chap. ii.
produce of the lake Mceris was not included inthis sum, neither was the corn to the amount ofseven thousand talents more ; one hundred andtwenty thousand measures of which were appliedto the maintenance of the Persians , and theirauxiliary troops garrisoned within the castle ofMemphis 1 . The mineral wealth which existedm Egypt in its most flourishing times must havebeen partly transferred thither by means of com-merce from other territories. Egypt was thena manufacturing and an agricultural country,and furnished from both descriptions of theirProducts the means of attracting to it themetallic wealth of other districts. Egypt wasSpecially productive of flax 2 and of cotton 3 ,and at an early period supplied to the Phoeni-cians the raw materials for their extensive manu-factories of both those kinds of goods. It alsoabounded with corn; and when the Hebrewsvv 'ho usually supplied the Phoenicians with thatNecessary had an insufficient quantity, a supplyw as drawn from the banks of the Nile . We
2 See Exodus, chap. ix. v. 31, where the destruction of thecr °P °f flax by a storm of hail is noticed.
3 Pliny , b. xix. c. 2. Superior pars -®gypti, in Arabiamv «gens, gignit fruticem, quern alii gossipium vocant, pluresx ylm a , et ideo lina facta xylina ; nec ulla sunt candore molli-tieve preferenda. Vestes inde sacerdotibus Aigypti gratissimec.