And Of Ethiopia.

1. Now when the king saw that the walls of Jerusalem stood in need of
being better secured, and made stronger, [for he thought the wails that
encompassed Jerusalem ought to correspond to the dignity of the city,]
he both repaired them, and made them higher, with great towers upon
them; he also built cities which might be counted among the strongest,
Hazor and Megiddo, and the third Gezer, which had indeed belonged to
the Philistines; but Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had made an expedition
against it, and besieged it, and taken it by force; and when he had
slain all its inhabitants, he utterly overthrew it, and gave it as a
present to his daughter, who had been married to Solomon; for which
reason the king rebuilt it, as a city that was naturally strong, and
might be useful in wars, and the mutations of affairs that sometimes
happen. Moreover, he built two other cities not far from it, Beth-horon
was the name of one of them, and Baalath of the other. He also built
other cities that lay conveniently for these, in order to the enjoyment
of pleasures and delicacies in them, such as were naturally of a good
temperature of the air, and agreeable for fruits ripe in their proper
seasons, and well watered with springs. Nay, Solomon went as far as the
desert above Syria, and possessed himself of it, and built there a very
great city, which was distant two days' journey from Upper Syria,
and one day's journey from Euphrates, and six long days' journey from
Babylon the Great. Now the reason why this city lay so remote from the
parts of Syria that are inhabited is this, that below there is no water
to be had, and that it is in that place only that there are springs and
pits of water. When he had therefore built this city, and encompassed it
with very strong walls, he gave it the name of Tadmor, and that is the
name it is still called by at this day among the Syrians, but the Greeks
name it Palmyra.

2. Now Solomon the king was at this time engaged in building these
cities. But if any inquire why all the kings of Egypt from Menes, who
built Memphis, and was many years earlier than our forefather Abraham,
until Solomon, where the interval was more than one thousand three
hundred years, were called Pharaohs, and took it from one Pharaoh that
lived after the kings of that interval, I think it necessary to inform
them of it, and this in order to cure their ignorance, and to make
the occasion of that name manifest. Pha