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Till
the reign of Sethon, the Egyptian priests computed three hundred
and
forty-one
generations of men;(448) which make eleven thousand three
hundred
and forty years; allowing three generations to a hundred years.
They
counted the like number of priests and kings. The latter, whether
gods
or men, had succeeded one another without interruption, under the
name
of Piromis, an Egyptian word signifying good and virtuous. The
Egyptian
priests showed Herodotus three hundred and forty-one wooden
colossal
statues of these Piromis, all ranged in order in a great hall.
Such
was the folly of the Egyptians, to lose themselves as it were in
a
remote
antiquity, to which no other people could dare to pretend.
(M86)
THARACA. He it was who joined Sethon, with an Ethiopian army, to
relieve
Jerusalem.(449) After the death of Sethon, who had sitten
fourteen
years
on the throne, Tharaca ascended it, and reigned eighteen years.
He
was
the last Ethiopian king who reigned in Egypt.
After
his death, the Egyptians, not being able to agree about the
succession,
were two years in a state of anarchy, during which there were
great
disorders and confusions among them.
(M87)
At last,(450) twelve of the principal noblemen, conspiring
together,
seized
upon the kingdom, and divided it amongst themselves into as many
parts.
It was agreed by them, that each should govern his own district
with
equal power and authority, and that no one should attempt to
invade
or
seize the dominions of another. They thought it necessary to make
this
agreement,
and to bind it with the most dreadful oaths, to elude the
prediction
of an oracle, which had foretold, that he among them who should
offer
his libation to Vulcan out of a brazen bowl, should gain the
sovereignty
of Egypt. They reigned together fifteen years in the utmost
harmony:
and to leave a famous monument of their concord to posterity,
they
jointly, and at a common expense, built the famous labyrinth,
which
was
a pile of building consisting of twelve large palaces, with as
many
edifices
underground as appeared above it. I have spoken elsewhere of this
labyrinth.
One
day, as the twelve kings were assisting at a solemn and
periodical
sacrifice
offered in the temple of Vulcan, the priests, having presented
each
of them a golden bowl for the libation, one was wanting; when
Psammetichus,(451)
without any design, supplied the want of this bowl with
his
brazen helmet, (for each wore one,) and with it performed the
ceremony
of
the libation. This accident struck the rest of the kings, and
recalled
to
their memory the prediction of the oracle above mentioned. They
thought
it
therefore necessary to secure themselves from his attempts, and
therefore,
with one consent, banished him into the fenny parts of Egypt.
After
Psammetichus had passed some years there, waiting a favourable
opportunity
to revenge himself for the affront which had been put upon
him,
a courier brought him advice, that brazen men were landed in
Egypt.
These
were Grecian soldiers, Carians and Ionians, who had been cast
upon
the
coasts of Egypt by a storm, and were completely covered with
helmets,
cuirasses,
and other arms of brass. Psammetichus immediately called to
mind
the oracle, which had answered him, that he should be succoured
by
brazen
men from the sea-coast. He did not doubt but the prediction was
now
fulfilled.
He therefore made a league with these strangers; engaged them
with
great promises to stay with him; privately levied other forces;
and
put
these Greeks at their head; when giving battle to the eleven kings,
he
defeated
them, and remained sole possessor of Egypt.
(M88)
PSAMMETICHUS. As this prince owed his preservation to the Ionians
and
Carians, he settled them in Egypt, (from which all foreigners
hitherto
had
been excluded;) and, by assigning them sufficient lands and fixed
revenues,
he made them forget their native country.(452) By his order,
Egyptian
children were put under their care to learn the Greek tongue; and
on
this occasion, and by this means, the Egyptians began to have a
correspondence
with the Greeks; and from that æra, the Egyptian history,
which,
till then, had been intermixed with pompous fables, by the
artifice
of
the priests, begins, according to Herodotus, to speak with
greater
truth
and certainty.
As
soon as Psammetichus was settled on the throne, he engaged in war
against
the king of Assyria, on the subject of the boundaries of the two
empires.
This war was of long continuance. Ever since Syria had been
conquered
by the Assyrians, Palestine, being the only country that
separated
the two kingdoms, was the subject of continual discord; as
afterwards
it was between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ. They were
eternally
contending for it, and it was alternately won by the stronger.
Psammetichus,
seeing himself the peaceable possessor of all Egypt, and
having
restored the ancient form of government,(453) thought it high
time
for
him to look to his frontiers, and to secure them against the
Assyrian,
his
neighbour, whose power increased daily. For this purpose, he
entered
Palestine
at the head of an army.
