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mainly in English with some Latin, Greek and Hebrew
Section F of a huge collection of disordered fragmentary drafts on ancient history in which Newton correlates Jewish, Greek and Egyptian chronology. Much of the historical material later found its way into the posthumous 'Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended' (1728). These papers also contain a draft interpretation of the visions of Daniel.
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £90 and presumably acquired by Yahuda not long afterwards.
Herodotus & Diodorus tell us from the Egyptian Priests
that Orus the son of Osiris & Isis was the last of the
Gods of Egypt who reigned in Egypt & that after the Gods
& Typhon Egypt was governed by men the first of ch
was Menes. So Iosephus saith that all the kings of Egypt
from Minæus who built Memphys were called Pharaoh.
So also Eratosthenes, Manetho, Africanus Eusebius &
Syncellus unanimously make Menes the first king of
Egypt, that is after the Gods. He taught the people the
adoration of the Gods & the manner of divine worship
& therefore lived after the Gods of Egypt. He taught
the people how to adorn their beds & tables with rich coverings cloaths & coverings & was the first that
brought in a delicate & sumptuous way of living and
therefore reigned over a rich & flourishing kingdom
such as was scarce to be met with in Egypt before
the expulsion of the Shepherds. He made a bridge over
the Nile at Memphys & twelve miles above Mem
phys by making a great bank of earth turned the
river into a new channel through the middle of the
mountains & the old channel being dried up he there
built Memphys on the western side of the river
& therein he built the most magnificent & memora
ble Temple of Vulcan, works to great for any age
before the reign of Sesostris.
instituted written laws feigning that he received
them from Mercury, & therefore he reigned after
Mercury had invented the Theban letters & was deified.
Maneth
Thoth, the second the son of Agathodæmon & father of
Tat The first was the who translated into books what the
first wrote in the sacred dialect & hieroglyphical letters on
pillars in the Syringes or vaults neare Thebes, & placed
the books in the Adyta of the Temples of Egypt. The first
was the Secretary of Osiris & Isis, the second I take to be Athothis
whom Manetho saith that he built the royal Palace in Memphys
& wrote books of Anatomy being a Physitian. The invention of the
Egyptian letters is
Till his days & for a good while after they used the Hieroglyphic
writing as appears by the Obelisks made by Sesostris & some of his
successors. But when the letters invented by this Mercury began
to be in use, the Secretary of State wrote down the laws of Egypt
in these letters & translated the sacred inscriptions into books
for e
Menes who
Anticlides wrote that one Menon or Menas (that is Menes) in
vented letters in Egypt 15 years before Phoroneus a most ancient
king of Greece & endeavored to prove it by records ancient
ments. If Menas be Menes, the invention of letters is ascribed to
him because he first brought them into use in Egypt. But if
they were invented 15 years before the reign of Phoroneus, Menon
or Menas may be Ammon the father of Sesostris, & thus letters
might be invented in Egypt before Cadmus brought them into Greece.
Menes being reigning next after the Gods &
the successor of Orus, lived in the times of the Argonautic expe
dition & Trojan war & so was contemporary to Memnon. For they
are but several names of the same king. Ffrom Amenophis or
Amenoph by omitting the first vowel letter were formed m
phis, Moph, Noph,
tosthenes interpreted
word Ammon or Amenoph (the Egyptian name of Iupiter) by
omitting the first letter. This is the
whose father Saturn by his ill manners & covetousness lost the
love of his people & was thereupon expelled his kingdom by his
son. This king is also called Amenephthes by Eusebius, Imandes, Ismandes & Isimandes by Strabo, Osimandes by
Heccatæus, Osimanduas æ Mendes by Diodorus.
Iosephus tells us out of Manetho that this Amenophis was
a contemplator of the Gods as was Orus a former king, & was
perswaded by one of the Priests to purge Egypt from leaprous and
impure men, & for that end gathered then out of all Egypt e
granted them Abaris or Pelusium the city of Typhon to inhabit
whereupon they conceiving this a fit place to make a rebellion
made Osarsiphus Priest of Heliopolis their captain ee
their cities & prepared for war against Amenophis & called
in the Iews from Ierusalem who came to Pelusium with an
army of 200000 to their assistance. That this was the second
invasion of Egypt by the Shepherds, & that Amenophis came
against them with an army of 300000 leaving his young
son Ramesses (a child of five years old ) in the care of
a friend, but before he fought Osarsiphus he returned back
multitude where he reigned 13 years while Osarsiphus & the
Iews reigned at Peleusium. That Osarsiphus was Moses &
made laws for the people at Abaris & wasted the cities
of Egypt: t
opia with a great army & his son Ramesses joyned him
with another army & they fought the shepherds & polluted
people & drave them out of Egypt pursuing them as far
as the borders of Syria. And the same story is told by Che
ræmon with some variation of circumstances. For Cheræ
mon saith that when Ameni
left his wife bid
Ramesses. Let the story be purged from the mistake that
Osarsiphus was Moses & from ee
who called in the Iews were leaprous æ it will run thus
let it be compared with what the Atlantides relate of
Iupiter's expelling his wicked father & it will run thus, that
when the army of Zerah was beaten at Me
Iews, the people of Thebais & Ethiopia set up Amenophis
over them & he to strengthen himself against Zerah or
whoever was his father encouraged the people of the
lower Egypt s
Egypt against the Iews placed great forces in Pelusium.
that the people of Egypt & Ethiopia
over them & the Egyptians at Pelusium revolted from the
Ethiopians & made Osarsiphus their captain & called in the
victorious Iews to their assistance; that Amenophis let
army against Osarsiphus, [& in the meane time turned the &
river through the strait passes of the mountains & built
& fortified Memphys to stop the progress of the enemythen that city
battel against the Iews & when he had sufficiently fortified that city went upretired went up
Thebais & Ethiopia leaving his wife at Memphys either big
with child or the child about five seven eight
part thereof being in subjection to Egypt he sent for a body of
Ethiopians from thence by sea to strengthen himself & gave
them seats above Egypt; for EusebiusSub Amenophe Æthiopes ab Iudo flumine consurgentes juxta E Ægyptum consederunt.
Manetho saith that the shepherds obteined Egypt 511 years.
the Roman Empire erected. This inscription seems to have been
upon one of those Obelisks neare the monument of Memnon
in Thebes mentioned by Strabo an eye witness. Above the Mem
nomium saith he are the sepulchers of forty kings of Egypt
in caves cut in stone & by them in certain Obelisks inscriptions
the riches & power of those Kings & the dominion
propagated to Scythia & Bactriana & India & Ionia with the
greatness of their tribute & their army of a thousand thou
sand men.
Next reigned Amenophes called Amenephthes by Eusebius
Imandes, Ismandes & Isimandes by Strabo, Osymandes by Hecatæus by DiodorusMnemon by the Greeks: & he by ad
& his on
to the Greeks then any of the
of Sesostris, marched through Ionia &
belling Bactrians, staid long in Susiana & left there a p
& other works ch
at Abydus he built another stately Palace & at Thebes chch
morning at sun rise sounded th
also another thee
statues his own his mothers & his daughters thfoot thereof being about on his own
And On the walls
against the rebelling Bactrians with 400000 foot & 20000
horse commanded in four bodies by his four sons & also his taking of ffortified place encompassed by a river (t
the victorych
Philostratus calls the Temple of Memnon others the temple of
Serapis where was the speaking statue. [He built also
Labyrinth a work as magnificent as the Pyramids & at e
end of chthe sepulcher of Imandes the founder, being
a square Pyramid each of whose sides were almost four
acres & the height as much chassigned
of the greatest Pyramid assigned by Herodotus]
Among the stupendious works of these Kings are to
be recconed the vast Lake of Mæris th
the midst of fifty paces height above the water & as much
below & upon each a Colossus in a throne representing him
and his wife. This Lake was one of the greatest ma
in time of overflow & let it out afterwards to water the land.
It was 3600 stadiums or 450 miles in compass & 50 paces deep
where deepest. The channel by ch
was 80 stadiums long & 300 feet broad & cut in some places
through rocks under gro
50 talents every time. He built also the stately eastern
northern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan & found out
the elements of Geometry, & by all these characters was one
of the successors of Sesostris. For Sesostris gave the first occa
sion to Geometry by dividing Egypt equally among all the
Egyptians & built that sumptuous Temple of Vulcan to which
Rhampsis Mæris & added Porticos & the work of the
Lake was too great vast for any age before his reign. Some
attribute the Labyrinth to Mæris confounding him with his
predecessor Imandes, whence tis probable that he finished it.thP square Pyramid each of whose sides were almost four acres æ eche
The innermost room where the Kings body was supposed to lye was very magnificent ththbeds rich beds to eat upon & the Statues of Iupiter Iuno & etitsacred beasts ch
accounted sacred in Egypt. Thence aeech
five cubits in compass & a cubit thick & the days of e
inscribed on the several cubits a day on eachon cubit the
stars & their signification according to e
border was carried away by Cambyses when he conquered Egypt.
So sumptuous a monument as this border was would scarcely have been erected r
thing done by himself. For all the room co life
actions magnificence & Iusti state, bounty piety, learning &paffected studious as
well as warlike & thiscircle golden denotes the border shews that he applied himself to
the study of the starrp
come e
& there being something more then twelfve of these months tomade ed& 12 months to the year very the yeare
oldest solar year & the occasion of divin
year being e& so
made the year of 365 days. / Who added these days has been disputed but
this circle Arts & sciences flourish most in
Arts & sciences are most apt to flourigthe
be reformed upon setting a new dominion, & Memnon was he that restored
the Dominion
author. For the first day of this Egyptian year fell ut in ee
Iulian period at in his reignch Israelites brought out of Egypt it ae
& therefore was either constituted by him or
Monarchy. If you re – – – – period 3821 (& for three years after) on efirst chnee
to e40 55 years after the victory of overthrow of the Ethiopians by Asa chth Memnons actions
after that time &
Ethiopia after he had reigned γενεας π
ble ech
Egypt & Asia together might take him up eyears or above.
