Note 917 — Chapter II · (684-691.)

“Augustus made it one, among other state maxims, to sequester Egypt, forbidding the Roman knights and senators of the first rank ever to go there without his permission. He feared that Italy might be famished by the first ambitious person who should seize the province, where, holding the keys of both land and sea, he might defend himself with very few soldiers against great armies.” (Tacitus, Annals, II. 59.)