Byssus. This was another kind of flax' extremely | sion for seasons of sterility, should not have taught fine and delicate, which often received a purple dye. these so much-boasted politicians, to adopt similar It was very dear; and none but rich and wealthy precautions against the changes and inconstancy of the persons could afford to wear it. Pliny, who gives the Nile. Pliny, in his panegyric upon Trajan, paints first place to the Asbeston or Asbestinum (i. e. the in- with wonderful strength the extremity to which that combustible flax,) places the Byssus in the next rank; country was reduced by a famine under that prince's and says, that the dress and ornaments of the ladies reign, and his generous relief of it. The reader will were made of it. It appears from the Holy Scrip- not be displeased to read here an extract of it, in which tures, that it was chiefly from Egypt that cloth made a greater regard will be had to Pliny's thoughts than of this fine flax was brought: Fine linen with broidered to his expressions. work from Egypt.

I take no notice of the Lotus, a very common plant, and in great request among the Egyptians, of whose berries in former times they made bread. There was another Lotus in Africa, which gave its name to the Lotophagi, or Lotus eaters; because they lived upon the fruit of this tree, which had so delicious a taste, if Homer may be credited, that it made those who ate it forget all the sweets of their native country, as Ulysses found to his cost in his return from Troy.* In general, it may be said, that the Egyptian pulse and fruits were excellent; and might, as Pliny observes, have sufficed singly for the nourishment of the inhabitants; such was their excellent quality, and so great their plenty. And indeed working men lived then almost upon nothing else, as appears from those who were employed in building the pyramids.

5

The Egyptian, says Pliny, who gloried that they needed neither rain nor sun to produce their corn, and who believed they might confidently contest the prize of plenty with the most fruitful countries of the world, were condemned to an unexpected drought, and a fatal sterility, from the greatest part of their territories being deserted and left unwatered by the Nile, whose inundation is the source and sure standard of their abundance. They then implored that assistance from their prince, which they had been accustomed to expect only from their river. The delay of their relief was no longer than that which employed a courier to bring the melancholy news to Rome; and one would have imagined, that this misfortnne had befallen them only to display, with greater lustre, the generosity and goodness of Cæsar. It was an ancient and general opinion, that our city could not subsist without provisions drawn from Egypt. This vain and proud nation boasted, that, though conquered, they nevertheless fed their conquerors; that by means of their river, either abundance or scarcity were entirely in their own disposal. But we now have returned the Nile his own harvests, and given him back the provisions he sent us. Let the Egyptians be then convinced, by their own experience, that they are not necessary to us, and are only our vassals. Let them know that their ships do not so much bring us the provision we stand in need of, as the tribute which they owe us. And let them never forget, that we can do without them, but But the great and matchless wealth of Egypt arose that they can never do without us. This most fruitful from its corn, which, even in an almost universal fam- province had been ruined, had it not worn the Roman ine, enabled it to support all the neighbouring nations, chains. The Egyptians, in their sovereign, found a deas it particularly did under Joseph's administration. liverer, and a father. Astonished at the sight of their In later ages it was the resource and most certain granaries, filled without any labour of their own, they granary of Rome and Constantinople. It is a well-were at a loss to know to whom they owed this foreign known story, how a calumny raised against St. Athanasius, viz. of his having threatened to prevent in future the importation of corn into Constantinople from Alexandria, incensed the emperor Constantine against that holy bishop, because he knew that his capital city could not subsist without the corn which was brought to it from Egypt. The same reason induced all the emperors of Rome to take so great a care of Egypt, which they considered as the nursing-mother of the world's metropolis.

Besides these rural riches, the Nile, from its fish, and the fatness it gave to the soil for the feeding of cattle, furnished the tables of the Egyptians with the most exquisite fish of every kind, and the most succulent flesh. This it was which made the Israelites so deeply regret the loss of Egypt, when they found themselves in the wilderness. Who say they, in a plaintive and at the same time seditious tone, shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the flesh which we did eat in Egypt freely: the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. We sat by the flesh vols, and we did eat bread to the full."