Damis saith that he died in Ethiopia after he had reigned 5 generations.
After this year was instituted the Egyptians observing more accurately the length
of ee
th he dater of
a day so as in every 4 years to make the stars change the day of their
For had he know this h (as he would have done had this year been older then his
reign) he would not have noted their rising & setting on certain days of this ye
in a Monument ch
infancy & may reccon him its founder.
Afterwards the Egyptians by continuing to observe e
the stars found that this year was too short by a quarter of a day, that is by
a year in 1460 years & thence formed their ain of 1460 Egyptich
an years in chir beginning of their year ran round the Zodiack. But the difference between esolar & ee&
And ethmany people about thIn another stately Table his riches & his offerings to eianot the next was represented his Library with this inscription, the cure of the mind. And next the Library was a stately room
He is sometimes called Maris, Myris, Marrus & corruptly
Ayres, Biyres, Soris, Lach
into In e
is made the successor of Amenophis, & in eSaophis ithe predecessor of Thuor is named Amenophis & Amenemes Thuor eded
the predecessor of Saophis, Suphis or Siphaosos is called Aiyres, Soris
& Maris& maree named Lacha
res. So that Maris or Mæris is ephis
decessor of S Saophis.a
Saophis (called also a
a merchant & contemplator of the Gods & & wrote a sacred
book ch
called him Mercury & therefore this was he who wrote e
books chwho assumed
the title of ter-maximor ter-maximus. Herodo
tus writes that he shut up interdicted the sacrifices & shut
up the Temples during his reign to imploy the people in
his works. But this looks like a story made by those who
were angry at the Pyramids. For among the successors of
Sesostris Herodotus & Diodorus reccon e
three great Pyramids neare Memphys & ascribe the big
gest of them to this King, another of them to his brother
& successor Cephren (called also Suphis Saophis Sen Saophis
Mente-Suphis, Methu-Suphis & Achesca Ocharas) & the third
either by the daughter of Cheops whom Mann
of Cephren, who in e
& Moscherus & Mencheres.
Asychis the successor of Mycerinus made the very large
& thereupon made a fable that Mercury play Ree
prbut of
at dice so much time from her year of 12 months as made five days & added them to
the 360 days. In giving this account how e
lose as many from hers, they make the year before this alteration to consist of 360
days. And on that account they called e
So Moses describes the duration of ethis yea
a year of 12 such months Iohn alluded in e3
half equal to 42 months & those equal to 1260 days. And solon in discoursing th
other year. For the Athenians to this yearevery other year
to bring supply d 360 daysb having been taught by the length e
of the solar year by the Egyptians.
The first men would be apt to take notice of eturnsir recconings of time by days months &
years, & the number of such months in a summer & winter ehad ther & that there were something more then 12 such months in a summer & winter
they made all the months of 30 days enlarged the months alloting 30 days to every
month that 12 of these months might make a Summer & winter, & this seems to beethis seems accordingly divided the Zodiac into 12 signs & every sign into 30 degrees & this seems to be
the oldest solar year & ea circle into 360 equal parts degrees
the zodiack into 12 signs & every sign into
circle into 360 degrees. So Moses describes e
30 days each & to a year of such m Solon in discoursing th
70 years of 360 days each & Iohn to y
in making 3 times (or years) & an half equal to 42 months &
length finding this year too short they .Tis agreed that the Egyptians did it & this monument efive days
additional days Typon Orus Typhon Nephthe.iaddition alteration addition formed this fable
that Rhea being th
in any month nor in the year & eso the much time from every day as made two & 70thof the yeare which chfo whole days & added those eend of the yeare 360. eeam
made in e
are seldome reformed but upon setting up new dominions. Nor perhaps was
any king big s
And even the year it self of 365 days points at him for the author. The
first ages ar distinguis in recconing by summers & winters would be apt d
their ir year ch
out of Egypt. And if the Egyptians did the same, then we may reccon is
year they ewhence it follows that this year Fre
years older then Moses, if at e
then Sesak ee
For then ethee
Period 3821 (& for 3 years after) that is 55 years after eethat yeared of April che
day after eeabout 55 years after the overthrow of the Ethiopians by Asa che
the Roman Empire ere
upon one of those Obelisks neare the Monument of
Memnon in Thebes mentioned by Strabo an eye witness. Above the
Memnonium saith he are the Sepulchres of forty kings of Egypt
in caves cut in stone & by them in certain Obelisks inscriptions
declaring the riches & power of those kings & their dominion
propagated to Scythia & Bactriana & India & Ionia with the
greatness of their tribute & their army of a thousand thou
sand men.
Next reigned Amenophes called Amenephthes by Euse
bius, Imandes Ismandes & Isimandes by Strabo
In this or the next kings reign & mahis son was called he was the c Sethos was b called Ramesses after the name of his father Rhampses & thereforebth
of Iuda a ca
thousand Ethiopians dbb Libyanss
Egypt & they must seem to have made a considerable stay
there. For Asa had peace ten years before they expected invaded
& long expected their coming
before him he d sought e
& fortified the cities of Iudea th
barrs & prepared an army of 5
men. This he did without any chec
having work enough at home. At length when the Ethiopians
advanced from Egypt, he met them at Mareshah th
& routed them at
sued them to Gerar & spoiled smote the cities about Gerar &
as he returned th
out to meet him & said Hear me Asa & Iudah & Benjamin. The Lord is with you while ye be with him & if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without a true God & without a teaching Priest & without Law.
By this victory the Iews shook of the dominion of Egypt
For whereas Sesack had taken away all the treasures of the
Temple Asa now brought into e
& vessels ch
what Sesak had taken away. And henceforward he and
his son Iehosaphat had peace for 50 years together & flou
rished in power & wealth for 50 years together By
was not much out when he wrote that Sesostris was the
only King that enjoyed the Empire. Yet after
Iosephus tells us out of Manetho & Chæremon that in
the reign of Amenophis (that Amenophis who was the son of Seth Rampsus & grandson of Sethos & father of Re
great body of Egyptians revolted at Pelusium & had a polity
& laws given them by Osarsiphus Priest of Heliopolis &
called in a body of Iews from Ierusalem to their assistance
& that Amenophis
Ethiopia was voluntarily subject to him & after thirteen
years returned & with
the rebells & the Iews to e ba & revolted brought back his father
Manetho & Chæremon have distorted applying it to the
times of Moses as if Moses were Osarsiphus & the
Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt were the
Iews & Egy now expelled by Amenophis. Let the story
be purged from what belongs to that fiction & it will
amount to this that after the Ethiopians were routed
at Maresah the Ethiopians called in the victorious
Iews to their assistance & then Amenophis leaving a
competent force at Pelusium pursued the flying Ethi
opians with his main army
Egypt & staid in those parts 10 or 12 years till he
had reduced the Ethiopians to obedience & composed them
& then he returned & with his young son Ramessesparts adjacent parts of Ethiopia carrying along with them with Amenophis & had the government put into his hands by the Egipcalled home his father &
to this action Ramesses seems to relate when he inscribed
on his obelisk (as Hermapionthat he had saved Egypt by expelling forreigners.
Amenophis having recovered Egypt & being now inured
to war led his army out of Egypt to visit the conquests of
Sesostrs
Bactrians, staid long in Susia took Susa staid long there &
left there a Palace & other works ch
Memnonia. In Egypt at Abydus he built another stately
Palace & at Thebes on the west side of the Nile two
Colossus's one of chch
morning at sun rise sounded with a musical voice.✝
the Egyptians in Thebais beyond the Nile at e
Syringes. For there was then his days saith he
called it Memnon. For they say that he penetrated out of Ethiopia
into Egypt & as far as Et Susa. But the Thebans say it was not Men
non but Phamenophes a native of Thebais. dthe
like a Temple ten furlongs in circuit th
& Galleries. ch
of Memnon, others the Temple of Serapis where was the speaking statue. At the entrance – each of one stone his own his mothers & his daughters, each
of one stone. His own was the biggest statue in all Egypt the
measure of the foot thereof exceeding seven cubits. It had this inscri
ption.
The successors of S
As Babylon & Rome were adorned with various works in the height
of their empl so was Thebes & all Egypt in the th
reign of Sesostris & his successors, the e
employed in building Palaces, Temples, Obelisks, Pyramids & other works.
For Sesostris returning home ath
large spoiles & bec
Temples in all the cities of Egypt b honouring ethde
into all parts of Egypt for supplying the cities thytheeeen
works employed only e
also in Heliopolis two Obelisks of 120 cubits, inscribing on them the
greatness of his dominion & tribute the
nations. gchfes
& four
a ditch from Nile to e
His son & successor whom Pliny calls Nuncoreus & Herodotus Pheron (per
haps Pharaoh,)& Diodorus a
in war. Rhapses Rhampses (whom Herodotus calls R& Diodorus Rhem
phis & wh is by Manetho made is& per of Sesostris.
Whether he was eth
He bldid nothing glorious was
the richest of all the kings, but did nothing 100000 talents in gold & silver 400000 Egyptian talents an Egyptian talent being two Attic ones ece
portico of ed
tells us that Germanicus Cæsar visiting Egypt to know its antiqui
ties viewed the great ruins of old Thee
remained th
oldest of e
there once dwelt in it seven hundred thousand of military age
& that king Rhampses e
opia, the Medes, Persians, Bactrians & Scythians & the territories of e
Syrians, Armenians, Cappadocians & Byi
The tributes & gifts of every nation (
& odours for the temples & corn & all utensils) were also read being
scarce less magnificent then what ee
exacted.
