Uchoreus, one of the successors of Osymandyas, built the city of Memphis.[410] This city was 150 furlongs, or more than seven leagues in circumference, and stood at the point of the Delta, in that part where the Nile divides itself into several branches or streams. Southward from the city, he raised a lofty mole. On the right and left he dug very deep moats to receive the river. These were faced with stone, and raised, [pg 059] near the city, by strong causeys; the whole designed to secure the city from the inundations of the Nile, and the incursions of the enemy. A city so advantageously situated, and so strongly fortified, that it was almost the key of the Nile, and by this means commanded the whole country, became soon the usual residence of the Egyptian kings. It kept possession of this honour till Alexandria was built by Alexander the Great.
Mœris. This king made the famous lake, which went by his name, and whereof mention has been already made,
A.M. 1920. Ant. J.C. 2084.
Egypt had long been governed by its native princes, when strangers, called Shepherd-kings, (Hycsos in the Egyptian language,) from Arabia or Phœnicia, invaded and seized a great part of Lower Egypt, and Memphis itself; but Upper Egypt remained unconquered, and the kingdom of Thebes existed till the reign of Sesostris. These foreign princes governed about 260 years.
A.M. 2084. Ant. J.C. 1920.
Under one of these princes, called Pharaoh in Scripture,[411] (a name common to all the kings of Egypt,) Abraham arrived there with his wife Sarah, who was exposed to great hazard, on account of her exquisite beauty, which reaching the prince's ear, she was by him taken from Abraham, upon the supposition that she was not his wife, but only his sister.
A.M. 2179. Ant. J.C. 1825.
Thethmosis, or Amosis, having expelled the Shepherd-kings, reigned in Lower Egypt.
A.M. 2276. Ant. J.C. 1728.
Long after his reign, Joseph was brought a slave into Egypt, by some Ishmaelitish merchants; sold to Potiphar; and, by a series of wonderful events, enjoyed the supreme authority, by his being raised to the chief employment of the kingdom. I shall pass over his history, as it is so universally known. But I must take notice of a remark of Justin, (the epitomizer of Trogus Pompeius,[412] an excellent historian of the Augustan age,) viz. that Joseph, the youngest of Jacob's children, whom his brethren, through envy, had sold to foreign merchants, being endowed from heaven[413] with the interpretation of dreams, and a knowledge of futurity, preserved, by his uncommon prudence, [pg 060] Egypt from the famine with which it was menaced, and was extremely caressed by the king.