ABSTRACT
The general system of government which the papyri show as functioning in Egypt under the Ptolemies was no doubt already established, in its main ordinances, by the death of the second Ptolemy. According to the system of government taken over by Alexander, people seen native Egyptian nomarchs at the head of the several nomes. The native military caste, whom the Greeks called machimoi, as people seen, existed as a distinct body, when Ptolemy set up his rule in Egypt. In theory the "Royal Cultivators" were free men. While slaves were employed for domestic service, slave-labour upon land was practically unknown in Ptolemaic Egypt. The method of forced labour upon the dykes and canals, common in Egypt under the Khedives till it was abolished by the English, was regularly resorted to in Ptolemaic Egypt. Gold and emeralds were found in Upper Egypt in the hills to the east of the Nile.
