Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/55

 AEGYPTUS. tfam enteoB was called a nome (p6fiiti) by the GmitSk pncfeetnni oppidonum by the Romans. Each had its civil governor, the Nomarch (v6fAapxn)f who collected the crown revenues, and presided in the local capital end chief court of justice. Each nome too, had its separate priesthood, its temple, chief and inferior towns, its magistrates, registration and peculiar creed, ceremonies, and customs, and each was apparently independent of every other nome. At certain seasons delegates from the various oBtans met in the palace of the Labyrinth for consultatian on public affairs (Strab. p. 811). According to Diodoras (L 54), the nomes date from Sesoitris. But they did not originate with that monarch, but emanated probably from the distinctions of animal worship; and the extent of the local worship probably determined the boundary of the nome. Thus in the nome of Thebais, where the ram-headed deity was worshipped, the sheep was sacred, the goat was eaten and sacrificed: in that of Mendes, where the goat was worshipped, the sheep was a victim and an article of food. . Again, in the nome of Ombos, divine honours were paid to the crocodile: in that of Tentyra, it was hunted and abominated; and between Ombos and Tentyra there existed an internecine fend. ( Juv. Sat. zy.) The extent and number of the names cannot be ascertained. They probably varied with the political state of Egypt. Under a dynasty of conquerors, they would extend eastward and westward to the Red Sea and Libyan deserts: under the Hyksos, the Aethiopian conquest, and the times of anarchy subsequent to the Persian invasion, they would shrink within the Nile-valley. The kingdoms of Sais and Xois and the foundation of Alexandria probably multiplied the Deltaic cantons: and generally, commerce, or the zesidenoe of the military caste, would attnet the nomes to Lower Egypt According t» Sliabo (pp. 787, 811), the Labyrinth, or hall of the Momaicha, contained 27 chambers, and thus, at ens period, the nomes must have been 27 in naaiber, 10 m the Thebaid, 10 in the Delttt, and 7, as its name implies, in tiie Heptanomis. But tiie Heptanomis, at another period, contained 16 MDes, and the sum of these cattt<ms is variously pmL From the dodecarchy or government of 12 and from Herodotus' assertion (ii 148) that only 12 halls in the Labyrinth, we are to ii^, that at one time iben were only 12 rf these cantons, and that there were always IS Inger or prepoaderating nomes. According to the firts given by Plmy (v. 9. § 9) and Ptolemy, there must have been at least 45 names; but each of theae writers gives several names not found in tbe ether, and if we should add the variations of the one Gai to the other, the sum would be much AEGYPTUS. 89 TbcvB was, under the Macedonian kings, a sub- dhiaian of the nomes into toparchies, which was pnfaabiy an arrangement to meet the fiscal system sftheGiedcs. (Herod. iL 164; Diod. i. 54; Strab. xvn; CyrilL Alex, ad Itaiamj xix. 2 ; Epiphan Jiaert$,U.%7.) The ftilowing fist of the principal Koines will iBastiate the variety of theae territorial subdivisians as r^prds ie%ioas worship. A. KoMBB OF THK Delta. The most un- pwtaot wwe: — 1. The Menelaite; chief town Canobus, with a ceUntad temple and oracle of Serapis (Strab. p. 801 ; IbLli,9t Onr, c. 27.) 2. The Andropolite; chief town Andropolis. 3. The Sebennytic; capital Pachnamunis (PtoL), worshipped Latona. 4. The Chenmiite (Herod, ii. 165); capital Bnto. Its deity vras also called Buto, whom the Greeks identified with Leto. Ptolemy calls this canton ^%t¥&rn%, and Pliny (v. 9) Ptenetha. 5. The Onuphite; chief town Onuphis. (Herod, ii. 166.) 6. The Phthemphuthite; capital Tava. («9c/i. ^vtfl vopAs^ Ptol.; Phthempha, Plin. v. 9.) 7. The Saite; chief city Sais, worshipped Neith or Athene, and contained a tomb and a sanctuary of Osiris. (Herod, ii. 170; Strab. p. 802.) Under the dynasty of the Saitic Kings this was the principal of the Deltaic cantons. 8. TheBusirite; capital Bnsiris, worshipped Isis, and at one epoch, according to Hellenic tradition at least, sacrificed the red-coloured men who came over the sea, L e. the nomades of Syria and Arabia (Herod. L 59, S3, 165; Strab. p. 802; Plat. c2e It. e< 0». p. 30.) 9. llie Thmuite; chief town Thmuis (Herod, il. 168), afterwards incorporated with the following: 10. The M^desian; capital Mendes (Herod, ii. 42, 46 ; Diod. i. 84), worshipped the goat Mendes, or the homed Pan. 11. The Tanite; chief town Tanls. (Hefod. ii. 166; Strab. p. 802.) In this nome tradition affirmed that the Hebrew l^slator was bom and educated. 12. The Bubastite; capital Bubastus, contained a noble temple of Bulnstis or Artemis. (Herod, ii. 59, 67, 187.) 13. The Athribite; capital Athribis, where the shrewmouse and crocodile were held in reverence. 14. The Heliopolite, west of the Delta, and sacred to the sun, from whom its capital Heliopolis (On) derived its name. (Herod, ii. 9 ; Diod. v. 56 ; Joseph. AtA. iL 3.) 15. The Heroopolite; chief town Heroopolis, a principal seat of the worship of Typhon, the evil or destroying genius. Besides &ese the Delta oontamed other less im- portant nomes, -~ the Kitriote, where the Natron Lakes, Nitrariae (Plin. v. 9) were situated; the Letopolite (Strab. p. 807); the Prosopite; the Leon- topoiite; the Mentelite; the Pharbaethite; and the Sethraite. B. NoMBS OF TBB Hbptanomis. The most important were :-~ 1. The Memphite, whose chief city Memphis was the capital of Egypt, and the residence of the Pha- raohs, who succeeded Psammetichus B.C. 616. The Memphite Nome roee into importance on the decline of the kingdom of Thebais, and was itself in turn eclipsed by the Hellenic kingdom of Alexandria. [Memphis.] 2. The Aphroditopolite; chief town Aphrodito- polis, was dedicated to Athor or Aphrodite. 3. The Arsinoite, the Fayoom, celebrated for its worship of the crocodile, from which its capital Crooodilopolis, afterwards Arsinoe, derived its name. [Absucob.] The Labyrinth and the Lake of Moeris were in this canton. 4. The Heracleote, in which the ichneumon was worshipped. Its principal town was HeracleopoUs Magna. 5. The Hermopolite, the border ncnne between Middle and Upper Egypt. This was at a very early period a flourislung canton. Its chief city Uermopolis stood near the frontiers of the Hepta- d4