1807.] 
110) could master (Ethiopia. He left a 
monument belore the temple of Vulcan, 
two stone statues of thirty cubits. repre- 
senting hunself and wife, and four stone 
statues of twenty cubits representing his 
children. 
** Sesostris was succeeded (Euterpe, 
411) by a son, Pheron, who lost his 
gilt.” 
‘Here is all, concerning Sesostris, that 
Herodotus has related. This. historian, 
if credulous, is always a faithful reporter. 
His opportunities of information were 
eomprehensive, having travelled | into 
Egypt and Syria, and consulted on the 
spot the archives of several temples. 
The great revolution of a Babylonian 
conquest of Palestine having intervened 
between the times of Sesostris, and He- 
rodotus, much definite evidence must 
have been abolished, and reduced to 
vague tradition. _ His testimony however 
may be accepted as in the main satisfac- 
tory: only it remains improbable that the 
son of a judge, or petty king, of Avgypt, 
should have extended his conquests so far 
northwards, as to make war with the’ 
Thracians, and to leave a colony at Col- 
ehis on the Euxine. 
If. Diodorus Siculus states (I. 34) that 
Sesostris was also called Sesosis: that he 
was educated with those of his own age 
to mulitary exercises, and was sent b 
his father with an army into Arabia; that 
he was distinguished for an hereditary : 
piety to Vulcan; and that he divided 
his country into nomes, or tribes, or 
provinces, and appointed prefects over 
each. He next made an expedition 
into Libya: and then into A‘thiopia, 
where he imposed a tribute of ivory 
and gold. At length, influenced by his 
daughter Athyrte, he undertook the con- 
quest of Asia and of the world. Diodo- 
rus makes these conquests extend to the 
Ganges and the Tanais: from Babylon 
his Sesostris brings captives who found 
the Babylon of the Aeyptians, who build 
temples without number, who dig canals 
and reservoirs, and who fortify Aveypt by 
a great wall agaist the Syr ausaud Arabs, 
Sesestris also constructs an ark, or float- 
ing temple, two hundred and eighty cu- 
bits long, gilt without and silvered within, 
He erects two obelisks inscribed with 
the list of his provinces and his taxes. 
He employs noble captives to carry his 
palanguin. Being at his brother’s house, 
an attempt was made to destroy it by 
fire; Sesostris commemorared his escape 
by erecting statues before the temple of 
Vulean at Memphis. In the thirty-third 
year of his reign he became blind; after 
Montuty Mac., No. 138. 
The Engurer.—No, XXII, 
“must have had to communicate. 
561. 
which he killed himself. He was suc- 
ceeded by a son, who assumed the same 
name, and lost his sight like his father. 
‘This account of (Diodorus is partly 
transcribed trom Herodotus, and partly 
derived, it should seem, from Ctesias, who 
is quoted (1. 36), and to whom the mar- 
vellous paruculars apparently belong. 
There was a Ctesias of Cuidus captived 
by the Persians, who became physi- 
cian to Artaxerxes Memnon: and, 
about the tune of Alexander’s expedition 
into Asia, a work was circulated under 
the name of this Clesias, which treated 
of Persian and [udian geography and his- 
tory. ‘Lhe work ascribed to Ctesias has 
not descended to us entire; but from 
the copious extracts preserved by Pho-« 
tius, it may be pronounced an European 
forgery: so widely does it differ from 
what a resident at the Babylonian court 
Diodo- 
rus himself lived too late to be an au- 
thority: his want of criticism saps the 
trust-worthiness even of the testimony 
which he only repeats. 
After condensing and combining these 
two statements, and dismissing what 
is marvellous, inconsistent or otherwise 
improbable, it may be presumed that Se- 
sostris, or Sesosis, originated near Mem- 
phis, probably on the eastern bank of the 
Nile, which was called the land of Go- 
shen, as his brother resided there: that 
he passed the Red Sea, explored its fur- 
ther coast, returned among his own peo- 
ple, and at the head of an army of rebel 
slaves (yAbnopevos Tees TNs eAcuCeping) con- 
quered Palestine, and divided his jurisdic- 
tion into nomes, or tribes: that he set 
up pillars in memory of his success, which 
remained when Herodotus wrote: that 
he was distinguished for piety to Vulcan, 
and for a long reign. 
{t isremarkable that all these particu- 
lars should be true of the Jewish chieftain 
Joshua. In concert with Caleb (Num- 
bers, xiv. 6) he went to explore those 
countries beyond the Red Sea, to the con- 
quest of which he guided his followers; 
when, as the poet expresses it (f£xodus, 
xiv. 12) * the children of Israel went into 
the midst of the sea upon the dry land; 
and the waters were a bulwark to them 
on the rightand on the left.” He divided 
his conquests with geographical super- 
stition (Joshua, xvi. 10) into nomes, 
or tribes. Pillars, those probably which 
Herodotus saw, were erected (Joshua, vi, 
20) by Josbua in Gilgal. The symbols 
described by Herodotus are the more 
hkely to have been traced on the columns 
of Joshua; as a marked attention was 
4C shown 