Perhaps
we are to refer to the beginning of this war, an incident related
by
Diodorus;(454) that the Egyptians, provoked to see the Greeks posted
on
the
right wing by the king himself, in preference to them, quitted
the
service,
to the number of upwards of two hundred thousand men, and retired
into
Ethiopia, where they met with an advantageous settlement.
Be
this as it will, Psammetichus entered Palestine,(455) where his
career
was
stopped by Azotus, one of the principal cities of the country,
which
gave
him so much trouble, that he was forced to besiege it twenty-nine
years
before he could take it. This is the longest siege mentioned in
ancient
history.
This
was anciently one of the five capital cities of the Philistines.
The
Egyptians,
having seized it some time before, had fortified it with such
care,
that it was their strongest bulwark on that side. Nor could
Sennacherib
enter Egypt, till he had first made himself master of this
city,(456)
which was taken by Tartan, one of his generals. The Assyrians
had
possessed it hitherto; and it was not till after the long siege
just
now
mentioned, that the Egyptians recovered it.
In
this period,(457) the Scythians, leaving the banks of the Palus
Mæotis,
made
an inroad into Media, defeated Cyaxares, the king of that
country,
and
deprived him of all Upper Asia, of which they kept possession
during
twenty-eight
years. They pushed their conquests in Syria as far as to the
frontiers
of Egypt. But Psammetichus marching out to meet them, prevailed
so
far, by his presents and entreaties, that they advanced no farther,
and
by
that means delivered his kingdom from these dangerous enemies.
Till
his reign,(458) the Egyptians had imagined themselves to be the
most
ancient
nation upon earth. Psammetichus was desirous to prove this
himself,
and he employed a very extraordinary experiment for this purpose.
He
commanded (if we may credit the relation) two children, newly born
of
poor
parents, to be brought up (in the country) in a hovel, that was to
be
kept
continually shut. They were committed to the care of a shepherd,
(others
say, of nurses, whose tongues were cut out,) who was to feed them
with
the milk of goats; and was commanded not to suffer any person to
enter
into this hut, nor himself to speak even a single word in the
hearing
of these children. At the expiration of two years, as the
shepherd
was
one day coming into the hut to feed these children, they both
cried
out,
with hands extended towards their foster-father, _beccos,
beccos_.
The
shepherd, surprised to hear a language that was quite new to him,
but
which
they repeated frequently afterwards, sent advice of this to the
king,
who ordered the children to be brought before him, in order that
he
himself
might be a witness to the truth of what was told him; and
accordingly
both of them began, in his presence, to stammer out the sounds
above
mentioned. Nothing now was wanting but to ascertain what nation
it
was
that used this word; and it was found that the Phrygians called
bread
by
this name. From this time they were allowed the honour of antiquity,
or
rather
of priority, which the Egyptians themselves, notwithstanding
their
jealousy
of it, and the many ages they had possessed this glory, were
obliged
to resign to them. As goats were brought to these children, in
order
that they might feed upon their milk, and historians do not say
that
they
were deaf, some are of opinion that they might have learnt the
word
_bec_,
or _beccos_, by mimicking the cry of those creatures.
Psammetichus
died in the 24th year of Josias, king of Judah, and was
succeeded
by his son Nechao.
(M89)
NECHAO.(459) This prince is often mentioned in Scripture under
the
name
of Pharaoh-Necho.(460)
He
attempted to join the Nile to the Red-Sea, by cutting a canal from
one
to
the other. The distance which separates them is at least a
thousand
stadia.(461)
After a hundred and twenty thousand workmen had lost their
lives
in this attempt, Nechao was obliged to desist; the oracle which
had
been
consulted by him, having answered, that this new canal would open
a
passage
to the Barbarians (for so the Egyptians called all other nations)
to
invade Egypt.
Nechao
was more successful in another enterprise.(462) Skilful Phœnician
mariners,
whom he had taken into his service, having sailed from the
Red-Sea
in order to discover the coasts of Africa, went successfully
round
it;
and the third year after their setting out, returned to Egypt
through
the
Straits of Gibraltar. This was a very extraordinary voyage, in an
age
when
the compass was not known. It was made twenty-one centuries
before
Vasco
de Gama, a Portuguese, (by discovering the Cape of Good Hope, in
the
year
1497,) found out the very same way to sail to the Indies, by
which
these
Phœnicians had come from thence into the Mediterranean.
