[Greek: Entha te kai stelai, Thebaigeneos Dionysou] [Greek: Hestasin pymatoio para rhoon Okeanoio,] [Greek: Indon hystatioisin en ouresin; entha te Ganges] [Greek: Leukon hydor Nyssaion epi platamona kylindei.]

Ubi etiamnum columnae Thebis geniti Bacchi Stant extremi juxta fluxum Oceani Indorum ultimis in montibus: ubi & Ganges Claram aquam Nyssaeam ad planitiem devolvit.

After these things he invaded Libya, and fought the Africans with clubs, and thence is painted with a club in his hand: so [270] Hyginus; Afri & AEgyptii primum fustibus dimicaverunt, postea Belus Neptuni filius gladio belligeratus est, unde bellum dictum est: and after the conquest of Libya, by which Egypt was furnished with horses, and furnished Solomon and his friends; he prepared a fleet on the Mediterranean, and went on westward upon the coast of Afric, to search those countries, as far as to the Ocean and island Erythra or Gades in Spain; as Macrobius [271] informs us from Panyasis and Pherecydes: and there he conquered Geryon, and at the mouth of the Straits set up the famous Pillars.

[272] Venit ad occasum mundique extrema Sesostris.

Then he returned through Spain and the southern coasts of France and Italy, with the cattel of Geryon, his fleet attending him by sea, and left in Sicily the Sicani, a people which he had brought from Spain: and after his father's death he built Temples to him in his conquests; whence it came to pass, that Jupiter Ammon was worshipped in Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and Arabia, and as far as India, according to the [273] Poet:

Quamvis AEthiopum populis, Arabumque beatis Gentibus, atque Indis unus sit Jupiter Ammon.

The Arabians worshipped only two Gods, Coelus, otherwise called Ouranus, or Jupiter Uranius, and Bacchus: and these were Jupiter Ammon and Sesac, as above: and so also the people of Meroe above Egypt [274] worshipped no other Gods but Jupiter and Bacchus, and had an Oracle of Jupiter, and these two Gods were Jupiter Ammon and Osiris, according to the language of Egypt.

At length Sesostris, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, came out of Egypt with a great army of Libyans, Troglodytes and Ethiopians, and spoiled the Temple, and reduced Judaea into servitude, and went on conquering, first eastward toward India, which he invaded, and then westward as far as Thrace: for God had given him the kingdoms of the countries, 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3, 8. In [275] this Expedition he spent nine years, setting up pillars with inscriptions in all his conquests, some of which remained in Syria 'till the days of Herodotus. He was accompanied with his son Orus, or Apollo, and with some singing women, called the Muses, one of which, called Calliope, was the mother of Orpheus an Argonaut: and the two tops of the mountain Parnassus, which were very high, were dedicated [276] the one to this Bacchus, and the other to his son Apollo: whence Lucan; [277]

Parnassus gemino petit aethera colle, Mons Phoebo, Bromioque sacer.

In the fourteenth year of Rehoboam he returned back into Egypt; leaving AEetes in Colchis, and his nephew Prometheus at mount Caucasus, with part of his army, to defend his conquests from the Scythians. Apollonius Rhodius [278] and his scholiast tell us, that Sesonchosis King of all Egypt, that is Sesac, invading all Asia, and a great part of Europe, peopled many cities which he took; and that AEa, the Metropolis of Colchis, remained stable ever since his days with the posterity of those Egyptians which he placed there, and that they preserved pillars or tables in which all the journies and the bounds of sea and land were described, for the use of them that were to go any whither: these tables therefore gave a beginning to Geography.

Sesostris upon his returning home [279] divided Egypt by measure amongst the Egyptians; and this gave a beginning to Surveying and Geometry: and [280] Jamblicus derives this division of Egypt, and beginning of Geometry, from the Age of the Gods of Egypt. Sesostris also [281] divided Egypt into 36 Nomes or Counties, and dug a canal from the Nile to the head city of every Nome, and with the earth dug out of it, he caused the ground of the city to be raised higher, and built a Temple in every city for the worship of the Nome, and in the Temples set up Oracles, some of which remained 'till the days of Herodotus: and by this means the Egyptians of every Nome were induced to worship the great men of the Kingdom, to whom the Nome, the City, and the Temple or Sepulchre of the God, was dedicated: for every Temple had its proper God, and modes of worship, and annual festivals, at which the Council and People of the Nome met at certain times to sacrifice, and regulate the affairs of the Nome, and administer justice, and buy and sell; but Sesac and his Queen, by the names of Osiris and Isis, were worshipped in all Egypt: and because Sesac, to render the Nile more useful, dug channels from it to all the capital cities of Egypt; that river was consecrated to him, and he was called by its names, AEgyptus, Siris, Nilus. Dionysius [282] tells us, that the Nile was called Siris by the Ethiopians, and Nilus by the people of Siene. From the word Nahal, which signifies a torrent, that river was called Nilus; and Dionysius [283] tells us, that Nilus was that King who cut Egypt into canals, to make the river useful: in Scripture the river is called Schichor, or Sihor, and thence the Greeks formed the words Siris, Sirius, Ser-Apis, O-Siris; but Plutarch [284] tells us, that the syllable O, put before the word Siris by the Greeks, made it scarce intelligible to the Egyptians.

I have now told you the original of the Nomes of Egypt and of the Religions and Temples of the Nomes, and of the Cities built there by the Gods, and called by their names: whence Diodorus [285] tells us, that of all the Provinces of the World, there were in Egypt only many cities built by the ancient Gods, as by Jupiter, Sol, Hermes, Apollo, Pan, Eilithyia, and, many others: and Lucian [286] an Assyrian, who had travelled into Phoenicia and Egypt, tells us, that the Temples of Egypt were very old, those in Phoenicia built by Cinyras as old, and those in Assyria almost as old as the former, but not altogether so old: which shews that the Monarchy of Assyria rose up after the Monarchy of Egypt; as is represented in Scripture; and that the Temples of Egypt then standing, were those built by Sesostris, about the same time that the Temples of Phoenicia and Cyprus were built by Cinyras, Benhadad, and Hiram. This was not the first original of Idolatry, but only the erecting of much more sumptuous Temples than formerly to the founders of new Kingdoms: for Temples at first were very small;

Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in aede. Ovid. Fast. l. 1.

Altars were at first erected without Temples, and this custom continued in Persia 'till after the days of Herodotus: in Phoenicia they had Altars with little houses for eating the sacrifices much earlier, and these they called High Places: such was the High Place where Samuel entertained Saul; such was the House of Dagon at Ashdod, into which the Philistims brought the Ark; and the House of Baal, in which Jehu slew the Prophets of Baal; and such were the High Places of the Canaanites which Moses commanded Israel to destroy: he [287] commanded Israel to destroy the Altars, Images, High Places, and Groves of the Canaanites, but made no mention of their Temples, as he would have done had there been any in those days. I meet with no mention of sumptuous Temples before the days of Solomon: new Kingdoms begun then to build Sepulchres to their Founders in the form of Sumptuous Temples; and such Temples Hiram built in Tyre, Sesac in all Egypt, and Benhadad in Damascus.

For when David [288] smote Hadad Ezer King of Zobah, and slew the Syrians of Damascus who came to assist him, Rezon the son of Eliadah fled from his lord Hadad-Ezer, and gathered men unto him and became Captain over a band, and Reigned in Damascus, over Syria: he is called Hezion, 1 King. xv. 18. and his successors mentioned in history were Tabrimon, Hadad or Ben-hadad, Benhadad II. Hazael, Benhadad III. * * and Rezin the son of Tabeah. Syria became subject to Egypt in the days of Tabrimon, and recovered her liberty under Benhadad I; and in the days of Benhadad III, until the reign of the last Rezin, they became subject to Israel: and in the ninth year of Hoshea King of Judah, Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria captivated the Syrians, and put an end to their Kingdom: now Josephus [289] tells us, that the Syrians 'till his days worshipped both Adar, that is Hadad or Benhadad, and his successor Hazael as Gods, for their benefactions, and for building Temples by which they adorned the city of Damascus: for, saith he, they daily celebrate solemnities in honour of these Kings, and boast their antiquity, not knowing that they are novel, and lived not above eleven hundred years ago. It seems these Kings built sumptuous Sepulchres for themselves, and were worshipped therein. Justin [290] calls the first of these two Kings Damascus, saying that the city had its name from him, and that the Syrians in honour of him worshipped his wife Arathes as a Goddess, using her Sepulchre for a Temple.

