Greeks, and remembered the habits of their country. This part of the population was however then dwindling away, more especially through Evergetes Physcon, in whose reign Polybius came to Alexandria: for on several occasions, when there had been some seditious proceedings he attacked this plebeian multitude with his troops, and destroyed great numbers of them. Polybius could not therefore help exclaiming, that he had “To Egypt come, a long and weary way,” with but little pleasure or comfort. The subsequent sovereigns administered their governments as ill, or still worse. The Romans may be said to have effected a great reformation in many respects, and to have regulated the city very effectually; and in the country they appointed persons as Commanders, and Monarchae, and Ethnarchae, that is, masters of single places, and of districts, without very extensive powers.... With respect to the revenues of the country, we may judge of them from Cicero, who mentions, in one of his orations, that Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, had an income, from the taxes, of twelve thousand five hundred talents, [between three and four millions sterling]. If then a king, who administered his government in the worst and most negligent manner possible, received so large a revenue, what are we to suppose it must be at present, when it is managed with so much care, and when it has been so much increased by the enlargement of the Indian and African commerce? In former times, there were not twenty vessels, that ventured to navigate the Red Sea, so as to pass out of the Straights: but now there are great fleets, that make the voyage to India, and to the remotest parts of Ethiopia, returning, laden with very valuable cargos, to Egypt, whence they are distributed to other parts; so that they are subjected to a double duty, first upon importation, and then upon exportation: and the customs upon these valuable articles are themselves proportionally valuable; besides that they have the advantages of a monopoly: since Alexandria alone is so situated, as to afford, in general, the only warehouse for receiving them, and for supplying other places with them.”