Against Apion

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14. I shall begin with the writings of the Egyptians; not indeed
of those that have written in the Egyptian language, which it is
impossible for me to do. But Manetho was a man who was by birth
an Egyptian, yet had he made himself master of the Greek
learning, as is very evident; for he wrote the history of his own
country in the Greek tongue, by translating it, as he saith
himself, out of their sacred records; he also finds great fault
with Herodotus for his ignorance and false relations of Egyptian
affairs. Now this Manetho, in the second book of his Egyptian
History, writes concerning us in the following manner. I will set
down his very words, as if I were to bring the very man himself
into a court for a witness: "There was a king of ours whose name
was Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God
was averse to us, and there came, after a surprising manner, men
of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness
enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease
subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with
them. So when they had gotten those that governed us under their
power, they afterwards burnt down our cities, and demolished the
temples of the gods, and used all the inhabitants after a most
barbarous manner; nay, some they slew, and led their children and
their wives into slavery. At length they made one of themselves
king, whose name was Salatis; he also lived at Memphis, and made
both the upper and lower regions pay tribute, and left garrisons
in places that were the most proper for them. He chiefly aimed to
secure the eastern parts, as fore-seeing that the Assyrians, who
had then the greatest power, would be desirous of that kingdom,
and invade them; and as he found in the Saite Nomos, [Sethroite,]
a city very proper for this purpose, and which lay upon the
Bubastic channel, but with regard to a certain theologic notion
was called Avaris, this he rebuilt, and made very strong by the
walls he built about it, and by a most numerous garrison of two
hundred and forty thousand armed men whom he put into it to keep
it. Thither Salatis came in summer time, partly to gather his
corn, and pay his soldiers their wages, and partly to exercise
his armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners. When this man
had reigned thirteen years, after him reigned another, whose name
was Beon, for forty-four years; after him reigned another, called
Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven months; after him Apophis
reigned sixty-one years, and then Janins fifty years and one
month; after all these reigned Assis forty-nine years and two
months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who were
all along making war with the Egyptians, and were very desirous
gradually to destroy them to the very roots. This whole nation
was styled Hycsos, that is, Shepherd-kings: for the first
syllable Hyc, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as
is Sos a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary dialect;
and of these is compounded Hycsos: but some say that these people
were Arabians." Now in another copy it is said that this word
does not denote Kings, but, on the contrary, denotes Captive
Shepherds, and this on account of the particle Hyc; for that Hyc,
with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue again denotes
Shepherds, and that expressly also; and this to me seems the more
probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient history. [But
Manetho goes on]: "These people, whom we have before named kings,
and called shepherds also, and their descendants," as he says,
"kept possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven years." After
these, he says, "That the kings of Thebais and the other parts of
Egypt made an insurrection against the shepherds, and that there
a terrible and long war was made between them." He says further,
"That under a king, whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the
shepherds were subdued by him, and were indeed driven out of
other parts of Egypt, but were shut up in a place that contained
ten thousand acres; this place was named Avaris." Manetho says,
"That the shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was
a large and a strong wall, and this in order to keep all their
possessions and their prey within a place of strength, but that
Thummosis the son of Alisphragmuthosis made an attempt to take
them by force and by siege, with four hundred and eighty thousand
men to lie rotund about them, but that, upon his despair of
taking the place by that siege, they came to a composition with
them, that they should leave Egypt, and go, without any harm to
be done to them, whithersoever they would; and that, after this
composition was made, they went away with their whole families
and effects, not fewer in number than two hundred and forty
thousand, and took their journey from Egypt, through the
wilderness, for Syria; but that as they were in fear of the
Assyrians, who had then the dominion over Asia, they built a city
in that country which is now called Judea, and that large enough
to contain this great number of men, and called it Jerusalem. (9)
Now Manetho, in another book of his, says, "That this nation,
thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their sacred
books." And this account of his is the truth; for feeding of
sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the most ancient
ages (10) and as they led such a wandering life in feeding sheep,
they were called Shepherds. Nor was it without reason that they
were called Captives by the Egyptians, since one of our
ancestors, Joseph, told the king of Egypt that he was a captive,
and afterward sent for his brethren into Egypt by the king's
permission. But as for these matters, I shall make a more exact
inquiry about them elsewhere. (11)

