1.93
But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the antiquity
of our nation. I shall therefore here bring in Manetho again, and what
he writes as to the order of the times in this case; and thus he speaks:
"When this people or shepherds were gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem,
Tethtoosis the king of Egypt, who drove them out, reigned afterward twenty-five
years and four months, and then died; after him his son Chebron took the
kingdom for thirteen years; after whom came Amenophis, for twenty years
and seven months; then came his sister Amesses, for twenty-one years and
nine months; after her came Mephres, for twelve years and nine months;
after him was Mephramuthosis, for twenty-five years and ten months; after
him was Thmosis, for nine years and eight months; after him came Amenophis,
for thirty years and ten months; after him came Orus, for thirty-six years
and five months; then came his daughter Acenchres, for twelve years and
one month; then was her brother Rathotis, for nine years; then was Acencheres,
for twelve years and five months; then came another Acencheres, for twelve
years and three months; after him Armais, for four years and one month;
after him was Ramesses, for one year and four months; after him came Armesses
Miammoun, for sixty-six years and two months; after him Amenophis, for
nineteen years and six months; after him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, who
had an army of horse, and a naval force. This king appointed his brother,
Armais,, to be his deputy over Egypt." [In another copy it stood thus:
After him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, two brethren, the former of whom
had a naval force, and in a hostile manner destroyed those that met him
upon the sea; but as he slew Ramesses in no long time afterward, so he
appointed another of his brethren to be his deputy over Egypt.] He also
gave him all the other authority of a king, but with these only injunctions,
that he should not wear the diadem, nor be injurious to the queen, the
mother of his children, and that he should not meddle with the other concubines
of the king; while he made an expedition against Cyprus, and Phoenicia,
and besides against the Assyrians and the Medes. He then subdued them all,
some by his arms, some without fighting, and some by the terror of his
great army; and being puffed up by the great successes he had had, he went
on still the more boldly, and overthrew the cities and countries that lay
in the eastern parts. But after some considerable time, Armais, who was
left in Egypt, did all those very things, by way of opposition, which his
brother had forbid him to do, without fear; for he used violence to the
queen, and continued to make use of the rest of the concubines, without
sparing any of them; nay, at the persuasion of his friends he put on the
diadem, and set up to oppose his brother. But then he who was set over
the priests of Egypt wrote letters to Sethosis, and informed him of all
that had happened, and how his brother had set up to oppose him: he therefore
returned back to Pelusium immediately, and recovered his kingdom again.
The country also was called from his name Egypt; for Manetho says,
that Sethosis was himself called Egyptus, as was his brother Armais called
Danaus."
1.103
This is Manetho's account. And evident it is from the number of
years by him set down belonging to this interval, if they be summed up
together, that these shepherds, as they are here called, who were no other
than our forefathers, were delivered out of Egypt, and came thence, and
inhabited this country, three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus
came to Argos; although the Argives look upon him note
as their most ancient king Manetho, therefore, hears this testimony to
two points of the greatest consequence to our purpose, and those from the
Egyptian records themselves. In the first place, that we came out of another
country into Egypt; and that withal our deliverance out of it was so ancient
in time as to have preceded the siege of Troy almost a thousand years;
but then, as to those things which Manetbo adds, not from the Egyptian
records, but, as he confesses himself, from some stories of an uncertain
original, I will disprove them hereafter particularly, and shall demonstrate
that they are no better than incredible fables.
1.106
I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to those
that belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation, and shall produce
attestations to what I have said out of them. There are then records among
the Tyrians that take in the history of many years, and these are public
writings, and are kept with great exactness, and include accounts of the
facts done among them, and such as concern their transactions with other
nations also, those I mean which were worth remembering. Therein it was
recorded that the temple was built by king Solomon at Jerusalem, one hundred
forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians built Carthage; and
in their annals the building of our temple is related; for Hirom, the king
of Tyre, was the friend of Solomon our king, and had such friendship transmitted
down to him from his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute
to the splendor of this edifice of Solomon, and made him a present of one
hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most excellent
timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus, and sent it to him
for adorning its roof. Solomon also not only made him many other presents,
by way of requital, but gave him a country in Galilee also, that was called
Chabulon. note
But there was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, which
cemented the friendship that was betwixt them; for they sent mutual problems
to one another, with a desire to have them unriddled by each other; wherein
Solomon was superior to Hirom, as he was wiser than he in other respects:
and many of the epistles that passed between them are still preserved among
the Tyrians. Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will produce
for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written the Phoenician
History after an accurate manner. This Dius, therefore, writes thus, in
his Histories of the Phoenicians: "Upon the death of Abibalus, his
son Hirom took the kingdom. This king raised banks at the eastern parts
of the city, and enlarged it; he also joined the temple of Jupiter Olympius,
which stood before in an island by itself, to the city, by raising a causeway
between them, and adorned that temple with donations of gold. He moreover
went up to Libanus, and had timber cut down for the building of temples.
They say further, that Solomon, when he was king of Jerusalem, sent problems
to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would send others back for him to
solve, and that he who could not solve the problems proposed to him should
pay money to him that solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to the proposals,
but was not able to solve the problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal
of money, as a penalty for the same. As also they relate, that one·Abdemon,
a man of Tyre, did solve the problems, and propose others which Solomon
could not solve, upon which he was obliged to repay a great deal of money
to Hirom." These things are attested to by Dius, and confirm what
we have said upon the same subjects before.