This inscription
seems to have been upon one of those Obeemnont
Memnon in Thebes mentioned by ae
nium saith he are e
stone & by them in certain Obelisks inscriptions declaring the riches &
power of those kings & the dominion propagated to Scythia & Bactria
na & India & Ionia the
of 100000 a thousand thousand men.
Next reigned Amenophes called Amenephthes by E
Ismandes & Isimandes by Strabo & Osymandebeing
by egreater famous among the Greekshis predecessors the kings. Hise
marched through Ionia & Phrygia, staid long in Susiana subdued e
rebelling Bactrians, & abuilt a palace there there a palace & other workschee
Greeks called Memnonias. In Egypt be
Palace & cochchat Thebes a dlike with th
& his daughters th.
And on the walls were sculptures representing the war he made against
the rebelling Bactrians thmen foot & 20000 horse commanded in
four bodies by his four sons, & the
captives & triumphing for eechee
Serapis eeof as magnificent
as efecha four acres that long & four acres 10 each of them
four acres that is a fee
each of whose sides were almost four acres & e
much. so echaccordin assigned by Herodotus.
Among eattributes reccons
Cheops & his brother Cheph
to Cheops & the building of e
Memphis & to his daughter the middlemost & to e
Chephrenes the third, & to Asychis the successor of Mycerinus
he attributes the oriental very magnificent structures th
excelled ee
because made of echeth a long staff. In Manetho attributes e
to Suphis eche
Among the stupendious works of thiis
recconned the
paces high above e & upon each a Colossus in a th
throne representing him & his wife. This Lake was in compass 2dug
to receive the Nile in time of overflow & keep the water to
water the grownd afterwards. Mæris who built this als made this
lake built also thPortico northern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan &
by that circumstance is known to be one of e
whence some attributed also the Labyrinth to him.
Imandes ee
by Manetho called Lachares & by Eusebius Labares & the successor of Lachares is by
Manetho callerhe to whom Diodorus & Lysias attribute e.For Mæris & who really made
the lake chn
of ee
characters was one of e
& dividede
occasion to Geometry. This Lake was one of the miracles of Egypt being eL Nile in time of overflow & water & the Egypt after
wards. It was 3600 paces
in e
a Colossus in a throne representing Mæus & his wife Queen. The channel
by chee
Eusebius Thuoris
The successor of Mæris or Maris call eeὁ καὶ
surnamed Mercury ὁ καὶ ΗρμῆςThe second MeresIn ethAnd this agrees thThe 4 th dynasty of Ma Africa
nus taken out of Manetho th chMyris M SaSuphis & Mencheres who wrote a sacred book. For So for
Soris
sacred book cheeneswrote
of Soris perhaps corruptly written for Moris, extan extant in his daysche
character of Mercury. He is therefore Siphoas. The greatest Pyramid is by
Manetho a& by Herodotus to Cheops & there eIn Manetho the kings are succession of kings is Cerpheres Soris, Suphis, Saphis
& Herodotus places Cheops, & Chephrenes, Mycerinus & Asychis amongst
the successors of Sesostris & ascribes ee
most to his daughter & e
Cheops is Suphis or Siphoaase
taken out of Manetho by Africanus, Siphuris Cerphe Siphurise
of Cerpheres, that is Siphoas ee
next dynasty Suphis, Suphis & Mencheres & Ratesses reigned successive
ly.that is efounde built e
Among eetwo
vast Lake of Maris (called th
the midst of 50 paces height above eo
representing him & his wife. This Lake was 3600 p one of e
of Egypt being a bason made with sluces to receive ee
of overflow & let it out afterwards to water the land. It was 3600 stadiums or
450 miles in compass & 50 paces deep where deepest. The channel by ch
water flowed in & out was 80 stadiums long & 300 feet dee broad & cut in
some places through rocks under ground. To open or shut e
talents every time. He built also e
Vulcan & found out the Elements of Geometry. And by all these charac
ters was one of e
equally among all Egyptians [gave the first occasion to Geometry] he chis
the work of the Lake was too vast for any age bef former age. Some attribute & Myris & Marrus by Her & corruptly Thmoris, Soris,
Ayres & M Biyris, in Herodotus ea
& their Chronical canons.to him echronicale
rinth to him & confoundthe
finished it. He is sometimes called in the Mæris, Myris, Marrus &
corruptly Ayres, BiyreThuoris, Lachares, Labares., in H
changing e & such like mistakes. And Thuor
Among the successors of Sesostris Herodotus & Diodorus reccon the
founders of the P three great Pyramids neare Memphys. The gr first
& greatest was fo built by Cheops called also Chembis, Chemmis Suphis
Siphoisnext so
by his brother & successor called C
& Sen Soaphis ee
third to Mycerinus the brother of son of Suphis & successor of Cep
pren. In eeMencheres & Moscheres & Men
cheres. Su or
wrote a sacred book ch
they called them him Mercury. This was he the Mercurius Trismegistus
those books some ofchwere translated into Greek. & who assumed e
title of Trismegistus. Herodotus writes that he interdicted e
up e: that he might Whether he this looks like
a story made by those who were angry at eeths
affinity theth is accounted the first e
ni into chethe
art. Paulinus in Ausonius
And Philastrius Brixiensis affirms that Hermes defined een
to e
Diodorus makes Boccharis eth king from Mycerinus but nat
not es
& saith that he made the very large & beautiful eastern Portico of
the Temple of Vulcane & a brick Pyramid with an inscription
signifying that it excelled the other Pyramids as much as Iupiter
did the other Gods because made of clay fetcht from e
of a lake thHe seems to be And besides these Pyra
mids there were about 18 others neare the Mummies one of ch
is recconed by Greves to be equal to ede
Memphis but esmal much smaller. For the anci
ent kings of Thebes seh
buried together in tombs cut in a rock neare Thebes as was mentioned
above but after Pyramids grew in Imandes & Mæris brought pyramids into
fashifor t on these
monuments for themselves their wives & childen
If the Iews, whom Manetho takes to be the Shepherds, entered
Egypt a year or two after the battel at Mareseh, & Amenophis inbuilt & turned the river &
built & fortified Memphys & setled his affairs there & then
went up into Thebais & Ethiopia & reigned there 13 years
before he returned back against Osarsiphus this last ex
pulsion of the shepherds will be about the 33th year of
Asa. Count backwards 511 years & the first reign of
the shepherds in Egypt will begin about ten years after
the conquest & division of the land of Canaan by Ioshuah.
Which agrees well with what we said above of those shepherds
being Canaanites driven out by Ioshuah.
Amenophis having recovered the dominion of Egypt
& being now potent & inured to war, led his army out of
Egypt to visit the conquests of Sesostris, marched through
Ionia & Phrygia, subdued the rebelling Bactrians, took Susa,
reigned long there & left there a Palace & other works ch
another stately Palace & at Thebes on the west side of
the Nile two Colossus's one of chch
voice. Pausahe most admired the Colossus of the Egyptians in Thebais beyond the Nile at , saith he,
There was also another statue of his mother with three crowns
on her head to denote that she was the daughter wife &
mother of a king, t
the walls of one of the Galleries were sculptures repre
senting the war he made against the rebelling Bactri
ans with 400000 foot &
four bodies by his four sons, & also his beseiging a
bulwark incompassed th,t
ing away captives & triumphing for these victories. In
the next room was delineated a cth
people about e
the Kings Table sumptuously furnished & his riches
& offerings to the Gods. In e
with this inscription, The cure of the mind: & adjoyning
to it were the Images of the Gods & the King making
offerings peculiarly belonging to each of them. Next the
Library was a stately room wherein were twenty beds
to eat upon richly adorned & the images of Iupiter &
Iuno & the King. And here it's supposed that the kings
body lyes interred. Round the room were many apartments
wherein were painted all the beasts that are accounted
sacred in Egypt. Thence were ascents to the top of the
whole Monument ch
of gold round the Tomb of three hundred sixty five
cubits in compass & a cubit thick & the days of the year
were distinguished & inscribed on the several cubits a day
on each cubit with the rising & setting of the stars & their
signification according to the doctrine of the Egyptians
Astrologers. This border was carried away by Cambyses
when he conquered Egypt.
So sumptuous a monument as this golden border
would scarce have been made by this king
the principal room next about his Tomb had it not been
in memory of something done by himself. For all the
rooms of this Temple relate to him, conteining repre
sentations of his person, actions, justice, riches, table,
bounty piety & learning. In one room he is repre
sented making war, in another doing justice, in a third
honouring the Gods, in a fourth his Library denotes him
after he had restored the Egyptian Monarchy he applied
himself to the study of the stars & by their risings & settings
made a new regulation of the year.
You have heard how Ammon was much addicted
to Astronomy & from him the study descended to his
children & grandchildren Hyperionor Sasp Atlas, Typhon
Mercury, Memnon, Prometheus. How the court of Egypt
came to be so much addicted to this study I do not find
in history, but if room may be allowed for conjecture
I suspect that the Merchants trading upon the red Sea
were the first that found out letters numbers & Arith
metick & observed the stars, these things being useful in
their trafi
David into Egypt they carried these things with them to
the court of Pharaoth
teined there th
scripture. Ammon divided the days into hours but the year ch
being of an uncertain length & therefore unfit for
Astronomical uses a new year was to be invented for
keeping an exact amount of time before Astronomy
could be brought to any competent degree of perfection
And the first attempt that I meet with of that kind
was in the reign of Osiris.
For a
sepulchre built to Osiris religiously reverenced by all e
Priests of Egypt wherein were laid up 360 Bowles ch
certain Priests appointed for that purpose filled every
day with milk (that is every day one Bowle) & called
upon the Gods by name with mourning & lamentationa
These Bowles answer in number to the 360 days of ch
designe of filling them seems to be for counting the
days in order to find out measure time by such a yeare.
