n. But the [888]capital
being delivered into his hands without the least resistance, and the king
intirely submitting himself to his will; he contented himself with the rich
plunder, which he found, and which he carried away at his departure. We may
also infer from the servitude, to which the people of Judah were reduced,
that he imposed upon them some future contributions.

This is the whole of the history of Sesac, or Shishak; by whom no other
expedition was undertaken that we know of: nor is there mention made upon
record of a single battle which he fought. Yet from a notion that Sesac was
a great warrior, he is made the same as Sesostris: and the age of the
latter is brought down very many centuries beneath the aera, to which the
best writers have adjudged it. When we differ from received tradition, we
should not pass over in silence what is said on the contrary part; but give
it at large, and then shew our reasons for our departure from it. I have
taken notice of the supposed conquerors of the earth: and among them of the
reputed deities of Egypt, who came under the names of Osiris, Perseus,
Thoules, &c. These are supposed, if they ever existed, to have lived in the
first ages of the world, when Egypt was in its infant state; and Sesostris
is made one of their number. He is by some placed after Orus; by others
after Thoules; but still referred to the first ages. He is represented
under the name of Sethos, [889]Sethosis, Sesoosis, Sesonchosis, Sesostris;
but the history, with which these names are accompanied, shews plainly the
identity of the personage. Eusebius in reckoning up the dynasty of kings,
who reigned after Hephaistus or Vulcan, mentions them in the following
order: [890]_Then succeeded his son Helius; after him Sosis, then Osiris,
then Orus, then Thoules, who conquered the whole earth to the ocean; and
last of all Sesostris_. The [891]Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius calls
him Sesonchosis; and places him immediately after Orus, and the third in
succession from Osiris: giving at the same time an account of his
conquests. He adds that he was the person whom Theopompus called Sesostris.
The same Scholiast quotes a curious passage from Dicaearchus, in which
Sesonchosis maintains the same rank, and was consequently of the highest
antiquity. [892]_Dicaearchus in the first book of his history mentions, that
immediately after the reign of Orus, the son of Isis and Osiris, in Egypt,
the government devolved to Seso