But at Denderah and Ombos, Tiberius and Claudius finished the decoration of the great temples.
Caligula worked at Coptos, and the Antonines enriched Esneh and Philae.

The gangs of workmen employed in their names were still competent to cut thousands of bas-reliefs according to the rules of the olden time.

Their work was feeble, ungraceful, absurd, inspired solely by routine; yet it was founded on antique tradition--tradition enfeebled and degenerate, but still alive.

The troubles which convulsed the third century of our era, the incursions of barbarians, the progress and triumph of Christianity, caused the suspension of the latest works and the dispersion of the last craftsmen.

With them died all that yet survived of the national art.[54] [42] The classic Syene, from all time the southernmost portion of Egypt proper.