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$Title{Rollin's Ancient History: Egypt
Section I And II.}
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$Date{1731}
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Title:       Rollin's Ancient History: Egypt
Book:        Chapter IV.
Author:      Rollin, Charles
Date:        1731

Section I And II.

Section I.  The History Of The Kings Of Egypt

     No part of ancient history is more obscure or uncertain than that of the
first kings of Egypt.  This proud nation, fondly conceited of its antiquity
and nobility, thought it glorious to lose itself in an abyss of infinite ages,
as though it seemed to carry its pretensions backward to eternity.  According
to its own historians, first gods, and afterwards dim-gods or heroes, governed
it successively, through a series of more than twenty thousand years. ^451 But
the absurdity of this vain and fabulous claim is easily discovered. [Footnote
451: Diod. l. i. p. 41.]

     To gods and dim-gods, men succeeded as rulers or kings in Egypt, of whom
Manetho has left us thirty dynasties or principalities.  This Manetho was an
Egyptian high-priest, and keeper of the sacred archives of Egypt, and had been
instructed in the Grecian learning: he wrote a history of Egypt, which he
pretended to have extracted from the writings of Mercurius, and other ancient
memoirs preserved in the archives of the Egyptian temples.  He drew up this
history under the reign, and at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus.  If his
thirty dynasties are allowed to be successive, they make up a series of time,
of more than five thousand three hundred years, to the reign of Alexander the
Great; but this is a manifest forgery.  Besides, we find in Eratosthenes, ^452
who was invited to Alexandria by Ptolemy Euergetes, a catalogue of
thirty-eight kings of Thebes, all different from those of Manetho.  The
clearing up of these difficulties has put the learned to a great deal of
trouble and labor. The most effectual way to reconcile such contradictions, is
to suppose, with almost all the modern writers upon this subject, that the
kings of these different dynasties did not reign successively after one
another, but many of them at the same time, and in different countries of
Egypt. There were in Egypt four principal dynasties, that of Thebes, of Thin,
of Memphis, and of Tennis.  I shall not here give my readers a list of the
kings who have reigned in Egypt, most of whom are only known to us by their
names.  I shall only take notice of what seems to met most proper to give
youth the necessary light into this part of history, for whose sake
principally I engaged in this undertaking; and I shall confine myself chiefly
to the memoirs left us by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus concerning the
Egyptian kings, without even scrupulously preserving the exactness of
succession, at least in the beginnings, which are very obscure; and without
pretending to reconcile these two historians.  Their design, especially that
of Herodotus, was not to lay before us an exact series of the kings of Egypt,
but only to point out those princes, whose history appeared to them most
important and instructive.  I shall follow the same plan, and hope to be
forgiven for not having involved either myself or my readers, in a labyrinth
of almost inextricable difficulties, from which the most able can scarcely
disengage themselves, when they pretend to follow the series of history, and
reduce it to fixed and certain dates.  The curious may consult the learned
works, in which this subject is treated in all its extent. ^453

[Footnote 452: A historian of Czarina.]

[Footnote 453: Sir John Marsham's Canon, Chronic.  Father Pezron; the
Dissertations of F. Tournemine, Abbe Sevin, etc.]

     I am to premise, that Herodotus, upon the credit of the Egyptian priests
whom he had consulted, gives us a great number of oracles, and singular
incidents, all which, though he relates them as so many facts, the judicious
reader will easily discover to be what they really are, I mean fictions.

     The ancient history of Egypt comprehends 2158 years, and is naturally
divided into three periods.

     The first begins with the establishment of the Egyptian monarchy by Menes
or Misraim, the son of Cham, ^454 in the year of the world 1816; and ends with
the destruction of that monarchy by Cambyses, king of Persia, in the year of
the world 3479.  This first period contains 1663 years.

[Footnote 454: Or Ham.]

     The second period is intermixed with the Persian and Grecian history, and
extends to the death of Alexander the Great, which happened in the year 3681,
and consequently includes 202 years.

     The third period is that in which a new monarchy was formed in Egypt by
the Legidae, or Ptolemies, descendants from Lagus, to the death of Cleopatra,
the last queen of Egypt, in 3974; and this last comprehends 293 years.

     I shall now treat only of the first period, reserving the two others for
the eras to which they belong.

Section II:  The Kings Of Egypt

     Menes. ^455 Historians are unanimously agreed, that Menes was the first
king of Egypt.  It is pretended, and not without foundation, that he is the
same with Misraim, the son of Cham.

[Footnote 455: A. M. 1816. Ant. J. C. 2138.]

     Cham was the second son of Noah.  When the family of the latter, after
the extravagant attempt of building the tower of Babel, dispersed themselves
into different countries, Cham retired to Africa, and it doubtless was he who
afterwards was worshipped as a god, under the name of Jupiter Ammon.  He had
four children, Chus, ^456 Misraim, Phut, and Canaan. Chus settled in Ethiopia,
Misraim in Egypt, which generally is called in Scripture after his name, and
by that of Cham his father; ^457 Phut took possession of that part of Africa
which lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan, of that country which afterwards
bore his name.  The Canaanites are certainly the same people who are called
almost always Phoenicians by the Greeks, of which foreign name no reason can
be given, any more than of the oblivion of the true one.

[Footnote 456: Or Cush, Gen. x. 6.]

