One of those Kingdoms was I think at Memphis, under Gnephactus, and his son and successor Bocchoris. Africanus calls Bocchoris a Saite; but Sais at this time had other Kings: Gnephactus, otherwise called Neochabis and Technatis, cursed Menes for his luxury, and caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and therefore Reigned over Thebais: and Bocchoris sent in a wild bull upon the God Mnevis which was worshipped at Heliopolis. Another of those Kingdoms was at Anysis, or Hanes, Isa. xxx. 4. under its King Anysis or Amosis; a third was at Sais, under Stephanathis, Nechepsos, and Nechus; and a fourth was at Tanis or Zoan, under Petubastes, Osorchon and Psammis: and Egypt being weakened by this division, was invaded and conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacon, who slew Bocchoris and Nechus, and made Anysis fly. The Olympiads began in the Reign of Petubastes, and the Æra of Nabonassar in the 22d year of the Reign of Bocchoris, according to Africanus; and therefore the division, of Egypt into many Kingdoms began before the Olympiads, but not above the length of two Kings Reigns before them.
After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of navigation, and the Egyptians by the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars had determined the length of the Solar year of 365 days, and by other observations had fixed the Solstices, and formed the fixt Stars into Asterisms, all which was done in the Reign of Ammon, Sesac, Orus, and Memnon; it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets; for they called them after the names of their Gods; and Nechepsos or Nicepsos King of Sais, by the assistance of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt, invented Astrology, grounding it upon the aspects of the Planets, and the qualities of the men and women to whom they were dedicated: and in the beginning of the Reign of Nabonassar King of Babylon, about which time the Ethiopians under Sabacon invaded Egypt, those Egyptians who fled from him to Babylon, carried thither the Egyptian year of 365 days, and the study of Astronomy and Astrology, and founded the Æra of Nabonassar; dating it from the first year of that King's Reign, which was the 22d year of Bocchoris as above, and beginning the year on the same day with the Egyptians for the sake of their calculations. So Diodorus [[337]]: they say that the Chaldæans in Babylon, being Colonies of the Egyptians, became famous for Astrology, having learnt it from the Priests of Egypt: and Hestiæus, who wrote an history of Egypt, speaking of a disaster of the invaded Egyptians, saith [[338]] that the Priests who survived this disaster, taking with them the Sacra of Jupiter Enyalius, came to Sennaar in Babylonia. From the 15th year of Asa, in which Zerah was beaten, and Menes or Amenophis began his Reign, to the beginning of the Æra of Nabonassar, were 200 years; and this interval of time allows room for about nine or ten Reigns of Kings, at about twenty years to a Reign one with another; and so many Reigns there were, according to the account set down above out of Herodotus; and therefore that account, as it is the oldest, and was received by Herodotus from the Priests of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, three principal cities of Egypt, agrees also with the course of nature, and leaves no room for the Reigns of the many nameless Kings which we have omitted. These omitted Kings Reigned before Mœris, and by consequence at Thebes; for Mœris translated the seat of the Empire from Thebes to Memphis: they Reigned after Ramesses; for Ramesses was the son and successor of Menes, who Reigned next after the Gods. Now Menes built the body of the Temple of Vulcan, Ramesses the first portico, and Mœris the second portico thereof; but the Egyptians, for making their Gods and Kingdom look ancient, have inserted between the builders of the first and second portico of this Temple, three hundred and thirty Kings of Thebes, and supposed that these Kings Reigned eleven thousand years; as if any Temple could stand so long. This being a manifest fiction, we have corrected it, by omitting those interposed Kings, who did nothing, and placing Mœris the builder of the second portico, next after Ramesses the builder of the first.
