25. Even in this last period, Egypt appears to have been the seat of unbounded wealth and effeminacy. The line of infamous princes who had succeeded to the third Ptolemy were unable to destroy her prosperity. Strange, however, as this seems, it may be easily accounted for when we consider that the political revolutions scarcely ever overstepped the walls of the capital, and that an almost perpetual peace ruled in the country: that Egypt was the only great theatre of trade; and that that trade must have increased in the same proportion as the spirit of luxury increased in Rome, and in the Roman empire. The powerful effects wrought on Egypt by the growth of Roman luxury, are most convincingly demonstrated by the state of that country when it had become a Roman province; so far from the trade of Alexandria decreasing in that period,--though the city suffered in the first days after the conquest--it subsequently attained an extraordinary and gigantic bulk. III. _History of Macedonia and of Greece in general, from the death of Alexander to the Roman conquest, B. C. 323-146._ The sources for this history are the same as have been quoted above: see p. 232. Until the battle of Ipsus, 301, Diodorus is still our grand authority. But in the period extending from 301 to 224, we meet with some chasms: here almost our only sources are the fragments of Diodorus, a few of Plutarch's lives, and the inaccurate accounts of Justin. From the year 224, our main historian is Polybius; and even in those parts where we do not possess his work in its complete form, the fragments that have been preserved must always be the first authorities consulted. Livy, and other writers on Roman history, should accompany Polybius. Among modern books, besides the general works mentioned above p. 1. we may here in particular quote: JOHN GAST, D. D. _The History of Greece, from the accession of Alexander of Macedon, till the final subjection to the Roman power, in eight books._ London, 1782, 4to. Although not a master-piece of composition, yet too important to be passed over in silence. 1. Of the three main kingdoms that arose out of Alexander's monarchy, Macedonia was the most insignificant, not only in extent,--particularly as till B. C. 286 Thrace remained a separate and independent province,--but likewise in population and wealth. Yet, being, as it were, the head country of the monarchy, it was considered to hold the first rank; and here at first resided the power which, nominally at least, extended over the whole. As early, however, as the year 311, upon the total extermination of Alexander's family, it became a completely separate kingdom. From that time its sphere of external operation was for the most part confined to Greece, the history of which, consequently, is closely interwoven with that of Macedonia.