Egypt. Perhaps this mistake should be imputed to the negligence of the copyists. I should for this reason read διὸ καὶ Ψαμμήνιτος ὁ τοῦ 'Aμάoews, K. 7. λ. But however that may be, this philosopher, who had so well studied the human heart, thus proceeds: "On a friend, though he be not a near relation, we have compassion as upon ourselves. It is for this reason, that Amasis (Psammenitus) saw his son conducted to execution without concern, but could not restrain his tears at the sight of a friend begging his bread. The fate of his son was horrible, that of his friend was wretched; and horror destroys commiseration." 'Exì yhpaos ovdy] Who at the commencement of his old age. This expression is taken both for the commencement and the end of old age, because ovdòs, which signifies properly the threshold of a door, serves both those who go into a house and those who come out of it. For instance, it must be understood of extreme old age in the following passage of the Iliad :

• Μνῆσαι πατρὸς σεῖο, θεοῖς ἐπιείκελ' Αχιλλεύ,

Τηλίκου, ὥσπερ ἐγὼν, ὀλοῷ ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ.

'Recall to mind, Achilles, in seeing me, your own father; he is, like me, bowed down by years.'

But in this, from the Odyssey, I think we must understand it of the commencement of old age:

• Εἶπ' ἄγε μοι περὶ μητρὸς Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο,

Πατρός θ', ὃν κατέλειπεν ἰὼν ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ.

'Tell me, I entreat you, news of the mother and father of Ulysses, whom on his departure for Troy he left in the commencement of old age.'

Laertes in fact was beginning to grow old when Ulysses departed, and he found him alive after a lapse of twenty years. I have decided for the latter signification in this passage, because árnλit, which occurs a little before, indicates a man advancing from manhood into

old age.

ZwZew] To deliver. In the Greek, 'to save him:' the word him is here quite superfluous: the expression, however, is very common in Greek. I remark this, because we have the same peculiarity in our own language (French), at least in familiar style, Faites-moi-lui faire telle chose, &c.'

XV. Oi perióνres] Those who were gone to seek. Gronovius has translated it 'qui adierunt.' Méreu signifies ‘arcesso,' 'eo petitum.' Καὶ ἀλλαχόθεν μετιόντες ἀεί τινας ἀξίους τῆς τοιαύτης προστασίας. ‘And Strab. Geograph. lib. xiv. p. 950. lin. 3.

• Homeri Iliad. lib. xxiv. vers. 486. Homeri Odyss. lib. xv. vers. 346.

they always went elsewhere to seek for persons worthy of this dignity.' The Latin translation is not defensible." μeтñoav orρwμara: They went to seek for coverings.'

Αποδιδοῦσι τὴν ἀρχήν] And even to restore to them the throne. These ancient kings of Persia were very magnanimous. Sapor and his successors maintained an opposite policy. Content with imposing on the conquered people an annual tribute, they left them the privilege, subject to this tribute, of cultivating their lands; but they mercilessly put to death the royal family and the grandees of those nations. See Agathias, Book iv. p. 134. D. and 135. A.

'Auvpraίov] Amyrtaus. Syncellus asserts, that Amyrtæus revolted in the 2d year of Darius Nothus, and that he reigned 6 years. It should appear, however, from Thucydides, that his revolt occurred in the 79th Olympiad. But see my Essay on Chronology, chap. 1. § XII. p. 102 and following.

Yapμnviros] Psammenitus. Egypt, having been conquered by Cambyses, became subject to Persia. Afterwards it was conquered by the Greeks, and subsequently by the Romans. From these it was taken by the Arabs, and having successively fallen under the sway of the Saracens and the Mamelukes, it now acknowledges the empire of the Grand Seignor, and is governed by twenty-four slaves called Beys. It is remarkable that the prophet Ezekiel should have predicted these events 68 years before the death of Psammenitus. This idea does not originate with myself; it was communicated to me by M. St. Croix, together with his explanations.

