421 



SESOSTRIS. 



SESTINI, DOMENICO. 



422 



first given by the twelve centuries of patrician equites ; next came 

 the six suffragia of plebeian cquites ; and then the centuries of the 

 several classes, beginning with those of the first class. If therefore the 

 cquites aud the centuries of the first class agreed among themselves in 

 the cumitia, a question was decided at once, without being put to the 

 vote of the remaining centuries. The centuries of the last classes 

 thus had in theory equal rights in their comitia with those of the 

 first class; but practically they seldom exercised these rights, as iu 

 mobt cases the majority was manifest, before a question came to be 

 put to their vote. The comitia of the centuries now received the 

 rights which, until then, had been the exclusive possession of the 

 curice, that is, to decide on peace and war, to elect the kings, and 

 subsequently the chief magistrates of the republic ; and to pass new 

 laws or abolish old ones. (Dionysius, iv., p. 224.) But the assemblies 

 of the curias still existed. New laws were not often brought before 

 the centuries, on account of the firm adherence to ancient usages ; and 

 whenever they were brought before them, it could only be done after 

 they had obtained the sanction of the senate. The election of a king 

 was confined to those candidates who were proposed by the senate 

 through an interrex ; and such an event could not happen frequently, 

 as the office of the king was for life. It was a further check upon the 

 comitia centuriata, that when a question was decided by them, it still 

 required the sanction of the comitia curiata ; so that in point of fact 

 the patricians, in the senate and their comitia curiata, possessed a very 

 great preponderance over the commonalty. The only advantage 

 therefore which Servius had given to the plebeians was, that the 

 wealthy members of their order had an opportunity of meeting the 

 patricians on a footing of equality, and the way to this honour was of 

 course open to every plebeian. As we are not informed that Servius 

 Tullius admitted any of the plebeians into the senate, it seems to have 

 been his intention to exclude them from all the offices which were in 

 the exclusive possession of the patricians. This shows at the same 

 time the improbability of the story according to which Servius intended 

 to resign his royal dignity, and to appoint two consuls, one of whom 

 should be a plebeian. Mebuhr is inclined to think that almost all 

 the rights which the plebeians acquired in the course of time, had 

 been originally granted to them by the constitution of Servius Tullius, 

 and that they had been deprived of them during the reign of Tar- 

 quinius Superbus. But this theory seems to be supported rather by 

 the stories which in subsequent ages became current of the good King 

 Sirvius, than by what must be considered as historically established 

 in regard to his constitution. Nothing is more natural than that the 

 benefits which Servius actually conferred upon the plebeians should 

 in after-times, when they were abolished, have been greatly magnified, 

 as if he had placed the plebes on a footing of perfect equality with the 

 patricians. 



Eespecting the reign and constitution of Servius Tullius, the reader 

 may, besides the work of Niebuhr, consult Huschke, ' Die Verfassung 

 des Konigs Servius Tullius, als Gruiidlage zu einer Romischen Verfas- 

 suugsgeschichte entwickelt,' Heidelberg, 8vo, 1838, a work which is 

 more based on speculation than on an accurate examination of the 

 ancient authorities ; Zumpt, ' Ueber Abstimmung des Romischen 

 Volkes in Centuriat Comitien/ Berlin, 4to, 1837; Gottling, 'Geschichte 

 der Romischen Staatsv.,' pp. 230-267 ; Walter, 'Gesch. d. Rom. Rechts,' 

 pp. 29-37 ; Rubino, ' Ueber den Entwickelungsgang der Romisch. 

 Verf. bis zum Hohepunkt der Republik,' vol. i., Marburg, 8vo, 1839 ; 

 Hullmann, 'Romische Grundverfassung,' Bonn, 8vo, 1832; and, by 

 the same author, ' Urspriinge der Romischen Verfassung durch Ver- 

 gleichungen erlaiitert,' Bonn, 8vo, 1837. 



SESO'STRIS (Diodorus calls him SESOOSIS, sometimes he is called 

 RAMSES THE GREAT), the greatest of the early kings of Egypt. He is 

 the third king of the twelfth dynasty of Manetho, and, according to 

 Herodotus (ii. 102), the successor of Moeris; but Diodorus (i. 53) 

 places him seven generations after Moeris. The exact time of his 

 reign is uncertain, but the most common opinion is that it was about 

 the year B.C. 1500. What has been handed down to us as the history 

 of Sesostris, contains such exaggerated accounts of his military exploits, 

 that we must suppose the achievements of several kings, who perhaps 

 bore the same name, to be ascribed to one. There is however no 

 reason to doubt his personal existence, and as his history serves to 

 explain many of the remains of Egyptian art and architecture, it will 

 be necessary to relate the ancient traditions. 



The father of Sesostris had all the male children who were born in 

 Egypt on the same day with Sesostris educated with his son, and gave 

 them a regular military training, that they might become attached to 

 their king and be enabled to endure with him all the hardships to 

 which they might be exposed during his career as a conqueror. (Diod., 

 i. 53.) His first expedition was during the lifetime of his father, into 

 Arabia, which he conquered. Hereupon, though still a young man, 

 he was sent by his father into the countries west of Egypt, and made 

 himself master of the greater part of Libya. After the death of his 

 father, when he came to the throne, he determined to realise a pro- 

 phecy according to which he was to become master of the whole 

 inhabited earth. But before he set out, he endeavoured to secure the 

 good will of the - Egyptians, for he is represented as king of all 

 Egypt. He divided the country into 36 districts (vo^o'i), each under 

 the government of a nomarch. He then raised an army of 600,000 foot, 

 24,000 horse, and 27,000 beasts of burden, giving the command of its 



numerous subdivisions to those warriors who had been educated with 

 him, and whose number was above 1700. To these men he also 

 assigned the beet portions of the land (Diod., i. 54), for he IB 

 said to have divided the whole country into equal parts, and to 

 have assigned one to every Egyptian. (Herod., ii. 109.) Hia first 

 attack was directed against the Ethiopians, who were subdued, and 

 compelled to pay annual tribute, consisting of ebony, gold, and ivory. 