Another instance we have in the Kingdom of Byblus. In the [291] Reign of Minos King of Crete, when Rhadamanthus the brother of Minos carried colonies from Crete to the Greek islands, and gave the islands to his captains, he gave Lemnos to Thoas, or Theias, or Thoantes, the father of Hypsipyle, a Cretan worker in metals, and by consequence a disciple of the Idaei Dactyli, and perhaps a Phoenician: for the Idaei Dactyli, and Telchines, and Corybantes brought their Arts and Sciences from Phoenicia: and [292] Suidas saith, that he was descended from Pharnaces King of Cyprus; Apollodorus, [293] that he was the son of Sandochus a Syrian; and Apollonius Rhodius, [294] that Hypsipyle gave Jason the purple cloak which the Graces made for Bacchus, who gave it to his son Thoas, the father of Hypsipyle, and King of Lemnos: Thoas married [295] Calycopis, the mother of AEneas, and daughter of Otreus King of Phrygia, and for his skill on the harp was called Cinyras, and was said to be exceedingly beloved by Apollo or Orus: the great Bacchus loved his wife, and being caught in bed with her in Phrygia appeased him with wine, and composed the matter by making him King of Byblus and Cyprus; and then came over the Hellespont with his army, and conquered Thrace: and to these things the poets allude, in feigning that Vulcan fell from heaven into Lemnos, and that Bacchus [296] appeased him with wine, and reduced him back into heaven: he fell from the heaven of the Cretan Gods, when he went from Crete to Lemnos to work in metals, and was reduced back into heaven when Bacchus made him King of Cyprus and Byblus: he Reigned there 'till a very great age, living to the times of the Trojan war, and becoming exceeding rich: and after the death of his wife Calycopis, [297] he built Temples to her at Paphos and Amathus, in Cyprus; and at Byblus in Syria, and instituted Priests to her with Sacred Rites and lustful Orgia; whence she became the Dea Cypria, and the Dea Syria: and from Temples erected to her in these and other places, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia. Fama tradit a Cinyra sacratum vetustissimum Paphiae Veneris templum, Deamque ipsam conceptam mari huc appulsam: Tacit. Hist. l. 2. c. 3. From her sailing from Phrygia to the island Cythera, and from thence to be Queen of Cyprus, she was said by the Cyprians, to be born of the froth of the sea, and was painted sailing upon a shell. Cinyras Deified also his son Gingris, by the name of Adonis; and for assisting the Egyptians with armour, it is probable that he himself was Deified by his friends the Egyptians, by the name of Baal-Canaan, or Vulcan: for Vulcan was celebrated principally by the Egyptians, and was a King according to Homer, and Reigned in Lemnos; and Cinyras was an inventor of arts, [298] and found out copper in Cyprus, and the smiths hammer, and anvil, and tongs, and laver; and imployed workmen in making armour, and other things of brass and iron, and was the only King celebrated in history for working in metals, and was King of Lemnos, and the husband of Venus; all which are the characters of Vulcan: and the Egyptians about the time of the death of Cinyras, viz. in the Reign of their King Amenophis, built a very sumptuous Temple at Memphis to Vulcan, and near it a smaller Temple to Venus Hospita; not an Egyptian woman but a foreigner, not Helena but Vulcan's Venus: for [299] Herodotus tells us, that the region round about this Temple was inhabited by Tyrian Phoenicians, and that [300] Cambyses going into this Temple at Memphis, very much derided the statue of Vulcan for its littleness; For, saith he, this statue is most like those Gods which the Phoenicians call Pataeci, and carry about in the fore part of their Ships in the form of Pygmies: and [301] Bochart saith of this Venus Hospita, Phoeniciam Venerem in AEgypto pro peregrina habitam.

As the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Syrians in those days Deified their Kings and Princes, so upon their coming into Asia minor and Greece, they taught those nations to do the like, as hath been shewed above. In those days the writing of the Thebans and Ethiopians was in hieroglyphicks; and this way of writing seems to have spread into the lower Egypt before the days of Moses: for thence came the worship of their Gods in the various shapes of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, forbidden in the second commandment. Now this emblematical way of writing gave occasion to the Thebans and Ethiopians, who in the days of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam conquered Egypt, and the nations round about, and erected a great Empire, to represent and signify their conquering Kings and Princes, not by writing down their names, but by making various hieroglyphical figures; as by painting Ammon with Ram's horns, to signify the King who conquered Libya, a country abounding with sheep; his father Amosis with a Scithe, to signify that King who conquered the lower Egypt, a country abounding with corn; his Son Osiris by an Ox, because he taught the conquered nations to plow with oxen; Bacchus with Bulls horns for the same reason, and with Grapes because he taught the nations to plant vines, and upon a Tiger because he subdued India; Orus the son of Osiris with a Harp, to signify the Prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument; Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion, and with a Thunderbolt to represent him a warrior; Venus in a Chariot drawn with two Doves, to represent her amorous and lustful; Neptune with a Trident, to signify the commander of a fleet composed of three Squadrons; AEgeon, a Giant, with 50 heads, and an hundred hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of fifty oars; Thoth with a Dog's head and wings at his cap and feet, and a Caduceus writhen about with two Serpents, to signify a man of craft, and an embassador who reconciled two contending nations; Pan with a Pipe and the legs of a Goat, to signify a man delighted in piping and dancing; and Hercules with Pillars and a Club, because Sesostris set up pillars in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans with clubs: this is that Hercules who, according to [302] Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Ptolomaeus Hephaestion [303] was called Nilus, and who conquered Geryon with his three sons in Spain, and set up the famous pillars at the mouth of the Straits: for Diodorus [304] mentioning three Hercules's, the Egyptian, the Tyrian, and the son of Alcmena, saith that the oldest flourished among the Egyptians, and having conquered a great part of the world, set up the pillars in Afric: and Vasaeus, [305] that Osiris, called also Dionysius, came into Spain and conquered Geryon, and was the first who brought Idolatry into Spain. Strabo [306] tells us, that the Ethiopians called Megabars fought with clubs: and some of the Greeks [307] did so 'till the times of the Trojan war. Now from this hieroglyphical way of writing it came to pass, that upon the division of Egypt into Nomes by Sesostris, the great men of the Kingdom to whom the Nomes were dedicated, were represented in their Sepulchers or Temples of the Nomes, by various hieroglyphicks; as by an Ox, a Cat, a Dog, a Cebus, a Goat, a Lyon, a Scarabaeus, an Ichneumon, a Crocodile, an Hippopotamus, an Oxyrinchus, an Ibis, a Crow, a Hawk, a Leek, and were worshipped by the Nomes in the shape of these creatures.

The [308] Atlantides, a people upon mount Atlas conquered by the Egyptians in the Reign of Ammon, related that Uranus was their first King, and reduced them from a savage course of life, and caused them to dwell in towns and cities, and lay up and use the fruits of the earth, and that he reigned over a great part of the world, and by his wife Titaea had eighteen children, among which were Hyperion and Basilea the parents of Helius and Selene; that the brothers of Hyperion slew him, and drowned his son Helius, the Phaeton of the ancients, in the Nile, and divided his Kingdom amongst themselves; and the country bordering upon the Ocean fell to the lot of Atlas, from whom the people were called Atlantides. By Uranus or Jupiter Uranius, Hyperion, Basilea, Helius and Selene, I understand Jupiter Ammon, Osiris, Isis, Orus and Bubaste; and by the sharing of the Kingdom of Hyperion amongst his brothers the Titans, I understand the division of the earth among the Gods mentioned in the Poem of Solon.

For Solon having travelled into Egypt, and conversed with the Priests of Sais; about their antiquities, wrote a Poem of what he had learnt, but did not finish it; [309] and this Poem fell into the hands of Plato who relates out of it, that at the mouth of the Straits near Hercules's Pillars there was an Island called Atlantis, the people of which, nine thousand years before the days of Solon, reigned over Libya as far as Egypt; and over Europe as far as the Tyrrhene sea; and all this force collected into one body invaded Egypt and Greece, and whatever was contained within the Pillars of Hercules, but was resisted and stopt by the Athenians and other Greeks, and thereby the rest of the nations not yet conquered were preserved: he saith also that in those days the Gods, having finished their conquests, divided the whole earth amongst themselves, partly into larger, partly into smaller portions, and instituted Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves; and that the Island Atlantis fell to the lot of Neptune, who made his eldest Son Atlas King of the whole Island, a part of which was called Gadir; and that in the history of the said wars mention was made of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius, and others before Theseus, and also of the women who warred with the men, and of the habit and statue of Minerva, the study of war in those days being common to men and women. By all these circumstances it is manifest that these Gods were the Dii magni majorum gentium, and lived between the age of Cecrops and Theseus; and that the wars which Sesostris with his brother Neptune made upon the nations by land and sea, and the resistance he met with in Greece, and the following invasion of Egypt by Neptune, are here described; and how the captains of Sesostris shared his conquests amongst themselves, as the captains of Alexander the great did his conquests long after, and instituting Temples and Priests and sacred Rites to themselves, caused the nations to worship them after death as Gods: and that the Island Gadir or Gades, with all Libya, fell to the lot of him who after death was Deified by the name of Neptune. The time therefore when these things were done is by Solon limited to the age of Neptune, the father of Atlas; for Homer tells us, that Ulysses presently after the Trojan war found Calypso the daughter of Atlas in the Ogygian Island, perhaps Gadir; and therefore it was but two Generations before the Trojan war. This is that Neptune, who with Apollo or Orus fortified Troy with a wall, in the Reign of Laomedon the father of Priamus, and left many natural children in Greece, some of which were Argonauts, and others were contemporary to the Argonauts; and therefore he flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition, and by consequence about 400 years before Solon went into Egypt: but the Priests of Egypt in those 400 years had magnified the stories and antiquity of their Gods so exceedingly, as to make them nine thousand years older than Solon, and the Island Atlantis bigger than all Afric and Asia together, and full of people; and because in the days of Solon this great Island did not appear, they pretended that it was sunk into the sea with all its people: thus great was the vanity of the Priests of Egypt in magnifying their antiquities.

The Cretans [310] affirmed that Neptune was the man who set out a fleet, having obtained this Praefecture of his father Saturn; whence posterity reckoned things done in the sea to be under his government, and mariners honoured him with sacrifices: the invention of tall Ships with sails [311] is also ascribed to him. He was first worshipped in Africa, as Herodotus [312] affirms, and therefore Reigned over that province: for his eldest son Atlas, who succeeded him, was not only Lord of the Island Atlantis, but also Reigned over a great part of Afric, giving his name to the people called Atlantii, and to the mountain Atlas, and the Atlantic Ocean. The [313] outmost parts of the earth and promontories, and whatever bordered upon the sea and was washed by it, the Egyptians called Neptys; and on the coasts of Marmorica and Cyrene, Bochart and Arius Montanus place the Naphthuhim, a people sprung from Mizraim, Gen. x. 13; and thence Neptune and his wife Neptys might have their names, the words Neptune, Neptys and Naphthuhim, signifying the King, Queen, and people of the sea-coasts. The Greeks tell us that Japetus was the father of Atlas, and Bochart derives Japetus and Neptune from the same original: he and his son Atlas are celebrated in the ancient fables for making war upon the Gods of Egypt; as when Lucian [314] saith that Corinth being full of fables, tells the fight of Sol and Neptune, that is, of Apollo and Python, or Orus and Typhon; and where Agatharcides [315] relates how the Gods of Egypt fled from the Giants, 'till the Titans came in and saved them by putting Neptune to flight; and where Hyginus [316] tells the war between the Gods of AEgypt, and the Titans commanded by Atlas.

