be set up in the temple of Vulcan, holding in his right hand a rat, and these words issuing out of his mouth: LET THE MAN WHO BEHOLDS ME, LEARN TO REVERENCE THE GODS.'

k

It is very obvious that this story, as related here from Herodotus, is an alteration of that which is told in the second book of kings. We there see, that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, having subdued all the neighbouring nations, and seized upon all the cities of Judah, resolved to besiege Hezekiah in Jerusalem, his capital city. The ministers of this holy king, in spite of his opposition, and the remonstrances of the prophet Isaiah, who promised them, in God's name, a sure and certain protection, provided they would trust in him only, sent secretly to the Egyptians and Ethiopians for succour, Their armies being united, marched to the relief of Jerusalem at the time appointed, and were met and vanquished by the Assyrian in a pitched battle. He pursued them into Egypt, and entirely laid waste the country, At his return from thence, the very night before he was to have given a general assault to Jerusalem, which then seemed lost to all hopes, the destroying angel made dreadful havoc in the camp of the Assyrians; destroyed one hundred and eighty five thousand men by fire and sword; and proved evidently that they had great reason to rely, as Hezekiah had done, on the promise of the God of Israel.

This is the real fact. But as it was no ways honourable to the Egyptians, they endeavoured to turn it to their own advantage, by disguising and corrupting the circumstances of it. Nevertheless, the footsteps of 1 Chap. xvii.

* Ες έμε τις, ορέων, ευσεβης ετα

this history, though so much defaced, ought yet to be highly valued, as coming from an historian of so great antiquity and authority as Herodotus.

The prophet Isaiah had foretold, at several times, that this expedition of the Egyptians, which had been concerted seemingly with such prudence, conducted with the greatest skill, and in which the forces of two powerful empires were united, in order to relieve the Jews, would not only be of no service to Jerusalem, but even destructive to Egypt itself, whose strongest cities would be taken, and its inhabitants of all ages and sexes led into captivity. See the 18th, 19th, 20th, 30th, 31", &c. chapters of the second book of Kings.

It was doubtless in this period that the ruin of the famous city No Amon," spoken of by the prophet Nahum, happened. That prophet says, "that" she was carried away;" "that her young children were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets;" that the enemy "cast lots for her honourable men, and" that "all her great men were bound in chains." He observes, that all these misfortunes befel that city, when Egypt and Ethiopia "were her strength;" which seems to refer clearly enough to the time of which we are here speaking, when Tharaca and Sethon had united their forces. However, this opinion is not without some difficulties, and is contradicted by some learned men. It suffices for me to have hinted it to the reader.

The Vulgate calls that city Alexandria, to which the Hebrew gives the name of No Amon; because Alexandria was afterwards built in the place where this stood. Dean Prideaux, after Bochart, thinks that it was Thebes, surnamed I jospolis. Indeed, the Egyptian Amon is the same with Jupiter. But Thebes is not the place where Alexandria was since built. Perhaps there was another city there, which also was called No Amon.

Chap. iii. 8, 10.

• Till the reign of Sethon, the Egyptian priests computed three hundred and forty one generations of men; which make eleven thousand three hundred and forty years; allowing three generations to one 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 pretended.

PTHARACA. He it was who joined Sethon with an Ethiopian army to relieve Jerusalem. After the death of Sethon, who had sat 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,

TWELVE KINGS.

• At last twelve of the principal noblemen, conspir. ing together, seized upon the kingdom, and divided it into so many parts. It was agreed by them, that each hould govern his own district with equal power and

• Herod, I. ii. cap. 142.

A. M. 3199. Ant. J. C. 705. Afric. apud Syncel. p. 74.

A. M. 3319. Ant. J. C. 685. Herod. I. ii. cap. 147, 152. Diod. l. i. p. 52

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 under ground as appeared above it. I have spoke 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, 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

He was one of the twelve.

Egypt. These were Grecian soldiers, Carians and Ionians, who had been cast upon 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 seacoast. He did not doubt 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, put these Greeks at their head, when, giving battle to the eleven kings, he defeated them, and remained sole possessor of Egypt.

PSAMMETICHUS.

As this prince owed his pres ervation 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. 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 era, 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 account of the limits of the two empires. This war was of long continuance. Ever since Syria had been conquered by the Assyrians, Palestine, being the only

A. M. 3334. Ant. J. C. 670. Herod. l. ii. c. 153, 154.