[896]Minos, who was supposed to have reigned in Crete. Apollonius Rhodius, who is thought to have been a native of Egypt, speaks of the great actions of this prince; but mentions no name: not knowing, I imagine, by which properly to distinguish him, as he was represented under so many. He however attributes to him every thing which is said of [897]Sesostris; particularly the settling a Colony at Colchis, and building innumerable cities in the countries which he traversed: μυρια δ' αστη Νασσατ' εποιχομενος. He represents him as conquering all Asia and Europe; and this in times so remote, that many of the cities which he built, were in ruins before the æra of the Argonauts. From what has been said, we may perceive that if such a person as Sesostris had existed, his reign must have been of the earliest date. He is by some represented as succeeding Thoules: according to others he comes one degree higher, being introduced after [898]Orus, who in the catalogue of Panodorus is placed first of the Demigods, that reigned in Egypt; but by [899]Herodotus is ranked among the deities. According to Dicæarchus the reign of Sesostris was two thousand five hundred years before Nilus: and the reign of the latter was four hundred and thirty-six years before the first Olympiad. I do not place the least confidence in these computations; but would only shew from them that the person spoken of must be referred to the mythic age, to the æra of the Demigods of Egypt. Some of these evidences are taken notice of by Sir John [900]Marsham; who cannot extricate himself from the difficulties with which his system is attended. He has taken for granted, that Sesostris and Sesonchosis are the Sesac of the Scriptures; though every circumstance of their history is repugnant to that notion. [901]_I know_ _not,_ says he, _what to make of this Sesonchosis; who is represented as five thousand years before Menes, and who is referred to the time of the Demigods_. In another place: _Sesostris, who is in the twelfth Dynasty of Africanus, and whose æra extends higher, than the Canon of Eusebius reaches, reigned according to Scaliger's computation in the 1392d year of the Julian Period. By this calculation Sesostris is made prior to Sesostris; and this too by no less than 2355 years: for it is manifest, as I will shew from Scripture, that Sesostris undertook his expedition into Asia, and got possession of Jerusalem in the 3747th year of the Period abovementioned_. What is said in the sacred writings, I have taken notice of before. Not a word occurs about Sesostris, nor of any such Asiatic expedition. I am obliged to say, that through the whole of this learned writer's process, instead of a proof, we find nothing else but the question begged, and some inferences of his own in consequence of this assumption. He indeed quotes the authority of Manethon from Josephus to prove that the great actions of Sesostris were the same as were performed by Sesac.