I shall therefore pass over all the above monarchs; and 102 make mention of a king that came after them, and whose name was Sesostris. The priests represented Sesostris as the first that, embarking on long ships, proceeded out of the gulf of Arabia into the Erythræan sea, and subjected the inhabitants of the shore: they added, that, wishing to penetrate still further, he arrived at last into a sea unnavigable, by reason of the shoals; and thence sailed back into Egypt; where, according to the same priests, he levied a mighty army, and marched over the whole continent, subjecting every nation he fell in with. In the territories, accordingly, of such as fought gallantly, and strove hard for freedom 163, he erected pillars, with inscriptions describing his own name and country, and in what manner he had subdued the inhabitants with his forces: but in the lands of such as yielded up their towns as dastards, without a struggle, he set up pillars with the same inscriptions as for the valiant nations; to which he added a representation of the secret parts of a woman, intending thereby to signify that they were soft and effeminate. So doing, he traversed the continent of Asia; 103 then, crossing over into Europe, subdued the Scythians and the Thracians: these were the most distant, it is my opinion, to whom the Egyptian army reached 16: in that quarter the pillars are found, but not any further on: here, therefore, the troops wheeled back, to return. When they came to the Phasis river, either the king himself, Sesostris, (for I cannot say to a certainty,) divided a portion of his army, which he left to settle in that country; or some of the men, weary of this long migration, chose to remain on the banks of the Phasis. Indeed, it is manifest 165 that the Colchians are 104 Egyptians: this I assert, not only from my own previous conjecture, but also from what I heard of others; for, as I felt an interest in this subject 166, I made inquiries both of Egyptians and Colchians: the latter had a clearer remembrance of the Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of the Colchians. The Egyptians, however, said, that they considered the Colchians as having proceeded from Sesostris's army and I inferred the same thing, not so much because the Colchians are black and curly-headed, (which amounts to nothing, since there are other races of that kind,) but chiefly from the following proofs; that, of all mankind, the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are the only nations that, from the first, have practised circumcision: the Phoenicians, and Syrians of Palestine, even confess they learned the custom from the Egyptians; while the Syrii (Cappadocians) about the Thermodon and Parthenius rivers, as well as their neighbours the Macrones, acknowledge that they have but lately adopted the practice. Now, the above are the only races of circumcised men; and, in this respect, they all evidently act in the same manner as the Egyptians; but the two nations, Ethiopians and Egyptians, which of these learnt it from the other, is a point I cannot decide upon, for it is clearly a very ancient custom 167. The opinion, that it was learnt by communication with Egypt 168, is, I think, proved beyond doubt, by this fact: such of the Phoenicians as have any traffic with the Hellenes, no longer imitate the Egyp105 tians, but leave their children uncircumcised. I will now mention 169, also, an additional instance of similitude between Colchians and Egyptians. The Colchians and the Egyptians weave cloth in the same manner, but different from all the world besides the whole life, the language, are one and the same, in both nations. The linen woven by the Colchians is called Sardonic: that made in Egypt is, however, designated 106 as Egyptian 170. As to the pillars erected in the various countries by Sesostris king of Egypt, most of them have evidently perished: I saw, however, one of these in Syria of Palestine, bearing the inscription as above, with the characteristic of the female sex. On some rocks in Ionia there are engraved images of this prince: one is on the road by which you go from Ephesia to Phocæa, and the other between Sardis and Smyrna. In both these places the image of a man has been cut out, four cubits and a half high 172, bearing in his right hand a spear, in his left a bow, 167 dexav signifies a custom coëval with the origin of the nation, established from time immemorial: institutum ab ipsâ primâ gentis origine susceptum.' Larcher. 168μsvos cannot relate to the Ethiopians; for in that case, Herodotus would contradict what he has just asserted; namely, that he did not know which of those two nations had taken circumcision from the other. This word must therefore refer to the other nations that had communicated with the Egyptians. Larcher. sect. xiii. reg. vi. 170 The Egyptians had then some peculiar manner of manufacturing linen. Herodotus has mentioned, ch. 35, that, in weaving their cloth, they shot the woof or weft downwards; whereas other nations drive it upwards. This is, perhaps, the custom he alludes to in this place. Larcher. 171 Matt. 426, 2. and 474, e. 172 Comp. B. i. c. 50. See also Matt. 141.-The apn is half a cubit. We have seen before, i. 50, that giver 160 dies sur, age vero.' See Viger. μráλavrov signifies two talents and and so on with the whole attire, which is half Egyptian and half Ethiopian: from shoulder to shoulder, athwart the breast, a line of sacred Egyptian characters is carved, the purport of which is: I HAVE WON THIS LAND BY MY OWN SHOULDERS:—who, or whence he is, Sesostris does not hint here, but explains elsewhere. Some persons, who have seen these relics, have conjectured them to be images of Memnon: in this, however, they are greatly deceived. The priests go on to state, that when this Egyptian 107 Sesostris, on his return with many men from among the various subdued nations, reached Daphnæ of Pelusium, being by his own brother, whom he had set over Egypt, invited to be present at a banquet, himself and his sons, wood was piled up on the outside of the edifice, and set on fire. Sesostris, informed of this, immediately consulted his wife, who had accompanied him thither: the advice she gave him, as they had six sons, was, to stretch two across the fire, and thus, making a dyke against the flames, seek salvation. Sesostris did so; and in this manner two sons were consumed by the fire, while the rest, together with their father, made their escape 173. After Sesostris's return to Egypt, and 108 when he had taken revenge on his brother, he employed the multitude of prisoners brought from the subdued countries in the following works: not only were they set to drag the