In the Dynasties of Manetho; Sevechus is made the successor of Sabacon, being his son; and perhaps he is the Sethon of Herodotus, who became Priest of Vulcan, and neglected military discipline: for Sabacon is that So or Sua with whom Hoshea King of Israel conspired against the Assyrians, in the fourth year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 24. Herodotus tells us twice or thrice, that Sabacon after a long Reign of fifty years relinquished Egypt voluntarily, and that Anysis who fled from him, returned and Reigned again in the lower Egypt after him, or rather with him: and that Sethon Reigned after Sabacon, and went to Pelusium against the army of Sennacherib, and was relieved with a great multitude of mice, which eat the bow-strings of the Assyrians; in memory of which the statue of Sethon, seen by Herodotus, [[339]] was made with a Mouse in its hand. A Mouse was the Egyptian symbol of destruction, and the Mouse in the hand of Sethon signifies only that he overcame the Assyrians with a great destruction. The Scriptures inform us, that when Sennacherib invaded Judæa and besieged Lachish and Libnah, which was in the 14th year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 34. the King of Judah trusted upon Pharaoh King of Egypt, that is upon Sethon, and that Tirhakah King of Ethiopia came out also to fight against Sennacherib, 2 King. xviii. 21. & xix. 9. which makes it probable, that when Sennacherib heard of the Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia coming against him, he went from Libnah towards Pelusium to oppose them, and was there surprized and set upon in the night by them both, and routed with as great a slaughter as if the bow-strings of the Assyrians had been eaten by mice. Some think that the Assyrians were smitten by lightning, or by a fiery wind which sometimes comes from the southern parts of Chaldæa. After this victory Tirhakah succeeding Sethon, carried his arms westward through Libya and Afric to the mouth of the Straits: but Herodotus tells us, that the Priests of Egypt reckoned Sethon the last King of Egypt, who Reigned before the division of Egypt into twelve contemporary Kingdoms, and by consequence before the invasion of Egypt by the Assyrians.
For Asserhadon King of Assyria, in the 68th year of Nabonassar, after he had Reigned about thirty years over Assyria, invaded the Kingdom of Babylon, and then carried into captivity many people from Babylon, and Cuthah, and Ava, and Hamath, and Sepharvaim, placing them in the Regions of Samaria and Damascus: and from thence they carried into Babylonia and Assyria the remainder of the people of Israel and Syria, which had been left there by Tiglath-pileser. This captivity was 65 years after the first year of Ahaz, Isa. vii. 1, 8. & 2. King. xv. 37. & xvi. 5. and by consequence in the twentieth year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69. and then Tartan was sent by Asserhadon with an army against Ashdod or Azoth, a town at that time subject to Judæa, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. and took it, Isa. xx. 1: and this post being secured, the Assyrians beat the Jews, and captivated Manasseh, and subdued Judæa: and in these wars, Isaiah was saw'd asunder by the command of Manasseh, for prophesying against him. Then the Assyrians invaded and subdued Egypt and Ethiopia, and carried the Egyptians and Ethiopians into captivity, and thereby put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, Isa. vii. 18. & viii. 7. & x. 11, 12, & xix. 23. & xx. 4. In this war the city No-Ammon or Thebes, which had hitherto continued in a flourishing condition, was miserably wasted and led into captivity, as is described by Nahum, chap. iii. ver. 8, 9, 10; for Nahum wrote after the last invasion of Judæa by the Assyrians, chap. i. ver. 15; and therefore describes this captivity as fresh in memory: and this and other following invasions of Egypt under Nebuchadnezzar and Cambyses, put an end to the glory of that city. Asserhadon Reigned over the Egyptians and Ethiopians three years, Isa. xx. 3, 4. that is until his death, which was in the year of Nabonassar 81, and therefore invaded Egypt, and put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over the Egyptians, in the year of Nabonassar 78; so that the Ethiopians under Sabacon, and his successors Sethon and Tirhakah, Reigned over Egypt about 80 years: Herodotus allots 50 years to Sabacon, and Africanus fourteen years to Sethon, and eighteen to Tirhakah.
The division of Egypt into more Kingdoms than one, both before and after the Reign of the Ethiopians, and the conquest of the Egyptians by Asserhadon, the prophet Isaiah [[340]] seems allude unto in these words: I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and the Spirit of Egypt shall fail.—And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [viz. Asserhadon] and a fierce King shall Reign over them.—Surely the Princes of Zoan [Tanis] are fools, the counsel of the wise Councellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how long say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the ancient Kings.—The Princes of Zoan are be come fools: the Princes of Noph [Memphis] are deceived,—even they that were the stay of the tribes thereof.—In that day there shall be a high-way out of Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.