Nevertheless, the same river, which enabled this province to subsist the two most populous cities in the world, sometimes reduced even Egypt itself to the most terrible famine; and it is astonishing that Joseph's wise foresight, which in fruitful years had made provi

1 Plin. lib. xix. c. 1.

* Proximus Byssino mulierum maximè deliciis genito: inventum jam est etiam [scilicet Linum] quod ignibus non obsumetur, vivum id vocant, ardentesque in focis conviviorum ex eo vidimus mappas, sordibus exustis splendescentes igni magis, quàm possent aquis: i. e. A flax is now found out, which is proof against the violence of fire; it is called living flax; and we have seen table napkins of it glowing in the fires of our dining-rooms; and receiving a lustre and a cleanliness from flames, which no water could have given it.

and gratuitous plenty. The famine of a people, though at such a distance from us, yet so speedily stopped, served only to let them feel the advantage of living under our empire. The Nile may, in other times, have diffused more plenty on Egypt, but never more glory upon us. 10 May heaven, content with this proof of the people's patience and the prince's generosity, restore for ever back to Egypt its ancient fertility!

Pliny's reproach to the Egyptians, for their vain and foolish pride with regard to the inundations of the Nile, points out one of their most peculiar characteristics, and recalls to my mind a fine passage of Ezekiel, where God thus speaks to Pharaoh, one of their kings: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.11 God perceived an insupportable pride in the heart of this prince: a sense of security and confidence in the inundations of the Nile, independent entirely on the influences of heaven; as though the happy effects of this inundation had been owing to nothing but his own care and labour, or those of his predeces. sors: The river is mine, and I have made it.

Inundatione, id est, ubertate regio fraudata, sic opem Cæsaris invocavit, ut solet amnem suum.

Percrebuerat antiquitùs urbem nostram nist opibus Ægypti ali sustentarique non posse. Superbiebat ventosa et insolens natio, quòd victorem quidem populum pasceret tamen, quodque in suo flumine, in suis manibus, vel abundantia nostra vel fames esset. Refudimus Nilo suas copias Recepit frumenta quæ miserat, deportatasque messes revexit.

10 Nilus Egypto quidem sæpe, sed gloriæ nostræ nunquam largior fluxit. 11 Ezek. xxix. S. 9.

Before I conclude this second part, which treats of | ness of succession, at least in the early part of the the manners of the Egyptians, I think it incumbent on monarchy, which is very obscure; and without preme to bespeak the attention of my readers to different tending to reconcile these two historians. Their passages scattered in the history of Abraham, Jacob, design, especially that of Herodotus, was not to lay Joseph, and Moses, which confirm and illustrate part before us an exact series of the kings of Egypt, but of what we meet with in profane authors upon this only to point out those princes whose history appeared subject. They will there observe the perfect polity to them most important and instructive. I shall follow which reigned in Egypt, both in the court and the rest the same plan, and hope to be forgiven, for not having of the kingdom; the vigilance of the prince, who was involved either myself or my readers in a labyrinth of informed of all transactions, had a regular council, a almost inextricable difficulties, from which the most chosen number of ministers, armies ever well main- able can scarce disengage themselves, when they pretained and disciplined, both of horse, foot, and armed tend to follow the series of history, and reduce it to fixed chariots; intendants in all the provinces; overseers or and certain dates. The curious may consult the learned guardians of the public granaries; wise and exact pieces, in which this subject is treated in all its extent. dispensers of the corn lodged in them; a court com- I am to premise, that Herodotus, upon the credit of posed of great officers of the crown, a captain of his the Egyptian priests whom he had consulted, gives us guards, a chief cup-bearer, a master of his pantry; in a great number of oracles and singular incidents, all a word, all things that compose a prince's household, which, though he relates them as so many facts, the and constitute a magnificent court. But above all judicious reader will easily discover to be what they these, the readers will admire the fear in which the really are: I mean, fictions. threatenings of God were held, the inspector of all actions, and the judge of kings themselves; and the horror the Egyptians had for adultery, which was acknowledged to be a crime of so heinous a nature, that it alone was capable of bringing destruction on a nation.

