nucleus of territories, so far securely under her rule that they might
be actually reckoned as provinces; beyond this immediate domain there
was a zone of waning influence, whose area varied with each reign, and
even under one king depended largely on the activity which he personally
displayed.

This was always the case when the rulers of Egypt attempted to carry
their supremacy beyond the isthmus; whether under the Ptolemies or the
native kings, the distance to which her influence extended was always
practically the same, and the teaching of history enables us to note its
limits on the map with relative accuracy.*

* The development of the Egyptian navy enabled the Ptolemies
to exercise authority over the coasts of Asia Minor and of
Thrace, but this extension of their power beyond the
indicated limits only hastened the exhaustion of their
empire. This instance, like that of Mehemet Ali, thus
confirms the position taken up in the text.

The coast towns, which were in maritime communication with the ports of
the Delta, submitted to the Egyptian yoke more readily than those of the
interior. But this submission could not be reckoned on beyond Berytus,
on the banks of the Lykos, though occasionally it stretched a little
further north as far as Byblos and Arvad; even then it did not extend
inland, and the curve marking its limits traverses Coele-Syria from
north-west to south-east, terminating at Mount Hermon. Damascus,
securely entrenched behind Anti-Lebanon, almost always lay outside this
limit. The rulers of Egypt generally succeeded without much difficulty
in keeping possession of the countries lying to the south of this line;
it demanded merely a slight effort, and this could be furnished for