ramids, the following Kings, _Moeris_ and
his successors, built others much larger. The plain in which they were
built was the burying-place of that city, as appears by the Mummies there
found; and therefore the Pyramids were the sepulchral monuments of the
Kings and Princes of that city: and by these and such like works the city
grew famous soon after the days of _Homer_; who therefore flourished in the
Reign of _Ramesses_.

_Herodotus_ [331] is the oldest historian now extant who wrote of the
antiquities of _Egypt_, and had what he wrote from the Priests of that
country: and _Diodorus_, who wrote almost 400 years after him, and had his
relations also from the Priests of _Egypt_, placed many nameless Kings
between those whom _Herodotus_ placed in continual succession. The Priests
of _Egypt_ had therefore, between the days of _Herodotus_ and _Diodorus_,
out of vanity, very much increased the number of their Kings: and what they
did after the days of _Herodotus_, they began to do before his days; for he
tells us that they recited to him out of their books, the names of 330
Kings who Reigned after _Menes_, but did nothing memorable, except
_Nitocris_ and _Moeris_ the last of them: all these Reigned at _Thebes_,
'till _Moeris_ translated the seat of the Empire from _Thebes_ to
_Memphis_. After _Moeris_ he reckons _Sesostris_, _Pheron_, _Proteus_,
_Rhampsinitus_, _Cheops_, _Cephren_, _Mycerinus_, _Asychis_, _Anysis_,
_Sabacon_, _Anysis_ again, _Sethon_, twelve contemporary Kings,
_Psammitichus_, _Nechus_, _Psammis_, _Apries_, _Amasis_, and _Psammenitus_.
The _Egyptians_ had before the days of _Solon_ made their monarchy 9000
years old, and now they reckon'd to _Herodotus_ a succession of 330 Kings
Reigning so many Generations, that is about 11000 years, before
_Sesostris_: but the Kings who Reigned long before _Sesostris_ might Reign
over several little Kingdoms in several parts of _Egypt_, before the rise
of their Monarchy; and by consequence before the days of _Eli_ and
_Samuel_, and so are not under our consideration: and these names may have
been multiplied by corruption; and some of them, as _Athothes_ or _Thoth_,
the secretary of _Osiris_; _Tosorthrus_ or _AEsculapius_ a Physician who
invented building with square stones; and _Thuor_ or _Polybus_ the husband
of _Alcandra_, were only Princes of _Egypt_. If with _Herodotus_ we omit
the names of those Kings who did nothing memorable, and consider only those
whose actions