The Titans are the posterity of Titaea, some of whom under Hercules assisted the Gods, others under Neptune and Atlas warred against them: for which reason, saith Plutarch, [317] the Priests of Egypt abominated the sea, and had Neptune in no honour. By Hercules, I understand here the general of the forces of Thebais and Ethiopia whom the Gods or great men of Egypt called to their assistance, against the Giants or great men of Libya, who had slain Osiris and invaded Egypt: for Diodorus [318] saith that when Osiris made his expedition over the world, he left his kinsman Hercules general of his forces over all his dominions, and Antaeus governor of Libya and Ethiopia. Antaeus Reigned over all Afric to the Atlantic Ocean, and built Tingis or Tangieres: Pindar [319] tells us that he Reigned at Irasa a town of Libya, where Cyrene was afterwards built: he invaded Egypt and Thebais; for he was beaten by Hercules and the Egyptians near Antaea or Antaeopolis, a town of Thebais; and Diodorus [320] tells us that this town had its name from Antaeus, whom Hercules slew in the days of Osiris. Hercules overthrew him several times, and every time he grew stronger by recruits from Libya, his mother earth; but Hercules intercepted his recruits, and at length slew him. In these wars Hercules took the Libyan world from Atlas, and made Atlas pay tribute out of his golden orchard, the Kingdom of Afric. Antaeus and Atlas were both of them sons of Neptune both of them Reigned over all Libya and Afric, between Mount Atlas and the Mediterranean to the very Ocean; both of them invaded Egypt, and contended with Hercules in the wars of the Gods, and therefore they are but two names of one and the same man; and even the name Atlas in the oblique cases seems to have been compounded of the name Antaeeus and some other word, perhaps the word Atal, cursed, put before it: the invasion of Egypt by Antaeus, Ovid hath relation unto, where he makes Hercules say,

Saevoque alimenta parentis Antaeo eripui.

This war was at length composed by the intervention of Mercury, who in memory thereof was said to reconcile two contending serpents, by casting his Ambassador's rod between them: and thus much concerning the ancient state of Egypt, Libya, and Greece, described by Solon.

The mythology of the Cretans differed in some things from that of Egypt and Libya: for in the Cretan mythology, Coelus and Terra, or Uranus and Titaea were the parents of Saturn and Rhea, and Saturn and Rhea were the parents of Jupiter and Juno; and Hyperion, Japetus and the Titans were one Generation older than Jupiter; and Saturn was expelled his Kingdom and castrated by his son Jupiter: which fable hath no place in the mythology of Egypt.

During the Reign of _Sesac_, _Jeroboam_ being in subjection to _Egypt_; set up the Gods of _Egypt_ in _Dan_ and _Bethel_; and _Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching Priest and without law: and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries; and nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity_. 2 _Chron_. xv. 3, 5, 6. But in the fifth year of _Asa_ the land of _Judah_ became quiet from war, and from thence had quiet ten years; and _Asa_ took away the altars of strange Gods, and brake down the Images, and built the fenced cities of _Judah_ with walls and towers and gates and bars, having rest on every side, and got up an army of 580000 men, with which in the fifteenth year of his Reign he met _Zerah_ the _Ethiopian_, who came out against him with an army of a thousand thousand _Ethiopians_ and _Libyans_: the way of the _Libyans_ was through _Egypt_, and therefore _Zerah_ was now Lord of _Egypt_: they fought at _Mareshah_ near _Gerar_, between _Egypt_ and _Judaea_, and _Zerah_ was beaten, so that he could not recover himself: and from all this I seem to gather that _Osiris_ was slain in the fifth year of _Asa_, and thereupon _Egypt_ fell into civil wars, being invaded by the _Libyans_, and defended by the _Ethiopians_ for a time; and after ten years more being invaded by the _Ethiopians_, who slew _Orus_ the son and successor of _Osiris_, drowning him in the _Nile_, and seized his Kingdom. By these civil wars of _Egypt_, the land of _Judah_ had rest ten years. _Osiris_ or _Sesostris_ reigned long, _Manetho_ saith 48 years; and by this reckoning he began to Reign about the 17th year of _Solomon_; and _Orus_ his son was drowned in the 15th year of _Asa_: for _Pliny_ [321] tells us, _AEgyptiorum bellis attrita est AEthiopia, vicissim imperitando serviendoque, clara & potens etiam usque ad Trojana bella Memnone regnante_. _Ethiopia_, served _Egypt_ 'till the death of _Sesostris_, and no longer; for _Herodotus_ [322] tells us that _he alone enjoyed the Empire of _Ethiopia_: then the _Ethiopians_ became free, and after ten years became Lords of _Egypt_ and _Libya_, under _Zerah_ and _Amenophis_.

When Asa by his victory over Zerah became safe from Egypt, he assembled all the people, and they offered sacrifices out of the spoils, and entered into a covenant upon oath to seek the Lord; and in lieu of the vessels taken away by Sesac, he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, Silver and Gold, and Vessels. 2 Chron. xv.

When Zerah was beaten, so that he could not recover himself, the people [323] of the lower Egypt revolted from the Ethiopians, and called in to their assistance two hundred thousand Jews and Canaanites; and under the conduct of one Osarsiphus, a Priest of Egypt, called Usorthon, Osorchon, Osorchor, and Hercules AEgyptius by Manetho, caused the Ethiopians now under Memnon to retire to Memphis: and there Memnon turned the river Nile into a new channel, built a bridge over it and fortified that pass, and then went back into Ethiopia: but after thirteen years, he and his young son Ramesses came down with an army from Ethiopia, conquered the lower Egypt, and drove out the Jews and Phoenicians; and this action the Egyptian writers and their followers call the second expulsion of the Shepherds, taking Osarsiphus for Moses.

Tithonus a beautiful youth, the elder brother of Priamus, went into Ethiopia, being carried thither among many captives by Sesostris: and the Greeks, before the days of Hesiod, feigned that Memnon was his son: Memnon therefore, in the opinion of those ancient Greeks, was one Generation younger than Tithonus, and was born after the return of Sesostris into Egypt: suppose about 16 or 20 years after the death of Solomon. He is said to have lived very long, and so might die about 95 years after Solomon, as we reckoned above: his mother, called Cissia by AEschylus, in a statue erected to her in Egypt, [324] was represented as the daughter, the wife, and the mother of a King, and therefore he was the son of a King; which makes it probable that Zerah, whom he succeeded in the Kingdom of Ethiopia, was his father.

Historians [325] agree that Menes Reigned in Egypt next after the Gods, and turned the river into a new channel, and built a bridge over it, and built Memphis and the magnificent Temple of Vulcan: he built Memphis over-against the place where Grand Cairo now stands, called by the Arabian historians Mesir: he built only the body of the Temple of Vulcan, and his successors Ramesses or Rhampsinitus, Moeris, Asychis, and Psammiticus built the western, northern eastern, and southern portico's thereof: Psammiticus, who built the last portico of this Temple, Reigned three hundred years after the victory of Asa over Zerah, and it is not likely that this Temple could be above three hundred years in building, or that any Menes could be King of all Egypt before the expulsion of the Shepherds. The last of the Gods of Egypt was Orus, with his mother Isis, and sister Bubaste, and secretary Thoth, and unkle Typhon; and the King who reigned next after all their deaths, and turned the river and built a bridge over it, and built Memphis and the Temple of Vulcan, was Memnon or Amenophis, called by the Egyptians Amenoph; and therefore he is Menes: for the names Amenoph, or Menoph, and Menes do not much differ; and from Amenoph the city Memphis built by Menes had its Egyptian names Moph, Noph, Menoph or Menuf, as it is still called by the Arabian historians: the necessity of fortifying this place against Osarsiphus gave occasion to the building of it.

In the time of the revolt of the lower _Egypt_ under _Osarsiphus_, and the retirement of _Amenophis_ into _Ethiopia_, _Egypt_ being then in the greatest distraction, the _Greeks_ built the ship _Argo_, and sent in it the flower of _Greece_ to _AEetes_ in _Colchis_, and to many other Princes on the coasts of the _Euxine_ and _Mediterranean_ seas; and this ship was built after the pattern of an _Egyptian_ ship with fifty oars, in which _Danaus_ with his fifty daughters a few years before fled from _Egypt_ into _Greece_, and was the first long ship with sails built by the _Greeks_: and such an improvement of navigation, with a design to send the flower of _Greece_ to many Princes upon the sea-coasts of the _Euxine_ and _Mediterranean_ seas, was too great an undertaking to be set on foot, without the concurrence of the Princes and States of _Greece_, and perhaps the approbation of the _Amphictyonic_ Council; for it was done by the dictate of the Oracle. This Council met every half year upon state-affairs for the welfare of _Greece_, and therefore knew of this expedition, and might send the _Argonauts_ upon an embassy to the said Princes; and for concealing their design might make the fable of the golden fleece, in relation to the ship of _Phrixus_ whose ensign was a golden ram: and probably their design was to notify the distraction of _Egypt_, and the invasion thereof by the _Ethiopians_ and _Israelites_, to the said Princes, and to persuade them to take that opportunity to revolt from _Egypt_, and set up for themselves, and make a league with the _Greeks_: for the _Argonauts_ went through [326] the Kingdom of _Colchis_ by land to the _Armenians_, and through _Armenia_ to the _Medes_; which could not have been done if they had not made friendship with the nations through which they passed: they visited also _Laomedon_ King of the _Trojans_, _Phineus_ King of the _Thracians_, _Cyzicus_ King of the _Doliones_, _Lycus_ King of the _Mariandyni_, the coasts of _Mysia_ and _Taurica Chersonesus_, the nations upon the _Tanais_, the people about _Byzantium_, and the coasts of _Epirus_, _Corsica_, _Melita_, _Italy_, _Sicily_, _Sardinia_, and _Gallia_ upon the _Mediterranean_; and from thence they [327] crossed the sea to _Afric_, and there conferred with _Euripylus_ King of _Cyrene_: and [328] _Strabo_ tells us that _in _Armenia_ and _Media_, and the neighbouring places, there were frequent monuments of the expedition of _Jason_; as also about _Sinope_, and its sea-coasts, the _Propontis_ and the _Hellespont_, and in the _Mediterranean_: and a message by the flower of _Greece_ to so many nations could be on no other account than state-policy; these nations had been invaded by the _Egyptians_, but after this expedition we hear no more of their continuing in subjection to _Egypt_.