PART III.

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, which seemed to carry its pretensions backward to eternity. According to its own historians, first gods, and afterwards demi-gods or heroes, governed It successively, through a series of more than twenty thousand years. But the absurdity of this vain and fabulous claim is easily discovered.

To gods and demi-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, 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 labour. 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 Tanis. I shall not here give my readers a list of the kings who have reigned in Egypt, of most of whom we have only the names transmitted to us. I shall only take notice of what seems to me most proper, to give youth the necessary light into this part of history, for whose sake principally engaged in the 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 exact

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

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

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 Lagidæ, 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 æras to which they belong. The Kings of Egypt.

MENES. Historians are unani- A. M. 1816. mously agreed, that Menes was the Ant. J. C. 2188. first king of Egypt. It is pretended, and not without foundation, that he is the same with Misraim, the son of Cham.

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, 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; Phut took possession of that part of Africa, which lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan of the 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.

I return to Misraim. He is allowed to be the 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.

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. This prince is not to be confounded with Busiris, so infamous for his cruelties.

• Sir John Marsham's Canon Chronic.; Father Pezron; the Dissertations of F. Tournemine, and Abbe Sevin, &c. Or Cush, Gen. x. 6.

5 Or Ham.

this day among the Arabians, who call it Mesre; by the The footsteps of its old name (Mesraim) remain to testimony of Plutarch it was called Xnuía, Chemia, by an easy corruption of Chomia, and this for Cham, or Ham. Herod. l. ii. p. 99. Diod. 1. 1. p. 42.

make this remark, purposely to admonish young stu- | dents, 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. Archbishop Usher says, that Amenophis left two sons, one called Sesothis, or Sesostris, and the other Armais. The Greeks call 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.

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 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.

with him. He had seventeen nundred 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, situ ated on 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 advance to the Red Sea, made himself master of the isles and cities lying on the coast of that sea. He himself heading his land army, overran 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 neighbouring countries were to resist him. The Scythians, as far as the river Tanais, as well as 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 were 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, crected to perpetuate the remembrance of his victories, agreeably to the Egyp

Elian remarks, that Sesostris was taught by Mercury, who instructed him in politics, and the art 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 was also very famous amongst the Egyptian practice. tians for his rare knowledge; and of much greater antiquity than he of whom we have been speaking. Jamblicus, a priest of Egypt, affirms, that it was customary with the Egyptians to affix the name of Hermes, or Mercury, to all the new books or inventions that were offered to the public.

When Sesostris was more advanced in years, his father sent him against the Arabians, in order to 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 youths 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 country.

SESOSTRIS. During this expediA. M. 2513. tion his father died, and left him Ant. J. C. 1491. 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 provided for his domestic security, in winning the hearts of his subjects by his generosity, justice, and a popular and obliging behaviour. He was no less studious to gain the affection of his officers and soldiers, whom he wished to be ever ready to share 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.

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

1 Herod. l. ii. cap. 102. 110. Diod. I. p. 48. 54. * Τὰ νοήματα ἐκμουσωθῆναι, lib. xii. c. 4.

The scarcity of provisions in Thrace stopped the progress of his conquests, and prevented his advanc ing 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 made wild havoc up and down the world for nine years, he confined himself almost within the ancient limits of Egypt, a few neighbouring 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 any of his predecessors; that glory I mean which employs so many tongues and pens in its praise; which consists in invading a great number of provin ces 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 casy 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 his name; works, in which the art and industry of the workman 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

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.

