§17.1.12ἐπαρχία δὲ νῦν ἐστι, φόρους μὲν τελοῦσα ἀξιολόγους, ὑπὸ σωφρόνων δὲ ἀνδρῶν διοικουμένη τῶν πεμπομένων ἐπάρχων ἀεί.
And now it is a province, paying significant taxes, and governed by prudent men, namely, the prefects who are sent there from time to time.
ὁ μὲν οὖν πεμφθεὶς τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἔχει τάξιν, ὑπʼ αὐτῷ δʼ ἐστὶν ὁ δικαιοδότης ὁ τῶν πολλῶν κρίσεων κύριος· ἄλλος δʼ ἐστὶν ὁ προσαγορευόμενος ἰδιόλογος, ὃς τῶν ἀδεσπότων καὶ τῶν εἰς Καίσαρα πίπτειν ὀφειλόντων ἐξεταστής ἐστι· παρέπονται δὲ τούτοις ἀπελεύθεροι Καίσαρος καὶ οἰκονόμοι, μείζω καὶ ἐλάττω πεπιστευμένοι πράγματα.
He who is sent has the rank of the king, and under him is the juridicus, who has authority over most of the lawsuits; and there is another officer called idiologus, who is the inquirer into ownerless property and what ought to fall to Caesar; and these are attended by Caesar’s freedmen and stewards, who are entrusted with matters both of greater and lesser importance.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ στρατιωτικοῦ τρία τάγματα, ὧν τὸ ἓν κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἵδρυται τἆλλα δʼ ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ· χωρὶς δὲ τούτων ἐννέα μέν εἰσι σπεῖραι Ῥωμαίων, τρεῖς μὲν ἐν τῇ πόλει τρεῖς δʼ ἐπὶ τῶν ὅρων τῆς Αἰθιοπίας ἐν Συήνῃ, φρουρὰ τοῖς τόποις, τρεῖς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἄλλην χώραν.
There are also three legions of soldiers, of which one is stationed in the city and the others in the country; besides these, there are nine Roman cohorts, three in the city, three on the borders of Ethiopia in Syene, as a garrison for those parts, and three in the rest of the country.
εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἱππαρχίαι τρεῖς ὁμοίως διατεταγμέναι κατὰ τοὺς ἐπικαιρίους τόπους.
There are also three bodies of cavalry similarly distributed in the opportunistic places.
τῶν δʼ ἐπιχωρίων ἀρχόντων κατὰ πόλιν μὲν ὅ τε ἐξηγητής ἐστι, πορφύραν ἀμπεχόμενος καὶ ἔχων πατρίους τιμὰς καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν τῶν τῇ πόλει χρησίμων, καὶ ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος καὶ ἀρχιδικαστής, τέταρτος δὲ ὁ νυκτερινὸς στρατηγός.
Of the native officers in the city, there is the exegetes, who is clad in purple and enjoys ancestral honors and the care of what is useful for the city, and the hypomnematographus, and the archidicastes, and fourth, the night-commander.
ἦσαν μὲν οὖν καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων αὗται αἱ ἀρχαί, κακῶς δὲ πολιτευομένων τῶν βασιλέων ἠφανίζετο καὶ ἡ τῆς πόλεως εὐκαιρία διὰ τὴν ἀνομίαν.
Now these offices also existed under the kings, but because the kings governed poorly, the good order of the city was disappearing due to lawlessness.
ὁ γοῦν Πολύβιος γεγονὼς ἐν τῇ πόλει βδελύττεται τὴν τότε κατάστασιν καί φησι τρία γένη τὴν πόλιν οἰκεῖν, τό τε Αἰγύπτιον καὶ ἐπιχώριον φῦλον ὀξὺ καὶ * πολιτικόν, καὶ τὸ μισθοφορικὸν βαρὺ καὶ πολὺ καὶ ἀνάγωγον· ἐξ ἔθους γὰρ παλαιοῦ ξένους ἔτρεφον τοὺς τὰ ὅπλα ἔχοντας, ἄρχειν μᾶλλον ἢ ἄρχεσθαι δεδιδαγμένους διὰ τὴν τῶν βασιλέων οὐδένειαν· τρίτον δʼ ἦν γένος τὸ τῶν Ἀλεξανδρέων οὐδʼ αὐτὸ εὐκρινῶς πολιτικὸν διὰ τὰς αὐτὰς αἰτίας, κρεῖττον δʼ ἐκείνων ὅμως· καὶ γὰρ εἰ μιγάδες, Ἕλληνες ὅμως ἀνέκαθεν ἦσαν καὶ ἐμέμνηντο τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἔθους·
At any rate, Polybius, having been in the city, is disgusted with the condition of that time and says that three classes inhabit the city: the Egyptian and native race, which is quick-tempered and uncivilized; and the mercenary force, which is heavy, numerous, and undisciplined; for by ancient custom they maintained foreign armed men, who had been taught to rule rather than to be ruled because of the worthlessness of the kings; and the third class was that of the Alexandrians, which itself was not clearly civilized for the same reasons, yet was better than the former; for even if they were mixed, they were nevertheless Greeks by origin and remembered the common Greek custom.
ἠφανισμένου δὲ καὶ τούτου τοῦ πλήθους μάλιστα ὑπὸ τοῦ Εὐεργέτου τοῦ Φύσκωνος, καθʼ ὃν ἧκεν εἰς τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ὁ Πολύβιος (καταστασιαζόμενος γὰρ ὁ Φύσκων πλεονάκις τοῖς στρατιώταις ἐφίει τὰ πλήθη καὶ διέφθειρε), τοιούτων δή, φησίν, ὄντων τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει λοιπὸν ἦν τῷ ὄντι τὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ
Αἴγυπτόνδʼ ἰέναι δολιχὴν ὁδὸν ἀργαλέην τε. §17.1.13τοιαῦτα δʼ ἦν, εἰ μὴ χείρω, καὶ τὰ τῶν ὕστερον βασιλέων.