15. But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the
antiquity of our nation. I shall therefore here bring in Manetho
again, and what he writes as to the order of the times in this
case; and thus he speaks: "When this people or shepherds were
gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem, Tethtoosis the king of Egypt, who
drove them out, reigned afterward twenty-five years and four
months, and then died; after him his son Chebron took the kingdom
for thirteen years; after whom came Amenophis, for twenty years
and seven months; then came his sister Amesses, for twenty-one
years and nine months; after her came Mephres, for twelve years
and nine months; after him was Mephramuthosis, for twenty-five
years and ten months; after him was Thmosis, for nine years and
eight months; after him came Amenophis, for thirty years and ten
months; after him came Orus, for thirty-six years and five
months; then came his daughter Acenchres, for twelve years and
one month; then was her brother Rathotis, for nine years; then
was Acencheres, for twelve years and five months; then came
another Acencheres, for twelve years and three months; after him
Armais, for four years and one month; after him was Ramesses, for
one year and four months; after him came Armesses Miammoun, for
sixty-six years and two months; after him Amenophis, for nineteen
years and six months; after him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, who
had an army of horse, and a naval force. This king appointed his
brother, Armais,, to be his deputy over Egypt." [In another copy
it stood thus: After him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, two
brethren, the former of whom had a naval force, and in a hostile
manner destroyed those that met him upon the sea; but as he slew
Ramesses in no long time afterward, so he appointed another of
his brethren to be his deputy over Egypt.] He also gave him all
the other authority of a king, but with these only injunctions,
that he should not wear the diadem, nor be injurious to the
queen, the mother of his children, and that he should not meddle
with the other concubines of the king; while he made an
expedition against Cyprus, and Phoenicia, and besides against the
Assyrians and the Medes. He then subdued them all, some by his
arms, some without fighting, and some by the terror of his great
army; and being puffed up by the great successes he had had, he
went on still the more boldly, and overthrew the cities and
countries that lay in the eastern parts. But after some
considerable time, Armais, who was left in Egypt, did all those
very things, by way of opposition, which his brother had forbid
him to do, without fear; for he used violence to the queen, and
continued to make use of the rest of the concubines, without
sparing any of them; nay, at the persuasion of his friends he put
on the diadem, and set up to oppose his brother. But then he who
was set over the priests of Egypt wrote letters to Sethosis, and
informed him of all that had happened, and how his brother had
set up to oppose him: he therefore returned back to Pelusium
immediately, and recovered his kingdom again. The country also
was called from his name Egypt; for Manetho says, that Sethosis
was himself called Egyptus, as was his brother Armais called
Danaus."

16. This is Manetho's account. And evident it is from the number
of years by him set down belonging to this interval, if they be
summed up together, that these shepherds, as they are here
called, who were no other than our forefathers, were delivered
out of Egypt, and came thence, and inhabited this country, three
hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus came to Argos;
although the Argives look upon him (12) as their most ancient
king Manetho, therefore, hears this testimony to two points of
the greatest consequence to our purpose, and those from the
Egyptian records themselves. In the first place, that we came out
of another country into Egypt; and that withal our deliverance
out of it was so ancient in time as to have preceded the siege of
Troy almost a thousand years; but then, as to those things which
Manetbo adds, not from the Egyptian records, but, as he confesses
himself, from some stories of an uncertain original, I will
disprove them hereafter particularly, and shall demonstrate that
they are no better than incredible fables.

17. I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to
those that belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation, and
shall produce attestations to what I have said out of them. There
are then records among the Tyrians that take in the history of
many years, and these are public writings, and are kept with
great exactness, and include accounts of the facts done among
them, and such as concern their transactions with other nations
also, those I mean which were worth remembering. Therein it was
recorded that the temple was built by king Solomon at Jerusalem,
one hundred forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians
built Carthage; and in their annals the building of our temple is
related; for Hirom, the king of Tyre, was the friend of Solomon
our king, and had such friendship transmitted down to him from
his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute to the
splendor of this edifice of Solomon, and made him a present of
one hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most
excellent timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus,
and sent it to him for adorning its roof. Solomon also not only
made him many other presents, by way of requital, but gave him a
country in Galilee also, that was called Chabulon. (13) But there
was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, which
cemented the friendship that was betwixt them; for they sent
mutual problems to one another, with a desire to have them
unriddled by each other; wherein Solomon was superior to Hirom,
as he was wiser than he in other respects: and many of the
epistles that passed between them are still preserved among the
Tyrians. Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will
produce for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written
the Phoenician History after an accurate manner. This Dius,
therefore, writes thus, in his Histories of the Phoenicians:
"Upon the death of Abibalus, his son Hirom took the kingdom. This
king raised banks at the eastern parts of the city, and enlarged
it; he also joined the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which stood
before in an island by itself, to the city, by raising a causeway
between them, and adorned that temple with donations of gold. He
moreover went up to Libanus, and had timber cut down for the
building of temples. They say further, that Solomon, when he was
king of Jerusalem, sent problems to Hirom to be solved, and
desired he would send others back for him to solve, and that he
who could not solve the problems proposed to him should pay money
to him that solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to the
proposals, but was not able to solve the problems, he was obliged
to pay a great deal of money, as a penalty for the same. As also
they relate, that oneœAbdemon, a man of Tyre, did solve the
problems, and propose others which Solomon could not solve, upon
which he was obliged to repay a great deal of money to Hirom."
These things are attested to by Dius, and confirm what we have
said upon the same subjects before.

