A galley anchored on the Libyan sands, it was with toil that she maintained her position.

The nations roared like billows around her, and the slightest storm shook this formidable machine.
The treasury was exhausted by the Roman war and by all that had been squandered and lost in the bargaining with the Barbarians.

Nevertheless soldiers must be had, and not a government would trust the Republic! Ptolemaeus had lately refused it two thousand talents.

Moreover the rape of the veil disheartened them.

Spendius had clearly foreseen this.
But the nation, feeling that it was hated, clasped its money and its gods to its heart, and its patriotism was sustained by the very constitution of its government.
First, the power rested with all, without any one being strong enough to engross it.