But when this population also was destroyed, especially by Euergetes Physcon, in whose time Polybius came to Alexandria (for Physcon, being frequently opposed by factions, would let loose the soldiers upon the crowds and destroy them), such being indeed the condition of the city, there remained in truth, he says, the poet's saying, "To go to Egypt is a long and painful journey." Such, if not worse, was also the state under the later kings.
Ῥωμαῖοι δʼ εἰς δύναμιν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἐπηνώρθωσαν τὰ πολλά, τὴν μὲν πόλιν διατάξαντες ὡς εἶπον, κατὰ δὲ τὴν χώραν ἐπιστρατήγους τινὰς καὶ νομάρχας καὶ ἐθνάρχας καλουμένους ἀποδείξαντες, πραγμάτων οὐ μεγάλων ἐπιστατεῖν ἠξιωμένους.
But the Romans, to the best of their power, so to speak, corrected most of things, having regulated the city as I have said, and having appointed in the country certain officers called epistrategoi, nomarchs, and ethnarchs, who were deemed worthy to superintend matters of no great importance.
τῆς δʼ εὐκαιρίας τῆς κατὰ τὴν πόλιν τὸ μέγιστόν ἐστιν ὅτι τῆς Αἰγύπτου πάσης μόνος ἐστὶν οὗτος ὁ τόπος πρὸς ἄμφω πεφυκὼς εὖ, τά τε ἐκ θαλάττης διὰ τὸ εὐλίμενον, καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῆς χώρας ὅτι πάντα εὐμαρῶς ὁ ποταμὸς πορθμεύει συνάγει τε εἰς τοιοῦτον χωρίον ὅπερ μέγιστον ἐμπόριον τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐστί. τῆς μὲν οὖν πόλεως ταύτας ἄν τις λέγοι τὰς ἀρετάς·
The greatest advantage of the city's convenience is that this place is the only one in all Egypt that is naturally well situated for both, namely, for matters from the sea because of its good harbors, and for those from the country because the river easily transports everything and gathers it into such a place, which is the greatest emporium of the inhabited world.
τῆς Αἰγύπτου δὲ τὰς προσόδους ἔν τινι λόγῳ Κικέρων φράζει φήσας κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν τῷ τῆς Κλεοπάτρας πατρὶ τῷ Αὐλητῇ προσφέρεσθαι φόρον ταλάντων μυρίων δισχιλίων πεντακοσίων.
These, then, one might say, are the advantages of the city; but Cicero, in one of his speeches, mentions the revenues of Egypt, saying that every year there was paid to the father of Cleopatra, Auletes, a tribute of twelve thousand five hundred talents.
ὅπου οὖν ὁ κάκιστα καὶ ῥᾳθυμότατα τὴν βασιλείαν διοικῶν τοσαῦτα προσωδεύετο, τί χρὴ νομίσαι τὰ νῦν διὰ τοσαύτης ἐπιμελείας οἰκονομούμενα καὶ τῶν Ἰνδικῶν ἐμποριῶν καὶ τῶν Τρωγλοδυτικῶν ἐπηυξημένων ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον;
Wherefore, if he who administered the kingdom in the worst and most careless manner received so much revenue, what must we think of the present state, which is managed with so much care, when the Indian and Troglodytic trades have been increased to such an extent?
πρότερον μέν γε οὐδʼ εἴκοσι πλοῖα ἐθάρρει τὸν Ἀράβιον κόλπον διαπερᾶν ὥστε ἔξω τῶν στενῶν ὑπερκύπτειν, νῦν δὲ καὶ στόλοι μεγάλοι στέλλονται μέχρι τῆς Ἰνδικῆς καὶ τῶν ἄκρων τῶν Αἰθιοπικῶν, ἐξ ὧν ὁ πολυτιμότατος κομίζεται φόρτος εἰς τὴν Αἴγυπτον, κἀντεῦθεν πάλιν εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους ἐκπέμπεται τόπους, ὥστε τὰ τέλη διπλάσια συνάγεται τὰ μὲν εἰσαγωγικὰ τὰ δὲ ἐξαγωγικά· τῶν δὲ βαρυτίμων βαρέα καὶ τὰ τέλη.
Formerly, indeed, not even twenty vessels ventured to traverse the Arabian Gulf so as to peep out beyond the straits, but now even large fleets are sent as far as India and the extremities of Ethiopia, from which the most valuable cargoes are brought to Egypt, and thence are exported again to other places, so that double duties are collected, both on imports and exports; and the duties on highly valuable goods are heavy.
καὶ γὰρ δὴ καὶ μονοπωλίας ἔχει· μόνη γὰρ ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια τῶν τοιούτων ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ καὶ ὑποδοχεῖόν ἐστι καὶ χορηγεῖ τοῖς ἐκτός.
Indeed, it also has monopolies; for Alexandria alone is for the most part the receptacle of such goods and supplies those outside.
ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον κατιδεῖν ἔστι τὴν εὐφυΐαν ταύτην περιοδεύοντι τὴν χώραν, καὶ πρῶτον τὴν παραλίαν ἀρξαμένην ἀπὸ τοῦ Καταβαθμοῦ· μέχρι δεῦρο γάρ ἐστιν ἡ Αἴγυπτος, ἡ δʼ ἑξῆς ἐστι Κυρηναία καὶ οἱ περιοικοῦντες βάρβαροι Μαρμαρίδαι.
One can observe this natural advantage still more by traveling around the country, starting first from the coast beginning at Catabathmus; for Egypt extends as far as this, and next to it is Cyrenaica and the neighboring barbarian Marmaridae.