[Footnote 457: The traces of its old name, Mesraim, remain to this day among
the Arabians, who call it Mesre; by the testimony of Plutarch, it was called X
Chemia, by an easy corruption of Chemia, and this for Cham or Ham.]

     I return to Misraim. ^458 He is agreed to be same with Menes, whom all
historians declare to be the first king of Egypt, the institutor of the
worship of the gods, and of the ceremonies of the sacrifices.

[Footnote 458: Herod. l. ii. p. 99.  Diod. l. i. p. 42.]

     Busiris, some ages after him, built the famous city of Thebes, and made
it the seat of his empire.  We have elsewhere taken notice of the wealth and
magnificence of this city.  The prince is not to be confounded with Busiris,
so infamous for his cruelties.

     Osymandyas.  Diodorus gives a very particular description of many
magnificent edifices raised by this king; one of which was adorned with
sculptures and paintings of exquisite beauty, representing his expedition
against the Bactrians, a people of Asia, whom he had invaded with four hundred
thousand foot and twenty thousand horse. ^459 In another part of the edifice,
was exhibited an assembly of the judges, whose president wore on his breast a
picture of truth, with her eyes shut, and himself was surrounded with books;
an emphatic emblem, denoting that judges ought to be perfectly versed in the
laws, and impartial in the administration of them.

[Footnote 459: Diod. l i. p. 44, 45.]

     The king likewise was painted here, offering to the gods gold and silver,
which he drew every year from the mines of Egypt, amounting to the sum of
sixteen millions. ^460

[Footnote 460: Three thousand two hundred myriads of minae.]

     Not far from hence was seen a magnificent library, the oldest mentioned
in history.  Its title or inscription on the front was, The office, or
treasury, of remedies for the diseases of the soul.  Near it were statues,
representing all the Egyptian gods, to each of whom the king made suitable
offerings; by which he seemed to be desirous of informing posterity, that his
life and reign had been distinguished by piety to the gods and justice to men.

     His mausoleum discovered uncommon magnificence; it was encompassed with a
circle of gold, a cubit in breadth, and 365 cubits in circumference; each of
which showed the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and the rest of the
planets.  For so early as this king's reign, the Egyptians divided the year
into twelve months, each consisting of thirty days; to which they added every
year five days and six hours. ^461 The spectator did not know which to admire
most in this stately monument, the richness of its materials, or the genius
and industry of the artists and workmen.

[Footnote 461: See Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, p. 30.]

     Uchoreus, one of the successors of Osymandyas, built the city of Memphis.
^462 This city was 150 furlongs, or more than seven leagues in circumference,
and stood at the point of the Delta, in that part where the Nile divides
itself into several branches or streams.  Southward from the city, he raised a
lofty mole.  On the right and left he dug very deep moats to receive the
river.  These were faced with stone; and raised, near the city, by strong
causeys; the whole designed to secure the city from the inundations of the
Nile, and the incursions of the enemy.  A city so advantageously situated, and
so strongly fortified, that it was almost the key of the Nile, and by this
means commanded the whole country, became soon the usual residence of the
Egyptian kings.  It kept possession of this honor, till it was forced to
resign it to Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great.

[Footnote 462: Diod. p. 46]

     Moeris.  This king made the famous lake, which went by his name, and
whereof mention has been already made.

     Egypt had long been governed by its native princes when strangers, called
Shepherd-kings (Hycsos in the Egyptian language), from Arabia or Phoenicia,
invaded and seized a great part of lower Egypt, and Memphis itself; but Upper
Egypt remained unconquered, and the kingdom of Thebes existed till the reign
of Sesostris. ^463 These foreign princes governed about two hundred and sixty
years.

[Footnote 463: A. M. 1920 Ant. J. C. 2084.]

     Under one of these princes called Pharaoh in Scripture (a name common to
all the kings of Egypt), Abraham arrived there with his wife Sarah, who was
exposed to great hazard, on account of her exquisite beauty, which reaching
the prince's ear, she was by him taken from Abraham, upon the supposition that
she was not a wife, but only his sister. ^464

[Footnote 464: A. M. 2084.  Ant. J. C. 1920.  Gen. xii. 10-20.]

     Thethmosis, or Amosis, having expelled the Shepherd kings, reigned in
Lower Egypt. ^465

[Footnote 465: A. M. 2179.  Ant. J. C. 1825.]

     Long after his reign, Joseph was brought a slave into Egypt, by some
Ishmaelitish merchants; sold to Potiphar, and, by a series of wonderful
events, enjoyed the supreme authority, by his being raised to the chief
employment of the kingdom. ^466 I shall pass over his history, as it is so
universally known; but must take notice of a remark of Justin, the epitomizer
of Trogus Pompeius, ^467 an excellent historian of the Augustan age, viz.:
that Joseph, the youngest of Jacob's children, whom his brethren, through
envy, had sold to foreign merchants, being endowed from heaven ^468 with the
interpretation of dreams, and a knowledge of futurity, preserved, by his
uncommon prudence, Egypt from the famine with which it was menaced, and was
extremely caressed by the king.

[Footnote 466: A. M. 2276.  Ant. J. C. 1728.]

[Footnote 467: Lib. xxxvi. c. 2.]

[Footnote 468: Justin ascribes this gift of heaven to Joseph's skill in
magical arts. - Cum magicas ibi artes (Egypta scil.) solerti ingenio
percepisset, &c.]