18. And now I shall add Menander the Ephesian, as an additional
witness. This Menander wrote the Acts that were done both by the
Greeks and Barbarians, under every one of the Tyrian kings, and
had taken much pains to learn their history out of their own
records. Now when he was writing about those kings that had
reigned at Tyre, he came to Hirom, and says thus: "Upon the death
of Abibalus, his son Hirom took the kingdom; he lived fifty-three
years, and reigned thirty-four. He raised a bank on that called
the Broad Place, and dedicated that golden pillar which is in
Jupiter's temple; he also went and cut down timber from the
mountain called Libanus, and got timber Of cedar for the roofs of
the temples. He also pulled down the old temples, and built new
ones; besides this, he consecrated the temples of Hercules and of
Astarte. He first built Hercules's temple in the month Peritus,
and that of Astarte when he made his expedition against the
Tityans, who would not pay him their tribute; and when he had
subdued them to himself, he returned home. Under this king there
was a younger son of Abdemon, who mastered the problems which
Solomon king of Jerusalem had recommended to be solved." Now the
time from this king to the building of Carthage is thus
calculated: "Upon the death of Hirom, Baleazarus his son took the
kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years:
after him succeeded his son Abdastartus; he lived twenty-nine
years, and reigned nine years. Now four sons of his nurse plotted
against him and slew him, the eldest of whom reigned twelve
years: after them came Astartus, the son of Deleastartus; he
lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve years: after him came
his brother Aserymus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned nine
years: he was slain by his brother Pheles, who took the kingdom
and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he was
slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two
years, and lived sixty-eight years: he was succeeded by his son
Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reigned six years: he
was succeeded by Matgenus his son; he lived thirty-two years, and
reigned nine years: Pygmalion succeeded him; he lived fifty-six
years, and reigned forty-seven years. Now in the seventh year of
his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city
Carthage in Libya." So the whole time from the reign of Hirom,
till the building of Carthage, amounts to the sum of one hundred
fifty-five years and eight months. Since then the temple was
built at Jerusalem in the twelfth year of the reign of Hirom,
there were from the building of the temple, until the building of
Carthage, one hundred forty-three years and eight months.
Wherefore, what occasion is there for alleging any more
testimonies out of the Phoenician histories [on the behalf of our
nation], since what I have said is so thoroughly confirmed
already? and to be sure our ancestors came into this country long
before the building of the temple; for it was not till we had
gotten possession of the whole land by war that we built our
temple. And this is the point that I have clearly proved out of
our sacred writings in my Antiquities.

19. I will now relate what hath been written concerning us in the
Chaldean histories, which records have a great agreement with our
books in oilier things also. Berosus shall be witness to what I
say: he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on
account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and
philosophy among the Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following
the most ancient records of that nation, gives us a history of
the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the destruction
of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moses's narration thereof. He
also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of
our race, was preserved, when it was brought to the highest part
of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us a catalogue of
the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology,
and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon,
and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this
king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor
against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his
being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that
means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at
Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of
their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so
happened that our city was desolate during the interval of
seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He then
says, "That this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and
Phoenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had
reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which
Berosus subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times. I
will set down Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When
Nabolassar, father of Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor
whom he had set over Egypt, and over the parts of Celesyria and
Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any
longer; but committing certain parts of his army to his son
Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent him against the
rebel: Nabuchodonosor joined battle with him, and conquered him,
and reduced the country under his dominion again. Now it so fell
out that his father Nabolassar fell into a distemper at this
time, and died in the city of Babylon, after he had reigned
twenty-nine years. But as he understood, in a little time, that
his father Nabolassar was dead, he set the affairs of Egypt and
the other countries in order, and committed the captives he had
taken from the Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and of the
nations belonging to Egypt, to some of his friends, that they
might conduct that part of the forces that had on heavy armor,
with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in
haste, having but a few with him, over the desert to Babylon;
whither, when he was come, he found the public affairs had been
managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal person among
them had preserved the kingdom for him. Accordingly, he now
entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He then came, and
ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the most proper
places of Babylonia; but for himself, he adorned the temple of
Belus, and the other temples, after an elegant manner, out of the
spoils he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old city,
and added another to it on the outside, and so far restored
Babylon, that none who should besiege it afterwards might have it
in their power to divert the river, so as to facilitate an
entrance into it; and this he did by building three walls about
the inner city, and three about the outer. Some of these walls he
built of burnt brick and bitumen, and some of brick only. So when
he had thus fortified the city with walls, after an excellent
manner, and had adorned the gates magnificently, he added a new
palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and this close by
it also, and that more eminent in its height, and in its great
splendor. It would perhaps require too long a narration, if any
one were to describe it. However, as prodigiously large and as
magnificent as it was, it was finished in fifteen days. Now in
this palace he erected very high walks, supported by stone
pillars, and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and
replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect
an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to
please his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and
was fond of a mountainous situation."