The [329] Egyptians originally lived on the fruits of the earth, and fared hardly, and abstained from animals, and therefore abominated Shepherds: Menes taught them to adorn their beds and tables with rich furniture and carpets, and brought in amongst them a sumptuous, delicious and voluptuous way of life: and about a hundred years after his death, Gnephacthus one of his successors cursed him for it, and to reduce the luxury of Egypt, caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and by this curse the honour of Menes was diminished among the Egyptians.

The Kings of Egypt who expelled the Shepherds and Succeeded them, Reigned I think first at Coptos, and then at Thebes, and then at Memphis. At Coptos I place Misphragmuthosis and Amosis or Thomosis who expelled the Shepherds, and abolished their custom of sacrificing men, and extended the Coptic language, and the name of [Greek: Aia Koptou], Aegyptus, to the conquest. Then Thebes became the Royal City of Ammon, and from him was called No-Ammon, and his conquest on the west of Egypt was called Ammonia. After him, in the same city of Thebes, Reigned Osiris, Orus, Menes or Amenophis, and Ramesses: but Memphis and her miracles were not yet celebrated in Greece; for Homer celebrates Thebes as in its glory in his days, and makes no mention of Memphis. After Menes had built Memphis, Moeris the successor of Ramesses adorned it, and made it the seat of the Kingdom, and this was almost two Generations after the Trojan war. Cinyras, the Vulcan who married Venus, and under the Kings of Egypt Reigned over Cyprus and part of Phoenicia, and made armour for those Kings, lived 'till the times of the Trojan war: and upon his death Menes or Memnon might Deify him, and found the famous Temple of Vulcan in that city for his worship, but not live to finish it. In a plain [330] not far from Memphis are many small Pyramids, said to be built by Venephes or Enephes; and I suspect that Venephes and Enephes have been corruptly written for Menephes or Amenophis, the letters AM being almost worn out in some old manuscript: for after the example of these Pyramids, the following Kings, Moeris and his successors, built others much larger. The plain in which they were built was the burying-place of that city, as appears by the Mummies there found; and therefore the Pyramids were the sepulchral monuments of the Kings and Princes of that city: and by these and such like works the city grew famous soon after the days of Homer; who therefore flourished in the Reign of Ramesses.

Herodotus [331] is the oldest historian now extant who wrote of the antiquities of Egypt, and had what he wrote from the Priests of that country: and Diodorus, who wrote almost 400 years after him, and had his relations also from the Priests of Egypt, placed many nameless Kings between those whom Herodotus placed in continual succession. The Priests of Egypt had therefore, between the days of Herodotus and Diodorus, out of vanity, very much increased the number of their Kings: and what they did after the days of Herodotus, they began to do before his days; for he tells us that they recited to him out of their books, the names of 330 Kings who Reigned after Menes, but did nothing memorable, except Nitocris and Moeris the last of them: all these Reigned at Thebes, 'till Moeris translated the seat of the Empire from Thebes to Memphis. After Moeris he reckons Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, Rhampsinitus, Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Asychis, Anysis, Sabacon, Anysis again, Sethon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, and Psammenitus. The Egyptians had before the days of Solon made their monarchy 9000 years old, and now they reckon'd to Herodotus a succession of 330 Kings Reigning so many Generations, that is about 11000 years, before Sesostris: but the Kings who Reigned long before Sesostris might Reign over several little Kingdoms in several parts of Egypt, before the rise of their Monarchy; and by consequence before the days of Eli and Samuel, and so are not under our consideration: and these names may have been multiplied by corruption; and some of them, as Athothes or Thoth, the secretary of Osiris; Tosorthrus or AEsculapius a Physician who invented building with square stones; and Thuor or Polybus the husband of Alcandra, were only Princes of Egypt. If with Herodotus we omit the names of those Kings who did nothing memorable, and consider only those whose actions are recorded, and who left splendid monuments of their having Reigned over Egypt, such as were Temples, Statues, Pyramids, Obelisks, and Palaces dedicated or ascribed to them, these Kings reduced into good order will give us all or almost all the Kings of Egypt, from the days of the expulsion of the Shepherds and founding of the Monarchy, downwards to the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses: for Sesostris Reigned in the Age of the Gods of Egypt: being Deified by the names of Osiris, Hercules and Bacchus, as above; and therefore Menes, Nitocris, and Moeris are to be placed after him; Menes and his son Ramesses Reigned next after the Gods, and therefore Nitocris and Moeris Reigned after Ramesses: Moeris is set down immediately before Cheops, three times in the Dynastys of the Kings of Egypt composed by Eratosthenes, and once in the Dynasties of Manetho; and in the same Dynasties Nitocris is set after the builders of the three great Pyramids, and according to Herodotus her brother Reigned before her, and was slain, and she revenged his death; and according to Syncellus she built the third great Pyramid; and the builders of the Pyramids Reigned at Memphis, and by consequence after Moeris. Now from these things I gather that the Kings of Egypt mentioned by Herodotus ought to be placed in this order; Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, Menes, Rhampsinitus, Moeris, Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Nitocris, Asychis, Anysis, Sabacon, Anysis again, Sethon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, Psammenitus.

Pheron is by Herodotus said to be the son and successor of Sesostris. He was Deified by the name of Orus.

Proteus Reigned in the lower Egypt when Paris sailed thither; that is at the end of the Trojan war, according to [332] Herodotus: and at that time Amenophis was King of Egypt and Ethiopia: but in his absence Proteus might be governor of some part of the lower Egypt under him; for Homer places Proteus upon the sea-coasts, and makes him a sea God, and calls him the servant of Neptune; and Herodotus saith that he rose up from among the common people, and that Proteus was his name translated into Greek, and this name in Greek signifies only a Prince or President. He succeeded Pheron, and was succeeded by Rhampsinitus according to Herodotus; and so was contemporary to Amenophis.

Amenophis Reigned next after Orus and Isis the last of the Gods; he Reigned at first over all Egypt, and then over Memphis and the upper parts of Egypt; and by conquering Osarsiphus, who had revolted from him, became King of all Egypt again, about 51 years after the death of Solomon. He built Memphis and ordered the worship of the Gods of Egypt, and built a Palace at Abydus, and the Memnonia at This and Susa, and the magnificent Temple of Vulcan in Memphis; the building with square stones being found out before by Tosorthrus, the AEsculapius of Egypt: he is by corruption of his name called Menes, Mines, Minaeus, Mineus, Minies, Mnevis, Enephes, Venephes, Phamenophis, Osymanthyas, Osimandes, Ismandes, Imandes, Memnon, Arminon.

Amenophis was succeeded by his son, called by Herodotus, Rhampsinitus, and by others Ramses, Ramises, Rameses, Ramesses, [333] Ramestes, Rhampses, Remphis. Upon an Obelisk erected by this King in Heliopolis, and sent to Rome by the Emperor Constantius, was an inscription, interpreted by Hermapion an Egyptian Priest, expressing that the King was long lived, and Reigned over a great part of the earth: and Strabo, [334] an eye-witness, tells us, that in the monuments of the Kings of Egypt, above the Memnonium were inscriptions upon Obelisks, expressing the riches of the Kings, and their Reigning as far as Scythia, Bactria, India and Ionia: and Tacitus [335] tells us from an inscription seen at Thebes by Caesar Germanicus, and interpreted to him by the Egyptian Priests, that this King Ramesses had an army of 700000 men, and Reigned over Libya, Ethiopia, Media, Persia, Bactria, Scythia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Lycia; whence the Monarchy of Assyria was not yet risen. This King was very covetous, and a great collector of taxes, and one of the richest of all the Kings of Egypt, and built the western portico of the Temple of Vulcan.

Moeris inheriting the riches of Ramesses, built the northern portico of that Temple more sumptuously, and made the Lake of Moeris, with two great Pyramids of brick in the midst of it: and for preserving the division of Egypt into equal shares amongst the soldiers, this King wrote a book of surveying, which gave a beginning to Geometry. He is called also Maris, Myris, Meres, Marres, Smarres; and more corruptly, by changing [Greek: M] into [Greek: A, T, B, S, YCH, L], &c. Ayres, Tyris, Byires, Soris, Uchoreus, Lachares, Labaris, &c.

Diodorus [336] places Uchoreus between Osymanduas and Myris, that is between Amenophis and Moeris, and saith that he built Memphis, and fortified it to admiration with a mighty rampart of earth, and a broad and deep trench, which was filled with the water of the Nile, and made there a vast and deep Lake for receiving the water of the Nile in the time of its overflowing, and built palaces in the city; and that this place was so commodiously seated that most of the Kings who Reigned after him preferred it before Thebes, and removed the Court from thence to this place, so that the magnificence of Thebes from that time began to decrease, and that of Memphis to increase, 'till Alexander King of Macedon built Alexandria. These great works of Uchoreus and those of Moeris savour of one and the same genius, and were certainly done by one and the same King, distinguished into two by a corruption of the name as above; for this Lake of Uchoreus was certainly the same with that of Moeris.

After the example of the two brick Pyramids made by Moeris, the three next Kings, Cheops, Cephren and Mycerinus built the three great Pyramids at Memphis; and therefore Reigned in that city. Cheops shut up the Temples of the Nomes, and prohibited the worship of the Gods of Egypt, designing no doubt to have been worshipped himself after death: he is called also Chembis, Chemmis, Chemnis, Phiops, Apathus, Apappus, Suphis, Saophis, Syphoas, Syphaosis, Soiphis, Syphuris, Anoiphis, Anoisis: he built the biggest of the three great Pyramids which stand together; and his brother Cephren or Cerpheres built the second, and his son Mycerinus founded the third: this last King was celebrated for clemency and justice; he shut up the dead body of his daughter in a hollow ox, and caused her to be worshipped daily with odours: he is called also Cheres, Cherinus, Bicheres, Moscheres, Mencheres. He died before the third Pyramid was finished, and his sister and successor Nitocris finished it.

