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[24] Moreover, it is a well-known fact, as the ancient annals show, that all Egypt was formerly ruled by their ancestral kings; but after Antony and Cleopatra were vanquished in the sea-fight at Actium, the country fell into the power of Octavianus Augustus and received the name of a province. 1 We acquired the dryer part of Libya by the last will of King Apion; we received Cyrene, with the remaining cities of Libya-Pentapolis, through the generosity of Ptolemy. 2 After this long digression, I shall return to the order of my narrative.

1 It differed, however, from other provinces, in being ruled by a prefect of equestrian rank. See 16, 6, note.

2 This Ptolemy is identical with (Ptolemaeus) Apion just mentioned, following, as the similarity in language indicates, Rufius Festus, Brev. 13. Cyrenas . . . antiquioris Ptolomaei liberalitate suscepimus; Libyam supremo Apionis regis arbitrio sumus adsecuti. Ptolemaeus Apion, king of Cyrene, died in 96 B.C., but Cyrene first became a Roman province in 74 B.C.; cf. Eutropius, vi. 11, 2, qui rex eius (= Cyrenae) fuerat.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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