     Jacob also went into Egypt with his whole family, which met with the
kindest treatment from the Egyptians, whilst Joseph's important services were
fresh in their memories. ^469 But after his death, say the Scriptures, there
arose up a new king, which knew not Joseph. ^470

[Footnote 469: A. M. 2298.  Ant. J. C. 1706.]

[Footnote 470: Exod. i. 8.]

     Rameses-miamum, according to Archbishop Usher, was the name of this king,
who is called Pharaoh in Scripture. ^471 He reigned sixty-six years, and
oppressed the Israelites in a most grevious manner.  He set over them task
masters, ^472 Section to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for
Pharaoh treasure cities, ^473 Pithon and Raamses - and the Egyptians made the
children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with
hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the
field; all their service wherein they made them serve, was with rigor.  This
king had two sons, Amenophis and Busiris.

[Footnote 471: A. M. 2427.  Ant. J. C. 1577]

[Footnote 472: Heb. urbes thesaurorum.  LXX. urbes munitas.  These cities were
appointed to preserve, as in a storehouse, the corn, oil, and other products
of Egypt. - Vatab.]

[Footnote 473: Heb. urbes thesaurorum. LXX. urbes munitas.  These cities were
appointed to preserve, as in a storehouse, the corn, oil, and other products
of Egypt. - Vatab.]

     Amenophis, the eldest, succeeded him. ^474 He was the Pharaoh under whose
reign the Israelites departed out of Egypt, and who was drowned in his passage
through the Red Sea.

[Footnote 474: A. M. 2494.  Ant. J. C. 1510.]

     Father Tournemine makes Sesostris, of whom we shall speak immediately,
the Pharaoh who raised the prosecution against the Israelites, and oppressed
them with the most painful toils. ^475 This is exactly agreeable to the
account given by Diodorus of this prince, who employed in his Egyptian works
only foreigners; so that we may place the memorable event of the passage of
the Red Sea, under his son Pheron; ^476 and the characteristic of impiety
ascribed to him by Herodotus, greatly strengthens the probability of this
conjecture.  The plan I have proposed to follow in this history, excuses me
from entering into chronological discussions.

[Footnote 475: A. M. 2513.  Ant. J. C. 1491.]

[Footnote 476: This name bears a great resemblance to Pharaoh, so common to
the Egyptian kings.]

     Diodorus, ^477 speaking of the Red Sea, has made one remark very worthy
our observation; a tradition, says that historian, has been transmitted
through the whole nation from father to son, for many ages, that once an
extraordinary ebb dried the sea, so that its bottom was seen; and that a
violent flow immediately after brought back the waters to their former
channel.  It is evident that the miraculous passage of Moses over the Red Sea
is here hinted at; and I make this remark, purposely to admonish young
students, not to slip over, in their perusal of authors, these precious
remains of antiquity; especially when they bear, like this passage, any
relation to religion.

[Footnote 477: Lib. iii. p. 74.]

     Archbishop Usher says, that Amenophis left two sons, one called Sesothis,
or Sesostris, and the other Armais.  The Greeks called him Belus, and his two
sons, Egyptus and Danaus.

     Sesostris was not only one of the most powerful kings of Egypt, but one
of the greatest conquerors that antiquity boasts of. ^478

[Footnote 478: Herod. l. ii. cap. 102, 110.  Diod. l. i. p. 48, 54.]

     His father, whether by inspiration, caprice, or, as the Egyptians say, by
the authority of an oracle, formed a design of making his son a conqueror.
This he set about after the Egyptian manner, that is, in a great and noble
way.  All the male children born in the same day with Sesostris, were, by the
king's order, brought to court.  Here they were educated as if they had been
his own children, with the same care bestowed on Sesostris, with whom they
were brought up.  He could not possibly have given him more faithful
ministers, nor officers who more zealously desired the success of his arms.
The chief part of their education was, the inuring them from their infancy to
a hard and laborious life, in order that they might one day be capable of
sustaining with ease the toils of war.  They were never suffered to eat, till
they had run, on foot or horseback, a considerable race.  Hunting was their
most common exercise.

     Aelian remarks that Sesostris was taught by Mercury, who instructed him
in politics, and arts of government. This Mercury is he whom the Greeks called
Trismegistus, i. e., thrice great.  Egypt, his native country, owes to him the
invention of almost every art.  The two books, which go under his name, bear
such evident characters of novelty, that the forgery is no longer doubted.
There was another Mercury, who also was very famous among the Egyptians, for
his rare knowledge; and of much greater antiquity then the former.  Jamblicus,
a priest of Egypt, affirms, that it was customary with the Egyptians, to
publish all new books or inventions under the name of Hermes, or Mercury.

     When Sesostris was more advanced in years, his father sent him against
the Arabians, in order that, by fighting with them, he might acquire military
knowledge.  Here the young prince learned to bear hunger and thirst, and
subdued a nation which till then had never been conquered. The youth educated
with him, attended him in all his campaigns.

     Accustomed by this conquest to martial toils, he was next sent by his
father to try his fortune westward.  He invaded Libya, and subdued the
greatest part of that vast continent.

     Sesotris. ^480 In the course of this expedition, his father died, and
left him capable of attempting the greatest enterprises.  He formed no less a
design than that of the conquest of the world.  But before he left his
kingdom, he had provided for his domestic security, in winning the hearts of
his subjects by his generosity, justice, and a popular obliging behavior.  He
was no less studious to gain the affection of his officers and soldiers, who
were ever ready to shed the last drop of their blood in his service; persuaded
that his enterprises would all be unsuccessful, unless his army should be
attached to his person, by all the ties of esteem, affection, and interest.
He divided the country into thirty-six governments, called Nomi, and bestowed
them on persons of merit, and the most approved fidelity.

