_Egypt_ was conquered by the _Ethiopians_ under _Sabacon_, about the beginning of the _Æra_ of _Nabonassar_, or perhaps three or four years before, that is, about three hundred years before _Herodotus_ wrote his history; and about eighty years after that conquest, it was conquered again by the _Assyrians_ under _Asserhadon_: and the history of _Egypt_ set down by _Herodotus_ from the time of this last conquest, is right both as to the number, and order, and names of the Kings, and as to the length of their Reigns: and therein he is now followed by historians, being the only author who hath given us so good a history of _Egypt_, for that interval of time. If his history of the earlier times be less accurate, it was because the archives of _Egypt_ had suffered much during the Reign of the _Ethiopians_ and _Assyrians_: and it is not likely that the Priests of _Egypt_, who lived two or three hundred years after the days of _Herodotus_, could mend the matter: on the contrary, after _Cambyses_ had carried away the records of _Egypt_, the Priests were daily feigning new Kings, to make their Gods and nation look ancient; as is manifest by comparing _Herodotus_ with _Diodorus Siculus_, and both of them with what _Plato_ relates out of the Poem of _Solon_: which Poem makes the wars of the great Gods of _Egypt_ against the _Greeks_, to have been in the days of _Cecrops_, _Erechtheus_ and _Erichthonius_, and a little before those of _Theseus_; these Gods at that time instituting Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves. I have therefore chosen to rely upon the stories related to _Herodotus_ by the Priests of _Egypt_ in those days, and corrected by the Poem of _Solon_, so as to make these Gods of _Egypt_ no older than _Cecrops_ and _Erechtheus_, and their successor _Menes_ no older than _Theseus_ and _Memnon_, and the Temple of _Vulcan_ not above 280 years in building: rather than to correct _Herodotus_ by _Manetho_, _Eratosthenes_, _Diodorus_, and others, who lived after the Priests of _Egypt_ had corrupted their Antiquities much more than they had done in the days of _Herodotus_. * * * * * CHAP. III. _Of the _ASSYRIAN_ Empire._