Then Reigned Asychis, who built the eastern portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, and among the small Pyramids a large Pyramid of brick, made of mud dug out of the Lake of Moeris: and these are the Kings who Reigned at Memphis, and spent their time in adorning that city, until the Ethiopians and the Assyrians and others revolted, and Egypt lost all her dominion abroad, and became again divided into several small Kingdoms.

One of those Kingdoms was I think at Memphis, under Gnephactus, and his son and successor Bocchoris. Africanus calls Bocchoris a Saite; but Sais at this time had other Kings: Gnephactus, otherwise called Neochabis and Technatis, cursed Menes for his luxury, and caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and therefore Reigned over Thebais: and Bocchoris sent in a wild bull upon the God Mnevis which was worshipped at Heliopolis. Another of those Kingdoms was at Anysis, or Hanes, Isa. xxx. 4. under its King Anysis or Amosis; a third was at Sais, under Stephanathis, Nechepsos, and Nechus; and a fourth was at Tanis or Zoan, under Petubastes, Osorchon and Psammis: and Egypt being weakened by this division, was invaded and conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacon, who slew Bocchoris and Nechus, and made Anysis fly. The Olympiads began in the Reign of Petubastes, and the AEra of Nabonassar in the 22d year of the Reign of Bocchoris, according to Africanus; and therefore the division, of Egypt into many Kingdoms began before the Olympiads, but not above the length of two Kings Reigns before them.

After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of navigation, and the Egyptians by the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars had determined the length of the Solar year of 365 days, and by other observations had fixed the Solstices, and formed the fixt Stars into Asterisms, all which was done in the Reign of Ammon, Sesac, Orus, and Memnon; it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets; for they called them after the names of their Gods; and Nechepsos or Nicepsos King of Sais, by the assistance of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt, invented Astrology, grounding it upon the aspects of the Planets, and the qualities of the men and women to whom they were dedicated: and in the beginning of the Reign of Nabonassar King of Babylon, about which time the Ethiopians under Sabacon invaded Egypt, those Egyptians who fled from him to Babylon, carried thither the Egyptian year of 365 days, and the study of Astronomy and Astrology, and founded the AEra of Nabonassar; dating it from the first year of that King's Reign, which was the 22d year of Bocchoris as above, and beginning the year on the same day with the Egyptians for the sake of their calculations. So Diodorus [337]: they say that the Chaldaeans in Babylon, being Colonies of the Egyptians, became famous for Astrology, having learnt it from the Priests of Egypt: and Hestiaeus, who wrote an history of Egypt, speaking of a disaster of the invaded Egyptians, saith [338] that the Priests who survived this disaster, taking with them the Sacra of Jupiter Enyalius, came to Sennaar in Babylonia. From the 15th year of Asa, in which Zerah was beaten, and Menes or Amenophis began his Reign, to the beginning of the AEra of Nabonassar, were 200 years; and this interval of time allows room for about nine or ten Reigns of Kings, at about twenty years to a Reign one with another; and so many Reigns there were, according to the account set down above out of Herodotus; and therefore that account, as it is the oldest, and was received by Herodotus from the Priests of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, three principal cities of Egypt, agrees also with the course of nature, and leaves no room for the Reigns of the many nameless Kings which we have omitted. These omitted Kings Reigned before Moeris, and by consequence at Thebes; for Moeris translated the seat of the Empire from Thebes to Memphis: they Reigned after Ramesses; for Ramesses was the son and successor of Menes, who Reigned next after the Gods. Now Menes built the body of the Temple of Vulcan, Ramesses the first portico, and Moeris the second portico thereof; but the Egyptians, for making their Gods and Kingdom look ancient, have inserted between the builders of the first and second portico of this Temple, three hundred and thirty Kings of Thebes, and supposed that these Kings Reigned eleven thousand years; as if any Temple could stand so long. This being a manifest fiction, we have corrected it, by omitting those interposed Kings, who did nothing, and placing Moeris the builder of the second portico, next after Ramesses the builder of the first.

In the Dynasties of Manetho; Sevechus is made the successor of Sabacon, being his son; and perhaps he is the Sethon of Herodotus, who became Priest of Vulcan, and neglected military discipline: for Sabacon is that So or Sua with whom Hoshea King of Israel conspired against the Assyrians, in the fourth year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 24. Herodotus tells us twice or thrice, that Sabacon after a long Reign of fifty years relinquished Egypt voluntarily, and that Anysis who fled from him, returned and Reigned again in the lower Egypt after him, or rather with him: and that Sethon Reigned after Sabacon, and went to Pelusium against the army of Sennacherib, and was relieved with a great multitude of mice, which eat the bow-strings of the Assyrians; in memory of which the statue of Sethon, seen by Herodotus, [339] was made with a Mouse in its hand. A Mouse was the Egyptian symbol of destruction, and the Mouse in the hand of Sethon signifies only that he overcame the Assyrians with a great destruction. The Scriptures inform us, that when Sennacherib invaded Judaea and besieged Lachish and Libnah, which was in the 14th year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 34. the King of Judah trusted upon Pharaoh King of Egypt, that is upon Sethon, and that Tirhakah King of Ethiopia came out also to fight against Sennacherib, 2 King. xviii. 21. & xix. 9. which makes it probable, that when Sennacherib heard of the Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia coming against him, he went from Libnah towards Pelusium to oppose them, and was there surprized and set upon in the night by them both, and routed with as great a slaughter as if the bow-strings of the Assyrians had been eaten by mice. Some think that the Assyrians were smitten by lightning, or by a fiery wind which sometimes comes from the southern parts of Chaldaea. After this victory Tirhakah succeeding Sethon, carried his arms westward through Libya and Afric to the mouth of the Straits: but Herodotus tells us, that the Priests of Egypt reckoned Sethon the last King of Egypt, who Reigned before the division of Egypt into twelve contemporary Kingdoms, and by consequence before the invasion of Egypt by the Assyrians.

For Asserhadon King of Assyria, in the 68th year of Nabonassar, after he had Reigned about thirty years over Assyria, invaded the Kingdom of Babylon, and then carried into captivity many people from Babylon, and Cuthah, and Ava, and Hamath, and Sepharvaim, placing them in the Regions of Samaria and Damascus: and from thence they carried into Babylonia and Assyria the remainder of the people of Israel and Syria, which had been left there by Tiglath-pileser. This captivity was 65 years after the first year of Ahaz, Isa. vii. 1, 8. & 2. King. xv. 37. & xvi. 5. and by consequence in the twentieth year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69. and then Tartan was sent by Asserhadon with an army against Ashdod or Azoth, a town at that time subject to Judaea, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. and took it, Isa. xx. 1: and this post being secured, the Assyrians beat the Jews, and captivated Manasseh, and subdued Judaea: and in these wars, Isaiah was saw'd asunder by the command of Manasseh, for prophesying against him. Then the Assyrians invaded and subdued Egypt and Ethiopia, and carried the Egyptians and Ethiopians into captivity, and thereby put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, Isa. vii. 18. & viii. 7. & x. 11, 12, & xix. 23. & xx. 4. In this war the city No-Ammon or Thebes, which had hitherto continued in a flourishing condition, was miserably wasted and led into captivity, as is described by Nahum, chap. iii. ver. 8, 9, 10; for Nahum wrote after the last invasion of Judaea by the Assyrians, chap. i. ver. 15; and therefore describes this captivity as fresh in memory: and this and other following invasions of Egypt under Nebuchadnezzar and Cambyses, put an end to the glory of that city. Asserhadon Reigned over the Egyptians and Ethiopians three years, Isa. xx. 3, 4. that is until his death, which was in the year of Nabonassar 81, and therefore invaded Egypt, and put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over the Egyptians, in the year of Nabonassar 78; so that the Ethiopians under Sabacon, and his successors Sethon and Tirhakah, Reigned over Egypt about 80 years: Herodotus allots 50 years to Sabacon, and Africanus fourteen years to Sethon, and eighteen to Tirhakah.

The division of _Egypt_ into more Kingdoms than one, both before and after the Reign of the _Ethiopians_, and the conquest of the _Egyptians_ by _Asserhadon_, the prophet _Isaiah_ [340] seems allude unto in these words: _I will set_, saith he, _the _Egyptians_ against the _Egyptians_, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and the Spirit of _Egypt_ shall fail.—And the _Egyptians_ will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord _[viz. _Asserhadon_]_ and a fierce King shall Reign over them.—Surely the Princes of _Zoan_ _[Tanis]_ are fools, the counsel of the wise Councellors of _Pharaoh_ is become brutish: how long say ye unto _Pharaoh_, I am the son of the ancient Kings.—The Princes of _Zoan_ are be come fools: the Princes of _Noph_ _[Memphis]_ are deceived,—even they that were the stay of the tribes thereof.—In that day there shall be a high-way out of _Egypt_ into _Assyria_, and the _Egyptians_ shall serve the _Assyrians_.

After the death of Asserhadon, Egypt remained subject to twelve contemporary Kings, who revolted from the Assyrians, and Reigned together fifteen years; including I think the three years of Asserhadon, because the Egyptians do not reckon him among their Kings. They [341] built the Labyrinth adjoining to the Lake of Moeris which was a very magnificent structure, with twelve Halls in it, for their Palaces: and then Psammitichus, who was one of the twelve, conquered all the rest. He built the last Portico of the Temple of Vulcan, founded by Menes about 260 years before, and Reigned 54 years, including the fifteen years of his Reign with the twelve Kings. Then Reigned Nechaoh or Nechus, 17 years; Psammis six years; Vaphres, Apries, Eraphius, or Hophra, 25 years; Amasis 44 years; and Psammenitus six months, according to Herodotus. Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year but one of Hophra, Anno Nabonass. 178, and remained in subjection to Babylon forty years, Jer. xliv. 30. & Ezek. xxix. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19. that is, almost all the Reign of Amasis, a plebeian set over Egypt by the conqueror: the forty years ended with the death of Cyrus; for he Reigned over Egypt and Ethiopia, according to Xenophon. At that time therefore those nations recovered their liberty; but after four or five years more they were invaded and conquered by Cambyses, Anno Nabonass. 223 or 224, and have almost ever since remained in servitude, as was predicted by the Prophets.

