PELUSIUM, in Ancient Geography, a strong city of Egypt, without the Delta, distant 20 stadia from the sea; situated amidst marshes; and hence its name and its strength. Called the key or inlet of Egypt (Diodorus, Hirtius); which being taken, the rest of Egypt lay quite open and exposed to an enemy. Called Sin (Ezekiel). Pelufacus the epithet (Virgil, Diodorus). From its ruins arose Damietta. E. Long. 32°, N. Lat. 31°.

Mr Savary gives us the following account of this place: "The period of its foundation, as well as that of the other ancient cities of Egypt, is lost in the obscurity of time. It flourished long before Herodotus. As it commanded the entrance of the country on the side of Asia, the Pharaohs rendered it a considerable fortress; one of them raised a rampart of 30 leagues in length from the walls of this town to Heliopolis. But we find from the history of nations that the long wall of China, those which the weakness of the Greek emperors led them to build round Constantinople, and many others, built at an immense expense, were but feeble barriers against a warlike people: these examples have taught us, that a state, to be in security against a foreign yoke, must form warriors within itself, and that men must be opposed to men. This rampart which covered Pelusium, did not stop Cambyses, who attacked it with a formidable army. The feeble character of the son of Amasis, unable to prevent the defection of 200,000 Egyptians, who went to found a colony beyond the cataracts, had not force sufficient to oppose that torrent which broke in upon his country. Cambyses, after a bloody battle, wherein he cut his enemies to pieces, entered Pelusium in triumph. That memorable day, which saw the defection of one part of the Egyptian militia and the ruin of the other, is the true epoch of the subjugation of that rich country. Since that period, it has passed under the yoke of the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Turks. A continued slavery of more than 2000 years seems to secure them an eternal bondage.

"Herodotus, who visited Pelusium some years after the conquest of Cambyses, relates an anecdote which I cannot omit: 'I surveyed (says he) the plain where the two armies had fought. It was covered with human bones collected in heaps. Those of the Persians were on one side, those of the Egyptians on the other, the inhabitants of the country having taken care to separate them after the battle. They made me take notice of a fact which would have appeared very astonishing to me without their explanation of it. The skulls of the Persians, which were slight and fragile, broke on being lightly struck with a stone; those of the Egyptians, thicker and more compact, resisted the blows of flint. This difference of solidity they attributed to the custom the Persians have of covering their heads from their infancy with the tiara, and to the Egyptian custom of leaving the heads of their children bare and shaved, exposed to the heat of the sun.' This explanation appeared satisfactory to me." Mr Savary affirms us that the same customs still subsist in Egypt, of which he frequently had ocular demonstration.

"Pelusium (continues he), after passing under the dominion of Persia, was taken by Alexander. The brave Antony, general of cavalry under Gabinius, took it from his successors, and Rome restored it to Ptolemy Auletes. Pompey, whose credit had established this young prince on the throne of Egypt, after the fatal battle of Pharsalia took refuge at Pelusium. He landed at the entrance of the harbour; and on quitting his wife Cornelia and his son, he repeated the two following verses of Sophocles, 'The free man who seeks an asylum at the court of a king will meet with slavery and chains.' He there found death. Scarcely had he landed on the shore, when Theodore the rhetorician, of the isle of Chio, Septimius the courtier, and Achillas the eunuch, who commanded his troops, wishing for a victim to present to his conqueror, stabbed him with their swords. At the sight of the assassins Pompey covered his face with his mantle, and died like a Roman. They cut off his head, and embalmed it, to offer it to Caesar, and left his body naked on the shore. It was thus that this great man, whose warlike talents had procured the liberty of the seas for the Romans, and added whole kingdoms to their extended empire, was basely slain in setting foot on the territory of a king who owed to him his crown. Philip his freedman, collecting together, under favour of the night, the wreck of a boat, and stripping off his own cloak to cover the sad remains of his master, burnt them according to the custom. An old soldier, who had served under Pompey's colours, came to mingle his tears with those of Philip, and to assist him in performing the last offices to the manes of his general.—Pelusium was often taken and pillaged during the wars of the Romans, the Greeks, and the Arabs. But in spite of so many disasters, she preserved to the time of the Crusades her riches and her commerce. The Christian princes having taken it by storm, sacked it. It never again rose from its ruins; and the inhabitants went to Damietta."