 He then sent out a large fleet of 400 long ships, the first tbat were 

 built in Egypt. This fleet sailed down the Red Sea, and round the 

 whole coast of Asia as far as India, and all the nations on the coasts 

 were conquered. Sesostris in the meanwhile traversed Asia with an 

 army, and penetrated, as far as the eastern bank of the Ganges, nay, 

 even to the coasts of the eastern ocean. (Cornp. Plin., ' Hist. Nat.,' 

 yi. 34.) When all Asia was thus rendered subject to him, he returned 

 in a north-western direction, and reached Scythia on the banks of the 

 Tanais. Traces of the conquests of Egyptian kings in India are still 

 visible on some Egyptian monuments. Prosecuting his plan, the king 

 crossed the Tanais, and marched through Thrace, where however he 

 met with great difficulties, partly from want of provisions and partly 

 from the difficult nature of the country, and he therefore ceased 

 carrying his conquests any farther. In all countries where he had 

 conquered he is said to have erected columns with Egyptian inscrip- 

 tions recording his conquests ; in some places he erected his own statue, 

 four cubits and one foot high, for such was his own natural stature. 

 The columns erected in Palestine, and two figures of the king cut into 

 the rocks in Ionia, were seen by Herodotus (ii. 106) himself, and in 

 ^Ethiopia they appear to have been known in the days of Strabo (xvii., 

 c. 1, p. 420; xvi., p. 386, ed. Tauchnitz). 



This vast campaign had lasted nine years, and the king, after 

 having settled the tributes to be paid to him, collected his prisoners 

 and spoils, and returned to Egypt, On his arrival at Pelusium he was 

 nearly burned in his tent with his wife and children, through the 

 treachery of his brother, whom he had intrusted with the regency of 

 Egypt during his absence. The happy escape of the king and four of 

 his children, for two were burnt, was ascribed to Hephaestus, the 

 great god of Memphis, and the king afterwards dedicated in the temple 

 of that city statues of bis wife and himself, each 30 cubits high, 

 and statues of his children, each 20 cubits high; and each of 

 these statues was made of one solid block of stone. (Herod., ii., 107 

 and 110; Diod., i. 57.) After he had punished his brother, he adorned 

 the temples of the gods with magnificent presents, and rewarded his 

 warriors according to their desert. At this time Egypt was in a state 

 of the highest prosperity, and the inhabitants enjoyed a kind of golden 

 age. The king himself however continued in his restless activity. In 

 each town of Egypt he raised a temple to the greatest local divinity. 

 But in the execution of these, as well as his other great works, he did 

 not employ his Egyptians, but the prisoners of war whom he had 

 brought with him to Egypt. The Babylonian captives, unable to 

 endure the hardships imposed upon them, gathered together and took 

 possession of a fortified place on the Nile, from whence they carried on 

 a war with the Egyptians : at last however the Babylonians were not 

 only pardoned, but received the place which they occupied as their 

 settlement, and henceforth they called it Babylon. Sesostris sur- 

 rounded many cities of his kingdom with high mounds to protect 

 them against the inundations of the Nile, aud many traces of such 

 mounds are still visible ; he also intersected Egypt north of Memphis 

 with numerous canals, which carried off the superfluous water of the 

 Nile, facilitated the intercouse of his subjects, and were a protection 

 against foreign invaders. Another protection of Egypt, especially 

 against the Syrians and Arabs was a wall, 1500 stadia in length (accord- 

 ing to Diodor., i. 57), which extended from Pelusium to Heliopolis ; 

 but the actual distance is only about seventy-five geographical miles in 

 a straight line, and modern travellers have found that the wall runs 

 past Heliopolis. To the principal divinity of the city of Thebes 

 Sesostris dedicated a magnificent ship of cedar-wood, 280 yards long. 

 The last of his great works were two obelisks of hard stone, each 120 

 cubits high, on which he recorded the greatness of his power, the 

 amount of tribute which he received, and the number of conquered 

 nations. In the reign of Augustus an obelisk 116 feet high, and said 

 to have been erected under Sesostris, was conveyed to Rome and set 

 up in the Campus Martius. (Plin., ' Hist. Nat.,' xxxvi. 14.) 



All the subject kings and princes appeared every year at stated times 

 in Egypt before Sesostris with presents, and he travelled with them in 

 a sort of triumph through his country. On all other occasions he 

 treated them with great respect, but when they approached a temple 

 or a city, he made them, four at a time, draw his chariot. (Diod., i. 

 58 ; Pliu., 'Hist. Nat.,' xxxiii. 15.) After Sesostris had reigned thirty- 

 three years, or, according to Manetho, sixty-six years; he was seized 

 with blindness, and put an end to his life. (Compare Wilkinson's 

 'Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," i., p. 63, &c. and 99, 

 &c., who places the epoch of Sesostris about the year. B.C. 1355. 



SESTI'NI, DOME'NICO, was born at Florence about 1750. He 

 studied classical literature, aud applied himself chiefly to archaeology. 

 About 1774 he went to Sicily, where the Prince of Biscari retained him 

 for his librarian and keeper of his rich cabinet of antiquities at Catania 

 In 1778 Sestini proceeded to Constantinople, where he became tutor 

 to the sons of Count Ludolfi, the Neapolitan ambassador at the Porte 

 He made several journeys with his pupils through various provinces of 