The Reigns of Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, and Psammenitus, set down by Herodotus, amount unto 1461/2 years: and so many years there were from the 78th year of Nabonassar, in which the dominion of the Ethiopians over Egypt came to an end, unto the 224th year of Nabonassar, in which Cambyses invaded Egypt, and put an end to that Kingdom: which is an argument that Herodotus was circumspect and faithful in his narrations, and has given us a good account of the antiquities of Egypt, so far as the Priests of Egypt at Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, and the Carians and Ionians inhabiting Egypt, were then able to inform him: for he consulted them all; and the Cares and Ionians had been in Egypt from the time of the Reign of the twelve contemporary Kings.

Pliny [342] tells us, that the Egyptian Obelisks were of a sort of stone dug near Syene in Thebais, and that the first Obelisk was made by Mitres, who Reigned in Heliopolis; that is, by Mephres the predecessor of Misphragmuthosis; and that afterwards other Kings made others: Sochis, that is Sesochis, or Sesac, four, each of 48 cubits in length; Ramises, that is Ramesses, two; Smarres, that is Moeris, one of 48 cubits in length; Eraphius, or Hophra, one of 48; and Nectabis, or Nectenabis, one of 80. Mephres therefore extended his dominion over all the upper Egypt, from Syene to Heliopolis, and after him, Misphragmuthosis and Amosis, Reigned Ammon and Sesac, who erected the first great Empire in the world: and these four, Amosis, Ammon, Sesac, and Orus, Reigned in the four ages of the great Gods of Egypt; and Amenophis was the Menes who Reigned next after them: he was Succeeded by Ramesses, and Moeris, and some time after by Hophra.

Diodorus [343] recites the same Kings of Egypt with Herodotus, but in a more confused order, and repeats some of them twice, or oftener, under various names, and omits others: his Kings are these; Jupiter Ammon and Juno, Osiris and Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Uchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes or Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Cephren, Mycerinus or Cherinus, Gnephacthus, Bocchoris, Sabacon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, * * Apries, Amasis. Here I take Sesoosis I, and Sesoosis II, Busiris I, and Busiris II, to be the same Kings with Osiris and Orus: also Osymanduas to be the same with Amenophis or Menes: also Amasis, and Actisanes, an Ethiopian who conquered him, to be the same with Anysis and Sabacon in Herodotus: and Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, and Myris, to be only several names of one and the same King. Whence the catalogue of Diodorus will be reduced to this: Jupiter Ammon and Juno; Osiris, Busiris or Sesoosis, and Isis; Horus, Busiris II, or Sesoosis II; Menes, or Osymanduas; Proteus; Remphis or Ramesses; Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, or Myris; Chembis or Cheops; Cephren; Mycerinus; * * Gnephacthus; Bocchoris; Amasis, or Anysis; Actisanes, or Sabacon; * twelve contemporary Kings; Psammitichus; * * Apries; Amasis: to which, if in their proper places you add Nitocris, Asychis, Sethon, Nechus, and Psammis, you will have the catalogue of Herodotus.

The Dynasties of Manetho and Eratosthenes seem to be filled with many such names of Kings as Herodotus omitted: when it shall be made appear that any of them Reigned in Egypt after the expulsion of the Shepherds, and were different from the Kings described above, they may be inserted in their proper places.

Egypt was conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacon, about the beginning of the AEra of Nabonassar, or perhaps three or four years before, that is, about three hundred years before Herodotus wrote his history; and about eighty years after that conquest, it was conquered again by the Assyrians under Asserhadon: and the history of Egypt set down by Herodotus from the time of this last conquest, is right both as to the number, and order, and names of the Kings, and as to the length of their Reigns: and therein he is now followed by historians, being the only author who hath given us so good a history of Egypt, for that interval of time. If his history of the earlier times be less accurate, it was because the archives of Egypt had suffered much during the Reign of the Ethiopians and Assyrians: and it is not likely that the Priests of Egypt, who lived two or three hundred years after the days of Herodotus, could mend the matter: on the contrary, after Cambyses had carried away the records of Egypt, the Priests were daily feigning new Kings, to make their Gods and nation look ancient; as is manifest by comparing Herodotus with Diodorus Siculus, and both of them with what Plato relates out of the Poem of Solon: which Poem makes the wars of the great Gods of Egypt against the Greeks, to have been in the days of Cecrops, Erechtheus and Erichthonius, and a little before those of Theseus; these Gods at that time instituting Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves. I have therefore chosen to rely upon the stories related to Herodotus by the Priests of Egypt in those days, and corrected by the Poem of Solon, so as to make these Gods of Egypt no older than Cecrops and Erechtheus, and their successor Menes no older than Theseus and Memnon, and the Temple of Vulcan not above 280 years in building: rather than to correct Herodotus by Manetho, Eratosthenes, Diodorus, and others, who lived after the Priests of Egypt had corrupted their Antiquities much more than they had done in the days of Herodotus.

* * * * *

CHAP. III.

Of the ASSYRIAN Empire.

As the Gods or ancient Deified Kings and Princes of Greece, Egypt, and Syria of Damascus, have been made much ancienter than the truth, so have those of Chaldaea and Assyria: for Diodorus [344] tells us, that when Alexander the great was in Asia, the Chaldaeans reckoned 473000 years since they first began to observe the Stars; and Ctesias, and the ancient Greek and Latin writers who copy from him, have made the Assyrian Empire as old as Noah's flood within 60 or 70 years, and tell us the names of all the Kings of Assyria downwards, from Belus and his feigned son Ninus, to Sardanapalus the last King of that Monarchy: but the names of his Kings, except two or three, have no affinity with the names of the Assyrians mentioned in Scripture; for the Assyrians were usually named after their Gods, Bel or Pul; Chaddon, Hadon, Adon, or Adonis; Melech or Moloch; Atsur or Assur; Nebo; Nergal; Merodach: as in these names, Pul, Tiglath-Pul-Assur, Salman-Assur, Adra-Melech, Shar-Assur, Assur-Hadon, Sardanapalus or Assur-Hadon-Pul, Nabonassar or Nebo-Adon-Assur, Bel Adon, Chiniladon or Chen-El-Adon, Nebo-Pul-Assur, Nebo-Chaddon-Assur, Nebuzaradon or Nebo-Assur-Adon, Nergal-Assur, Nergal-Shar-Assur, Labo-Assur-dach, Sheseb-Assur, Beltes-Assur, Evil-Merodach, Shamgar-Nebo, Rabsaris or Rab-Assur, Nebo-Shashban, Mardocempad or Merodach-Empad. Such were the Assyrian names; but those in Ctesias are of another sort, except Sardanapalus, whose name he had met with in Herodotus. He makes Semiramis as old as the first Belus; but Herodotus tells us, that she was but five Generations older than the mother of Labynetus: he represents that the city Ninus was founded by a man of the same name, and Babylon by Semiramis; whereas either Nimrod or Assur founded those and other cities, without giving his own name to any of them: he makes the Assyrian Empire continue about 1360 years, whereas Herodotus tells us that it lasted only 500 years, and the numbers of Herodotus concerning those ancient times are all of them too long: he makes Nineveh destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, three hundred years before the Reign of Astibares and Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed it, and sets down the names of seven or eight feigned Kings of Media, between the destruction of Nineveh and the Reigns of Astibares and Nebuchadnezzar, as if the Empire of the Medes, erected upon the ruins of the Assyrian Empire, had lasted 300 years, whereas it lasted but 72: and the true Empire of the Assyrians described in Scripture, whose Kings were Pul, Tiglath-pilesar, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Asserhadon, &c. he mentions not, tho' much nearer to his own times; which shews that he was ignorant of the antiquities of the Assyrians. Yet something of truth there is in the bottom of some of his stories, as there uses to be in Romances; as, that Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians; that Sardanapalus was the last King of the Assyrian Empire; and that Astibares and Astyages were Kings of the Medes: but he has made all things too ancient, and out of vainglory taken too great a liberty in feigning names and stories to please his reader.

When the Jews were newly returned from the Babylonian captivity, they confessed their Sins in this manner, Now therefore our God, —— let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us, on our Kings, on our Princes, and on our Priests, and on our Prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the Kings of Assyria, unto this day; Nehem. ix. 32. that is, since the time of the Kingdom of Assyria, or since the rise of that Empire; and therefore the Assyrian Empire arose when the Kings of Assyria began to afflict the inhabitants of Palestine; which was in the days of Pul: he and his successors afflicted Israel, and conquered the nations round about them; and upon the ruin of many small and ancient Kingdoms erected their Empire, conquering the Medes as well as other nations: but of these conquests Ctesias knew not a word, no not so much as the names of the conquerors, or that there was an Assyrian Empire then standing; for he supposes that the Medes Reigned at that time, and that the Assyrian Empire was at an end above 250 years before it began.

However we must allow that Nimrod founded a Kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into Assyria: but this Kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the Empires which rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of Chaldaea, Chalonitis and Assyria, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates: and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his territories amongst his sons. So Noah was King of all the world, and Cham was King of all Afric, and Japhet of all Europe and Asia minor; but they left no standing Kingdoms. After the days of Nimrod, we hear no more of an Assyrian Empire 'till the days of Pul. The four Kings who in the days of Abraham invaded the southern coast of Canaan came from the countries where Nimrod had Reigned, and perhaps were some of his posterity who had shared his conquests. In the time of the Judges of Israel, Mesopotamia was under its own King, Judg. iii. 8. and the King of Zobah Reigned on both sides of the River Euphrates 'till David conquered him, 2 Sam. viii, and x. The Kingdoms of Israel, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Philistia, Zidon, Damascus, and Hamath the great, continued subject to other Lords than the Assyrians 'till the days of Pul and his successors; and so did the house of Eden, Amos i. 5. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Haran or Carrhae, Gen. xii. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Sepharvaim in Mesopotamia, and Calneh near Bagdad, Gen. x. 10, Isa. x. 9, 2 Kings xvii. 31. Sesac and Memnon were great conquerors, and Reigned over Chaldaea, Assyria, and Persia, but in their histories there is not a word of any opposition made to them by an Assyrian Empire then standing: on the contrary, Susiana, Media, Persia, Bactria, Armenia, Cappadocia, &c. were conquered by them, and continued subject to the Kings of Egypt 'till after the long Reign of Ramesses the son of Memnon, as above.

