[1080] _Ombos_, now "Koum-Ombou," lies on the right bank of the Nile, not far from Syene, and consequently a hundred miles at least from Tentyra. To avoid the difficulty, therefore, in the word "finitimos," Salmasius would read "Coptos," this place being only twelve miles distant; but all the best editions have Ombos. Tentyra, now "Denderah," lies on the left bank of the river, and is well known from the famous discoveries in its Temple by Napoleon's savans. The Tentyrites, as Strabo tells us (xvii., p. 460; cf. Plin., H. N., viii., 25), differed from the rest of their countrymen in their hatred and persecution of the crocodile, πάντα τρόπον ἀνιχνεύουσι καὶ διαφθείρουσιν αὐτούς, being the only Egyptians who dared attack or face them; and hence when some crocodiles were conveyed to Rome for exhibition, some Tentyrite keepers accompanied them, and displayed some curious feats of courage and dexterity. Aphrodite was their patron deity. The men of Coptos, Ombos, and Arsinoë, on the other hand, paid the crocodile the highest reverence; considering it an honor to have their children devoured by them; and crucified kites out of spite to the Tentyrites, who adored them. These religious differences are said by Diodorus (ii., 4) to have been fostered by the policy of the ancient kings, to prevent the conspiracies which might have resulted from the cordial union and coalition of the various nomes. [1081] _Alterius populi_, i. e., the Tentyrites. Cf. l. 73, _seq._ [1082] _Pervigili._ Cf. viii., 158, "Sed quum pervigiles placet instaurare popinas." "The board, where oft their wakeful revels last Till seven returning days and nights are past." Hodgson. [1083] _Horrida._ So viii., 116, "Horrida vitanda est Hispania." ix., 12, "Horrida siccæ sylva comæ." vi., 10, "Et sæpe horridior glandem ructante marito." "For savage as the country is, it vies In luxury, if I may trust my eyes, With dissolute Canopus." Gifford. [1084] _Canopus._ Cf. i., 26. Said to have been built by Menelaus, and named after his pilot. It lies on the Bay of Aboukir, not far from Alexandria, and was notorious for its luxury and debauchery, carried on principally in the temple of Serapis. Cf. vi., 84, "Prodigia et mores Urbis damnante Canopo." Sen., Epist. 51. Propert., iii., El. xi., 39. These lines prove that Juvenal was, _at some time of his life_, in Egypt; but whether he traveled thither in early life to gratify his curiosity, or, as the common story goes, was banished there in his old age to appease the wrath of Paris, is doubtful. The latter story is inconsistent with chronology, history, and probability.