Next above the Egyptians was the Græco-Macedonian population, which was practically if not entirely concentrated in Alexandria, and was separated from the natives by a great gulf. As members of the same race as the Egyptian kings the Greeks of Alexandria enjoyed political rights and communal autonomy; and these they retained in the main under the Romans. In like manner their language remained the official language of Egypt under the empire, Roman officials addressed Greeks and Egyptians in Greek; only in the Latin garrison of Alexandria, Latin was naturally predominant. The Greeks of Alexandria possessed their own municipal officers, their high priest, chief magistrate, town-clerk, and chief of police; but on the other hand a genuine town council was denied them. The few other Greek cities in Egypt were similarly organised. The whole province, with its population of Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, was committed by the Cæsar to a viceroy, who, though belonging only to the knightly class, ranked on an equality with the senatorial proconsuls in virtue of his position as the confidant and representative of the emperor, and surpassed them in authority in virtue of his command over the legions, although he lacked the insignia of this authority. C. Cornelius Gallus, famous as a poet and proven as a general and personal enemy of Antonius, was the first to be made viceroy of the new province; and on the whole he justified the confidence reposed in him by his master, for he succeeded in repressing with great vigour some local attempts at rebellion among the inhabitants of Heroöpolis and the Thebaid. His subordinates, like himself, were men of no rank higher than knighthood and were the personal servants of Cæsar; the mechanism of government remained the same as had been perfected under the Ptolemies, only from this time forward the Greeks were superseded by the Romans. Among the higher offices were those of chief magistrate, administrator of the chest of the dominion of Egypt, prefect of Alexandria, or of certain districts in the capital; and one procurator fari Alexandriæ was certainly chosen from among the ranks of freedmen.