, exercised his tyranny at that time on the banks of the
Nile; and barbarously murdered all foreigners who landed in his country:
this was probably during the absence of Sesostris.

(M77) About the same time, Cadmus brought from Syria into Greece the
invention of letters. Some pretend, that these characters or letters were
Egyptian, and that Cadmus himself was a native of Egypt, and not of
Phoenicia; and the Egyptians, who ascribe to themselves the invention of
every art, and boast a greater antiquity than any other nation, give to
their Mercury the honour of inventing letters. Most of the learned
agree,(425) that Cadmus carried the Phoenician or Syrian letters into
Greece, and that those letters were the same as the Hebraic; the Hebrews,
who formed but a small nation, being comprehended under the general name
of Syrians. Joseph Scaliger, in his notes on the _Chronicon_ of Eusebius,
proves, that the Greek letters, and those of the Latin alphabet formed
from them, derive their original from the ancient Phoenician letters, which
are the same with the Samaritan, and were used by the Jews before the
Babylonish captivity. Cadmus carried only sixteen letters(426) into
Greece, eight others being added afterwards.

I return to the history of the Egyptian kings, whom I shall hereafter rank
in the same order as Herodotus has assigned to them.

(M78) PHERON succeeded Sesostris in his kingdom, but not in his glory.
Herodotus(427) relates but one action of his, which shows how greatly he
had degenerated from the religious sentiments of his father. In an
extraordinary inundation of the Nile, which exceeded eighteen cubits, this
prince, enraged at the wild havoc which was made by it, threw a javelin at
the river, as if he intended thereby to chastise its insolence; but was
himself immediately punished for his impiety, if the historian may be
credited, with the loss of sight.

(M79) PROTEUS.(428) He was of Memphis, where, in Herodotus's time,(429)
his temple was still standing, in which was a chapel dedicated to Venus
the Stranger. It is conjectured that this Venus was Helen. For, in the
reign of this monarch, Paris the Trojan, returning home with Helen whom he
had stolen, was driven by a storm into one of the mouths of the Nile,
called Canopic; and from thence was conducted to Proteus at Memphis, who
reproached him in the strongest terms for his base perfidy and guilt, in
stealing the wife of his host, and with her all the effects i