ired, Anysis reascended the throne of Egypt, and reigned ill his death, which occurred at the lapse of six years, or about 719 B. C. SETHON, OR SEBECON. Sethon was a pontifical king, and his accession is fixed at . c. 713, by the character of Sennacherib's invasion, as narated by Herodotus. He says: "At this time there reigned n Egypt a priest of Vulcan, named Sethon, who neglected and contemned the military establishment which had been ormed in Egypt, and among other dishonours which he put pon the soldier caste, he withdrew the allotment of twelve cres of land, which, under former kings, had been allowed s the portion of every soldier. After this, when Sennaherib invaded Egypt with a great army, not one of the miliry class would come forward to his assistance. The royal riest, in this exigency, seeing no help before him, withdrew o a temple, where, standing before the image, he deplored itterly the evils with which his kingdom was threatened. As e wept, sleep overpowered him, and he saw in a vision the od standing by, who, bidding him be of good cheer, assured im that no harm should befall him if he marched out gainst the Assyrians; for he would himself send him asistance. Sethon took courage from this vision, and collectng a body of men, none of whom were soldiers, he marched ut and formed his camp at Pelusium. The night after his rrival, myriads of field-mice infested the camp of the eneny, gnawing in pieces their quivers, their bow-strings, and he straps of their shields; so that in the morning, finding hemselves deprived of the use of their arms, they fled in reat disorder, and many of them were slain. In order to ommemorate this event, a marble statue of Sethos was rected in the temple of Pthah, at Memphis representing the ing holding a rat in his hand, with this inscription: Whover thou art, learn from my fortune to reverence the gods." This, observes a learned writer, is evidently nothing more man an adaptation to Egypt, its king, and its gods, of what beOnged to Judah, to Hezekiah, and to the power of Jehovah. tis, indeed, a parody of the miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem, in the reign of Hezekiah, y the pestilential blast, as foretold by Isaiah, and the particuars of which are narrated, 2 Kings xix., and Isaiah xxxvii. t is there recorded, that the king of Assyria, having subdued 6 all the neighbouring nations, and made himself master of all the other cities of Judah, resolved to besiege Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The ministers of this good monarch, in opposition to his will, and the remonstrances of the prophet Isaiah, who promised them, in the name of Jehovah, sure protection, if they would trust in him only, sent secretly to the Egyptians and Ethiopians for succour. Their armies, being united, marched to the relief of Jerusalem; but they were met and vanquished by the Assyrians, who pursued them into Egypt, and laid waste their country. At their return from thence, on the very night before a general assault was to have been made upon Jerusalem, as the army of Sennacherib were resting in their tents, A mighty angel from the eternal God Breathed death upon the slumbering host, and sent The impious monarch, overwhelmed with shame, One hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians perished, and Sennacherib, confounded and disgraced, returned to his own land, where he perished by the hands of his own sons," in the house of Nisroch his god." These are the facts connected with the transaction; but through contempt of the Jews, says Dr. Hales, who were then a depressed people, and whose name Herodotus has not once deigned to notice in the course of his history, he has transferred the miracle in favour of the Egyptians, whom he admired; or else simply recorded the tradition of the priests, thus authenticating, while they perverted the original miracle. The prophet Isaiah, on several occasions, had foretold that this expedition of the Egyptians, which had been concerted with such prudence, conducted with such skill, and in which the forces of two powerful empires were united in order to relieve the Jews, would not only be of no avail to them, but even destructive to Egypt itself, whose strongest cities would be taken, its territories plundered, and its inhabitants of all ages and both sexes led into captivity. See Isa. xviii., xix., xx., xxxi., xxxii., etc. By some writers it is conjectured that the splendour of Thebes received its first blow at this period: the prophet Nahum mentions, indeed, that such an event occurred when " Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength," Nah. iii. 9, which indicates that it was at this period. The monarch of Ethiopia, who joined his forces with those of Sethon, as intimated in the sacred writings, was Tirhakah, who was one of the successors of Sabacos, and who is supposed by some authors to have held Upper Egypt. But this does not appear to be fully proved; for, at the death of Sethon, great confusion or anarchy took place, which continued two years, after which time, about E. c. 673, the Egyptians elected TWELVE KINGS, one for every nome or district. The turbulence that attended this change of government, from a monarchy to an oligarchy, seems to have been foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Speaking in the name of Jehovah, he says, Isa. xix. 2, "And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: City against city, And kingdom against kingdom." Herodotus says, it was agreed by these twelve kings, that each should govern his own district with equal power and authority, and that no one should invade the dominions of another. To this end they bound themselves with the most solemn oaths, to elude the prediction of an oracle which had foretold that the oligarchy would be dissolved by that one among them who should offer his libation to Vulcan out of a brazen vessel. But accident brought to pass that which they sought to avoid. One day, as the twelve kings were offering solem sacrifices to Vulcan, the priests having presented