Homer mentions Bacchus and Memnon Kings of Egypt and Persia, but knew nothing of an Assyrian Empire. Jonah prophesied when Israel was in affliction under the King of Syria, and this was in the latter part of the Reign of Jehoahaz, and first part of the Reign of Joash, Kings of Israel, and I think in the Reign of Moeris the successor of Ramesses King of Egypt, and about sixty years before the Reign of Pul; and Nineveh was then a city of large extent, but full of pastures for cattle, so that it contained but about 120000 persons. It was not yet grown so great and potent as not to be terrified at the preaching of Jonah, and to fear being invaded by its neighbours and ruined within forty days: it had some time before got free from the dominion of Egypt, and had got a King of its own; but its King was not yet called King of Assyria, but only King of Nineveh, Jonah iii. 6, 7. and his proclamation for a fast was not published in several nations, nor in all Assyria, but only in Nineveh, and perhaps in the villages thereof; but soon after, when the dominion of Nineveh was established at home, and exalted over all Assyria properly so called, and this Kingdom began to make war upon the neighbouring nations, its Kings were no longer called Kings of Nineveh but began to be called Kings of Assyria.

_Amos_ prophesied in the Reign of _Jeroboam_ the Son of _Joash_ King of _Israel_, soon after _Jeroboam_ had subdued the Kingdoms of _Damascus_ and _Hamath_, that is, about ten or twenty years before the Reign of _Pul_: and he [345] thus reproves _Israel_ for being lifted up by those conquests; _Ye which rejoyce in a thing of nought, which say, have we not taken to us horns by our strength? But behold I will raise up against you a nation, O house of _Israel_, saith the Lord the God of Hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entring in of _Hamath_ unto the river of the wilderness_. God here threatens to raise up a nation against _Israel_; but what nation he names not; that he conceals 'till the _Assyrians_ should appear and discover it. In the prophesies of _Isaiah_, _Jeremiah_, _Ezekiel_, _Hosea_, _Micah_, _Nahum_, _Zephaniah_ and _Zechariah_, which were written after the Monarchy grew up, it is openly named upon all occasions; but in this of _Amos_ not once, tho' the captivity of _Israel_ and _Syria_ be the subject of the prophesy, and that of _Israel_ be often threatned: he only saith in general that _Syria_ should go into captivity unto _Kir_, and that _Israel_, notwithstanding her present greatness, should go into captivity beyond _Damascus_; and that God would raise up a nation to afflict them: meaning that he would raise up above them from a lower condition, a nation whom they yet feared not: for so the _Hebrew_ word [Hebrew: mqm] signifies when applied to men, as in _Amos_ v. 2. 1 _Sam._ xii. 11. _Psal._ cxiii. 7. _Jer._ x. 20. l. 32. _Hab._ i. 6. _Zech._ xi. 16. As _Amos_ names not the _Assyrians_; at the writing of this prophecy they made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against _Israel_, and by consequence rose up in the days of _Pul_ and his successors: for after _Jeroboam_ had conquered _Damascus_ and _Hamath_, his successor _Menahem_ destroyed _Tiphsah_ with its territories upon _Euphrates_, because they opened not to him: and therefore _Israel_ continued in its greatness 'till _Pul_, probably grown formidable by some victories, caused _Menahem_ to buy his peace. _Pul_ therefore Reigning presently after the prophesy of _Amos_, and being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly reckoned the first conqueror and founder of this Empire. For _God stirred up the spirit of _Pul_, and the spirit of _Tiglath-pileser_ King of _Assyria_, 1 _Chron._ v. 20.

The same Prophet Amos, in prophesying against Israel, threatned them in this manner, with what had lately befallen other Kingdoms: Pass ye, [346] saith he, unto Calneh and see, and from thence go ye to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistims. Be they better than these Kingdoms? These Kingdoms were not yet conquered by the Assyrians, except that of Calneh or Chalonitis upon Tigris, between Babylon and Nineveh. Gath was newly vanquished [347] by Uzziah King of Judah, and Hamath [348] by Jeroboam King of Israel: and while the Prophet, in threatning Israel with the Assyrians, instances in desolations made by other nations, and mentions no other conquest of the Assyrians than that of Chalonitis near Nineveh; it argues that the King of Nineveh was now beginning his conquests, and had not yet made any great progress in that vast career of victories, which we read of a few years after.

For about seven years after the captivity of the ten Tribes, when _Sennacherib_ warred in _Syria_, which was in the 16th Olympiad, he [349] sent this message to the King of _Judah_: _Behold, thou hast heard that the Kings of _Assyria_ have done to all Lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? Have the Gods of the nations delivered them which the Gods of my fathers have destroyed, as _Gozan_ and _Haran_ and _Reseph_, and the children of _Eden_ which were in _[the Kingdom of] Thelasar_? Where is the King of _Hamath_, and the King of _Arpad_, and the King of the city of _Sepharvaim_, and of _Hena_ and _Ivah_? And _Isaiah_ [350] thus introduceth the King of _Assyria_ boasting: _Are not my Princes altogether as Kings? Is not _Calno [or _Calneh_]_ as _Carchemish_? Is not _Hamath_ as _Arpad_? Is not _Samaria_ as _Damascus_? As my hand hath found the Kingdoms of the Idols, and whose graven Images did excel them of _Jerusalem_ and of _Samaria_; shall I not as I have done unto _Samaria_ and her Idols, so do to _Jerusalem_ and her Idols?_ All this desolation is recited as fresh in memory to terrify the _Jews_, and these Kingdoms reach to the borders of _Assyria_, and to shew the largeness of the conquests they are called _all lands_, that is, all round about _Assyria_. It was the custom of the Kings of _Assyria_, for preventing the rebellion of people newly conquered, to captivate and transplant those of several countries into one another's lands, and intermix them variously: and thence it appears [351] that _Halah_, and _Habor_, and _Hara_, and _Gozan_, and the cities of the _Medes_ into which _Galilee_ and _Samaria_ were transplanted; and _Kir_ into which _Damascus_ was transplanted; and _Babylon_ and _Cuth_ or the _Susanchites_, and _Hamath_, and _Ava_, and _Sepharvaim_, and the _Dinaites_, and the _Apharsachites_, and the _Tarpelites_, and the _Archevites_, and the _Dehavites_, and the _Elamites_, or _Persians_, part of all which nations were led captive by _Asserhadon_ and his predecessors into _Samaria_; were all of them conquered by the _Assyrians_ not long before.

In these conquests are involved on the west and south side of Assyria, the Kingdoms of Mesopotamia, whose royal seats were Haran or Carrhae, and Carchemish or Circutium, and Sepharvaim, a city upon Euphrates, between Babylon and Nineveh, called Sipparae by Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, and Sipphara by Ptolomy; and the Kingdoms of Syria seated at Samaria, Damascus, Gath, Hamath, Arpad, and Reseph, a city placed by Ptolomy near Thapsacus: on the south side and south east side were Babylon and Calneh, or Calno, a city which was founded by Nimrod, where Bagdad now stands, and gave the name of Chalonitis to a large region under its government; and Thelasar or Talatha, a city of the children of Eden, placed by Ptolomy in Babylonia, upon the common stream of Tigris and Euphrates, which was therefore the river of Paradise; and the Archevites at Areca or Erech, a city built by Nimrod on the east side of Pasitigris, between Apamia and the Persian Gulph; and the Susanchites at Cuth, or Susa, the metropolis of Susiana: on the east were Elymais, and some cities of the Medes, and Kir, [352] a city and large region of Media, between Elymais, and Assyria, called Kirene by the Chaldee Paraphrast and Latin Interpreter, and Carine by Ptolomy: on the north-east were Habor or Chaboras, a mountainous region between Assyria and Media; and the Apharsachites, or men of Arrapachitis, a region originally peopled by Arphaxad, and placed by Ptolomy at the bottom of the mountains next Assyria: and on the north between Assyria and the Gordiaean mountains was Halah or Chalach, the metropolis of Calachene: and beyond these upon the Caspian sea was Gozan, called Gauzania by Ptolomy. Thus did these new conquests extend every way from the province of Assyria to considerable distances, and make up the great body of that Monarchy: so that well might the King of Assyria boast how his armies had destroyed all lands. All these nations [353] had 'till now their several Gods, and each accounted his God the God of his own land, and the defender thereof, against the Gods of the neighbouring countries, and particularly against the Gods of Assyria; and therefore they were never 'till now united under the Assyrian Monarchy, especially since the King of Assyria doth not boast of their being conquered by the Assyrians oftner than once: but these being small Kingdoms the King of Assyria easily overflowed them: Know ye not, saith [354] Sennacherib to the Jews, what I and my fathers have done unto all the People of other lands?—for no God of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand? He and his fathers therefore, Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, were great conquerors, and with a current of victories had newly overflowed all nations round about Assyria, and thereby set up this Monarchy.

Between the Reigns of Jeroboam II, and his son Zachariah, there was an interregnum of about ten or twelve years in the Kingdom of Israel: and the prophet Hosea [355] in the time of that interregnum, or soon after, mentions the King of Assyria by the name of Jareb, and another conqueror by the name of Shalman; and perhaps Shalman might be the first part of the name of Shalmaneser, and Iareb, or Irib, for it may be read both ways, the last part of the name of his successor Sennacherib: but whoever these Princes were, it appears not that they Reigned before Shalmaneser. Pul, or Belus, seems to be the first who carried on his conquests beyond the province of Assyria: he conquered Calneh with its territories in the Reign of Jerboam, Amos i. 1. vi. 2. & Isa. x. 8, 9. and invaded Israel in the Reign of Menahem, 2 King. xv. 19. but stayed not in the land, being bought off by Menahem for a thousand talents of silver: in his Reign therefore the Kingdom of Assyria was advanced on this side Tigris: for he was a great warrior, and seems to have conquered Haran, and Carchemish, and Reseph, and Calneh, and Thelasar, and might found or enlarge the city of Babylon, and build the old palace.