[Footnote 480: A. M. 2513.  Ant. J. C. 1491]

     In the mean time he made the requisite preparations, levied forces, and
headed them with officers of the greatest bravery and reputation, and these
were taken chiefly from among the youths who had been educated with him.  He
had seventeen hundred of these officers, who were all capable of inspiring his
troops with resolution, a love of discipline, and a zeal for the service of
their prince.  His army consisted of six hundred thousand foot, and
twenty-four thousand horse, besides twenty-seven thousand armed chariots.

     He began his expedition by invading Ethiopia, situated to the south of
Egypt.  He made it tributary, and obliged the nations of it to furnish him
annually with a certain quantity of ebony, ivory, and gold.

     He had fitted out a fleet of four hundred sail, and ordering it to sail
to the Red Sea, made himself master of the isles and cities lying on the
coasts of that sea.  He himself heading his land-army, over-ran and subdued
Asia with amazing rapidity, and advanced farther into India than Hercules,
Bacchus, and, in after times, Alexander himself had ever done; for he subdued
the countries beyond the Ganges, and advanced as far as the Ocean.  One may
judge from hence, how unable the more neighboring countries were to resist
him.  The Scythians, as far as the river Tanais, Armenia, and Cappadocia, were
conquered.  He left a colony in the ancient kingdom of Colchos, situated to
the east of the Black Sea, where the Egyptian customs and manners have been
ever since retained.  Herodotus saw in Asia Minor, from one sea to the other,
monuments of his victories.  In several countries was read the following
inscription, engraven on pillars: Sesostris, king of kings, and lord of lords,
subdued this country by the power of his arms.  Such pillars are found even in
Thrace, and his empire extended from the Ganges to the Danube.  In his
expeditions, some nations bravely defended their liberties, and others yielded
them up without making the least resistance.  This disparity was denoted by
him in hieroglyphical figures, on the monuments erected to perpetuate the
remembrance of his victories, agreeably to the Egyptian practice.

     The scarcity of provisions in Thrace stopped the progress of his
conquests and prevented his advancing farther in Europe.  One remarkable
circumstance is observed in this conqueror, who never once , thought, as
others had done, of preserving his acquisitions; but contenting himself with
the glory of having subdued and despoiled so many nations, after having spread
desolation through the world for nine years, he confined himself almost within
the ancient limits of Egypt, a few neighboring provinces excepted; for we do
not find any traces or footsteps of this new empire, either under himself or
his successors.

     He returned, therefore, laden with the spoils of the vanquished nations;
dragging after him a numberless multitude of captives, and covered with
greater glory than his predecessors; that glory, I mean, which employs so many
tongues and pens in its praise, which consists in invading a great number of
provinces in a hostile way, and is often productive of numberless calamities.
He rewarded his officers and soldiers with a truly royal magnificence, in
proportion to their rank and merit.  He made it both his pleasure and duty, to
put the companions of his victory in such a condition as might enable them to
enjoy, during the remainder of their days, a calm and easy repose, the just
reward of their past toils.

     With regard to himself, for ever careful of his own reputation, and still
more of making his power advantageous to his subjects, he employed the repose
which peace allowed him, in raising works that might contribute more to the
enriching of Egypt, than the immortalizing of his name; works in which the art
and industry of the workmen were more admired, than the immense sums which had
been expended on them.

     A hundred famous temples, raised as so many monuments of gratitude to the
tutelar gods of all the cities, were the first, as well as the most
illustrious testimonies of his victories; and he took care to publish in the
inscriptions on them, that these mighty works had been completed without
burdening any of his subjects.  He made it his glory to be tender of them, and
to employ only captives in these monuments of his conquests. The Scriptures
take notice of something like this, where they speak of the buildings of
Solomon. ^481 But he was especially studious of adorning and enriching the
temple of Vulcan at Pelusium, in acknowledgment of that god's imaginary
protection of him, when, on his return from his expeditions, his brother had a
design of destroying him in that city, with his wife and children, by setting
fire to the apartment where he then lay.

[Footnote 481: II. Chron. viii. 9.  "But of the children of Israel did Solomon
make no servants for his work."]

     His great work was, the raising, in every part of Egypt, a considerable
number of high banks or moles, on which new cities were built, in order that
these might be a security for men and beasts, during the inundations of the
Nile.

     From Memphis, as far as the sea, he cut, on both sides of the river, a
great number of canals, for the conveniency of trade, and the conveying of
provisions, for the settling an easy correspondence between such cities as
were most distant from one another.  Besides the advantages of traffic, Egypt
was, by these canals, made inaccessible to the cavalry of its enemies, which
before had so often harassed it by repeated incursions.

     He did still more: to secure Egypt from the inroads of its nearer
neighbors, the Syrians and Arabians, he fortified all the eastern coast from
Pelusium to Heliopolis, that is, for upward of seven leagues. ^482 [Footnote
482: 150 stadia, about 18 miles English.]