employ only captives in these monuments of his con- BUSIRIS, brother of Amenophis, so quests. The scriptures take notice of something like infamous among the ancients for his A. M. 2533 this, where they speak of the buildings of Solomon. cruelties, exercised his tyranny at that But he prided himself particularly in adorning and time on the banks of the Nile; and barbarously murenriching the temple of Vulcan at Pelusium, in acknow-dered all foreigners who landed in this country, this ledgment of the protection which he fancied that god was probably during the absence of Sesostris. had bestowed on him, when, on his return from his About the same time, Cadmus brought expeditions, his brother had a design of destroying from Syria into Greece the invention of A. M. 2549. him in that city, with his wife and children, by setting letters. Some pretend that these chafire to the apartment where he then lay. racters 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, give to their Mercury the honour of inventing letters. Most of the learned agree, that Cadmus carried the Phoenician or Syrian letters into Greece, and those letters were the same as the Hebraic; the Hebrews who formed but a small nation, being comprehended under the general name of Syrians. 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.

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, and 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 neighbours, the Syrians and Arabians, he fortified all the eastern coast from Pelusium to Heliopolis, that is, for upwards of seven leagues.2

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 sufficient humanity and generosity. But when he went to the temple, or entered his capital, he caused these princes to be harnessed to his car, four abreast, 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.

Being grown blind in his old age, he died by his own hands, after having reigned thirty-three years, and left his kingdom infinitely rich. His empire, nevertheless, did not reach beyond the fourth generation. But there still remained, so low as the reign of Tiberius, magnificent monuments, which showed the extent of Egypt under Sesostris, and the immense tributes which were paid to it.*

I now go back to some facts which took place in this period, but which were omitted, in order that I might not break the thread of the history, and now I shall but barely mention them.

About the era in question, the EgypA. M. 2448. tians settled themselves in divers parts of the earth. The colony, which Cecrops led out of Egypt, built twelve cities, or rather as many towns of which he composed the kingdom of Athens. 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 conquest. But being defeated in his horrid project, he was obliged to fly. He thereupon retired to Peloponnesus, where he seized upon the kingdom of Argos, which had been founded about four hundred years before by Inachus.

A. M. 2530.

5

I return to the history of the Egyptian kings, whom I shall hereafter rank in the same order as Herodotus has assigned to them.

PHERON Succeeded Sesostris in his kingdom, but not in his glory. A. M. 2547. Herodotus' relates but one action of Ant. J.C. 1457. his, which shows how greatly he had degenerated from the religious sentiments of his father. In an extraordinary inundation of the Nile, which exceeded eighteen cubits, this prince, enraged at the wild havoc 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.

A. M. 2800. Ant. J. C. 1204.

PROTEUS. He was of Memphis, where, in Herodotus's time, his temple was still standing, in which was a chapel dedicated to Venus the stranger. 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 sto

dissertations of Abbé Renaudot, inserted in the second The reader may consult, on this subject, two learned volume of the History of the Academy of Inscriptions.

The sixteen letters brought by Cadmus into Greece, are a, B, y, d, e, l, k, λ, μ, v, o, T, p, σ, 7, v. Palamedes, at the siege of Troy, i. e. upwards of two hundred and fifty years lower than Cadmus, added the four following , 0, 4, x, and Simonides a long time after, invented the four others namely, n, w, 5, 4.

Herod. . ii. c. 111. Diod. l. i. p. 54.
Herod. l. ii. c. 112. 120.

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 many other learned men, that Sesostris is the son of that Egyptian king who was drowned in the Red Sea, whose reign must continued till the year 2547, since it lasted thirty-three consequently have begun in the year of the world 2513, and 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 He

12 Chron. viii. 9: But of the children of Israel did So- rodotus, was the immediate successor of the former; since lomon make no servants for his work.

150 stadia, about 18 miles English. Tacit. Ann. 1. ii. c. 60.

Legebantur indicta gentibus tributa--haud minus magnifica quàm 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.

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 sup pose a long interval to have occurred between Pheron and Proteus: accordingly Diodorus (lib. i. p. 54.) fills it up with a great many kings: and the same must be said of some of the following kings.