Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
127. This Cheops, the Egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after
he was dead his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom. This king
followed the same manner as the other, both in all the rest and also in
that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of that
which was built by the former (this I know, having myself also measured
it), and moreover 109 there are no underground chambers beneath nor does
a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the other, in
which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round an
island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for a
basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours;
and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards
size, 110 building it close to the great pyramid. These stand both upon
the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. And Chephren they
said reigned fifty and six years.
128. Here then they reckon one hundred and six years, during which they
say that there was nothing but evil for the Egyptians, and the temples
were kept closed and not opened during all that time. These kings the
Egyptians by reason of their hatred of them are not very willing to
name; nay, they even call the pyramids after the name of Philitis 111
the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in those regions.
129. After him, they said, Mykerinos became king over Egypt, who was the
son of Cheops; and to him his father's deeds were displeasing, and he
both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who were ground
down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their own business and
to their sacrifices;: also he gave decisions of their causes juster
than those of all the other kings besides. In regard to this then they
commend this king more than all the other kings who had arisen in Egypt
before him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also when a man
complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his own goods
and thus satisfied his desire. But while Mykerinos was acting mercifully
to his subjects and practising this conduct which has been said,
calamities befell him, of which the first was this, namely that his
daughter died, the only child whom he had in his house: and being above
measure grieved by that which had befallen him, and desiring to bury his
daughter in a manner more remarkable than others, he made a cow of
wood, which he covered over with gold, and then within it he buried this
daughter who, as I said, had died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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