The first ageb
Astronomy counted months by the visible returns of the
Moon & years by the visible returns of the
winter e
Moon were for signes & for Seasons & for days & for
years
new moons & new years days with feasting. And as often 31
the returning seasons of the year or for the rising
or setting of some star, they added a thirteenth. By this
means the Hebrews always began their sacred year
in spring & their civil year in Autumn in the seventh
month of their sacred year so that the same months
always fell upon the same seasons of the year. For
in the month Abib they always offered the first fruits
of the corn in the ear & forty days after they offered
the first fruits of the harvest & after they had ga
thered the fruit of the land they kept the Feast of
Tabernacles in the month Tisri. This year was brought
out of Egypt by the Hebrews & therefore was the old Egyptian
year. For Diodorus tells us that Hyperion an ancient
king of Egypt used the Lunisolar year, and Moses,
while he was yet in Egypt changed the beginning of e
year from one month to another without altering the
form of it. Exod 12. And so chch
captivity was Lunisolar. & Vpon the 16th day of the month
Lous the Babylonians annually celebrated the feast Sacæa
as Athenaus (Lib. 12) relates out of Berosus, that is, upon
the 16th day of the Babylonian month ch
the month Lous of the Macedonians & ch
Lunar & kept to the season of the year the month
Lous being a summer month answering to the month Ab
of the year ch
month Ab had its name ch
vegetables of the earth in that state when they are most
green & flourishing & the next month
the time when the earth is new reaped & emptied of
corn. Which being the names of the Chaldæan months shews
that their months were fixed to the seasons. Chaldea was
peopled by Arabians & the Arabian months are
Lunar to this day, & anciently their years were Luni
solar, as were also the years of the Ch Syrians &
people of Asia minor & Athenians & Romans. For
Simpliciust of Aristotles
Physical Acroasis, tells us
um ut Attici, vel ad autumnale æquinoctium ut terræ
quæ nunc Asia dicitur incolæ, vel ad brumam ut
& Damasceni: mensis verò [initium] ut quidam volunt
[ut
tempus Romæ est September, Pergami apud nos mensis
Hyperberetæus, Athenis verò mysteria: ea nam
erant Boedromione.
And Censorinus tells us that – natural yMint Office And Cicero that
the Sicilians – or two days. So also Aratus & his Commentator Theon –
seasons (Lib. 1, 2.) May it please r
Scaliger & others inform us the Samaritansns Indians
China & several [as were also the years of the
Samaritans.]
th day, the ancient nations
in their recconings rp
too long to called the 30th e
Athenians to count the months by 30 & 29 days alternately. These were
the Kalender months of the Ancients chwithout in rec without
correction in recconing times past or to come, [but in recconing time present
they always corrected them by e
a day or two erecconing thHeavens Moon.Th And hence it is that So Moses p in describing the flood
puts 15 months for 150 days & in eare put
for six months, & Herodotus in recconing e
30 days for a month. But in recconing times present they always corrected
their months by the course of the Moon as you heard above, adding or
omitting a day or two in the month as often as they found it necessary to
make their months agree th
And as for the year always recconed it to consist of twelve
months, but finding this year too short they added a month to the
end of it as often as they found it requisite to make ytheAnd hence arose several pe longer periods of time
as the Dieteris chchch
consisted of 8 years & three months, ch
of 19 years & seven months. e
The ancient Kalender-year therefore consisted of 12 months each of ch
30 days that is & hence came the division of the Zodiag
into 12 signs & 360 degrees every degre being put for the suns mo answer
byevery a signe answering to a month & every And this seems to have been the original of recconing 360
days for a year & of dividing a circle into 360 equal parts, the Sun
being at first reputed to run round eheavens
his Thus were 360 days taken for a solar
year & the Dieteris Tetraeteris & Octaeteris consisted ofbeing pr being too short for the return of the seasons
to it every other year excepting once in eight years
d
24, the
consisting of 99 months. For Herodotus & Censorinus & Plutarcheanci added a month to the end of every other
year & to to make to make eethe
seasons & course of the Sun, & thereby saith Censorinus they formed first the Dieteris, & then the Tetraeteris & Octaeteris. And the year
to ch& every month eachfor he of the Kalendar months without allowing for the correcting ech
corrected. I speak here of the oldest form of the Octaeteris, not of the emendations made by Harpalus Eudoxus & others.
Now these periods of time seem to be as ance
first memory of things. used in Greece before the annus magnus of Cadmus & Minos &
the reign of Sesac it
was used in many religions of Greece & in celaads
first instituted by Pelops & Hercules one of the Idæi Dactyli, & the
Dieteris was used in celebrating the mysteries of Bacchus. And Herodotus
tells us that e
seems to attribusthe
of a regulation of the Enneadecaeteris the Enneaeteris of Harpalus
turned into the Enneadecaeteris of by Meton he saith
How Solon Harpalus Eudoxus & others mended the form of the old
Octaeteris is
The emendation of the year by intercalary months being
troublesome & unfit for Astronomical uses the Egyptians neglected
the course of the Moon & counting all the 360 days in the
Kalendar year they found them too short for the course of e
Sun by five days & therefore added five days to the end of e
360 they
e
they mended it several ways, as by altering the order of e
Months, by coun3th month always of 30 days & by adding 3 days in every 16
years, & at & at lenghtwinter cycle Enneadecaeteris
whereby they became
of time for nineteen years to come & a while after by the cycle
of Calippus for 76 years to come.
But in doing these things – Chaldeans.
The Egyptians were therefore the firs –
as they perceived twelve lunar months too short they for
the returning seasons of the year or for the rising or setting
of some star, they added a thirteenth. By this means
the Hebrews always began
in the seventh month of their sacred year so that the
same months always fell upon the same seasons of e
year. For in the month Abib they always offered the
first fruits of the corn in the ear & forty days after
they offered the first fruits of the harvest & after they
had gathered the fruit of the land they kept the
Feast of Tabernacles in the month Tisri. This year
was brought out of Egypt by the Hebrews & therefore
was the old Egyptian year the year from Autumn to Spring in Egypt
the months of o
to the same seasons of the year so that the Olympic games were always celebrated at Midsummer & other
festivals at other
Lenæon a winter month & begins the year after the
rising of the Pleiades.
metic determined the lengths of months & years by not by
any certain number of days or other Astronomical rules
but by the visible returns of the Sun Moon & stars & seasons
of the year. Afterwardschthof Saturn chtheecheeeeche
calary months in eight years or thereabouts, they f
months without minding the seasons of summer & winter or the
risings & settings of the stars above once in eight years. And this the Phœnicians seem to have brought out of Egypt into
Greece before ea
Cadmus & bcc
celebrating the Ludi Pythica at Delphos. And therefore it may be
accounted as old as those religions & festivals & by consequence
brought into Greece by the first Phenicians & Egyptians who sailed
thither such as were Cadmus & Cecrops. H
that the Greeks had their Festivals & Oracles from Egypt & Festus
Avienus seems to attribute a regulation of the year to Cecrops
where speaking of the Enneateris of Harpalus turned into the
Enneadecaeteris by Meton he saith
The Octaeteris of the Greeks seems to to have been formed
at first by adding a month to every other year excepting
once in eight years. For it appears our of Herodotus, Censorinus
& Gemis
Dieteris of the ancients consisting three times of 25 Lunar
Months & once of 24, & four of them made the Tetraeteris
consisting of 49 & 50 lunar months alternately & the omission
of the eighth month intercalary month every eights made
the Octaeti
of these periods were certainly lunar & the years were solar.
For assyr
Moon & called the day of conjunction
old & the new &, referring to the old month that part of e
day che
new month. And thisball the an
by their laws & the dictates of their Oracles made their years
agree with the Sun & their months & days of the month
with the course of the Moon so that the same sacrifices
might always fall upon the same seasons of the year
And c
their days & months agree with the courses of the Sun &
Moon sometimes took away a day or two from the month
& sometimes made the month a day or two longer by one
or two days. And d
tions of Greece Italy had several years but all of them
by months variously intercalated corrected their civil years
by that one true natural year.
When the ance
or were to summ up the days or months in any number of years
in doing of which they could have no assistance from the Sun
& Moon they took round numbers of thirty days to a month e
& twelve months to a year & thus formed a
for computations ch
or imaginary year.
they supposed the
yet knowing the true length of it, & divided the Zodiac
into twelve signes & every signe into 30 parts or degrees
so that a degree might answer to e
day. And this seems to have been the original of dividing
a circle into 360 degrees. But it is not to be supposed
that any nation used such years or months in civil for
keeping a recconing of time in civil affairs. For the beginning
of such a year would in seventy years have run round the four
seasons of the year solar year & thereby have discovered the
difference between this year & the solar year much sooner then
it was known: And months of 30 days would in a year or two
have notoriously disagreed from the course of the Moon. When
therefore s33
sisted of thirty days they are to be understood of ereputed
these months to civil uses it is to be conceived that they
corrected them perpetually by the Moon making them
shorter or longer by a day or two
of the Moon
might constantly agree with the heavens. And this
seems to have beenThis hFor Herodotus speaking of the s saith tatmeeth was added as often as the seasons required. And this seems to have been
ages before the invention of Astronomy Astronomical
rules. But after they found out the rules of intercaling
three months in eight years they became able to keep & recconing by months of 29 & 30
a recconing of time
days alternately for two years together, they became able
to keep a recconing of time without correcting the reccon
ing by the heavens above once in two four or eight
years & by further & the Greeks
ience mended their rules they found out the Ennea
decaeteris, whereby they became able to publish Almanachs
or Calenders of time for nineteen years to come.