huge masses of stone, which, under the reign of this king, were brought to Vulcan's temple, but were likewise obliged to dig all the canals now seen in Egypt: thus, they were compelled, by force, to work such an alteration in the face of the country, that the whole territory, previously well adapted for horse-riding and the use of chariots, became useless for those purposes; because from that time, in Egypt, which is all level land, horses and carriages were no longer used: the cause being, the numerous canals in all directions. The motive that induced the king to intersect in this manner the country, was, that all the Egyptians, whose cities do not stand on the river-side, but lie at some distance, suffered from drought when the floods left them, and the inhabitants were obliged to procure a brackish beverage 174 from their wells. It was also related, that this king divided the soil among all 109 the Egyptians, giving to each individual an equal quadran a balf, and doμor žmitákavto, six talents and a half: it is therefore clear that riμrn olan must signify four cubits and a half. Schweig. 173 This chapter, as almost all the others, bears evidence of a direct interpretation of the figure carved on the walls of Vulcan's temple: whether the priests knew of the allegoric meaning, or wished to withhold it from Herodotus, is a matter of mere conjecture. 174 Hesychius explains wλærù üdwe by τὸ ἁλμυρόν: νος. πλατύ. Larcher. gular portion; and from thence drew his revenues, enacting what contribution should be made every year: and if the river should sweep away any portion, the proprietor was to come to him, and report what had happened; when he would send surveyors and measurers, to ascertain to what extent the soil was diminished, so that thereafter the appointed contribution should be proportionately decreased 1. Hence, in my opinion, land-surveying took its origin, and subsequently extended to Hellas: for it was from the Babylonians that the Hellenes learnt the use of the clock and sun-dial. 110 This king was accordingly the only Egyptian that ever ruled over Ethiopia. He left, as memorials of himself 176, some stone statues in front of Vulcan's temple: two, thirty cubits each, himself and his wife: their sons, four, each twenty cubits. A long time after, one of the priests of Vulcan warned Darius, the Persian king, from setting up his own statue before these; observing, that " Darius had not "achieved deeds equal to those of Sesostris the Egyptian: for Sesostris had conquered no fewer nations than Darius "had subdued; and had, moreover, overpowered the "Scythians, a thing which the Persian could not compass: "therefore it was not fair he should place his own statue 17 "before those offerings 178, unless he had surpassed in "exploits." Darius, accordingly, by their account, excused the boldness of the priest. 111 66 At the decease of Sesostris, the power, it is said, was assumed by his son Pheron. This prince displayed no inclination for war: he was afflicted with blindness, in consequence of the following event 179: the river having swollen eighteen cubits, an enormous height for those days, and covering the arable lands, a gale of wind arose, and the river was agitated by waves; when the king, impiously grasping a spear, hurled it in the midst of the eddies of the stream: forthwith he was taken with ophthalmia, and became blind: and the affliction, accordingly, lasted during ten years: but in the eleventh year, an oracle came to him from the city of Buto, declaring," that the period of his visita"tion was at an end; and he would recover sight, by bathing his eyes in the urine of some woman who had never 66 175 Construction: xws FOD 2010 τελίοι (μέρος) τῆς τεταγμένης ἀποφορῆς κατὰ λόγον. 176 μνημόσυνον is a monument in tended to preserve the memory of something.-Larcher. 177 Understand ἱστάναι αὐτὸν, ἀνάθη μα οι ανδριάντα - Schweig. 178 The statues that were erected to any person were invariably offered or dedicated to the gods, to the end, that, being under the protection of religion, no one should dare to throw them down. Larcher. 179 Matt. 423, 4. k gone astray from her lawful husband, and was innocent "before all men excepting him." The king, therefore, made the first trial on his own wife; but seeing no better after that, he persisted in making the experiment on all women: having at last been restored to sight, he collected in one town, called Erythrebolus, all the women whom he had made trial of, excepting her by whose urine he was cured; and consumed them all by fire, together with the town itself. Her, to whom he was indebted for his sight, he took to himself as wife. Having thus escaped from the disease in his eyes, Pheron made magnificent offerings to all the celebrated temples; but the most particularly deserving of our admiration, no doubt, are the beautiful works dedicated at the temple of the Sun, namely, two stone obelisks, each cut out of one single block, and each of a hundred cubits in length by eight in breadth. He was succeeded, the priests said, in the kingdom, by a 112 native of Memphis, whose name, in Hellenic, is Proteus: his sacred grove, a beautiful and well-adorned spot, is still extant at Memphis, lying south of the Vulcanian fane: the environs are inhabited by Tyrian Phoenicians; and the whole of this quarter is known by the name of the Tyrian camp. Within the sacred grove of Proteus stands the temple of Foreign Venus: this is, I presume, the temple of Helen the daughter of Tyndarus, who, I have been told, lived with Proteus, and bore the name of Foreign Venus; for, among all other temples of Venus, there is none elsewhere having the name of Foreign 180. The priests, when I inquired 113 into the history of Helen, told me that matters passed in the following manner:-Paris, having stolen Helen from Sparta, steered for his own country; but, when he was on the Ægean sea, an adverse gale drove him from his course, into the sea of Egypt; from whence-for the storm did not slacken in violence-he came to Egypt; and landed at Taricheæ, on the mouth of the Nile, now called the Canopic. On that shore stood a temple, the same that is seen there at present; where, if a slave, belong to whom he may, takes refuge, and gives himself up to the god, by having certain sacred marks impressed on his body, no one can lay hands on him. This custom continued still in force in my time, exactly as it was at the beginning. The attendants of Paris, consequently, when informed of the practice that held in 180 ἐπωνύμιος, i. e. ἐπώνυμος: Qui ab aliquo (sive a personâ, sive a re quâ, dam) nomen invenit; Qui alicujus nomen gerit. y Esívns 'EXśvno ['Apeo δίτης, it should be,] ἐπωνύμιον, i. e. ἱρὸν |