I. The above were the works of Justinian in those regions. What he did at Alexandria was as follows. The river Nile does not flow as far as Alexandria, but, after reaching the city which is named Chæreum,[113] proceeds to the left, leaving the country about Alexandria. In consequence this the ancients, in order that the city might not be entirely cut off from the river, dug a deep channel from Chæreum, and succeeded in making a small part of the stream of the river Nile run through it, by which, as by other channels, it discharges its waters into the lake Maria. This channel was nowhere navigable for large ships, but men at Chæreum transfer Egyptian corn from them to boats named _diaremata_, and so bring it to the city, which they can reach by the river which flows through this channel. They store up the corn in the place which the Alexandrians call Phiale. Since it often happened that when the populace rose in revolt, the corn in this place was destroyed, the Emperor Justinian enclosed it with a wall, and prevented any attacks being made upon the corn. These were the works of the Emperor Justinian in this place. However, since the course of our narrative has brought us into Egypt, a country which borders upon Libya, let us describe his works in that country also, since this Emperor found the whole of Libya in the possession of barbarians, and annexed it to the Roman Empire. The river Nile, which flows from the Indies into Egypt, divides that land into two portions down to the sea. The land, which is divided by the river, is divided also in name; for the country on the right bank of the river is named Asia, as far as the river Phasìs in Colchis, which divides the land of Asia from that of Europe, or indeed to the Cimmerian straits and the river Tanais; for geographers are at issue upon this point, which I have mentioned in the description of the Euxine Sea in my ‘History of the Wars.’ The country on the left bank of the Nile is called Libya as far as the main ocean, which divides the two continents in the West by interposing an arm between them, which forms our (Mediterranean) Sea. The whole of Libya is divided into various provinces, called, probably, after the name of their inhabitants; but the name of Libya at the present day is applied only to the territory of Pentapolis,[114] which extends from the frontier at Alexandria as far as the city of Cyrene. In it there is a city, situated at a distance of two days’ journey from Alexandria, named Taphosiris,[115] in which it is said that the Egyptian god Osiris is buried. In this city the Emperor Justinian constructed magistrates’ houses, public baths, and other buildings.