But in doing these things the Greeks received light
from the eEudoxus staying with Plato thirteen years in Egypt learnt there of the Priests how much the year was longer then 365 days: for till then, saith Strabo,
The Egyptians were therefore the first who found
out the true length of the year. For while the nations used
long before the
the nations used to count only the age of the Moon & upon
the appearance of every new Moon to begin a new reccon
ing, the Egyptians contrived by the solemnity of the milk
bowles to count all the 360 days of ch
reputed to consist & by repeating this
year too short. This ceremony being performed with morn
ing & lamentation was in the sepulchre of Osiris was doubtless
a funeral rite in honour to his memory. For Sach a
or Sesak, whisb
also Osiris used the Lunisolar year &
& other stars & the seasons & distinctions of time measured
by them, & afterwards to have imparted his knowledge to others
And therefore he was called the father of those Planets as
being the first that taught the knowledge & nature of them.b
an Astronomer, & therefore a fit person to celebrate Osiris for
his skill in that science. Before this institution Astronomy
was in its infancy. For
Months & by summers & winters & knew not the just num
ber of the days in the solar year but supposed them
to be 360, the motions of the Planets could not be computed
for want of knowing the just number
of days between the Observations. And therefore its very
probable that the Astronomers of Egypt intended by the
solemnity of the milk bowles to found a new Æra for keep
ing an exact reconning of time by years of 360 days
honour to
Priests to keep the recconing in one of his Temples.
But the Egyptians soon finding this year too short added
five days to the end of it & in memory of the addition formed
the fable that Rhea being with child by Saturn, the Sun
prayed that she might not be delivered in any month nor in
the year. Then Mercury won from Luna at Dice the two
& ch
up five days & added those five days to the 360 A
son they give why Mercury made the Lunary year shorter
& the Solary year longer then the old
For they ascribe all their inventions to Mercury. And while
they tell us that this addition was made when Rhea was with
child by Saturn Saturn & Rhea being the father & mother of Amenophis.
Tis agreed that this alteration was first made by e
Egyptians. So HerodotusThe Egyptians . Syncellus
The first ages counting their years by returns of
summer & winter seed time & harvest & minding the fruits
of the earth would be apt to end their year with the
ingathering of the ripe fruits of the earth & begin the next
year with gardening & tillage pruning setting & sowing in
order to an
same year the whole growth of all the fruits of that year.
Hence the oldest years of the b
the year which the Hebrews used in Egypt began in Autumn
& so did & the old year of the Romans.
& Arabica.s
changed from winter to summer & from Autumn to Spring.
So Moses changed the beginning of the Iewish year. And
so the Egyptians might change the beginning of theirs.
And if the Egyptians began their
of the Equinoxes at its first institution, it was either insti
tuted by Memnon or was older then Moses. If at first it
began at the autumnal Equinox it was an hundred years
older then Moses: if at the rising of the Dog-star (as some think) it was 300 years older then Sesak, & on this
ground Syncellus seems to ascribe it to the Shepherds:
but if at first it began at the Vernal Equinox
it is just as old as the latter end of the reign of Memnon
For this Egyptian year was the same with the year of
Nabonassar & began always on the same day & therefore
in the year of the Iulian Period 3821 (& for three years
after) it began on the third of April ch
first day after the Vernal Equinox according to the Sun's
mean motion, & that year of the Iulian Period was 55
years after the overthrow of ech
reccon within the compass of the reign of Amenophis.
For his reign in Ethiopia & wars in Asia & reign
Susa & ensuing works asa
Theit
that he minded not Astronomy till after his wars & return
from Susa. In the Canons Menes (who is this king) is said to
have reigned 62 years. Censorinus b
non ad tridecim menses & dies quin
produxisse.Th
Salmasius note) & Arminon should be Ammonem or Ame
nophen.
Whilst Amenophes noted the rising & setting of the
stars on the days of the year markt out on the golden
border it shews that Astronomers had already given names to
the stars by the help of Constellations, & that they determined
the length of the year by their heliacal risings & settings
It shews also that they did not yet know that this year was
too short by a quarter of a day so as in every four years to
make the stars change the days of their heliacal rising &
setting. For had they known this, as they would have done
if this year had been older then the reign of Amenophis,
they would not have noted the rising & setting of the stars
on certain days of thech
signed to be lasting. Astronomy was therefore then in
its infancy & may reccon Ammon Sesak & Amenophis its
founders.
Afterwards the Egyptians by continuing to observe
the rising & setting of the stars found that this year
was too short by a quarter of a day, that is by a year
in 1460 natural years & thence formed the Annus
magnus of 1461 Egyptian years in which time the be
ginning of their year ran round the Zodiac. This great
year was called Annus Sothiacus, the Canicular year
because they determined its length by the rising of the
stars & principally by the rising of the Dog star called
Sothis in their language. And therefore they had not yet
found out the difference between the solar & siderial
year nor the Precession of e
The
the Egyptians, & Greeksylonians. & the
Greeks from the Persians. But the Persians corrected it by
adding a month of 30 days to e
so that it might always begin in spring as at its first in
stitution, &eBut
every four years & made it the year of the Romans,
which year is too long by a week in nine hundred years.
By the unanimous tradition of the Greeks Memnon was
contemporary to the sons of Priam. They tell us that he was the
son of came to the war
Homer Pindar Pausanias Diodorus & others say that he came to
the war at Troy & was there slain by Achilles. If about the 35
not to assist the Trojans but in carrying on his conquests, this
might give occasion to the Greeks to report him slain by their
Hero: but if he had not lived in that age there could have
been no pretence for the story. Pausanias relates that in a
publick building at Delphos he saw several pictures made
by Polygnotus (a famous old Painter contemporary to Arta
xerxes Longimanus) & that in one of them were painted
Hector Memnon & Sarpedon all of them with beards &
Paris a beardless young man & by Memnon was painted a
naked Ethiopian boy. And, saith Pausanias, Memnon came to the war of Troy not from Ethiopia but from Susa a city of Persia conquering all the intermediate nations as far as the river Choaspis. And the Phrygians still shew by what way he led his army, the way being distinguished by mansions.
Between Osimandes & Miris (i. e. Memnon & Mæris) Diodorus
places one Vchoreus & says that he built Memphys & fortified
it to admiration with a mighty rampart of earth & a broad &
deep trench ch
built Palaces in it, & that this place was so commodiously
pitche upon the by the built
who reigned after him preferred it before Thebes & removed
the court thence to this place so that the magnificence of
Thebes from that time began to decrease & Memphys to
increase till Alexander king of Macedon built Thebes
Alexandria. By these works I take Vchoreus to be either
Memnon himself or one of his Princes. For the Deputy
Governours of Egypt are sometimes recconed amongst the
Kings.
For amongst the kings of Egypt Herodotus reccons Proteus
& places him next after P
Proteus seems rather to have been a Viceroy set over the
lower Egypt then a sovereign king. For
of ignoble extraction & reigned at Memphys.
Proteus being a Greek word which signifies a chief man
or Prince seems to be not the proper name of a man but
a title of honour. For had it been a proper name the Greeks
it whereas Herodotus tells us that it is the kings name in
Greek, that is a Greek word of the same signification
with his name or title in the Egyptian language, & Dio
dorus tells us that this man's name was Cetes. There
were several Princes of Egypt called Proteus, one of ch
fled from Busiris king of Egypt & came thEgypt Europe. And it's probable that the frequent chang
ing of the person might give occasion to the Greeks to
feign that Proteus put on all shapes. Some make him a Phe
nician reigning neare Pharus ad
built, as Tzetzes
And this agrees best with he
of Herodotus reigned in Memphys & left a sumptuous Temple
there to e
was the house of Venus Hospita by ch
conjectured that Helena the daughter of Tyndarus was meant,
having heard that she stayed in Egypt th
called Venus Hospita & being told so by the Priests of Egypt.
For when Alexander stole her from her husband Mene
laus & fled with her from Greece he was driven with
her upon the coast of Egypt, & Thonis the governour of
the p
& Proteus examining the matter deteined Helena (as Herodo
tus relates) & sent home Alexander. Then the Greeks de
manding her of the Trojans made war upon Troy thinking that
Alexander had carried her thither, but after the destructi
on of Troy Menelaus went for her into Egypt. And t
this history, saith Herodotus, Homer alludes in mentioning the
errors of Paris wie
before the war & e
after it. According to this story the Proteus of Herodotus
reigned in the time of the Trojan war & therefore governed
the lower Egypt under Amenophis or Memnon. However
since the Temples of Vulcan & Venus Hospita were built
stood together & were built at e
to be Vulcans wife. Cinyras had furnished Memnon with
armour for his wars & for this benefaction Memnon honoured
him after death with a very sumptuous Temple in Memphys
& Proteus built another by it to the Cyprian Queen.
