nance there, that Strabo tells us the early Romans used to go to Marseilles to study Greek, rather than to Attica.*

Alexander of Macedon always labored to make the Greek language coextensive with his empire; as a consequence of which, Jerome says, "the entire East came to speakf Greek." In proof of this, we may add that, not only the Scythians, but the Indians also whom Apollonius of Tyana met in his travels, conversed familiarly in that language.

In the same manner the Latin tongue spread with the conquests of Rome. “ That imperious city,” as Augustine reports, "always made it a part of its policy to induce the adoption of the Latin language wherever it succeeded in imposing the yoke of civil subjection." And so successful were the Romans in this measure, that wherever the Roman arm was felt, there the Roman tongue came quickly into use, and the native idiom (ἰδίωμα) was abandoned. So completely have all traces of the original dialects been effaced, that the curious inquiry of the learned is now directed to ascertain what languages the inhabitants of so many conquered provinces originally spoke. This entire oblivion of the native dialect had occurred, in many cases, so early as the time of Strabo. That accomplished geographer writes of certain tribes in Spain: “ Οἱ μέν τοι Τουρδι τανοὶ, καὶ μάλιστα οἱ περὶ τὸν Βαῖτιν τελέως εἰς τὸν Ρωμαίων μεταβέβληνται τρόπον οὐδὲ τῆς διαλέκτου τῆς σφετέρας ἔτι μεμνη μένοι.||

The same circumstance occurred in the history of those ancient Gauls, who made an incursion into the Greek provinces of Asia Minor. They succeeded in giving their name to the country, Galatia or Gallogræcia, and in naturalizing their language

* Δηλοῖ δὲ τὰ καθεστηκότα νυνί· πάντες γὰρ οἱ χαριέντες πρὸς τὸ λέγειν τρέπονται καὶ φίλοσοφεῖν· ὥσθ ̓ ἡ πόλις μικρῷ μὲν τοῖς βαρβάροις ἀνεῖτο παιδευτήριον καὶ φιλέλληνας κατεσκεύασε τοὺς Γαλάτας, ὥστε καὶ τὰ συμβόλαια ̔Ελληνιστὶ γράφειν ἐν δὲ τῷ παρόντι καὶ τοὺς γνωριμωτάτους Ρωμαίων πέπεικεν, ἀντὶ τῆς εἰς ̓Αθήνας ἀποδημίας ἐκεῖσέ φοιτᾶν φιλομαθεῖς ὄντας.

† Hieronymus Proem, ad lib. 2, Ep. ad Galat.

f August. lib. XIX. de Civ. Dei. c. 7.

Η Strabo, lib. III. p. 151. [Tom. I. pag. 404, Ed. Sieb. Δατί νοι τὲ οἱ πλεῖστοι γέγονασι ὥστε μικρὸν ἀπέχουσι τοῦ πάντες

εἶναι Ῥωμαῖοι.—ED.

among the people, to the partial or total supercession of the na tive tongue.

Thus William too, the conqueror of England, introduced the old French language into that island, and, so far did it succeed in displacing the English and Saxon, that these became almost extinct. Such is the testimony of Ingulfus,t and of Robert Holkott the Dominican, who lived about the year 1350. The words of the latter are, "Historians tell us that when William Duke of Normandy seized the crown of England, he took measures to abolish the use of the Saxon tongue, and make French the language of both parts of his dominions. He passed a law that no one should plead in the courts in any other than the French language; also, that in the education of youth, instruction in French should invariably precede instruction in Latin; in fact, that the latter should only be taught through the medium of the former." Thus the English tongue was all but lost. The complaint of Henry of Huntingdon on this point is still extant, and as follows:

"Who in the heavens will not be affected with pity, and who upon earth will not shudder with horror, while reflecting upon the destruction of their kings, their princes, and their people," (viz. those of the English,) "nay, more, of their entire stock, language, and name? That other things should perish, we wonder not; but that their tongue, coeval with the earliest, should pass into oblivion, causes a surprise which no words can express."

But, to omit other conclusions and facts regarding the Parthians in Persia, the Arabs in Carthage, the Turks, Tartars, and Sclavonians in Greece, the Spaniards, French, and English in the American provinces, and many besides, a notable and convincing proof is furnished us in the history of the Jews. This nation, it is well known, before the Babylonish captivity, spoke the Hebrew tongue. But, after their conquest by the Chaldeans, adopted their dialect, and allowed their own national dialect to drop into disuse.§

By the facts and testimonies just adduced, we conceive our

Vide Hieron. loc. sit.

Ingulfus, p. 895, 901, 912.

Holkotus, lect. 2, sup. Sapientiam.

Lib. II. Hist. Anglic. p. 300.

§ Vide, quæ dicam infra, part 3, cap. I. § 1.

first proposition abundantly established, that conquerors have changed the languages of conquered nations.

PROPOSITION II.-That the Egyptians spoke Greek in the time of Ptolemy Lagus (A. C. 323).