Herodotus tells us, that one of the gates of Babylon was [356] called the gate of Semiramis, and than she adorned the walls of the city, and the Temple of Belus, and that she [357] was five Generations older than Nitocris the mother of Labynitus, or Nabonnedus, the last King of Babylon; and therefore she flourished four Generations, or about 134 years, before Nebuchadnezzar , and by consequence in the Reign of Tiglath-pileser the successor of Pul: and the followers of Ctesias tell us, that she built Babylon, and was the widow of the son and successor of Belus, the founder of the Assyrian Empire; that is, the widow of one of the sons of Pul: but [358] Berosus a Chaldaean blames the Greeks for ascribing the building of Babylon to Semiramis; and other authors ascribe the building of this city to Belus himself, that is to Pul; so Curtius [359] tells us; Semiramis Babylonem condiderat, vel ut plerique credidere Belus, cujus regia ostenditur: and Abydenus, who had his history from the ancient monuments of the Chaldaeans, writes, [360] [Greek: Legetai Belon Babylona teichei peribalein; toi chronoi de toi ikneumenoi aphanisthenai. teichisai de authis Nabouchodonosoron, to mechri tes Makedonion arches diameinan eon chalkopylon.] 'Tis reported that Belus compassed Babylon with a wall, which in time was abolished: and that Nebuchadnezzar afterwards built a new wall with brazen gates, which stood 'till the time of the Macedonian Empire: and so Dorotheas [361] an ancient Poet of Sidon;

[Greek: Archaie Babylon, Tyriou Beloio polisma.] _The ancient city _Babylon_ built by the _Tyrian Belus_;

That is, by the Syrian or Assyrian Belus; the words Tyrian, Syrian, and Assyrian, being anciently used promiscuously for one another: Herennius [362] tells us, that it was built by the son of Belus; and this son might be Nabonassar. After the conquest of Calneh, Thelasar, and Sippare, Belus might seize Chaldaea, and begin to build Babylon, and leave it to his younger son: for all the Kings of Babylon in the Canon of Ptolemy are called Assyrians, and Nabonassar is the first of them: and Nebuchadnezzar [363] reckoned himself descended from Belus, that is, from the Assyrian Pul: and the building of Babylon is ascribed to the Assyrians by [364] Isaiah: Behold, saith he, the land of the Chaldeans: This people was not 'till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, [that is, for the Arabians.] They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof. From all this it seems therefore that Pul founded the walls and the palaces of Babylon, and left the city with the province of Chaldaea to his younger son Nabonassar; and that Nabonassar finished what his father began, and erected the Temple of Jupiter Belus to his father: and that Semiramis lived in those days, and was the Queen of Nabonassar, because one of the gates of Babylon was called the gate of Semiramis, as Herodotus affirms: but whether she continued to Reign there after her husband's death may be doubted.

_Pul_ therefore was succeeded at _Nineveh_ by his elder son _Tiglath-pileser_, at the same time that he left _Babylon_ to his younger son _Nabonassar_. _Tiglath-pileser_, the second King of _Assyria_, warred in _Phoenicia_, and captivated _Galilee_ with the two Tribes and an half, in the days of _Pekah_ King of _Israel_, and placed them in _Halah_, and _Habor_, and _Hara_, and at the river _Gozan_, places lying on the western borders of _Media_, between _Assyria_ and the _Caspian_ sea, 2 _King._ xv. 29, &: 1 _Chron._ v. 26. and about the fifth or sixth year of _Nabonassar_, he came to the assistance of the King of _Judah_ against the Kings of _Israel_ and _Syria_, and overthrew the Kingdom of _Syria_, which had been seated at _Damascus_ ever since the days of King _David_, and carried away the _Syrians_ to _Kir_ in _Media_, as _Amos_ had prophesied, and placed other nations in the regions of _Damascus_, 2 _King._ xv. 37, & xvi. 5, 9. _Amos_ i. 5. _Joseph. Antiq._ l. 9. c. 13. whence it seems that the _Medes_ were conquered before, and that the Empire of the _Assyrians_ was now grown great: for _the God of _Israel_ stirred up the spirit of _Pul_ King of _Assyria_, and the spirit of _Tiglath-pileser_ King of _Assyria_ to make war, 1 _Chron._ v. 26.

Shalmaneser or Salmanasser, called Enemessar by Tobit, invaded [365] all Phoenicia, took the city of Samaria, and captivated Israel, and placed them in Chalach and Chabor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; and Hosea [366] seems to say that he took Arbela: and his successor Sennacherib said that his fathers had conquered also Gozan, and Haran or Carrhae, and Reseph or Resen, and the children of Eden, and Arpad or the Aradii, 2 King. xix. 12.

Sennacherib the son of Shalmaneser in the 14th year of Hezekiah invaded Phoenicia, and took several cities of Judah, and attempted Egypt; and Sethon or Sevechus King of Egypt and Tirhakah King of Ethiopia coming against him, he lost in one night 185000 men, as some say by a plague, or perhaps by lightning, or a fiery wind which blows sometimes in the neighbouring deserts, or rather by being surprised by Sethon and Tirhakah: for the Egyptians in memory of this action erected a statue to Sethon, holding in his hand a mouse, the Egyptian symbol of destruction. Upon this defeat Sennacherib returned in haste to Nineveh, and [367] his Kingdom became troubled, so that Tobit could not go into Media, the Medes I think at this time revolting: and he was soon after slain by two of his sons who fled into Armenia, and his son Asserhadon succeeded him. At that time did Merodach Baladan or Mardocempad King of Babylon send an embassy to Hezekiah King of Judah.

Asserhadon, [368] called Sarchedon by Tobit, Asordan by the LXX, and Assaradin in Ptolomy's Canon, began his Reign at Nineveh, in the year of Nabonassar 42; and in the year 68 extended it over Babylon: then he carried the remainder of the Samaritans into captivity, and peopled Samaria with captives brought from several parts of his Kingdom, the Dinaites, the Apharsachites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, the Elamites, Ezra iv. 2, 9. and therefore he Reigned over all these nations. Pekah and Rezin Kings of Samaria and Damascus, invaded Judaea in the first year of Ahaz, and within 65 years after, that is in the 21st year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69, Samaria by this captivity ceased to be a people, Isa. vii. 8. Then Asserhadon invaded Judaea, took Azoth, carried Manasseh captive to Babylon, and [369] captivated also Egypt, Thebais, and Ethiopia above Thebais: and by this war he seems to have put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, in the year of Nabonassar 77 or 78.

In the Reign of Sennacherib and Asserhadon, the Assyrian Empire seems arrived at its greatness, being united under one Monarch, and containing Assyria, Media, Apolloniatis, Susiana, Chaldaea, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part of Arabia, and reaching eastward into Elymais, and Paraetacene, a province of the Medes: and if Chalach and Chabor be Colchis and Iberia, as some think, and as may seem probable from the circumcision used by those nations 'till the days of Herodotus, we are also to add these two Provinces, with the two Armenia's, Pontus and Cappadocia, as far as to the river Halys: for [370] Herodotus tells us, that the people of Cappadocia as far as to that river were called Syrians by the Greeks, both before and after the days or Cyrus, and that the Assyrians were also called Syrians by the Greeks.

Yet the Medes revolted from the Assyrians in the latter end of the Reign of Sennacherib, I think upon the slaughter of his army near Egypt and his flight to Nineveh: for at that time the estate of Sennacherib was troubled, so that Tobit could not go into Media as he had done before, Tobit i. 15. and some time after, Tobit advised his son to go into Media where he might expect peace, while Nineveh, according to the prophesy of Jonah, should be destroyed. Ctesias wrote that Arbaces a Mede being admitted to see Sardanapalus in his palace, and observing his voluptuous life amongst women, revolted with the Medes, and in conjunction with Belesis a Babylonian overcame him, and caused him to set fire to his palace and burn himself: but he is contradicted by other authors of better credit; for Duris and [371] many others wrote that Arbaces upon being admitted into the palace of Sardanapalus, and seeing his effeminate life, slew himself; and Cleitarchus, that Sardanapalus died of old age, after he had lost his dominion over Syria: he lost it by the revolt of the western nations; and Herodotus [372] tells us, that the Medes revolted first, and defended their liberty by force of arms against the Assyrians, without conquering them; and at their first revolting had no King, but after some time set up Dejoces over them, and built Ecbatane for his residence; and that Dejoces Reigned only over Media, and had a peaceable Reign of 54 years, but his son and successor Phraortes made war upon his neighbours, and conquered Persia; and that the Syrians also, and other western nations, at length revolted from the Assyrians, being encouraged thereunto by the example of the Medes; and that after the revolt of the western nations, Phraortes invaded the Assyrians, but was slain by them in that war, after he had Reigned twenty and two years. He was succeeded by Astyages.

Now Asserhadon seems to be the Sardanapalus who died of old age after the revolt of Syria, the name Sardanapalus being derived from Asserhadon-Pul. Sardanapalus was the [373] son of Anacyndaraxis, Cyndaraxis, or Anabaxaris, King of Assyria; and this name seems to have been corruptly written for Sennacherib the father of Asserhadon. Sardanapalus built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day, and therefore Reigned over Cilicia, before the revolt of the western nations: and if he be the same King with Asserhadon, he was succeeded by Saosduchinus in the year of Nabonassar 81; and by this revolution Manasseh was set at liberty to return home and fortify Jerusalem: and the Egyptians also, after the Assyrians had harrassed Egypt and Ethiopia three years, Isa. xx. 3, 4. were set at liberty, and continued under twelve contemporary Kings of their own nation, as above. The Assyrians invaded and conquered the Egyptians the first of the three years, and Reigned over them two years more: and these two years are the interregnum which Africanus, from Manetho, places next before the twelve Kings. The Scythians of Touran or Turquestan beyond the river Oxus began in those days to infest Persia, and by one of their inroads might give occasion to the revolt of the western nations.