Ezekiel, speaking of the conquest of Egypt by the kings of Babylon, thus expresses himself: "Thus saith the Lord, I will also destroy the idols; and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph (Memphis), and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt; and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt." The first part of this prophecy has been literally accomplished. Egypt having been converted, the temples of the idolaters have been overthrown, and none raised but to the true God. Though the Mahometan superstitions have since replaced the Christian religion, still they have not brought back the ancient Egyptian absurdities; the worship of idols being held in as great abhorrence by them as by Christians themselves.

The second part of the prophecy, "and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt," has been verified in a manner no less striking. Conquered by the Persians, the Egyptians knew no kings

• Aristoph. Equit. vers. 605. ex Edit. Brunckii.

Syncelli Chronograph. p. 256.

Thucydid. lib. i. § cx.

d Ezekiel, chap. xxx. vers. 13.

but of that nation; after them came the Greeks, then the Romans, the Arabs, the Saracens, and now the Turks. This prophecy is in itself so clear, and its accomplishment so complete, as to defy all cavil. The expression, "and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her," in the 18th verse, appears likewise to apply to the abolition of royalty.

I will not pass over, that in this part of the 18th verse the Septuagint has : Καὶ ἀπολῶ Μεγιστάνας ἀπὸ Μέμφεως καὶ “Αρχοντας Τάνεως ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, καὶ οὐκ ἔσονται ἔτι. But this variation, so far from weakening the force of the prophecy, materially adds to it. Under the names of Μεγιστάνες and "Αρχοντες are comprised kings, governors, and all chief magistrates; at least this is the acceptation of Alexander Aphrodisius, and of the Seventy. The Latins have preserved it in their language, speaking of the grandees of the East. Seneca says, "Omnes illos Megistanas et Satrapas, et Regem ipsum, ex quo Idomenei titulus petebatur, oblivio alta suppressit:" and Tacitus, after him; "Megistanas Armenios, qui primi a nobis defecerant, pellit sedibus." By adopting the version of the Septuagint, the prophecy has been literally fulfilled. From the conquest of Egypt by the Persians to the present day, there have been neither kings, nor governors, nor magistrates of any importance of Egyptian descent. St. Isidore of Pelusium, who lived in the 5th century, remarks, that a law excluded the Egyptians from all places in the magistracy of Egypt, though the Cappadocians, who were a worse race, were admitted to them.

The expression, "And I will sell the land into the hand of the wicked," in the 12th verse, seems to me to allude to the government of the twenty-four slaves, the Beys, under which Egypt has groaned ever since Selim I. established their power.

The 4th verse, "And they shall take away her multitude," seems to foretell the great diminution occasioned in the population of Egypt by the Babylonian and Persian conquests; a population which she never recovered, even under the Ptolemies, and which has continued declining ever since.

XVI. Oedv elvai rup] That fire is a god. This expression perhaps should not be understood too literally. Fire was considered by the Persians a sacred object, and some kind of worship was offered to it; which originally was certainly intended to the Deity, of whom this element was considered the emblem. But certainly this nation never considered the element itself to be a divinity; or how would they have dared to extinguish it throughout Persia on the death of a king,

a Senec. Epistol. xxi. p. 78. Taciti Annal. lib. xv. § xxvii.

c S. Isidori Pelusiotæ Epistolæ, lib. i. Epist. 489. p. 166; Edit. Paris, 1585.

as Diodorus Siculus informs us they did? The epigram of Dioscorides, "Philonymus, do not burn Euphrates, pollute not the element on my account," has been quoted at length, in a preceding note, Book 1. § CXL.

