432 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, had em- ' braced the alliance of the savages of ^Ethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the island of Meroe and the Red sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive ^ Yet in the public disorders these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the defor- mity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome ^ Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians ; and while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatae, or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resigned to them an exten- sive but unprofitable territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of the em- pire. The treaty long subsisted ; and till the establish- ment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of reli- gious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of Elephantine, in which the Ro- mans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe ^. At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding
- reigns ^ One very remarkable edict which he pub-
lished, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of "■ Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 1. 172 ; Pomponius Mela, 1. i. c. 4. His words are curious, " Intra, si credere libet, vix homines magisque semiferi ; ^gipa- nes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri."
- Ausus sese inserere fortunae et provocare arma Romana.
^ See Procopius de Bell. Persic. 1. i. c. 19. •^ He fixed the public allowance of corn for the people of Alexandria, at two millions of medimni ; about four hundred thousand quarters. Chron. Paschal, p. 276 ; Procop. Hist. Arcan. c. 26.
