Page:Light and truth.djvu/135

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ancient kings and wars.
133

land, of an hundred talents of silver, and one talent of gold. This being done, he returned in triumph to Egypt.

Herodotus, mentioning this king's expedition, and the victory gained by him at Magdolus, [as he calls it] says, that he afterwards took the city Cadytis, which he represents as situated in the mountains of Palestine, and equal in extent to Sardis, the capital at that time not only of Lidya, but of all Asia Minor: this description can suit only Jerusalem, which was situated in the manner above described, and was then the only city in those parts that could be compared to Sardis. It appears besides from scripture, that Nechao, after his victory, won this capital of Judea; for he was there in person, when he gave the crown to Jehoiakim.

10. Psammis Pharaoh reigned over Egypt, and left his kingdom to his son Apries. He gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, king of Israel; who received her in that part of Jerusalem, called the city of David, till he had built her a palace.

11. Apries, called Pharaoh-Hophra, succeeded his father Psammis, and reigned twenty-five years.

During the first years of his reign, he was as happy as any of his predecessors. He carried his arms into Cyprus; besieged the city of Sidon by sea and land; took it, and made himself master of all Phoenicia and Palestine. So rapid a success elated his heart to a prodigious degree, and, as Herodotus informs us, swelled him with so much pride and infatuation, that he boasted, it was not in the power of the gods themselves to dethrone him; so great was the idea he had formed to himself of the firm establishment of his own power. It was with a view to these arrogant conceits, that Ezekiel put the vain and impious words following into his mouth: "My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself."


12. Amasis, after the death of his father Apries, became the possessor of Egypt in peace. Amasis Pharaoh or Thmosis was according to Plato, a native of the city of Sais. He reigned 40 years; and expelling the shepherd kings, subjected Lower Egypt to his rule. He made an alliance with the Cyrenians, and married a wife among them. He is the only king of Egypt who conquered the Island of Cyprus, and made it tributary