The
Babylonians and Medes, having destroyed Nineveh, and with it the
empire
of the Assyrians, were thereby become so formidable, that they
drew
upon
themselves the jealousy of all their neighbours.(463) Nechao,
alarmed
at
the danger, advanced to the Euphrates, at the head of a powerful
army,
in
order to check their progress. Josiah, king of Judah, so famous for
his
uncommon
piety, observing that he took his route through Judea, resolved
to
oppose his passage. With this view, he raised all the forces of
his
kingdom,
and posted himself in the valley of Megiddo, (a city on this side
Jordan,
belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, and called Magdolus by
Herodotus.)
Nechao informed him, by a herald, that his enterprise was not
designed
against him; that he had other enemies in view, and that he had
undertaken
this war in the name of God, who was with him; that for this
reason
he advised Josiah not to concern himself with this war, for fear
lest
it otherwise should turn to his disadvantage. However, Josiah was
not
moved
by these reasons: he was sensible that the bare march of so
powerful
an
army through Judea, would entirely ruin it. And besides, he feared
that
the
victor, after the defeat of the Babylonians, would fall upon him,
and
dispossess
him of part of his dominions. He therefore marched to engage
Nechao;
and was not only overthrown by him, but unfortunately received a
wound,
of which he died at Jerusalem, whither he had ordered himself to
be
carried.
Nechao,
animated by this victory, continued his march, and advanced
towards
the Euphrates. He defeated the Babylonians; took Carchemish, a
large
city in that country; and securing to himself the possession of
it
by
a strong garrison, returned to his own kingdom, after having been
absent
from it three months.
Being
informed in his march homeward, that Jehoahaz had caused himself
to
be
proclaimed king at Jerusalem, without first asking his consent,
he
commanded
him to meet him at Riblah in Syria.(464) The unhappy prince was
no
sooner arrived there, than he was put in chains by Nechao’s order,
and
sent
prisoner to Egypt, where he died. From thence, pursuing his march,
he
came
to Jerusalem, where he placed Eliakim, (called by him Jehoiakim,)
another
of Josiah’s sons, upon the throne, in the room of his brother:
and
imposed
an annual tribute on the land, of a hundred talents of silver,
and
one
talent of gold.(465) This being done, he returned in triumph to
Egypt.
Herodotus,
mentioning this king’s expedition,(466) and the victory gained
by
him at Magdolus,(467) (as he calls it,) says, that he afterwards
took
the
city Cadytis, which he represents as situated in the mountains of
Palestine,
and equal in extent to Sardis, the capital at that time not
only
of Lydia, but of all Asia Minor: this description can suit only
Jerusalem,
which was situated in the manner above described, and was then
the
only city in those parts that could be compared to Sardis. It
appears
besides
from Scripture, that Nechao, after his victory, made himself
master
of this capital of Judea; for he was there in person, when he
gave
the
crown to Jehoiakim. The very name Cadytis, which in Hebrew
signifies
the
Holy, clearly denotes the city of Jerusalem, as is proved by the
learned
Dean Prideaux.(468)
(M90)
Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, observing that, since the taking
of
Carchemish
by Nechao, all Syria and Palestine had shaken off their
allegiance
to him, and that his years and infirmities would not permit him
to
march against the rebels in person, he therefore associated his
son
Nabuchodonosor,
or Nebuchadnezzar, with him in the empire, and sent him at
the
head of an army into those countries. This young prince vanquished
the
army
of Nechao near the river Euphrates, recovered Carchemish, and
reduced
the
revolted provinces to their allegiance, as Jeremiah had
foretold.(469)
Thus
he dispossessed the Egyptians of all that belonged to them,(470)
from
the
little river(471)(472) of Egypt to the Euphrates, which
comprehended
all
Syria and Palestine.
Nechao
dying after he had reigned sixteen years, left the kingdom to his
son.
(M91)
PSAMMIS. His reign was but of six years’ duration; and history
has
left
us nothing memorable concerning him, except that he made an
expedition
into Ethiopia.(473)
It
was to this prince that the Eleans sent a splendid embassy, after
having
instituted the Olympic games. They had established all the
regulations,
and arranged every circumstance relating to them, with such
care,
that, in their opinion, nothing seemed wanting to their
perfection,
and
envy itself could not find any fault with them. However, they did
not
desire
so much to have the opinion, as to gain the approbation of the
Egyptians,
who were looked upon as the wisest and most judicious people in
the
world.(474) Accordingly, the king assembled the sages of his
nation.
After
every thing had been heard which could be said in favour of this
institution,
the Eleans were asked, whether citizens and foreigners were
admitted
indifferently to these games; to which answer was made, that they
were
open to every one. To this the Egyptians replied, that the rules
of
justice
would have been more strictly observed, had foreigners only been
admitted
to these combats; because it was very difficult for the judges,
in
their award of the victory and the prize, not to be prejudiced in
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