number should escape the common defolation, and be at laft reftored to their country. All these prophecies had their accomplishment in the appointed time. AMASIS. After the death of Apries, Amafis became peaceable poffeffor of Egypt, and reigned forty years over it. He was, according to Plato, a native of the city of Sais. a 6 As he was but of mean extraction, he met with no refpect, but was only contemned by his fubjects, in the beginning of his reign: he was not, infenfible of this; but nevertheless thought it his intereft to fubdue their tempers by an artful carriage, and win their affection by gentleness and reafon. He had a golden ciftern, in which himself, and those perfons who were admitted to his table, used to wash their feet; he melted it down, and had it caft into a statue, and then expofed the new god to public worship. The people haftened in crowds to pay their adoration to the flatue. The king, having affembled the people, informed them of the vile ufes to which this ftatue had once been put, which nevertheless had now their religious proftrations! the application was easy, and had the defired fuccefs; the people thenceforward paid the king all the refpect that is due to majefty. He always used to devote the whole morning to public affairs, in order to receive petitions, give audience, pronounce fentence, and hold his councils; the reft of the day was given to pleasure; and as Amafis, in hours of diverfion, was extremely gay, and seemed to carry his mirth beyond due bounds; his courtiers took the liberty to represent to him the unfuitableness of such a behaviour; when he answered, that it was as impoffi ble for the mind to be always ferious and intent upon bufinefs, as for a bow to continue always bent. It was this king who obliged the inhabitants of every town to enter their names in a book kept bythe magiftrate for that purpose, with their profeffion, and manner of living. Solon inserted this custom among his laws. A. M 3435. Ant. J. C. 569. In Tim. b Herod. 1. ii. c. 172. He He built many magnificent temples, especially at Sais the place of his birth. Herodotus admired especially a chapel there, formed of one single ftone, and which was twenty-one cubits in front, fourteen in depth, and eight in height; its dimensions within were -not quite fo large: it had been brought from Elephantina, and two thousand men had employed three years in conveying it along the Nile. Amafis had a great esteem for the Greeks. He granted them large privileges; and permitted fuch of them as were defirous of fettling in Egypt, to live in the city of Naucratis, fo famous for its harbour. When the rebuild. ing of the temple of Delphi, which had been burnt, was debated on, and the expence was computed at three hundred talents +, Amafis furnished the Delphians with a very confiderable fum towards difcharging their quota, which was the fourth part of the whole charge. He made an alliance with the Cyrenians, and married a wife among them. He is the only king of Egypt who conquered the ifland of Cyprus, and made it tributary. Under his reign Pythagoras came into Egypt, being recommended to that monarch by the fainous Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, who had contracted a friendfhip with Amafis, and will be mentioned hereafter. Pythagoras, during his ftay in Egypt, was initiated in all the myfteries of the country; and inftructed by the priefts in whatever was moft abftrufe and important in their religion. It was here he imbibed his doctrine of the metempfychofis, or tranfmigration of fouls. In the expedition in which Cyrus conquered fo great a part of the world, Egypt doubtlefs was fubdued, like the reft of the provinces; and Xenophon declares this in the beginning of his Cyropedia or Inftitution of that Prince. Probably, after that the forty years of defolation, which had been prophefied by the prophet, were expired, Egypt beginning gradually to recover itself, Amafis fhook off the yoke, and recovered his liberty. *The cubit is one foot and almost ten inches. Vide fupra. + Or, 58,1251. fterling. N 2 Accordingly Accordingly we find, that one of the first cares of Cambyfes the fon of Cyrus, after he had afcended the throne, was to carry his arms into Egypt. On his arrival there, Amasis was just dead, and fucceeded by his fon Pfammenitus. d PSAMMENITUS. Cambyfes, after having gained a battle, pursued the enemy to Memphis; besieged the city, and foon took it: however, he treated the king with clemency, granted him his life, and affigned him an honourable penfion; but being informed that he was fecretly concerting measures to reafcend his throne, he put him to death. Pfammenitus reigned but fix months; all Egypt fubmitted immediately to the victor. The particulars of this hiftory will be related more at large, when I come to that of Cambyfes. Here ends the fucceffion of the Egyptian kings. From this æra the hiftory of this nation, as was before obferved, will be blended with that of the Perfians and Greeks, till the death of Alexander. At that period, a new monarchy will arife in Egypt, founded by Ptolemy the fon of Lagus, which will continue to Cleopatra, that is, for about three hundred years. I fhal treat each of these subjects in the feveral periods to which they belong. A. M. 3479. Ant. J. C. 525. * * Έρτηρξε δε και Ελλήνων των εν τε Ασις, καταβας δε απι θαλατίαν, καὶ Κυ ngiwa Alyumliwy, p. 5, Edit. Hutchinfoni. BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CARTHAGINIANS. I SHALL divide the following hiftory of the Carthaginians into two parts. In the first, I fhall give a general idea of the manners of that people, their character, government, religion, power and riches. In the fecond, after relating in few words, by what fteps Carthage eftablished and enlarged its power, fhall give an account of the wars by which it became fo famous. PART THE FIRST. I CHARACTER, MANNERS, RELIGION, AND GO. VERNMENT OF THE CARTHAGINIANȘ. SECT. I. Carthage formed after the Model of Tyre, of which that City was a Colony. THE HE Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians, not only for their origin, but their manners, language, cuftoms, laws, religion, and their great application to commerce, as will appear from every part of the fequel. They fpoke the fame language with the Ty. rians, and these the fame with the Canaanites and Ifraelites, that is, the Hebrew tongue, or at leaft a language which was entirely derived from it. Their names had had commonly fome particular meaning: thus Hanno fignified gracious, bountiful; Dido, amiable, or well beloved; Sophonifba, one who keeps faithfully her hufband's fecrets. From a fpirit of religion, they likewife joined the name of God to their own, conformably to the genius of the Hebrews. Hannibal, which answers to Ananias, fignifies Baat [or the Lord] has been gra cious to me. Afdrubal, anfwering to Azarias, implies the Lord will be our fuccour. It is the fame with other names, Adherbal, Maharbal, Maftanabal, &c. The word Phoni, from which Punic is derived, is the fame with Phoni or Phoenicians, because they came origi nally from Phoenicia. In the Poenulus of Plautus is a fcene written in the Punic tongue, which has very much exercised the learned*. But the ftrict union which always fubfifted between the Phoenicians and Carthaginians is ftill more remarkable. When Cambyfes had refolved to make war upon the latter, the Phoenicians, who formed the chief ftrength of his fleet, told him plainly, that they could not ferve him againft their countrymen; and this declaration obliged that prince to lay afide his defign. The Carthaginians, on their fide, were never forgetful of the country from whence they came, and to which they owed their origin. They fent regularly every year to Tyre, a fhip freight. ed with prefents, as a quit-rent or acknowledgment paid to their ancient country;. and its tutelar gods had an annual facrifice offered to them by the Carthaginians, who confidered them as their protectors. They never failed to fend thither the firft fruits of their revenues; nor the tithe of the fpoils taken from their enemies, as offerings to Hercules,one of the principal godsof Tyre and Carthage. The Tyrians, to fecure from Alexander (who was then befieging their city) what they valued above all things, I mean their wives and children, fent them to Carthage, where, at a time that the inhabitants of the latter were a Bochart. Part II. 1 ii c. 16. b Herod. iii. c. 17.-19. The firft fcene of the fifth act, tranflated into Latin by Petit, in the fecond book of his Mifcellanies. involved. |