of Thebes, and Phiops, king of Memphis, were but one and the same person, as were also Achescus Ocaras and Mentesuphis, who succeeded in each kingdom ; and that the kingdoms of Memphis and Thebes were united two reigns at least before Nitocris. She is recorded to have reigned twelve years at Memphis, and six only at Thebes. I suppose that Memphis was, at ber coming to the throne, the seat of her kingdom; she was obliged to retire out of this country, when the Pastors invaded it, and after this retreat she reigned six years at Thebes. The kingdom of This did not last until the invasion of the Pastors; very probably the Theban kings, when they grew powerful by the accession of the kingdom of Memphis, added this little domain to their territories. Upon these hints and observations, Sir John Marsham has opened a prospect of coming at a history of the succession of the kings of Egypt; and that in a method so natural and easy, that it must approve itself to any person who enters truly into the design and conduct of it. He gives us Eratosthenes' Theban kings; he ranges with these, Syncellus' twenty-five kings of Mestræa or lower Egypt; and by taking Africanus' dynasties in pieces, by separating the Thinite dynasties from the Memphite; by collecting the kings of each title into a distinct catalogue, he gives us two other concurrent

Ista regnandi æqualis inæqualitas nimis insolita est, ut Hlam bis et simul fortuito contigisse credamus. Marsham. a Syncell. p. 91.

p. 85.

Id. ibid.

lists of the names of the kings, of the other two kingdoms.

e

There is one difficulty, which I wish our very learned author had considered and discussed for us; which is, that the catalogues of the kings of three of the four kingdoms are too long to come within the intervals of time, which the true chronology of the world can allow for them. For to begin with lower Egypt ;[ Menes or the Mizraim of Moses came into this coun try about A. M. 1772. It was a fen or marsh in his time, and he does not seem to have made a long stay in it. He went forward and built Memphis; after wards, 124 years after the dispersion of mankind, A. M. 1881, he went into the country of Thebais. After having made settlements here, he seems to have come back and formed a kingdom in lower Egypt thirty-five years before his death; for Menes stands recorded king of this country only 35 years; if so, then this kingdom was founded about A. M. 1908.!. The Pastors came into Egypt about A. M. 2420." The interval is 512 years; but the twenty-five kings of lower Egypt above mentioned reigned 701 years; i. e. 189 years longer than we can find a space of time for them. In like manner, 2. If we consider the Theban

*

f Ibid.

Heródot. lib. 2. c. 4.

i Apollodor. in Euseb. Chron. p. 18.

* Μεσίραιμ ο και Μηνης ετη λε. Syncel, Menes died A. M. 1943. See vol. i. b. 4.

m See vol, ii. b. 7,

kings; Mizraim came into this country A. M. 1881," let us from this year begin the computation of his reign or kingdom. From this year to A. M. 2420, the year of the invasion of the Pastors are 539 years; but the reigns of the Theban kings, from Menes to the T2 year after the decease of Achescus Ocaras, the predecessor of Nitocris, are 682 years; so that this catalogue reaches down beyond the incursion of the Pastors 170 years. 3. The kingdom of This is recorded to begin from the 62 year before the death of Menes ;' from the year of the rise of the kingdom of Thebes A. M. 1881. The reigns of the kings of This amount to 593 years; but from A. M. 1881 to 2420, the year of the Pastors, are, as I said, but 539 years; so that this catalogue is too long by fifty-four years. As to the kingdom of Memphis, a better account of it seems to offer itself to us. Menes entered Egypt A. M. 1772:' he stayed but a little while in the lower Egypt, perhaps about three years, until he had formed Zoan, a little town, which was built seven years after Hebron in Canaan. Here he might plant a few inhabitants,

Vid. quæ sup. and vol. i. b. 4.

We must compute in this manner, if we allow Achescus Ócaras to have been the same person with Mentesuphis, who was Nitocris' predecessor in the Memphite catalogue ; and suppose Nitocris to have reigned 12 years at Memphis, and then being obliged to quit that country by the Pastors, to have reigned afterwards 6 years at Thebes.

t

and go forward and build Noph or Memphis higher up the country; and designing to go himself a further progress, he might make his son Toserthrus, or Naphtuhim the first governor or king of this city about A. M. 1777, accordingly the reigns in the Memphite dynasties begin not from Menes, but from Toserthrus." The sum of the reigns from the first year of Toserthrus to the 12 of Nitocris, are 643 years, which, if we count down from A. M. 1777, will bring us to A. M. 2420, the year in which, I suppose, the Pastors. entered Egypt, and reduced this kingdom, Thus the Memphite succession very fully accords with true chronology; and probably, if the other successions were carefully examined, a little pains would enable us to bring them to an agreement with it. For,

The catalogue of Mestræan kings exceeds, indeed, in length, about 189 years; but I apprehend, that some interpolations made by Syncellus are the cause of it. Three of the reigns, the 5, 6, and 16 are mere numbers without names of kings annexed to them. And Serapis the 7 king, Sesonchosis the 8, Amanemes 9, and Amasis the To, are all names of kings in

See vol. i. b.4. Gen. x. 13. "African. in Syncell. p. 56. * Sesonchosis was the same person as Sesostris. vid. Scholast, in Apoll. Argonaut. ver. 272. p. 411. and lived in a much later age. y Amanemes is again repeated by Syncellus, and is his V. king. 2 Amasis is his LXXXVIII. He disguises the repetition of the names of Amanemes and Amasis, by giving different numbers of years to their reigns; but we have no reason to think there were such kings in this age.

serted here by Syncellus to lengthen the catal
as to make it suit his scheme of chronology.
took great liberties in this manner: the
years affixed to all these reigns amount to
we therefore strike out these reigns, we re
talogue to a true measure. I would not k
to the reader, and shall therefore leave it
chooses to enter deeper into this subjec
whether the Theban and Thinite catal
be as well adjusted, if they be examine
in a proper manner doonor bar

From the Pastors invading and com
quests in Egypt, our learned aut
country as parted only into two kin
tors possessed the land of Memph
lower Egypt; the Thebans, whor
conquer, held their own country,
land of This to it. Africanus i
nasty of Elephantine kings, suppopthis
phelcheres
of them. Elephantis was a

southern parts of Egypt, abo
higher up into the country thanaches

The names of kings supposed

have a great similitude with th and perhaps some little com

a Reges comminiscitur, anno vel extendit, prout ipsi visum numerorum interpolatione. "I bAfrican. Dynast. v. in Sy Herodot. lib. 2. c. 17, 1