Next after Amenophis reigned his son Ramesses, Rameses
or Rhampses above mentioned. Herodotus calls him Rhampsinitus
& saith he was the successor of Proteus. Diodorus a
Rhemphis & saith he was the son &successor of Proteus. Pliny
tells us b36
polis he placed the biggest Obelisk in all Egypt ch
Emperor Constantius removed to Rome. The cc Am. Marcellin l. 17
upon it as interpr
world & represents him reigning over the whole world & over
all the earth & that the Gods had given him a long life:
which shews that he survived his father & inherited
from him a very large & flourishing kingdom. He did
nothing glorious butd Herod. l. 2. c. 121 Diodor. l .1. c. 5.time whole age in heaping
up wealth & was the richest of all the Kings & left more
wealth behind him then any of them. For he gathered
in gold & silver 400000 talents, an Egyptian talent
being two Attic ones that is 120 Attic pounds. He built
the western Portico of the Temple of Vulcan placing
his own statue before it. Tacitus
cus Cæsar visiting Egypt to know its antiquities viewed
the great ruins of old Thebes were some structures
remained with Egyptian letters expressing its ans
wealth, & the oldest of the Priests being commanded to
interpret them related that there once dwelt in it seven
hundred thousand of military strength age & that king
Rhampses with that army reigned over Libya Ethiopia,
the Medes Persians Bactrians & Scythians & the territo
ries of the Syrians Armenians Cappadocians & Bithynia
& Lycia from sea to sea. The tributes & guifts of every
nation (in gold silver armour horses ivory & odours for
the Temples & corn & all Vtensiles) were also read being
scarce less magnificent then what the Parthians or the
Roman Empire exacted. Thaseems to have been
upon some of those Obelisks neare the monument of Memnon
in Thebes mentioned by StraboAbove the Memnonium, saith he,
✝ PlinyPyr Obelisk was made by Mitres
(that is Miphres) who reigh
kings in the same city made others, Sachis (that is Sesochis or Sesak)
four each of 48 cubits in length, Ramises two, Smarres (that is
Marrus or Mæris) one &
(or Neoabis one of 80
✝ Among the stupendious works of these kings of Egypt
is to be reconned that vast Lake of Mæris with two Pyra
mids in the midst of if fifty paces high above the water & as much below & upon each a Colossus in a throne
representing him & his wife. This Lake was one of
the greatest miracles in Egypt being made with sluices
to receive the water of the Nile in time of overflow
& let it out afterwards to water the land. It was 3600
furlongs or 450 miles in compass & 50 paces deep.
where deepest. The channel by which the water
flowed in & out was 80 furlongs long & 300 foot
broad & cut in some places through rocks under ground.
To open & shut the sluices cost 50 Talents every
time. Neare the Lake he built the famous
Labyrinth & at the end of it a square Pyramid
each of whose sides was almost four acres & the height as
much, ch
Pyramy
interred. He built also the stately northern Portico
of the Temple of Vulcan, & found out the elements
of Geometry & by all these characters was one of
the successors of Sesostris. For Sesostris gave the first
occasion to Geometry by dividing Egypt equally amongst
the Egyptians at a certain rate by measure. And the
Lake & Labyrinth & Pyramids were works too great for
any age before Sesostris founded the M the founding of
the Monarchy. The works of Mæris being done at
Memphys shew that he reigned in that city & there
fore was later there
cessor M Rhampsis, especially since Memnon built that
sumptuous Temple of Vulcan to chp
& Ayschis added Porticos. By the great riches ch
enabled to do these works. He is called also Maris, Myris,
Marrus, & corruptly Vcho
& Thoris by changing the letter 37
In the Canons Suphis the founder of the greatest
Pyramid is put the successor of Soris, Saophis of Ayres or
Biyres & Siphoas or Siphaosis or Anoyphis of Maris. All ch
as much as to say that Mæris was succeeded by the Suphis
the founder of the greatest Pyramid otherwise called Saophis,
Siphoas, Siphaosis, Anoyphis. The builder of that Pyramid
is by Herodotus called Cheops the word Saophis being
changed into Cheophis or Cheops by the alteration of a
letter. Whence Mæris is rightly placed between Rhamp
sinitus & Cheops. In the Canons he is also called Phiops
& Apappus maximus. Diodorus calls the builder of the
greatest Pyramid Chemnis or Chembis changing Cheoph
into Chembis much after the manner that the Greeks
change Moph into Memphis. Herodotus tells us that
right & justice obteined in Egypt untill King Rhampsi
nitus, but his successor Cheops lapsed into all manner
wickedness shutting up the Temples, interdicting the
sacrifices & imploying E not the captives but the Egyptians in
cluded & should have been placed the last of them. In
shutting up the Temples & abolishing the sacrifices the
designe of Cheops seems to have been the abolishing the
worship & memory of the former kings that his own
might be had in the greater honour. For how
desirous he was to be honoured after death appears by
his building so great a Pyramid for that purpose a work
in ch
He was a merchant & contemplator of the Gods & was
called Mercury. But since he interdicted the worship of
the
glyphic inscriptions of e
in the Temples. I had rather say that as the first Mercu
ry was secretary of State to first founder of the Monar
chy at Thebes so the second Mercury was secretary of State
to
secretary was Athothes the Physitian who wrote of Anatom
& in the Canons is made e
sense as the first Mercury reigned after Osiris the second
reigned after Menes that is as a Viceroy or Proteus or
chief secretary of state.
The three great Pyramids neare Memphys are all
of them by Herodotus & Diodorus ascribed to kings who
reigned after Sesostris, the biggest to this king, the next
to his brother Cephren (called also Suphis, Saophis, Sen-
Saophis, Mente-Suphis, Methu-Suphis, Echeseos & Achesca-
Nitocris the wife b or sister
of Suphis & successor of Ceph
called also Cerinus, Moscheres, Mencheres. cruel Tyrant
He buried his daughter in the belly of a wooden Ox in the City Sais &
this Ox was set up
Diodorus saith that he began the third Pyramid but did not live to finish
it, & therefore husband brother Methesuphis
after one years reign was slain by the Egyptians & she revenged his death. The
building of this Pyramid ch
the
calls that Queen Nicaule & saith that she reigned over both Egypt & Ethiopia: so that the Monarchy of Egypt restored by Memnon seems to have conti
Asychis the successor of Mycerinus
large & beautiful eastern Portico of the Temple of
Vulcan & a brick Pyramid with an inscription signify
ing that it excelled the other Pyramids as much as Iu
piter did the other Gods because made of clay fetched
from the bottom of a Lake with a long staff.
And besides these Pyramids there were about 18 others
neare the Mummies one of which is recconed by Greaves
to be equal to the greatest of the three neare Memphis,
but the most of them were much smaller. The small
ones seem to be Pyramids ch
Amenophis) built in Cochone. The ancient kings of Thebes
seem to have been buried together in Tombs cut out in a rock
neare Thebes till Amenophis built a Temple for his sepulchre
but after he & Mæris brought Pyramids into fashion the follow
ing kings built them
& revenues in these more lasting monuments for themselves
their wives & children. The building of Pyramids depended
on a particular humour of the Egyptians, then in fashion
& therefore they were all built much about the same time
& the gradual bigness of them shews in what order the kings
reigned who built them, the smaller Pyramids being built
before the greater came into fashion.
After these kings reigned Gnephachthus & his son
Boccharis successively at Memphys, & Anysis in the lower
Egypt most probably at Tanis or Zoan. Gnephachthus (called
also Neochabis
desart places, his provision failed so that he was fain to take
up with such mean food as he could then be supplied with ch
& cursed Menes who first brought in a sumptuous & luxu
rious way of living & caused the curse to be cut on a pillar
& placed on the Temple of Iupiter Hammon at Thebes, ch
made the fame & reputation of Menes to be clouded in
future generations. After which b
charis used a moderate diet. Boccharis was a little man
of an infirm body, but for prudence & justice he was
famous. He was very piercing & quicksighted in judgement
& is recconed amongst the lawmakers of Egypt, & was
called Boccharis the wise. He ce
Ox Mnevis, ch
hated him. From thence I gather that Heliopolis the city where 38
Africanus mentions some kings reign
Tanis, tr
Olympiads began to be celebrated. 2 Osorchon whom the Egyptians
call Hercules. 3 Psammis whose reign according to Eusebius be
gan with the 36th year of Azarias king of Iudah, that is
with the Olympiads. 4 Zet........ Anysit
last of this race of kings or reigned in some other city in the
lower Egypt. He was blind & in his reign & the reign of
Boccharis, Sabadon the Ethiopian invaded & conquered
Egypt, took b
fly into the lower Egypt fenny places of Egypt neare Abaris
where he lay hid for some time in the Island Elbo.
Sabacon punished none with death but condemned offenders to
carry earth to the cities of Egypt for raising them higher
by ch
had done before. These two kings Anysis & Sabacon are
by Diodorus called Amosis & Actisanes. Amosis was cruel & put many to death for which reason his subjects upon the
invasion of Actisanes revolted from him so that he was
easily conquered. Actisanes was mercifull & obliging to his
subjects & instead of putting robbers to death cut off their
noses & banished them int
& Syria ch
Rhinocor
Isaias who speaking of the times preceding the reign of
Sabacon mentions these two kingdoms seated at Zoan or Tanis
& Noph or Memphis.I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians & they shall fight every one against his brother & every one against his neighbour city against city & kingdom against kingdom & the spirit of Egypt shall fail. – And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [
Besides these two kingdoms there was a third at Sais
where Stephanates Necepsos & Nechus reigned successively.
Necepsos with one Petosiris is reputed the inventor of judicial
the stars. Sabacon or one of his successors slew Nechus &
made his son Psammiticus fly into Syria.
So then the Monarchy of Egypt in the reign of those
kings who built the Pyramids became divided into several
kingdoms at home & by consequence lost its dominion abroad,
& these kingdoms warred with one another untill they were
invaded & conquered by the nations cht
by the Assyrians.
When Sabacon invaded Egypt a body of Egyptians fled
into Babylonia. Hestiæus thus mentions this transmigration The Priests who escaped (thtaking the sacra of Iupiter ἐνυάλιος came into Senaar a field of Babylonia. Iupiter Enyalius is the God of thunder
The reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt according to
Herodotus lasted 50 years & began & ended under Sabacon. But
in the Dynasties of Africanus Sabacon reigned only eight years
or according to Eusebius twelve & ha
Seuechus his son who reigned 14 years & Tirhakah who
reigned 18 or 20. Eusebius & Syncellus add a third successor
Merres or Ammeres the Ethiopian who reigned 12 years.
Seueches seems to be Suo or So king of Egypt with whom
Hoshea king of Israel conspired against the Assyrians in
the 4th year of Hezekiah three years before the captivity
of the ten Tribes (2 King. 17.4) And Tirhakah was that
Pharaoh king of Egypt on whom Hezekiah trusted in the 14th
year of his reign when Sennacherib invaded Iudea, & that
Tirhakah king of Ethiopia who in e
against Sennacherib in behalf of Hezekiah (2 King. 18.21, 24 &
19.9). And therefore Tirhakah succeeded Sua between the 4th
& 14th year of Hezekiah, that is betwenth
year of Nabonassar. Count backward the 14 years
& 12 years reign of Sabacon, & the recconing will place Sa
bacon's reign invasion of Egypt in or about the beginning of the
Æra of Nabonassar as above.