When the king went forth in state, fire was carried before him. An example of this occurs in the triumphal march of Cyrus. Quintus Curtius gives another, in speaking of Darius Codoman, conquered by Alexander. "Ignis, quem ipsi sacrum et æternum vocabant, argenteis altaribus præferebatur." The Roman emperors had fire carried before them. It was one of the prerogatives of the sovereign, which was shared however by the empresses. Lucilla, the sister of Commodus, had married Lucius Verus, whom Marcus Aurelius had associated in the empire. Becoming a widow, she married Pompeianus, but preserved the honours and distinctions of empress. Commodus did not deprive her of them, and fire was carried before her." Herodian, from whom I borrow this fact, says, in speaking of Pertinax, he would not have fire, nor other marks of his dignity carried before him. The same historian, in another place, mentions, that the Osrhoenian soldiers, having revolted against Maximinus, elected Quartinus for their chief, before whom they carried fire, and proclaimed him emperor. This custom is also noticed by Dion Cassius, who says that Marcus Aurelius, having been adopted by Antoninus Pius, did not have fire carried before him, when he appeared in public without the emperor. M. Bonamy, in a Memoir on the ancient custom of carrying fire before the emperors, quotes the above passages from Herodian and Dion Cassius. The Memoir however is dull, meagre, and absolutely destitute of interest. M. Reimar's short note on the passage of Dion Cassius is infinitely more instructive. The Abbé Mongault, who has produced a very elegant translation of Herodian, has not thought proper to notice this custom in his notes.

But when was the custom first adopted in Persia? or when was it established amongst the Romans? On these questions we may form conjectures, but no more. As to the first point, it may perhaps be said, that as the Persians adored fire, they carried it before their kings, because it was customary to carry before them the symbol of divinity, of whom they were the living image. And as to the Romans, they probably derived the custom from the Asiatics, after they had conquered them. Observing that fire was carried before the

kings as an emblem of sovereignty, they caused it to be carried before their own chief magistrates. The emperors, uniting in their own persons the powers and privileges of the whole magistracy, retained the custom, which was nevertheless still maintained also by the principal magistrates. Some of the provincial magistrates considered their own dignity materially enhanced by the observance of this custom. This was a subject of raillery to Mecanas, Cocceius, Fonteius Capito, and Horace, who amused themselves at the expense of Aufidius Luscus, a man that from a clerk or secretary had become prætor of Fondi, and had assumed the embroidered purple robe with the laticlave, and had fire carried before him. This appears to me the only meaning that can be put on a passage of Horace, Book 1. satire 5, verses 34, 35, and 36, which neither M. Bonamy nor M. Reimar appears to have understood.

Fundos Aufidio Lusco Prætore libenter

Linquimus, insani ridentes præmia Scribæ,

Prætextam, et latum clavum, prunæque batillum.

Ἔχων τὴν αὐτὴν ἡλικίην ̓Αμάσι] Of the same height or figure (taille) as himself. The Latin translator has rendered this eadem quâ Amasis ætate,' which is not the meaning. A similarity of age alone could not have deceived the Persians; there must have been some resemblance either in form or in countenance, to induce them to take the corpse of any individual for that of Amasis. Quù signifies the height and form of the body. Φνή, says Hesychius, φύσις σώματος, Mukia. See Book IV. § cxI. note. Quos has this meaning in the Edipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, verse 740.

Τὸν δὲ Λάϊον, φύσιν

Τίν' εἶχε, φράξε, τίνα δ' ἀκμὴν ἤβης τότε.

'What height was Laius? how old was he then??

And to end every doubt that this is the true meaning of purus, Jocasta answers, Méyas, 'he was tall.'

a

XVII. Maкpoßiovs Aibianas] The Macrobian Ethiopians. Macrobian is not the name of a nation, but an epithet which Herodotus gives to a portion of the Ethiopians on account of their longevity. Mr. Bruce is mistaken in this particular. He pretends that they were a tribe of Shangallese, who, not being in the habit of killing their sick or superannuated, had amongst them some old men ; which gave to the tribe the name of Macrobians, because all the other tribes of the same people had a custom of putting to death all those that fell sick or had reached an advanced age.

Mr. Bruce would be puzzled to cite a single author who reports

a Travels to discover the source of the Nile, Book iv.