II. _History of the Egyptian kingdom under the Ptolemies, 323-30._ The sources of this history are for the most part the same as in the foregoing section; see above, p. 232; but unfortunately still more scanty; for in the first place, less information can here be derived from the Jewish writers; secondly, as on the coins struck under the Ptolemies no continuous series of time is marked, but only the year of the king's reign, they are by no means such safeguards to the chronology as those of the Seleucidae. With respect to some few events, important illustrations are supplied by inscriptions. By modern writers, the history of the Ptolemies has been composed under a form almost entirely chronological, and by no means treated of in the spirit which it deserves. VAILLANT, _Historia Ptolemaeorum_, fol. Amstelodam. 1701. Illustration by the aid of coins. CHAMPOLION FIGEAC, _Annales des Lagides, ou Chronologie des Rois d'Egypte, successeurs d'Alexandre le Grand_. Paris, 1819, 2 vols. This treatise, which was honoured with a prize by the Academie des Inscriptions, has by no means exhausted the whole of the subject. See J. SAINT-MARTIN, _Examen Critique de l'ouvrage de_ M. CH. F. _intitule Annales des Lagides_. Paris, 1820. LETRONNE, _Recherches pour servir a l'histoire de l'Egypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Romains, tirees des inscriptions Grecques et Latines, relatives a la chronologie, a l'etat des arts aux usages civils et religieux de ce pays_. Paris, 1828. It cannot be denied that the author has thrown a much clearer light on the subjects mentioned in his title. 1. Egypt, under the Ptolemies, fulfilled, and perhaps more than fulfilled, the designs projected by Alexander; it became not only a mighty kingdom, but likewise the centre of trade, and of science. The history of Egypt, however, confines itself, almost solely, to that of the new capital, Alexandria; the foundation of that city produced, imperceptibly, a change in the national character, which never could have been wrought by main force. In the enjoyment of civil welfare and religious freedom, the nation sunk into a state of political drowsiness, such as could scarce have been expected in a people who so often rose up against the Persians.