     Sesostris might have been considered as one of the most illustrious and
most boasted heroes of antiquity had not the lustre of his warlike actions, as
well as his pacific virtues, been tarnished by a thirst of glory, and a blind
fondness for his own grandeur, which made him forget that he was a man.  The
kings and chiefs of the conquered nations came, at stated times, to do homage
to their victor, and pay him the appointed tribute.  On every other occasion,
he treated them with some humanity and generosity.  But when he went to the
temple, or entered his capital, he caused these princes, four abreast, to be
harnessed to his car, instead of horses; and valued himself upon his being
thus drawn by the lords and sovereigns of other nations.  What I am most
surprised at is, that Diodorus should rank this foolish and inhuman vanity
among the most shining actions of this prince.

     Becoming blind in his old age, he despatched himself, after having
reigned thirty-three years, and left his kingdom immensely rich. ^483 His
empire nevertheless did not reach beyond the fourth generation.  But there
still remained, so late as the reign of Tiberius, magnificent monuments, which
showed the extent of Egypt under Sesostris, ^484 and the immense tributes
which were paid to it. ^485

[Footnote 483: Tacit. Ann. l. ii. c. 60.]

[Footnote 484: Tacit. Ann. l. ii.]

[Footnote 485: Legebantur indicta gentibus tributa - haud minus magnifica quam
nunc vi Parthorum aut potentia Romana jubentur. - Inscribed on pillars, were
read the tributes imposed on vanquished nations, which were not inferior to
those now paid to the Parthian and Roman powers.]

     I now return to some facts which should have been mentioned before, as
they occurred in this period, but were omitted, in order that I might not
break the thread of the history, and therefore will now barely mention them.

     About the era in question, the Egyptians settled themselves in divers
parts of the earth.  The colony which Cecrops led out of Egypt, built twelve
cities, or rather so many towns, of which he composed the kingdom of Athens.
^486

[Footnote 486: A. M. 2448.]

     We observed, that the brother of Sesostris, called by the Greeks Danaus,
had formed a design to murder him on his return to Egypt after his conquests.
But being defeated in his horrid project, he was obliged to fly. ^487 He
thereupon retired to Peloponnesus, where he seized upon the kingdom of Argos,
which had been founded about four hundred years before by Inachus.

[Footnote 487: A. M. 2530.]

     Busiris, brother of Amenophis, so infamous among the ancients for his
cruelties, exercised his tyranny at that time on the banks of the Nile, and
barbarously cut the throats of all foreigners who landed in his country: this
was probably during the absence of Sesostris. ^488

[Footnote 488: A. M. 2533.]

     About the same time Cadmus brought from Syria, into Greece, the invention
of letters. ^489 Some pretend that these characters, or letters, were
Egyptian, and that Cadmus himself was a native of Egypt, and not of Phoenicia;
and the Egyptians, who ascribe to themselves the invention of every art, and
boast a greater antiquity than any other nation, ascribed to their Mercury the
honor of inventing letters.  Most of the learned agree, that Cadmus carried
the Phoenician, or Syrian letters into Greece, and that those letters were the
same as the Hebraic; the Hebrews who formed but a small nation, being
comprehended under the general name of Syrians. ^490 Joseph Scaliger, in his
notes on the Chronicon of Eusebius, proves that the Greek letters, and those
of the Latin alphabet formed from them, derive their original from the ancient
Phoenician letters, which are the same with the Samaritan, and were used by
the Jews before the Babylonish captivity.  Cadmus carried only sixteen letters
into Greece, eight others being added afterwards. ^491

[Footnote 489: A. M. 2549.]

[Footnote 490: The reader may consult on this subject two learned
dissertations of Abbe Renaudot, inserted in the second volume of The History
of the Academy of Inscriptions.]

[Footnote 491: The sixteen letters, brought by Cadmus into Greece. Palamedes,
at the siege of Troy, i. e., upwards of two hundred and fifty years lower than
Cadmus, added the four following, and Simonides, a long time after, invented
the four other.

     I return to the history of the Egyptian kings, whom I shall hereafter
rank in the same order with Herodotus.

     Pheron succeeded Sesostris in his kingdom, but not in his glory. ^492
Herodotus relates but one action of his, which shows how greatly he had
degenerated from the religious sentiments of his father. ^493 In an
extraordinary inundation of the Nile, which exceeded eighteen cubits, this
prince, enraged at the devastation which was made by it, threw a javelin at
the river, as if he intended thereby to chastise its insolence; but was
himself immediately punished for his impiety, if the historian may be
credited, with the loss of sight.

[Footnote 492: A. M. 2547.  Ant. J. C. 1457.]

[Footnote 493: Herod. l. ii. c. 111.  Diod l. i. p. 54.]

