EUCLASSIC. 203 



about 200 B. C. Under the Maccabees, sons of the priest Matthias, 

 it became independent about 163 B. C., and so continued till it was 

 subdued by the Romans, 63 B. C., under Pompey the Great. After 

 the persecution and crucifixion of our Saviour, and in the midst of 

 civil dissension and bloodshed, Jerusalem was taken and utterly 

 destroyed by the Romans, under Titus, A. D. 70. During the siege, 

 1,100,000 Jews perished, and the rest were subdued or dispersed ; 

 so that after some struggles for independence, down to A. D. 135, 

 they ceased to have any longer a national existence. 



2. The Ancient History of Egypt, like that of all the remaining 

 ancient nations, is involved in obscurity and uncertainty. The frag- 

 ments of it, preserved by Herodotus, Manetho, and others, often disa- 

 gree with each other and with the monumental inscriptions ; though 

 they are still deserving of some consideration. The results deduced 

 from all these sources by Champollion, Rossellini, Wilkinson, and 

 Hales, are those on which we would mostly rely. Egypt was probably 

 first settled by Mizraim, the son of Ham, who built No-Ammon, 

 or Thebes, according to Hales, 2600 B. C.; though others suppose 

 him to be the same as Menes, (Menai or Minseus), who built Mem- 

 phis, about 2400, (or according to Usher, 2188), B. C. Tanis, 

 (Zan or Zoan), in the Delta, is supposed to have been built 2146 

 B. C. The earliest period of Egyptian History, including the times 

 of Busiris, Suphis, Phiops or Apappus, and Nitocris, down to the 

 18th dynasty of Manetho, is utterly confused and uncertain. It 

 includes the invasion and rule of the Hyc-sos, or Shepherd Kings, 

 who probably reigned in the time of Abraham, but were expelled 

 before the time of Joseph : though some suppose these shepherds to 

 have been the Israelites themselves. 



Among the oldest monuments of Egypt, are the Pyramids, near 

 Memphis, begun, according to Manetho and Wilkinson, by Suphis, (or 

 Saophis), about 2100 B. C. Herodotus attributes them to Cheops, 

 Cephren, and Mycerinus, about 1000 B. C. ; but it seems more pro- 

 bable that they merely received names from these kings, and were 

 built at an earlier period. Commencing with Manetho's 18th dynasty, 

 1822, or according to Wilkinson, 1575 B. C., we have a consistent 

 series of reigns, down to the Persian and Grecian conquests : and on 

 this series we would place some reliance. It was probably near the 

 beginning or middle of the 18th dynasty, that the Israelites departed 

 from Egypt : and among its kings, were Thoutmosis, or Miphres, 

 probably the Moeris of Herodotus ; Amenophis, probably the Mem- 

 non of the vocal statue ; and Ramses Meiamoun, probably the 

 renowned Osymamlias ; or, as some suppose, the Sesostris of the 

 Greeks, whose conquests extended to India ; though it seems more 

 probable that Sesostris was the Sethos of Manetho's next dynast)^, 

 about 1400 B. C. 



From this period, in which many of the temples and tombs appear 

 to have been built, little occurs of interest till the age of the Trojan 

 war ; when Thuoris, or, according to others, Proteus or Cetes, ruled 

 in Egypt, 1184 B. C. Here a chasrn of 150 years occurs in Mane- 

 tho's list, which we think may be rilled by the names of Proteus. 

 Cheops, and others of Herodotus, down to about 1100 B. C. Shi- 



