellinus, bk. 22, ch. 40.—Justin, bk. 1.—Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias, bk. 3; Iphicrates; Datames, ch. 3.—Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 1.—Juvenal, satire 15, li. 175.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 14.—Plutarch, de Facie in Orbe Lunæ; de Iside et Osiride; Ptolemy, Alexander.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 5.——A minister of Mausolus king of Caria. Polyænus, bk. 6.——The ancient name of the Nile. Homer, Odyssey, [♦]bk. 14, li. 258.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 40.
[♦] ‘ξ’ replaced with ‘bk. 14’
Ægys. See: [Ægy].
Ægysthus. See: [Ægisthus].
Ælia, the wife of Sylla. Plutarch, Sulla.——The name of some towns built or repaired by the emperor Adrian.
Ælia lex, enacted by Ælius Tubero the tribune, A.U.C. 559, to send two colonies into the country of the Brutii. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 53.——Another A.U.C. 568, ordaining that, in public affairs, the augurs should observe the appearance of the sky, and the magistrates be empowered to postpone the business.——Another called Ælia Sexta, by Ælius Sextus, A.U.C. 756, which enacted, that all slaves who bore any marks of punishment received from their masters, or who had been imprisoned, should be set at liberty, but not rank as Roman citizens.