     Proteus. ^494 He was the son of Memphis, where, in Herodotus' time, his
temple was still standing, in which was a chapel dedicated to Venus the
Stranger. ^495 It is conjectured that this Venus was Helen.  For, in the reign
of this monarch, Paris the Trojan, returning home with Helen, whom he had
stolen, was driven by a storm into one of the mouths of the Nile, called the
Canopic; and from thence was conducted to Proteus at Memphis, who reproached
him in the strongest terms for his base perfidy and guilt, in stealing the
wife of his host, and with her all the effects in his house.  He added, that
the only reason why he did not punish him with death (as his crime deserved)
was, because the Egyptians were careful not to imbrue their hands in the blood
of strangers: that he would keep Helen, with all the riches that were brought
with her, in order to restore them to their lawful owner: that as for himself
(Paris), he must either quit his dominions in three days, or expect to be
treated as an enemy. The king's order was obeyed.  Paris continued his voyage,
and arrived at Troy, whither he was closely pursued by the Grecian army.  The
Greeks summoned the Trojans to surrender Helen, and with her all the treasures
of which her husband had been plundered.  The Trojans answered, that neither
Helen nor her treasures were in their city.  And indeed, was it at all likely,
says Herodotus, that Priam, who was so wise an old prince, should choose to
see his children and country destroyed before his eyes, rather than give the
Greeks the just and reasonable satisfaction they desired? But it was to no
purpose for them to affirm with an oath, that Helen was not in their city; the
Greeks, being firmly persuaded that they were trifled with, persisted
obstinately in their unbelief.  The Deity, continues the same historian, being
resolved that the Trojans, by the total destruction of their city and empire,
should teach the affrighted world this lesson, That great crimes are attended
with equally great and signal punishments from the offended gods. Menelaus, in
his return from Troy, called at the court of king Proteus, who restored him
Helen with all her treasure.  Herodotus proves from some passages in Homer,
that the voyage of Paris to Egypt was not unknown to this poet.

[Footnote 494: A. M. 2800.  Ant. J. C. 1204.  Herod. l. ii. c. 112, 120.]

[Footnote 495: I do not think myself obliged to enter here into a discussion,
which would be attended with very perplexing difficulties, should I pretend to
reconcile the series, or succession of the kings, as given by Herodotus with
the opinion of archbishop Usher.  This last supposes, with a great many other
learned men, that Sesostris is the son of that Egyptian king who was drowned
in the Red Sea, whose reign must consequently have begun in the year of the
world 2513, and continued till the year 2547, since it lasted thirty-three
years.  Should we allow fifty years to the reign of Pheron his son, there
would still be an interval of above two hundred years between Pheron and
Proteus, who, according to Herodotus, succeeded immediately the first: since
Proteus lived at the time of the siege of Troy, which, according to Usher, was
taken, An. Mun. 2820.  I know not whether his almost total silence on the
Egyptian kings after Sesostris, was owing to his sense of this difficulty.  I
suppose a long interval to have occurred between Pheron and Proteus;
accordingly Diodorus (lib. liv.) fills it up with a great many kings; and the
same must be said of some of the following kings.]

     Rhampsinitus.  The treasury built by this king, who was richer than any
of his predecessors, and his descent into hell, as they are related by
Herodotus, ^497 have so much the air of romance and fiction, that they deserve
no mention here. [Footnote 497: Lib. ii. c. 121, 123.]

     Till the reign of this king, there had been some shadow at least of
justice and moderation in Egypt; but, in the two following reigns, violence
and cruelty usurped their place.

     Cheops and Cephrenus. ^498 These two princes, who were truly brothers by
the similitude of their manners, seem to have strove which of them should
distinguish himself most, by a barefaced impiety towards the gods, and a
barbarous inhumanity to men.  Cheops reigned fifty years, and his brother
Cephrenus fifty-six years after him.  They kept the temples shut during the
whole time of their long reigns; and forbid the offerings of sacrifice under
the severest penalties.  On the other hand, they oppressed their subjects, by
employing them in the most grievous and useless works; and sacrificed the
lives of numberless multitudes of men, merely to gratify a senseless ambition,
of immortalizing their names by edifices of an enormous magnitude and a
boundless expense.  It is remarkable that those stately pyramids, which have
so long been the admiration of the whole world, were the effects of the
irreligion and merciless cruelty of those princes.

[Footnote 498: Herod. 1. ii. c. 124, 128. Diod. 1. i. p. 57.]

     Mycerinus. ^499 He was the son of Cheops, but of a character opposite to
that of his father.  So far from walking in his steps, he detested his
conduct, and pursued quite different measures.  He again opened the temples of
the gods, restored the sacrifices, did all that lay in his power to comfort
his subjects, and make them forget their past miseries; and believed himself
set over them for no other purpose than to exercise justice, and to make them
taste all the blessings of an equitable and peaceful administration.  He heard
their complaints, dried their tears, eased their misery, and thought himself
not so much the master, as the father of his people.  This procured him the
love of them all.  Egypt resounded with his praises, and his name commanded
veneration in all places.

[Footnote 499: Herod. 1. ii. p. 139, 140.]

     One would naturally conclude that so prudent and humane a conduct must
have drawn down on Mycerinus the protection of the gods.  But it happened far
otherwise.  His misfortunes began from the death of a darling and only
daughter, in whom his whole felicity consisted.  He ordered extraordinary
honors to be paid to her memory, which were still continued in Herodotus's
time.  This historian informs us that, in the city of Sais, exquisite odors
were burnt in the day-time, at the tomb of this princess, and that it was
illuminated with a lamp by night.

     He was told by an oracle that his reign would continue but seven years.
And as he complained of this to the gods, and inquired the reason why so long
and prosperous a reign had been granted to his father and uncle; who were
equally cruel and impious, while his own, which he had endeavored so carefully
to render as equitable and mild as it was possible for him to do, should be so
short and unhappy; he was answered, that these were the very causes of it, it
being the will of the gods to oppress and afflict Egypt during the space of
150 years, as a punishment for its crimes; and that his reign, which was
appointed, like those of the preceding monarchs, to be of fifty years'
continuance, was shortened on account of his too great lenity.  Mycerinus
likewise built a pyramid, but much inferior in dimensions to that of his
father.