After the death of Asserhadon, Egypt remained subject to twelve contemporary Kings, who revolted from the Assyrians, and Reigned together fifteen years; including I think the three years of Asserhadon, because the Egyptians do not reckon him among their Kings. They [[341]] built the Labyrinth adjoining to the Lake of Mœris which was a very magnificent structure, with twelve Halls in it, for their Palaces: and then Psammitichus, who was one of the twelve, conquered all the rest. He built the last Portico of the Temple of Vulcan, founded by Menes about 260 years before, and Reigned 54 years, including the fifteen years of his Reign with the twelve Kings. Then Reigned Nechaoh or Nechus, 17 years; Psammis six years; Vaphres, Apries, Eraphius, or Hophra, 25 years; Amasis 44 years; and Psammenitus six months, according to Herodotus. Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year but one of Hophra, Anno Nabonass. 178, and remained in subjection to Babylon forty years, Jer. xliv. 30. & Ezek. xxix. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19. that is, almost all the Reign of Amasis, a plebeian set over Egypt by the conqueror: the forty years ended with the death of Cyrus; for he Reigned over Egypt and Ethiopia, according to Xenophon. At that time therefore those nations recovered their liberty; but after four or five years more they were invaded and conquered by Cambyses, Anno Nabonass. 223 or 224, and have almost ever since remained in servitude, as was predicted by the Prophets.
The Reigns of Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, and Psammenitus, set down by Herodotus, amount unto 146½ years: and so many years there were from the 78th year of Nabonassar, in which the dominion of the Ethiopians over Egypt came to an end, unto the 224th year of Nabonassar, in which Cambyses invaded Egypt, and put an end to that Kingdom: which is an argument that Herodotus was circumspect and faithful in his narrations, and has given us a good account of the antiquities of Egypt, so far as the Priests of Egypt at Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, and the Carians and Ionians inhabiting Egypt, were then able to inform him: for he consulted them all; and the Cares and Ionians had been in Egypt from the time of the Reign of the twelve contemporary Kings.
Pliny [[342]] tells us, that the Egyptian Obelisks were of a sort of stone dug near Syene in Thebais, and that the first Obelisk was made by Mitres, who Reigned in Heliopolis; that is, by Mephres the predecessor of Misphragmuthosis; and that afterwards other Kings made others: Sochis, that is Sesochis, or Sesac, four, each of 48 cubits in length; Ramises, that is Ramesses, two; Smarres, that is Mœris, one of 48 cubits in length; Eraphius, or Hophra, one of 48; and Nectabis, or Nectenabis, one of 80. Mephres therefore extended his dominion over all the upper Egypt, from Syene to Heliopolis, and after him, Misphragmuthosis and Amosis, Reigned Ammon and Sesac, who erected the first great Empire in the world: and these four, Amosis, Ammon, Sesac, and Orus, Reigned in the four ages of the great Gods of Egypt; and Amenophis was the Menes who Reigned next after them: he was Succeeded by Ramesses, and Mœris, and some time after by Hophra.
Diodorus [[343]] recites the same Kings of Egypt with Herodotus, but in a more confused order, and repeats some of them twice, or oftener, under various names, and omits others: his Kings are these; Jupiter Ammon and Juno, Osiris and Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Uchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes or Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Cephren, Mycerinus or Cherinus, Gnephacthus, Bocchoris, Sabacon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, * * Apries, Amasis. Here I take Sesoosis I, and Sesoosis II, Busiris I, and Busiris II, to be the same Kings with Osiris and Orus: also Osymanduas to be the same with Amenophis or Menes: also Amasis, and Actisanes, an Ethiopian who conquered him, to be the same with Anysis and Sabacon in Herodotus: and Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, and Myris, to be only several names of one and the same King. Whence the catalogue of Diodorus will be reduced to this: Jupiter Ammon and Juno; Osiris, Busiris or Sesoosis, and Isis; Horus, Busiris II, or Sesoosis II; Menes, or Osymanduas; Proteus; Remphis or Ramesses; Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, or Myris; Chembis or Cheops; Cephren; Mycerinus; * * Gnephacthus; Bocchoris; Amasis, or Anysis; Actisanes, or Sabacon; * twelve contemporary Kings; Psammitichus; * * Apries; Amasis: to which, if in their proper places you add Nitocris, Asychis, Sethon, Nechus, and Psammis, you will have the catalogue of Herodotus.
The Dynasties of Manetho and Eratosthenes seem to be filled with many such names of Kings as Herodotus omitted: when it shall be made appear that any of them Reigned in Egypt after the expulsion of the Shepherds, and were different from the Kings described above, they may be inserted in their proper places.