250 BIOGRAPHY. 



reasons already explained in the preceding department. The fabu- 

 lous personage, Thaut, to whom so many inventions have been 

 attributed, (p. 26), is said to have gone from Babylon to Egypt, in 

 the earliest times of the latter, and to have been contemporary with 

 Osiris and Isis. The earliest Egyptian legislator, appears to have 

 been Menes ; the founder of Memphis. Tnephactus, Bocchoris, 

 and Asychis, also named as law-givers, probably flourished about 

 800 B.' C. The Egyptian kings of the Ptolemaean dynasty, with 

 the dates of their accession, were Ptolemy I., (Lagus or Soter), 323 

 B.C.; Ptolemyll., (Philadelphus), 284 ; Ptolemylll., (Euergetes), 

 246; Ptolemy IV., (Philopater), 221; Ptolemy V., (Epiphanes), 

 204; Ptolemy VI., (Philometor), 180; Ptolemy VII., (Physcon 

 or Euergetes II.), 145 ; Ptolemy VIII., (Lathyrus), and his mother 

 Cleopatra I., 116, including the reign of his brother, Ptolemy Alex- 

 ander ; Ptolemy Alexander II., 81, with Cleopatra II., and Berenice ; 

 Ptolemy Alexander III., 80 ; Ptolemy Dionysius, (Auletes), 65 ; 

 and Ptolemy Dionysius II., 51, with Cleopatra III., who destroyed 

 herself, 31 B. C. The Greek philosophers at Alexandria, during 

 this and a later period, will be mentioned under Grecian Biography. 

 Manetho, the Egyptian historian, flourished about 280 B. C. 



Of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Biography, very little 

 information has been preserved, (p. 204). The kings of the last 

 Babylonian empire, with the dates of their accession, were, Nabopo- 

 lassar, who revolted from the Assyrian government, 626 B. C. ; 

 Nebuchadnezzar, the Great, (Nabuchodonosor II.), 606 ; Evil Me- 

 rodach, 562 ; Neriglissar, (or Belshazzar), 558 ; and Nabonadius, 

 (or Labynitus), the Belshazzar of the Scriptures; who came to the 

 throne 553, but was slain 538 B. C. The kings of Persia, after 

 Xerxes, (p. 205), were Artaxerxes, (Longimanus), 464 B. C ; 

 Xerxes II., 425 ; Darius Nothus, (or Ochus), 423; Artaxerxes II., 

 (Mnemon), 404 ; Artaxerxes III., (or Ochus), 358 ; Arses, or Aro- 

 gus, 357; and Darius Codomanus, 335 B. C.; who fell in the 

 conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. We have farther room 

 to mention only Berosus, the Babylonian historian, who flourished 

 about 250 B. C. ; and Zoroaster, (or Zerdusht), the Persian philoso- 

 pher, who lived about 500 B. C. 



Among tne Syrian kings, (p. 205), with the dates of their accession, 

 were Seleucus Nicator, 312 B. C. ; Antiochus I., (Soter), 280 B. C. ; 

 Anliochus II., (Theos), 261 ; Seleucus II., (Callinicus), 246; Se- 

 leucus III., (Ceraunus), 226; Antiochus III. the Great, 223 ; Seleu- 

 cns IV., (Philopater), 187 ; Antiochus IV., 175 ; Antiochus V., 164 ; 

 Demetrius I., (Soter), 162 ; Alexander Balas, 150; Demetrius II., 

 (Nicator), 146; Antiochus VI., 144 ; Diodotus, 143; Antiochus 

 VII., 139; Demetrius II., restored, 130; Alexander Zcbina, 127; 

 Antiochus VIII., 123 ; Philip and Demetrius, 93 ; Tigranes of Ar- 

 menia, 83 ; and Antiochus Asiaticus, 69 B. C., who was dethroned 

 by Pompey the Great. Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician historian, 

 probably flourished about 1200 B. C. ; and Cadmus, the Phoenician, 

 who carried letters into Greece, flourished 1490 B. C. 



3. We come next to the interesting subject of Grecian Biogra- 

 phy; in which we shall first speak of statesmen, warriors, and orators ; 



