Since the Ptolemies had found themselves too weak to hold Ethiopia, they had placed a body of soldiers on the border of the two countries, to guard Egypt from the inroads of the enemy.  This station, twelve miles to the south of Syene, had by degrees grown into a city, and was called Parembole, or The Camp; and, as most of the soldiers were Greek mercenaries, it was natural that the temple which Philometor built there should be dedicated in the Greek language.  Of the temples hitherto built by the Ptolemies, in the Egyptian cities, every one seems to have had the king’s name and titles, and its dedication to the gods, carved on its massive portico in hieroglyphics; but this was in a Greek city, and it was dedicated to Isis and Serapis, on behalf of Philometor and his queen, in a Greek inscription.

[Illustration:  227.jpg TEMPLE OF APOLLONOPOLIS]

Philometor also built a temple at Antseopolis to Antaeus, a god of whom we know little, but that he gave his name to the city; and another to Aroeris at Ombos; and in the same way he carved the dedications on the porticoes in the Greek language.  This custom became common after that time, and proves both the lessened weight which the native Egyptians bore in the state, and that the kings had forgotten the wise rules of Ptolemy Soter, in regard to the religious feelings of the people.  They must have been greatly shocked by this use of foreign writing in the place of the old characters of the country, which, from having been used in the temples, even for ages beyond the reach of history, had at last been called sacred.  In the temple at Antoopolis we note a marked change in the style of building.  The screen in front of the great portico is almost removed by having a doorway made in it between every pair of columns.

It is to this reign, also, that we seem to owe the great temple at Apollinopolis Magna, although it was not finished till one or two reigns later.  It is one of the largest and least ruined of the Egyptian temples.  Its front is formed of two huge square towers, with sloping sides, between which is the narrow doorway, the only opening in its massive walls.  Through this the worshipper entered a spacious courtyard or cloister, where he found shade from the sun under a covered walk on either side.  In front is the lofty portico with six large columns, the entrance to the body of the building.  This last is flat-roofed, and far lower than the grand portico which hid it from the eyes of the crowd in the courtyard.  The staircases in the towers are narrow.  The sacred rooms within were small and dark, with only a glimmering flame here and there before an altar, except when lighted up with a blaze of lamps on a feast-day.  As a castle it must have had great strength; from the top and loopholes of the two towers, stones and darts might be hurled at the enemy; and as it was in the hands of the Egyptians, it is the strongest proof that they were either not distrusted or not feared by their Greek rulers.  The city of Apollinopolis stands on a grand and lofty situation, overlooking the river and the valley; and this proud temple, rising over all, can only have been planned by military skill as a fortress to command the whole.