A. M. Institution of Archons at Athens. Cadmus builds Thebes. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, gives his daughter to Solomon in marriage. 3000 Solomon dedicates the temple. Jeroboam rebels against Solomon, and flies to Egypt. Sesac, or Shishak, reigns in Egypt. Lycurgus and Homer. Rehoboam succeeds Solomon; rejected by the ten tribes, over whom Jeroboam reigns. Shishak, king of Egypt, invades Judea. 3100 Ahab, king of Israel. Elijah is taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. Carthage built by Dido. 3200 Pul, or Phul, king of Nineveh, repents upon Jonah's preaching. Sardanapalus, the last king of the first Assyrian empire. Syracuse built. Rome founded. Tiglath Pileser, king of Nineveh. Merodach Baladan reigns in Babylon. Sennacherib, king of Nineveh, makes war against Hezekiah, king of Judah. His army is destroyed. Gyges reigns in Lydia. Tharaca, king of Egypt. Dejoces declared king of the Medes. 3300 Twelve of the principal lords of Egypt seize the kingdom, of which each governs a part, with equal authority, for fifteen years, when Psammetichus, one of these kings, becomes master of all Egypt. Battle of the Horatii and Curiatii. Byzantium built by an Athenian colony. Solon the lawgiver flourished. Josiah, king of Judah. Nineveh destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians. Jerusalem, besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, made tributary. Daniel, with many other Jews, carried to Babylon, and the vessels of the temple. Astyages, king of Media. Pharaoh Necho reigns in Egypt. 3400 Apries, king of Egypt. Zedekiah reigns in Judea. Solon gives laws to Athens. Darius the Mede. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, and carries the Jews into captivity. Cyrus born. Thespis reforms the drama. Neriglissor makes war against the Medes, and calls Crœsus king of Lydia, to his aid. Pisistratus becomes master of Athens. Æsop the fabulist. Neriglissor defeated by Cyaxares and Cyrus. A. M. Temple of Diana built at Ephesus by Ctesiphon. Battle of Thymbra. Croesus defeated by Cyrus. Babylon taken by Cyrus, and Belshazzar killed in his palace. Cyrus permits the Jews to return to Judea. Cyrus dies, and is succeeded by his son Cambyses. Psammenitus reigns in Egypt. Cambyses invades Egypt; annexes it to the Persian empire. Smerdis, the Magian, ascends the throne of Persia after the death of Cambyses; reigns only seven months. Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of Persia. Babylon revolts against Darius; is taken after a siege of twenty months. Hippias succeeds Pisistratus. 3500 The Ionians make themselves masters of Sardis, and burn it. Darius sends an army against Greece. Battle of Marathon. Death of Darius Hystaspes. Xerxes his son succeeds him. Xerxes makes war against the Greeks. Battle of Thermopylæ. Death of Leonidas. Sea-fight near Artemisium. Battle of Salamis. Lartius, first Dictator of Rome. Hiero, king of Syracuse. Artaxerxes succeeds Xerxes. Themistocles, accused of treason, flies to the court of Persia. Esdras commissioned by Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem, The Egyptians revolt against Artaxerxes. Persian army defeated in Egypt. The Egyptians return to their obedience to the Persians. Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem. 3600 Peace concluded with the Persians by Antalcidas. Ochus, king of Persia. Philip ascends the throne of Macedonia. Birth of Alexander the Great. The Romans masters of all Italy. Mausolus, king of Caria. Philip declared generalissimo of the Greeks against the Persians. Alexander ascends the throne of Macedon on the death of his father. Arses, king of Persia, assassinated. Darius Codomanus succeeds him. Alexander sets out for Persia. Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. Tyre besieged, and taken by Alexander. Alexander visits Jerusalem; becomes master of all Egypt; builds Alexandria. A. M. Battle of Arbela. Death of Darius. Eudamidas, king of Sparta. The generals divide the provinces among themselves. Ptolemy makes himself master of Jerusalem. Zeno institutes the sect of the Stoics at Athens. 3700 Battle of Ipsus. Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt. Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria. Alexander and Philip, sons of Cassander, kings of Macedon. Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. Archidamus, king of Sparta. First Punic War. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt. Hannibal, the Carthaginian. The Romans enter Asia. 3800 Ptolemy Epiphanes, king of Egypt. Seleucus Philopater, king of Syria. Philip II. king of Macedon. Matthias, the high priest of the Jews, takes up arms against Antiochus subjects Palestine and Colo-Syria. Carthage destroyed by the Romans. Greece reduced into a Roman province, and called Achaia. Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt. 3900 Demetrius, king of Syria. Hyrcanus, high priest of the Jews. Pompey defeats Antiochus Asiaticus, and reduces Syria to a Roman province. Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt. Crassus, the Roman general, slain in Parthia. Pompey takes Jerusalem, and makes Judea tributary. Pompey defeated at Pharsalia by Julius Cæsar. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Herod, king of Judea. Octavius conquers Egypt, and reduces it to a Roman province. THE HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS. PART I. EXTENT AND DIVISION OF EGYPT. EGYPT is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea; on the east by the Red Sea, and the Isthmus of Suez; on the south by Ethiopia; and on the west by Lybia. Ancient Egypt may be divided into three principal parts; Upper Egypt or Thebais to the south; Middle Egypt or Heptanomis; and Lower Egypt on the north, (which included what the Greeks called the Delta) and all the country as far as the Red Sea, and along the Mediterranean to Mount Casius. Under Sesostris, all Egypt became one kingdom, and was divided into thirty-six governments: ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and sixteen in Middle Egypt. CHAPTER I. OF THEBES AND ITS BUILDINGS. Thebes, whence Thebais had its name, was one of the noblest cities in the world. Its hundred gates, celebrated by Homer, acquired for it the surname of Hecatompylos, to distinguish it from the other Thebes in Beotia. Its population was in proportion to its extent; for history informs us, that it could send out at once at each of its gates two hundred chariots and ten thousand fighting men. The Greeks and Romans celebrated its magnificence, though they saw it only in ruins. In the Thebaid have been discovered temples and palaces, some of which are still almost entire, adorned with innumerable columns and statues. One palace in particular B must be mentioned, on account of its surpassing splendor. Four walks, extending beyond the limit of vision, bounded on each side with sphinxes of rare materials and extraordinary size, serve as avenues to four porticoes, of an immense height. A hall, which, to appearance, formed the centre of the building, was supported by a hundred and twenty pillars, six fathoms round, and these pillars intermixed with obelisks which ages have not demolished. adorn this edifice, all the splendors of painting lent their aid. Colors, which soonest feel the injury of time, still remain in beauty and lustre amidst the ruins of this wonderful structure, so happily could the Egyptians imprint on their works a character of immortality. EXERCISES. To How is Egypt situated? How divided anciently; and what were the principal cities? Describe some of the celebrated buildings in Thebais. CHAPTER II. MIDDLE EGYPT, OR HEPTANOMIS. Memphis was the capital of this part of Ancient Egypt. In this city were many magnificent temples; among them that of the god Apis, who was here particularly honored. Grand Cairo seems to have risen in splendor after the decay of Memphis, and is built on the east side of the river Nile. The castle of Cairo is one of the greatest curiosities of that country; it contains a well, called Joseph's Well, which is said to have been one of his works during his residence in Egypt. This part of Egypt is remarkable for curiosities, some of which deserve particular description, such as the Obelisks, the Pyramids, Lake Moris, the Labyrinth, and the Nile. THE OBELISKS. An Obelisk is a quadrangular pyramid, terminating in a point used to ornament an open square, and is often covered with inscriptions or hieroglyphics, which were adopted by the Egyptians to conceal and disguise the mysteries of their theology Sesostris erected two obelisks, of extremely hard stone, in |