founded the first Dynasty of the Shepherds, who behaved
very cruelly, and wrested the lands from their first owners; and it was this Dynasty that Sesostris destroyed, after calling Thebes by his father's name, Ammon No, making those decorations that we have seen of the harp in the sepulchres on the west, and building Diospolis on the opposite side of the river. The second conquest of Egypt by the Shepherds was that under Sabaco, by whom it has been imagined Thebes was destroyed, in the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, who is said to have made peace with So *[1] king of Egypt, as the translator has called him, mistaking So for the name of the king, whereas it only denoted his quality
of shepherd.
From this it is plain, all that the scripture mentions about Ammon No, applies to Diospolis on the other side of the river. Ammon No and Diospolis, though they were on different sides of the river, were considered as one city, thro' which the Nile flowed, dividing it into two parts. This is plain from profane history, as well as from the prophet Nahum †[2], who describes it very exactly, if in place of the word sea was substituted river, as it ought to be.
There was a third invasion of the Shepherds after the building of Memphis, where a ‡[3] king of Egypt § [4] is said to have inclosed two hundred and forty thousand of them in a city called Abaris; they surrendered upon capitulation, and were banished the country into the land of Canaan. That two hundred and forty thousand men should be
- ↑ * 2 Kings, xvii. 4.
- ↑ * † Nahum, chap. iii. 8.
- ↑ ‡ Misphragmuthosis.
- ↑ § Manethon, Apud. Josephum Apion. lib. I. p. 460.
- 2 Kings, xvii. 4. f Nahum, chap. iii. 8. % Mifphragmuthofis. § Manethon,
Apud. Jofephum Apion. lib. i.p. 460.
