f

Manetho took the Is

of his work dark and confused. raelites and the pastors to be one and the same people ;* and by treating the Jewish exit, and the expulsion of the Pastors as one event, he might mention the names of different kings, so as to lead Josephus into this contrariety. If we may form our notion of Manetho's work from the epitome of it, Josephus mistook the number of Manetho's Theban kings. The epitome suggests that he had mentioned only fifteen; five in his XIX. dynasty, eight in his xx, and two in his xxIII. And if I knew how to choose the fifteen rightly out of Josephus' list, and to make the first five begin where Eratoshenes' catalogue ends, and continue to the expulsion of the Pastors; and then to choose eight more, whose reigns might carry on the history to Sesostris or Sethosis, who was Sesac, and came against Jerusalem A. M. 3033; I should take the last two of Manetho's Theban kings to be Sesostris and his son Ramesses. And I should imagine, I had hereby set Josephus' catalogue right, and made Manetho's account agreeable, in this part of it, to true. history.

V. Next to Josephus, we are to consider the work of Sextus Julius Africanus, who was a Christian, lived in the third century, and wrote about a hundred and fifty years after Josephus. He composed a Chronography consisting of two parts; in the former of which

he collected, from other more ancient writers, the materials he intended to make use of; in the latter he formed from them a chronicle or historical deduction, beginning from the creation of the world, and carried down to the consulate of Gratus and Seleucus, to the year of our LORD 221, says Sir John Marsham." Amongst other collections in the former part of his work, were the dynasties of Manetho; but not such as Manetho left them; for they were new modelled according to some scheme of them formed later than the times of Manetho. For, 1. Manetho's dynasties began with the reigns of the gods, demi-gods, and heroes, and then exhibited the reigns of the mortal kings; but the dynasties given us by Africanus begin from the mortal kings, and omit all that related to the superior beings, who were said to have reigned before them. 2. Manetho's dynasties of the mortal kings were but fifteen; they began at the xvi dynasty, aud ended with the xxx;" but Africanus gives us thirty-one dynasties of Egyptian kings. Upon this account we must conclude, 3. That several of Africanus' dynasties were not in Manetho. Thus the xxxi dynasty was not Manetho's; for he carried down his history no farther than to the end of Nectanebus'

h Can. Chron. p. 5. * Id. p. 54.

k

m

1 Syncell. p. 40.

1 Africanus begins his dynasties thus, MET VIKURS TES ημίθεις πρωτη βασίλεια καταριθμείται βασιλεων οκτω-Syncell.ib. m Vid. Chronograph. in Sincell. p. 51, 52. a IKI WATAIS Avvaoksia.

a

reign; but this xxxi dynasty contains the names of Persian kings, who reigned after Nectanebus was expelled his kingdom. In like manner Manetho's tomes seem to me not to have had Africanus' dynasty of Thinite kings, nor the of Elephantine, nor the vi of Memphites, nor the xv of Pastors, nor the xxii of Bubastites, as Africanus gives them. Further, Africanus' xviii dynasty of Theban kings seems to be taken rather from Josephus than from Manetho; for Manetho had in all but fifteen Theban kings, and those set down in three dynasties. As to Africanus' vii, viii, ix, x, xiii, xiv, xvi, xvii, and xx dynasties, they are mere numbers of years, without any names of kings affixed to them; and unquestionably no such dynas

ties were to be found in Manetho.

It may be here asked, how it can be supposed that Africanus should take away from, and add to Mane

"The kings of xxxi dynasty are Ochus, Arses, Darius. Syncell. p. 77.

It ought to be here observed, that Africanus perhaps did not in his first and second dynasty copy after Manetho. Manetho gave a list of Caσewv Tavirav. Vid. Chronograph. but Africanus' and dynasties are not of Tanite but Orav, of the kings of This, or Thinite kings; so that Africanus had found here a different catalogue of kings from Manetho's, and did not distinguish it.

p Vid. xix, xx, xxiii Dynast. in Chronograph. in Syncell. ubi sup.

¶ Meros numeros inaniter turgentes. Marsham Can. Chron. p..5.

tho's dynasties in this extravagant manner, or how or whence could he find matter or pretence to do it? I answer, 1. For. his omission of what Manetho had recorded prior to the reigns of the mortal kings, it is easy to find a good reason. He thought all that Manetho offered of the reigns of gods, demi-gods, and heroes, to be fable, fiction, or false theology;' and therefore superfluous, not worth his transcribing. 2. There might be in the tomes of Manetho the names of many kings, besides those, of which Manetho supposed his dynasties to consist. Manetho accounted all Egypt, from its rise to Nectanebus, as having been only one empire; and considering it as such, he de"duced one continued history of the kings, who had had the supreme rule in it. But as he supposed that the seat of this empire had been at different times in different cities; and agreeably hereto, as his dynasties were sometimes of kings of Tanis, sometimes of kings of Memphis, and sometimes of Diospolis, according as he thought the kings who had the supreme com, mand, reigned at this or that city; and as it might happen, whilst the kings or a Memphite or Theban dynasty were at the head of affairs, there might be in Manetho's account deputy-rulers at Tanis, Bubastus, Elephantis, or other cities; so from hence Africanus might have an opportunity of making a Tanite dy

• Quæ Manetho μιαρων ιερων αρχιες εις γράφει ψευδηγορων περι θεων εδέποτε γεγονοτων, ista omnia tanquam Scriptore Chris» tiano indigna Africanus aspernatur, et in illud tempus rejicit, quod præcessit diluvium. Marsham p. 5.

nasty, an Elephantine, a Memphite, and a Bubastite more than Manetho ever supposed. The names of the kings suggested by Africanus in these dynasties, were perhaps to be found in Manetho's history. But Manetho might record them as tributary or deputyrulers to some of the kings of the dynasties he treated of; Africanus supposed them independent, and made dynasties appropriated to them. S. Africanus' v dynasty contains the names of the Pastor kings, and their names were to be found in Manetho; but Manetho did not relate these Pastors as being a part of the Egyptian succession of kings; but rather noted them as having invaded and dispossessed some of the Egyptian kings of a great part of Egypt; and accordingly only mentions them as being in Egypt in the times of those kings. 4. Manetho had mentioned fifteen kings of Thebais, five in his 19 dynasty, eight in his 20, and two in his 23; Africanus has named as many in his 11, 12 and 19 dynasties. He further found several Theban kings' names in Josephus, said to be taken from Manetho;" which he also collected, and made of them his 18 dynasty. But he should have observed, that Josephus has, through some mistake, multiplied the names of these kings, beyond what Manetho intended; and further, there is such a repetition and similitude of names in this dynasty, and in Africanus' IT, T2 and 19, that it seems most probable,

t

Vid. Joseph. contra Apion. lib. 1.

t Vid. Chronograph. in Syncell.

น

Joseph. ubi sup.

x

* Syncell. p. 69.