     Asychis. ^500 He enacted the law relating to loans, which forbids a son
to borrow money, without giving the dead body of his father by way of security
for it.  The law added, that in case the son took no care to redeem his
father's body by restoring the loan, both himself and his children should be
deprived for ever of the rights of sepulture.

[Footnote 500: Herod. 1. ii. c. 136.]

     He valued himself for having surpassed all his predecessors, by building
a pyramid of brick more magnificent, if this king was to be credited, than any
hitherto seen.  The following inscription, by its founder's order, was
engraved upon it.  Compare me not with pyramids built of stone, which I as
much excel as Jupiter does all the other gods. ^501.

[Footnote 501: The remainder of the inscription, as we find it in Herodotus,
is, "For men plunging long poles down to the bottom of the lake, drew bricks
out of the mud which stuck to them, and gave me this form."]

     If we suppose the six preceding reigns (the exact duration of some of
which is not fixed by Herodotus) to have continued one hundred and seventy
years, there will remain an interval of near three hundred years to the reign
of Sabachus the Ethiopian.  In this interval I shall place a few circumstances
related in Holy Scripture.

     Pharaoh, king of Egypt, gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, king of
Israel; who received her in that part of Jerusalem called the city of David,
till he had built her a palace. ^502

[Footnote 502: A. M. 2991.  Ant. J. C. 1013.  I. Kings iii. 1.]

     Sesach, or Shishak, otherwise called Sesonchis.

     It was to him that Jeroboam fled to avoid the wrath of Solomon, who
intended to kill him. ^503 He abode in Egypt till Solomon's death, and then
returned to Jerusalem, when, putting himself at the head of the rebels, he won
from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, ten tribes, over whom he declared himself
king.

[Footnote 503: A. M. 3026.  Ant. J. C. 978.  I. Kings xi, 40, and chap. xii.]

     This Sesach, in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, marched against
Jerusalem, because the Jews had transgressed against the Lord.  He came with
twelve hundred chariots of war and sixty thousand horse. ^504 He had brought
numberless multitudes of people, who were all Libyans, Troglodytes, and
Ethiopians. ^505 He seized upon all the strongest cities of Judah, and
advanced as far as Jerusalem.  Then the king and the princes of Israel, having
humbled themselves, and implored the protection of the God of Israel, he told
them, by his prophet Shemaiah, that, because they humbled themselves, he would
not utterly destroy them, as they had deserved; but that they should be the
servants of Sesach; in order that they might know the difference of his
service, and the service of the kingdoms of the country. ^506 Sesach retired
from Jerusalem, after having plundered the treasures of the house of the Lord,
and of the king's house; he carried off every thing with him, and even also
the three hundred shields of gold which Solomon had made.

[Footnote 504: A. M. 3033.  Ant. J. C. 971.  2 Chron. xii. 1-9.]

[Footnote 505: The English version of the Bible says, the Lubims, the Sukkims,
and the Ethiopians.]

[Footnote 506: Or, of the kingdoms of the earth.]

     Zerah, king of Ethiopia, and doubtless of Egypt at the same time, made
war upon Asa, king of Judah. ^507 His army consisted of a million of men, and
three hundred chariots of war.  Asa marched against him, and drawing up his
army in order of battle, in full reliance on the God whom he served, "Lord,"
says he, "it is nothing for thee to help, whether with many, or with them that
have no power.  Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name
we go against this multitude; O Lord thou art our God, let not man prevail
against thee." A prayer offered up with such strong faith was heard.  God
struck the Ethiopians with terror; they fled, and all were irrecoverably
defeated, being destroyed before the Lord, and before his host.

[Footnote 507: A. M. 3063.  Ant. J. C. 741.  II.  Chron. xiv. 9-13.]

     Anysis. ^508 He was blind, and under his reign Sabachus, king of
Ethiopia, being encouraged by an oracle, entered Egypt with a numerous army,
and possessed himself of it.  He reigned with great clemency and justice.
Instead of putting to death such criminals as had been sentenced to die by the
judges, he made them repair the causeys, on which the respective cities to
which they belonged were situated.  He built several magnificent temples, and
among the rest, one in the city of Bubastus, of which Herodotus gives a long
and elegant description.  After a reign of fifty years, which was the time
appointed by the oracle, he retired voluntarily to his old kingdom of
Ethiopia, and left the throne of Egypt to Anysis, who during this time had
concealed himself in the fens.  It is believed that this Sabachus was the same
with So, whose aid was implored by Hosea, king of Israel, against Salmanaser,
king of Assyria. ^509

[Footnote 508: Herod. l. ii. c. 137.  Diod. l. i. p. 59.]

[Footnote 509: A. M. 3279.  Ant. J. C. 725.  II. Kings, xvii. 4.]

     Sethon.  He reigned fourteen years.

     He is the same with Sevechus, the son of Sabacon, or Sual the Ethiopian,
who reigned so long over Egypt. ^510!  This prince, so far from discharging
the functions of a king, was ambitious of those of a priest; causing himself
to be consecrated high-priest of Vulcan.  Abandoning himself entirely to
superstition, he neglected to defend his kingdom by force of arms; paying no
regard to military men, from a firm persuasion that he should never have
occasion for their assistance; he therefore was so far from endeavoring to
gain their affections, that he deprived them of their privileges, and even
dispossessed them of such lands as his predecessors had given them.

[Footnote 510: A. M. 3285.  Ant. J. C. 719.]