eleven of them with a golden bowl for the libation, found that one was wanting; upon which, Psammiticus, one of the twelve, without any design on his part, supplied the want of this golden bowl with his brazen helmet, and with it performed the ceremony of the libation. This accident alarmed the rest of the kings, by recalling to their memory the prediction of the oracle, and they thought it necessary to secure Mr. Wilkinson says on this subject, "that Tirhakah ruled at Napata and in Thebaid at the same period, is sufficiently proved by the additions he made to the temple of Thebes, and by the monuments he built in Ethiopia; nor did the Egyptians efface his records, or forget the gratitude they owed to the defender of their country. The name of Nectanebo has, indeed, usurped the place of Tirhakah's ovals in one or two instances among the sculptures at Thebes, but such substitutions are not uncommon, and the name of the Ethiopian has not been erased from any ill-will, so often evinced when an obnoxious monarch had ceased to reign." This is the strongest evidence we have on the subject, and it is rather presumptive than conclusive. themselves from his attempts, which they did, by banishing him into the fenny parts of Egypt. After his expulsion to the fens, he consulted the oracle of Latona, at Butos, how to be revenged on his associates. He was answered, that “his revenge should come, when brazen men should appear from the sea;" and not long after, he heard with astonishment, that the country was pillaged by "brazen men coming from the sea!" These were a set of Ionian and Carian pirates, who were covered with helmets, cuirasses, and other arms of brass, and whom Psammiticus hired to assist him in dethroning his associates. This they did effectually, and made him sole sovereign of Egypt, and in reward of their services he settled them near Bubastis, at the Pelusian mouth of the Nile, whence they were transplanted afterwards by Amasis to Memphis. This is derived from Herodotus: the version which Diodorus gives is more consistent with probability. It runs thus-As Psammiticus, whose sway extended to the Mediterranean, had availed himself of the opportunities offered by the sea-ports within his province of establishing commercial intercourse with the Phenicians and Greeks, and had amassed considerable wealth by these means, his colleagues, jealous of his increasing power, and fearing that he would eventually employ it against them, resolved to prevent such an occur rence, and to dispossess him of his province. They, therefore, prepared to attack him, and by this step obliged Psammiticus to adopt measures which his ambition might not have contemplated. Apprised of their resolutions, and finding himself threatened by the formidable army of all the upper provinces, he sent to Arabia. Caria, and Ionia; and, having succeeded in raising a considerable body of mercenaries, he was soon able to oppose them; and putting himself at the head of these and his native troops, he gave them battle at Memphis, routed their combined forces, and obliging those of the princes who had escaped the slaughter to flee to Libya, became possessed of an undivided throne. The twelve kings reigned in Egypt fifteen years; and to them is attributed the building of the labyrinth near the Lake Mæris. Of this wonderful structure, Herodotus says, that it had twelve courts, fifteen hundred chambers above, and as many more under ground, with an infinite variety of halls, passages, and mazes; and that the roof and walls were all incrusted with sculptured marble, and surrounded with pillars of white and polished stone. In the lower apartments he was informed, were the tombs, both of the kings who originally built the labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. The upper apartments which he examined, excited his admiration, as the greatest efforts of human art and industry; surpassing in workmanship and expense the far famed pyramids, and the most admired temples of Ephesus and Samos. But from this representation it is questioned whether the labyrinth could have been constructed during the short space of fifteen years. It is probable, indeed, that several successions of kings were employed in this prodigious work, and that it was constructed by the shepherd dynasty, who were idolators, and worshipped the Nile in their pyramids, and very likely the crocodile. Pliny reckons, that the labyrinth was built 3,600 years before his time. This date is too remote, for it would then have been erected before the deluge. His assertion, however, tends to prove that he considered the work to have been of the remotest antiquity. PSAMMITICUS. From the time of the Grecian colony first settled in Egypt, by Psammiticus, and their constant intercourse with Greece, we know with certainty, says Herodotus, all that has passed in that country. The Egyptian annals, indeed from the reign of this prince, about 658 years B. C., assume a regular and settled form in the succession of kings. The clearer knowledge of Egyptian history from this date is chiefly owing to a fact which Herodotus records of Psammiticus. He states that, having settled the Ionians and Carians in Egypt, he sent among them the Egyptian youths to be instructed in the Greek language; from whence sprung the state interpreters of that tongue. The youths chosen for interpreters were without question, those of the priesthood, since to that order all letters and learning were restricted, and they had likewise a great share in the public administration. The priesthood, therefore, having the Greek tongue amongst them, which its use in public affairs would cause them to cultivate diligently, it is no wonder that some of these interpreters should afterwards employ themselves in translating the Egyptian records into the Grecian language; from whence the present knowledge of them is derived. As soon as Psammiticus was settled on the throne of Egypt, he engaged in war against the king of Assyria, on the subject of the boundaries of the two empires. This war was of |