So early as the reign of King Psammitichus, nearly 400 years before Lagus, the Greek language began to find its way into Egypt, along with the Carians and Ionians who settled there to the number of thirty thousand. Grateful for their efficient aid in establishing him on the throne, Psammitichus appointed them a settlement about Bubastis and Pelusium, and committed Egyptian youth to their care, to be instructed in the Grecian tongue. To overcome too, as much as he might, the barbarous habits of his countrymen, and introduce among them the higher civilization of Greece, he conferred the greatest proofs of his regard upon the strangers, and invited other Greeks to settle in the country. Not long afterwards, his successor, Amasis, who was equally attached to the Greeks with himself, transferred them from Pelusium to Memphis and Naucratis, the seat of empire and the heart of Egypt. Hence originated more frequent and familiar intercourse between the Egyptians and the Greeks. Of this circumstance Herodotus thus writes in his Euterpe, CLIV:* Τούτων δὲ οἰκισθέντων ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ οἱ Ἕλληνες οὕτω ἐπιμισγόμενοι τούτοισι, τὰ περὶ Αἴγυπτον γινόμενα, ἀπὸ ψαμμιτίχου βασιλῆος ἀρξάμενοι, πάντα, καὶ τὰ ὕστε ρον ἐπιστάμεθα ἀτρεκέως· πρῶτοι γὲ οὗτοι ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἀλλό γλωσσοι κατοικίσθησαν· τξ ὧν δὲ ἐξανέστησαν χώρων, ἐν τούτοισι δὴ οἵ τε ὁλκοι τῶν νεῶν, καὶ τὰ ἐρείπια τῶν οἰκημάνων τὸ μέχρι ἐμεῦ ἦσαν.

Thus, by degrees, Hellenism (22yviouòs) made its way into the country, the progress of which became more rapid, and its prevalence more extensive, when that empire was overrun by the Grecian armies. As soon as Alexander had completed the conquest of Egypt, and built the city which he named after himself Alexandria, and drafted a colony of Greeks into it, he set himself about effecting an entire revolution in the country, according to Strabo. The inhabitants were compelled to adopt the language, manners, and laws of Greece. And when Alexander died at Babylon, Egypt then ceded into the hands of one inclined to pursue the same policy with equal vigor. Ptolemy

*Herod. ex Wesseling. edit. p. 179, v. 59.

Lagus, a Macedonian like his predecessor, strenuously endeavored to abolish the native Egyptian tongue, and forbade the use of any but Greek throughout his kingdom. Much to the same purpose is the testimony of the learned Bochart,* that, "under the Ptolemies, the Greek language struck its roots deeply into the soil of Egypt."

That this representation is essentially correct, all the evidence we can collect goes to prove. All the memorials of that age and realm are Grecian. The authors compose in no other tongue. Manetho of Diospolis; all the Ptolemies, Soter, Philadelphus, Euergetes, and Philoponius; Ammonius, Herodian, Philo Judæus, Appion, and the Alexandrians Apollonius, Didymus, Paullus, Cyrillus, Appianus, and others almost innumerable, either born or residing in Egypt, all wrote in Greek.

If we look to the coins of the country, we find their testimony to the same effect. Ever since Egypt became subject to Grecian rulers, their language alone appears upon the coinage. It would be tedious to present a catalogue of these, yet improper to pass them over altogether without notice. Suffice it that we present a specimen from Vaillant:

Here the head of Ptolemy Soter appears, encircled with a diadem, while on the reverse stands an eagle on a thunderbolt. The inscription is Greek-ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ. In like manner the succeeding Egyptian kings used Greek upon their coinage, as Patin, Noris, Spanheim, and others who have made numismatology their study, convincingly prove; but above all, the distinguished Vaillant, who has published a history of the kings of Egypt illustrated by the coins of the country.

* Bochart Phaleg, lib. 1. cap. 16. [Samuel B. nat. 1599, ob. 1667. Geographia Sacra. ED.]

SECOND SERIES, VOL. XI. NO I.

13

We have yet to glance at inscriptions upon buildings and other records of a kindred nature. As, however, there is much more of this kind of testimony available for our purpose than we can venture to use in this compendious essay, we must content ourselves with the adduction of a single fact. The one we shall exhibit will be that called the Adulitan monument, from Adule, a maritime town of the Ethiopians, where it was raised by Ptolemy Euergetes. He dedicated a chariot (diggor) to Mars, at the entrance of the city, on the back of which were carved figures of Hercules and representations of his exploits. This was preserved down to the time of the Emperor Justin, as Allatius, Thevenot, and others quoted by Fabricius show.* Ptolemy had it carved with Greek characters, the inscription beginning thus:

Βασιλεὺς μέγας Πτολεμαῖος υἱὸς βασιλέως

Πτολεμαίου, καὶ βασιλίσσης Αρσινούς.

This is a fact of more than common interest and importance, inasmuch as it clearly proves the vernacular language of Egypt to be Greek, by exhibiting the Egyptians making use of that language even beyond the confines of their own land, while in Egypt itself the knowledge of the Greek language and literature prevailed to such an extent, that many made that country their school for Greek, as did Valentinus, according to Epiphanius.t

But wherefore urge further proofs in maintenance of a position which none of the learned doubt, and even my opponents will not venture to controvert. Salmasius himself, in his "Funus linguæ Hellenisticæ," makes this remarkable concession: "The Greek idiom was vulgarly used in Syria and Egypt." If Huet, Walton, Petavius, Stephens, Cartheromachus,|| Emmius, and others be consulted, they will be found delivering themselves to the same effect.

In opposition, however, to this view, a difficulty has been urged by Simon, after Kircher, viz., that Coptic had currency in Egypt at the same time as Greek. This we are bound to notice. Simon, indeed, confesses that Ptolemy patronized the

* Vide Fabric. Biblioth. Græc. lib. 3, t. 2, p. 604. Epiph. Hæres. 31, cap. 2, p. 164, aliique. Salmas. in Fun. p. 42.

[Scipio Forte-guerri, nat. 1466, ob. 1515. ED.]