of Halicarnassus, that he dedicated two obelisks to the sun at Heliopolis, in token of gratitude for the recovery of his sight; and this I suppose to refer to the son of Remeses II., as I have observed in noticing the reign of Pthahmen.

Many ages after him, according to Diodorus, Amasis ascended the throne. He is represented to have been a cruel and despotic prince; and having oppressed his people for some time, he was deposed by Actisanes, an Ethiopian, who made war upon him, probably in consequence of the representations of his subjects, and who succeeded to the throne of Egypt. Actisanes proved himself worthy of the confidence reposed in him and of the choice made by the Egyptians. He behaved with great moderation and impartiality, and introduced some beneficial laws. Instead of punishing theft with death, he caused all robbers to be banished and confined in the most remote part of Egypt, on the edge of the desert bordering Syria; their noses having been previously cut off, as an eternal stigma, and as a means of recognising them in the event of their escape. And the town of Rhinocolura*, where they lived, Iwas said to have received its name from this mutilation of the inhabitants. The spot was dreary and unproductive. On one side was the sea, on the E., W., and S., all was desert, and the torrent or dry "river of Egypt," the boundary line of the Syrian frontier, afforded no water but during the partial rains which sometimes fell in winter. The

* Diod. i, 60.

wells were salt or brackish; nothing could be cultivated without excessive labour, and so destitute were they of the necessaries of life, that they gladly availed themselves of any opportunity of providing themselves with food. At one season numerous quails visited the district, which they caught in long nets made with split reeds*; but this temporary relief only acted as a contrast to their wants during the remainder of the year, when they depended principally on the fish of the neighbouring sea.

Actisanes was succeeded by Mendes, or Marrhus, the sceptre now returning to the Egyptian line. This Mendes, according to Diodorus, built the labyrinth in the Crocodilopolite nome, ascribed by Herodotus to Moris: whence it is evident that he considers Mendes a different person from Moris, who excavated the lake, and is called by him Myris. Mendes, indeed, may have continued the building, as the twelve kings are supposed to have done, at a later period, and thereby have obtained the title of its founder nor is it improbable that Mendes is the Ismandes of Strabo, who was also reputed to be the builder of the labyrinth, and the same as the Mandoof or Mandooftep of the hieroglyphics. And the circumstance of there being two towns in the vicinity still bearing the name Isment is very remarkable. Diodorus does not fix the exact epoch at which Osymandyas, whose tomb he describes at Thebes, reigned in

* The framework of some nets, in the Egyptian paintings, seems to be made of reeds.

The oi and u of the Greeks had the sound of our ee.

Egypt; but, if we may be allowed to infer the identity of Ismandes and Mendes *, we are enabled to assign him a position in the series given by the historian, Ismandes being unquestionably the same as Osymandyas.

Osymandyas signalised himself both for the victories he obtained in the East, and for the monuments with which he adorned the cities of Egypt. In his reign the Bactrians, who had been subdued by Sesostris, rebelled, and threw off their allegiance to the Egyptians. Resolving to punish their defection, and recover the conquered country, he levied a formidable army and marched against them. He was victorious; he again reduced them under the dominion of Egypt, and returning triumphant to Thebes, he erected a magnificent monument, supposed by Hecatæus to have been afterwards used as his tomb, on which he commemorated his victory, and his gratitude to the god Amun, and the co-templar deities. It is thus described by Diodorust, on the authority of that ancient author: "Ten stadia from the first sepulchres in the Theban Necropolis, where the pallacides of Jove are buried, stood the tomb of Osymandyas. Its entrance was by a propylon of variously-coloured stone‡ two plethra in length §, * Strabo says, 66 If, as some suppose, Memnon is called by the Egyptians Ismandes, the labyrinth must be Memnonian, the work of the same person who erected the buildings at Abydus and Thebes, which are there styled Memnoneia." lib. xvii.

+ Diodor. i. 47. et seq.

This appears to allude to the painted sculptures usual on Egyptian buildings, or to granite.

The plethrum, according to some, was 100 feet, others reckon it about 92 feet, English.