Herodotus giving an account how Sen
that Sethon Priest of Vulcan was beseiged in Pelusium by Senna
cherib & freed by mice eating the bowstrings & Quivers of the
Assyrians & the strings for lying on their armour, & that he saw
the statue of Sethon holding a mouse in his hand in memory
of this deliverance. Sethon therefore was not king of Egypt
but lived in the time of the Ethiopian kingdom. The Assyrians
by this means being routed with a great slaughter, or as others
say, dying of a
the Ethiopian carried on his victories as far as Europe as Sesak
had done before him. He went westward as far as the Pillars
& then led his army out of Spain into Thrace & Pontus. But
against the successor of Tirhakah Assarhadon the son of
Sennacherib sent Tartan with an army of Assyrians who
fought against Ashdod or Azot a town of Palestine neare
Egypt & took it & afterwards the Assyrians invaded & con
quered Egypt & led the Ethiopians &Egyptians young & old
into captivity naked & barefoot & with their buttocks uncovered
Isa. 20. And about the same time they conquered also the Iews
& carried Manasses into captivity captive to Babylon 2 Chron. 33.
11, & Isa. 19.24, 25. Whence I gather that these conquests were
made after Asse
the year of Nabonassar 67. The Iews say that Manasseh
was captivated in eth year of his reign ch
of Nabonassar 71: & Egypt lying beyond Iudea from Assyria may
be presumed to be conquered afterwards; so that the Ethiopians
reigned over Egypt about 70 or 75 years before they lost
their dominion to the Assyrians.
After the Assyrians had conquered Egypt there was an
interregnum of two years & then twelve Princes of Egypt by
consent shared the kingdom amongst themselves & reigned 15
years, that is under the Assyrians. One of these Princes
was Psammiticus above mentioned whom the people of the Sais
called back from Syria. He reigned at Sais a city upon e
mouth of eCabo Canobic stream of the Nile the only Port
in Egypt, & calling in forreigners from Arabia Caria &
Ionia to his assistance he subdued the rest of e
became king of all Egypt. Afterwards the nations of Phe
nicia Syria & Cilicia revolted also from the Assyrians. He
beseiged Azot 29 years together & took it from the Assy
rians. He was the first that let the Greeks into Egypt where
he gave them seats. By reason of his army of forreigners a
body of 200000 Egyptians fled from him & seated themselves
in Ethiopia above Meroe. He built the southern Porch
of the Temple of Vulcan in Memphis & over against
it a Hall for keeping the Ox Apis. He reigned 54 years
Ægypto Danaus advenit; ante ratibus navigabatur inventis in mari rubro inter insulas a rege Erythra.
How & when the Phœnicians came from the Red
Sea may be gathered from the history of David. For when
David smote Edom, Ioab stayed there with all Israel six
months untill he had smitten every male in Edom 1 King. 11.
15, 16. This made Hadad the young king of Edom fly into
Egypt with certain Edomites his fathers servants & as many
of the Edomites as could escape fled to the Philistims & to
Sidon & other places where they could be protected. S
nus in Azot tells us
των ἀπ' Ερυθρᾶς θαλάσσης φευγάδωνA fugitive or Exul from y: that is a fugitive
‡ In what year the Edomites were vanquished is uncertain. If Solomon may
be supposed about 22 or 23 years old at the death birth of his
eldest son, since Rehoboam was 41 years old at e
birth of Solomon will be about eth year of David.
was Davids second son by Bathsheba, the siege of Rabbah when David first lay
with Bathsheba a
had two great victories over the Ammonites & Syrians so that the war against
them began in the 13th year of Davids reign, & the first 12 years of his reign
were spent in wars th
Edomites & Moabites. In the two first years of his reign he warred th
of Saul, & his next wars were with the Philistims. Then he took Ierusalem & came
& dwelt there in the eighth year of his reign, & the wars with Edom & Moab seem
to be in the next four years: so that the error cannot be great if we place
the flight of the Edomites upon the tenth year of his reign Davids reign.
HerodotusPhœici Edomites were driven from their seats it may be presumed
that they sent out some colol
footsteps. For Stephanus
of another in Libya, of another in Locris, of another in Bœotia & of
another in Cyprus. Erythræ in Ionia was a sep
a colony of forreigners. They aCyprus e
conduct of Erythrus e
an; For they a
in memory of its coming from thence they kept it standing upon the
wood of the ship ch
were Phœnicians & by their name that they came fro the Erythræan
Sea.
Herodotus tells us
Herodotus
dissentions who coming from ee
& seating themselves on the sea coasts of Syria, quickly
undertook long voyages & in carrying of Egyptian & Assyrian
wares passed over to other coasts & chiefly to Argos. For
Argos was then the chief city of Greece. That the Phe
nicians coming hither exposed their merchandize & after 5 or
6 days when they had sold almost all, certain weomen came
to the Sea amongst ch
whilst they bought what they liked the Phenicians set upon
them & seizing Io & some others carried them into their
ship & sailed into Egypt, & this was the beginning of injuries.
that in requital of this injury some Greeks of the Island Crete
afterwards coming to Tyre carried away Europa, and a while
after the Greeks committed also a sec
Medea from Colchos. And when the king of Colchos sent an Em
bassadour to demand his daughter back & that the raptors might
be punished, the Greeks answered that as they (to wit the Egypti
ans of whom the kingdom of Colchos was a colony) had not punish
ed the raptors of Io, so neither would the Greeks punish those
of Medea. In the next age Paris stole Helena & these things
occasioned the ruin of Troy. From these passages of Herodotus
it appears that the navigation of the Phenician Merchants to
Greece began upon their coming from the Red Sea & by con
sequence that the rapture of Io & Europa was not ancienter
then the reign of who drave them from that sea
fore but it doth not appear that they sailed as far as
before
their trade upon the Mediterranean Red Sea & deprived of
their estates & country & thereby necessitated to seek out a
new trade upon the Mediterranean for getting a livelyhood. h were used upon the Red Sea they sailed by the shoar
of the Mediterranean till they came as far as Greece.
gation continued in use till the Egyptians invented long ships in one
of chao
this ship the Greeks built the ship Argo. Then masts & sails in
vented by Dǽdalus came into use & navigation still improving the
Phenicians soon after the Trojan war (as Strabo
the middle of the coasts of Afric where they built cities, & went
out beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic Sea. These
Phenicians seem to be chiefly Zidonians. for the Edomites fled to e
enemies of Israel & in those days the Zidonians grew famous among
the Greeks while Tyre was scarce known to them. Homer often
names Zidon & Zidonians but makes no mention of Tyre.
The expulsion of the Shepherds out of Egypt Polemo
places in the time of Apis the son of Phoroneus as above but
this Apis was a little later being supposed by the Greeks to
be the Egyptian Osyris who was Sesostris as we shall shew
hereafter. Apion the Gramm Iustin Martyrtes
GræcoseGrammarian son of Possidonius in
his Commentary against the Iews & in his fourth Book of Histories
saith that when Inachus reigned at Argos the Iews under the con
duct of Moses departed from Amasis king of Egypt, & that the
same thing is reported by Ptolomy the Mendesian an Egyptian
& Poly Alexander Polyhistor. ab
expelled Egypt & the monarchy of Egypt erected in the days
of Inachus the father of Phoroneus & Io, & therefore Ina
chus reigned in the days of Saul & a little before & after.
For the Shepherds came out a little before & the rapture
of Io was a little after. Phoroneus is reported the first who
made laws in Greece & erected courts of justice at Argos &
reduced the people from a rude & salvage way of life to a
civil one & erected an altar to Iuno & these things the
Greeks learnt of the Egyptians & Phenicians & therefore
Phoroneus reigned after
Greece
& Edomites so that hesome part of Da
vids. And since hbrother apretended
king of the Sicyonij we may reccon that there is no baakind & the more ancient then Deucalion bb nothing ancienter then Inachus therefore we may
no memory of any thing done in Greece Europe ancienter then the days
of Samuel. Before the use of letters (brought in by Cadmus) nothing
could be long remembered. Clemens ca Strom. l. 1. p.
✝ Cadmus being
Phocis aa Pausan. l. 9. c. 12.ch
of Pelach
resembling the full Moon a
Apis & shews that he was of the religion of the Egyptians who
worshipped that Ox. And thence its probable that as the Israelites
in the time of Moses & Ieroboam in the time of Solomon by
staying in Egypt learnt the worship of the Calf, so did the
ancestors of Cadmus in the reign of the Shepherds. Some think
that the letters also chBu And Strabo
people ch
Phœnicians & Arabians chshews Arabians I take to be some such as fled from the red
of those
sea to Sidon in the wars of David. Conon in his 32th Narration saith
that when Cadmus was sent to seek Europa he was accompanied with
Proteus who he fled out of Egypt. & together with Clytus by the assistance of Clytus expelled the Bisaltes & became king of their country
Cecrops is recconed the first Egyptian who led a colony
into Greece. He a
at Athens & erected a Statue to Minerva & after him came
in the whole generation of Gods of Greece. Whence it may
be collected that he was contemporary to Phoroneus & came into
Greece in the reign of David or Saul when the shepherds were
newly expelled Greece Egypt. The marble places him 72
years before the coming of Danaus into Greece that is about
the middle of Davids reign. For Danaus sailed into Greece about
the 16th year of Rehoboam as shall be shewed hereafter.