     He was soon made sensible of their resentment in a war that broke out
suddenly, and from which he delivered himself solely by a miraculous
protection, if Herodotus may be credited, who intermixes his account of this
war with a great many fabulous particulars.  Sennacherib (so Herodotus calls
this prince), king of the Arabians and Assyrians, having entered Egypt with a
numerous army, the Egyptian officers and soldiers refused to march against
him.  The high-priest of Vulcan, being thus reduced to the greatest extremity,
had recourse to his god, who bid him not despond, but march courageously
against the enemy with the few soldiers he could raise.  Sethon obeyed.  A
small number of merchants, artificers, and others, who were the dregs of the
populace, joined him; and with this handful of men he marched to Pelusium,
where Sennacherib had pitched his camp.  The night following, a prodigious
number of rats entered the enemy's camp, and gnawing to pieces all their
bow-strings and the thongs of their shields, rendered them incapable of making
the least defence.  Being disarmed in this manner, they were obliged to fly;
and they retreated with the loss of a great part of their forces.  Sethon,
when he returned home, ordered a statue of himself to be set up in the temple
of Vulcan, holding in his right hand a rat, and these words inscribed thereon:
Let the Man Who Beholds Me Learn to Reverence the Gods.

     It is very obvious that this story, as related here from Herodotus, is an
alteration of that which is told in the second book of Kings. ^512 We there
see that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, having subdued all the
neighboring nations, and seized upon all the cities of Judah, resolved to
besiege Hezekiah in Jerusalem, his capital city.  The ministers of this holy
king, in spite of this opposition and the remonstrances of the prophet Isaiah,
who promised them, in God's name, a sure and certain protection, provided they
would trust in him only, sent secretly to the Egyptians and Ethiopians for
succor.  Their armies, being united, marched to the relief of Jerusalem at the
time appointed, and were met and vanquished by the Assyrians in a pitched
battle.  He pursued them into Egypt, and entirely laid waste the country.  At
his return from thence, the very night before he was to have given a general
assault to Jerusalem, which then seemed lost to all hopes, the destroying
angel made dreadful havoc in the camp of the Assyrians, destroyed a hundred
fourscore and five thousand men by fire and sword, and proved evidently that
they had great reason to rely, as Hezekiah had done, on the promise of the God
of Israel.

[Footnote 512: Chap. xvii.]

     This is the real fact.  But as it was no ways honorable to the Egyptians,
they endeavored to turn it to their own advantage, by disguising and
corrupting the circumstances of it.  Nevertheless, the account of this
history, though so much defaced, ought yet to be highly valued, as coming from
a historian of so great antiquity and authority as Herodotus.

     The prophet Isaiah had foretold, at several times, that this expedition
of the Egyptians, which had been concerted seemingly with much prudence,
conducted with the greatest skill, and in which the forces of two powerful
empires were united, in order to relieve the Jews, would not only be of no
service to Jerusalem, but even destructive to Egypt itself, whose strongest
cities would be taken, its territories plundered, and its inhabitants of all
ages and sexes led into captivity.  (See the 18th, 19th, 20th, 30th, 31st,
etc., chapters of the second book of Kings.) Archbishop Usher and Dean
Prideaux suppose that it was at this period that the ruin of the famous city
No-Amon, ^513 spoken of by the prophet Nahum, happened.  That prophet says,
that she was carried away - that her young children were dashed in pieces at
the top of all the streets - that the enemy cast lots for her honorable men,
and that all her great men were bound in chains. ^514 He observes that all
these misfortunes befell that city when Egypt and Ethiopia were her strength;
which seems to refer clearly enough to the time of which we are here speaking,
when Tharaca and Sethon had united their forces.  However, this opinion is not
without some difficulties, and is contradicted by some learned men.  It is
sufficient for me to have hinted it to the reader.

[Footnote 513: The Vulgate calls that city Alexandria, to which the Hebrew
gives the name of No-Amon; because Alexandria was afterwards built in the
place where his stood.  Dean Prideaux, after Bochart, thinks that it was
Thebes, surnamed Diospolis.  Indeed, the Egyptian Amon is the same with
Jupiter.  But Thebes is not the place where Alexandria was since built.
Perhaps there was another city there, which also was called No-Amon.]

[Footnote 514: Chap. iii. 8, 10.]

     Till the reign of Sethon, the Egyptian priests computed three hundred and
forty-one generations of men; which make eleven thousand three hundred and
forty years, allowing three generations to a hundred years. ^515 They counted
the like number of priests and kings.  The latter, whether gods or men, had
succeeded one another without interruption, under the name of piromis, an
Egyptian word signifying good and virtuous.  The Egyptian priests showed
Herodotus three hundred and forty-one wooden colossal statues of these
piromis, all ranged in order in a great hall.  Such was the folly of the
Egyptians, to lose themselves, as it were, in a remote antiquity, to which no
other people pretended.

[Footnote 515: Herod. l. ii. cap. 142.]

     Tharaca. ^516 He it was who joined Sethon, with an Ethiopian army, to
relieve Jerusalem.  After the death of Sethon, who had sat fourteen years on
the throne, Tharaca ascended it, and reigned eighteen years.  He was the last
Ethiopian king who reigned in Egypt.

[Footnote 516: A. M. 3299.  Ant. J. C. 705.  Afric. apud Syncel. p. 74.]

     After his death, the Egyptians, not being able to agree about the
succession, were two years in a state of anarchy, during which there were
great disorders and confusions among them.