Athens is reputed a colony of Egyptians coming from Sais where
Minerva was worshipped. But r
Cecrops their leader took shipping from Phœnicia &
at Cyprus. He seems to be one of the shepherds because a
colony chA his daughter
Agraulis, an impiety the genuine Egyptians were free from. By
the like colonies the sacrificing of men came also into Greece.
For Erectheus b
shepherds. But circumcision (a part of ee
Egyptians) was not any where introduced by them.
a
of corn from Egypt to Athens, for chtheir king of
their city & that at this time Ceres came into Attica. She was entertained by Eleus Celeus king of Eleusis & nursed his son Triptolemes
corn ing& pthereof
ceremonies. Homer c
Diocles & Eumolpus & Celeus the king.Eumolpus was the son of the son of Chione
the daughter of Orithyca the daughter of Erectheus & was slain in battel
by Erectheus & so was Immaradus the son of Eumolpus, & therefore Erechtheus
lived long.n# Thestus was e Pittheus the son of Erechtheus & thence by the Poets called Erecthides. Menestheusmed
were in the Argonautic expedition, & Procris another daughter of Erechtheus e was concubine to Minos the son of Europa, & Hercules the 50 daughters of
Thespius f Hercules in his youth, & therefore
Erechtheus was two of about the same age with
the Greeks lived of roots & acorns & other
He lived long & was slain in a war with Eumolpus. Celeus g
the son of Cranaus, & Cranaus was contemporary to Cecrops ā Rharus to Amphictyon
the son of Deucalion. For k
sister of Amphictyon married Rharus married Amphictyon. In the reign of Celeus
Triptolemus saved corn in a filed of Eleusine chch
was called Campus Rharius, & this seems to be about the time that Osiris or Bacchus
& Danaus came into Europe, that is in the reign of Rehoboam, Cecrops coming into
Greece in the reign of Saul or David [✝ Arcas the son of Callisto the daughter of Lycaon
received hh. Pausan. Arcad. p. 604.before beginning
But Ceres came into Attica 20 or 30 years before in Solomons reign 20 or 30 years before
& lay with Iasion the brother of Harmonia the wife of Cadmus. Arcas the son of
Callisto the daughter of Lycaon received h
to sow & make bread of it & therefore Lycaon
& all three flourished in the reign of David Saul & David.
Another instance of people coming out of Egypt & seating
themselves in Phenicia seems to be in the family of Cepheus who
was
the grandfather of Euristheus who was contemporary to Hercules &
the Argonauts. For Conon in his 40th Narration saith that Cepheus
the father of Andromeda reigned from the Mediterranean to the
Red Sea & that his kingdom was called Ioppa from the city Ioppa
this City was built by Chepheus, chkingdom
was erected there by his family. And Apollodorus makes this Ce
pheus & his brother Plineus
the same Belus who was brother reputed the brother of Agenor
the father of Cadmus & Europa. Be e
shews that e
He was accounted an Ethiopian, that is an Egyptian of Thebais.
Conon in his 37th Narration tells us that when Cadmus was sent
by the King of the Phenicians to seek Europa the Phenicians
were very potent & having conquered a great part of Asia
placed their royal seat at Thebes the Egyptian Thebes. Whence
I learn that the kingdom of Egypt seated at Thebes flourished was foundedin the days of Cadmus & was founded & grew potent about the
times of Ca Agenor & Cadmus, the shepherds having left many of their people in the lower Egypt & looking upon that to be their country under the dominion of Thebes, & on that accounteGreeks that their Belus
Cepheuswas king of Egypt Belus I understand Ammon , For whom the Egyptians call Ammon, the Europeans call Iupiter & the Syrians & Chaldeans Belus.
Manetho tells us that Ægyptus & Danaus (the sons of
Belus) were Sethosis & Armais, & that Sethosis having for
ces by land & sea left the Government of Egypt to his brother
Armaus while he invaded & conquered Cyprus, Phenicia, Media,
Persia & other nations. Whence its plain that this Sethosis
was the same man
times of David & Solomon & so was the same king with Sesack
that Sesak to whom Ieroboam fled in the days of Solomon. & who Had Sesostris been older then the use of letters in Europe
the Europeans would scarce have remembered him.
We are told in Scripture
with 12000 chariots & 60000 horsmen & foot without number
of Libyans Troglodyee
Iudah & God sait
that they may know my servitude & (that is the servitude of the servitude of the kingdoms of the earth ת 2 Chron 12. The Libyans Troglodites & Ethiopians
were therefore subdued & become the servants of Sesak before
he came out of Egypt, & then he came out th
army & subdued Iudea & the kingdoms of the earth. This answers
fully to the story of Sesostris & there is nothing else in Scrip
ture efully to it. so Well therefore doth
Iosephus
Sesak & particularly his invasion & conquest of Iudea, erring only
in the name of the King.
Herodotus in giving an account of the ancient s
tells us that the Priests of Egypt affirmed Menes to be their first
king & that they read to him out of a book the names of 330 kings
of Egypt who all reigned before Sesostris & amongst whom were 18EthiopiansGreeks that Belus king of Egypt
of Cepheus. By Belus I understand Amon. For whom the Syrians
& Babylonians call Belus & the Europeans Iupiter, the Egyptians
call Ammon. And thence I seem to gather that Ammon was
king of Egypt when Cadmus came into Europe.
Ægyptus and Danaus are by the Greeks recconed among
the sons of this Belus & therefore they flourished after the
coming of Cadmus into Europe
tus & Danaus were Sethosis & Armais, & that Sethosis having
forces by sea & land left the government of Egypt to his
brother Armais while he invaded & conquered Cyprus, Phenicia,
Media Persia & other nations. Whence its plain that Sethosis
was the same conquerer with Sesostris. The Greeks have trans
mitted to posterity many things concerning Sesostris, all ch
been forgotten had those things been done before the use of
Letters brought into Europe by Cadmus. And therefore Sesostris
reigned after the rapture of Europa & by consequence after
the days of David & Solomon. For Herodotus saw some
of Sesostris his Pillars erected in Palestine in memory of his
conquering that country, and such a conquest cannot agree
to the warlike & victorious reigns of David Saul & David nor to
the peaceable & flourishing reign of Solomon, nor is there
any mention of an invasion of Iudea by the Egyptians in the
days of the Iudges or at any time before the fift year of
Rehoboam.
older then the Trojan war, & something older then the Argo
nautic expedition. For the Greeks built the ship Argo inimitation ch
of Sesos Ægyptus or Sethosis into Egypt sailed with his 50
daughters to Greece. Sethosis therefore returned into Egypt
about 10 or 20 or at most 30 years before the Argonautic
expedition & by consequence invaded the nations in the
reign of Rehoboam, & so can be no other king then Sesak.
The same thing is confirmed by Iosephustells affirms that Herodotus ascribes to Ses
us thatak
of Sesak erring only in the name of the king. Which is
all one as to say that Sesak was that conqueror whom Hero
dotus calls Sesostris. The old Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius
calls him Sesonchosis saying that Sesonchosis who reigned was king of
all Egypt & reigned after Orus, the son of Osiris & Isis, conquered
all Asia & a great part of Europe & erected pillars of his
conquests & made laws & found out horsmanship & left a colony
at Æa thp
his conquests by land & sea, & that Theopompus calls him Sesostris. Sth
name with Moph, or that the susanchites
or Shushan called Sheshach by Ieremiah ch 25 & 51.
And Solinus ch chained. FchEgyp Thebes w
Egypt was by them placed at Ioppa & reigned over the Phenicians from the Mediterr
to ehis se the seat of his kingdom, & reigned there in t
days of Perseus. Among the sons of Belus are & that in those days co
quered ais
Among the sons of ed Ægyptus & Danaus
Belus is
Among the sons of Belus the Egyptians also reccon Ægyptus & Danaus, & the
fore they flourished after the coming of Cadmus into Europe & were contempora
to Cepheus. Belus in the language of the Egyptians is Ammon or Iupiter Am
& therefore Ammon was the father of Cepheus Ægyptus Danaus & Cepheus
& brother of Agenor. & the In his days happened the story of Ca Agenor & Cad
mus & in the next reign age
Manetho tells us
including (as I reccon) the reign of the 12 kings. Then reigned
Nechus or Nechoh 17 years, Psammis 6 years, Apries
Vaphres or Hophra 25 years, Amasus 44 years & Psam
minitus six months according to Herodotus. All these kings
reigned in Sais & their reign took up including the preceding
interregnum of two
the 5t year of Cambyses or 223th year of Cambyses
Nabonassar & therefore the interregnum began & reign
of the Assyrians over Egypt began in the year of
Nabonassar
nasses.
Nechus
a navigable ditch from the Bubastic stream of the Nile
to the Red sea, prepared a navy both in the red sea & in the
Mediterranean & went up against the Assyrians
to beseige Carchemish (or Cercutium) & in the way at Me
giddo (or Magdolus) vanquished & slew Iosiah king of
Iudah who went out against him took Cadylus or Cades
a city of Galilee & after three months fettered Iehoahaz
the son & successor of Iosiah at Riblah or Antioch
& made Iehojakim king in his room & put Iudea to
tribute. But Nebuchadnezzard & 4th year
of Iehojakim invaded Syria routed Nechus at Carchemish
& took all that belonged to him from the river of
Egypt to e6or 40 years
after
pia & slew Pharaoh Hophra with a great part of his
army & captivated the Egyptians wasting the land
from Migdol to Syene & even to the border of Ethiopia
& made either Partamis or Amasis their
dotus relates that the
& set up Amasis, Hellanicus that they revolted from
Partamis & set up Amasis. Afterwards Cambyses in
the fift year of his reign invaded Egypt again with
a great slaughter & going up into Ethiopia founded
the City Meroe & called it after the name of his
mother. Amasis died in the winter before Cambyses
entered Egypt & Psamminitus was conquered & slain
by him in the summer following & Egypt has conti
nued ever sin almost ever since in servitude.