20. This is what Berosus relates concerning the forementioned
king, as he relates many other things about him also in the third
book of his Chaldean History; wherein he complains of the Grecian
writers for supposing, without any foundation, that Babylon was
built by Semiramis, (14) queen of Assyria, and for her false
pretense to those wonderful edifices thereto buildings at
Babylon, do no way contradict those ancient and relating, as if
they were her own workmanship; as indeed in these affairs the
Chaldean History cannot but be the most credible. Moreover, we
meet with a confirmation of what Berosus says in the archives of
the Phoenicians, concerning this king Nabuchodonosor, that he
conquered all Syria and Phoenicia; in which case Philostratus
agrees with the others in that history which he composed, where
he mentions the siege of Tyre; as does Megasthenes also, in the
fourth book of his Indian History, wherein he pretends to prove
that the forementioned king of the Babylonians was superior to
Hercules in strength and the greatness of his exploits; for he
says that he conquered a great part of Libya, and conquered
Iberia also. Now as to what I have said before about the temple
at Jerusalem, that it was fought against by the Babylonians, and
burnt by them, but was opened again when Cyrus had taken the
kingdom of Asia, shall now be demonstrated from what Berosus adds
further upon that head; for thus he says in his third book:
"Nabuchodonosor, after he had begun to build the forementioned
wall, fell sick, and departed this life, when he had reigned
forty-three years; whereupon his son Evilmerodach obtained the
kingdom. He governed public affairs after an illegal and impure
manner, and had a plot laid against him by Neriglissoor, his
sister's husband, and was slain by him when he had reigned but
two years. After he was slain, Neriglissoor, the person who
plotted against him, succeeded him in the kingdom, and reigned
four years; his son Laborosoarchod obtained the kingdom, though
he was but a child, and kept it nine mouths; but by reason of the
very ill temper and ill practices he exhibited to the world, a
plot was laid against him also by his friends, and he was
tormented to death. After his death, the conspirators got
together, and by common consent put the crown upon the head of
Nabonnedus, a man of Babylon, and one who belonged to that
insurrection. In his reign it was that the walls of the city of
Babylon were curiously built with burnt brick and bitumen; but
when he was come to the seventeenth year of his reign, Cyrus came
out of Persia with a great army; and having already conquered all
the rest of Asia, he came hastily to Babylonia. When Nabonnedus
perceived he was coming to attack him, he met him with his
forces, and joining battle with him was beaten, and fled away
with a few of his troops with him, and was shut up within the
city Borsippus. Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon, and gave order that
the outer walls of the city should be demolished, because the
city had proved very troublesome to him, and cost him a great
deal of pains to take it. He then marched away to Borsippus, to
besiege Nabonnedus; but as Nabonnedus did not sustain the siege,
but delivered himself into his hands, he was at first kindly used
by Cyrus, who gave him Carmania, as a place for him to inhabit
in, but sent him out of Babylonia. Accordingly Nabonnedus spent
the rest of his time in that country, and there died."

21. These accounts agree with the true histories in our books;
for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth
year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in
that state of obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second
year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was
finished again in the second year of Darius. I will now add the
records of the Phoenicians; for it will not be superfluous to
give the reader demonstrations more than enough on this occasion.
In them we have this enumeration of the times of their several
kings: "Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the
days of Ithobal, their king; after him reigned Baal, ten years;
after him were judges appointed, who judged the people:
Ecnibalus, the son of Baslacus, two months; Chelbes, the son of
Abdeus, ten months; Abbar, the high priest, three months;
Mitgonus and Gerastratus, the sons of Abdelemus, were judges six
years; after whom Balatorus reigned one year; after his death
they sent and fetched Merbalus from Babylon, who reigned four
years; after his death they sent for his brother Hirom, who
reigned twenty years. Under his reign Cyrus became king of
Persia." So that the whole interval is fifty-four years besides
three months; for in the seventh year of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar he began to besiege Tyre, and Cyrus the Persian
took the kingdom in the fourteenth year of Hirom. So that the
records of the Chaldeans and Tyrians agree with our writings
about this temple; and the testimonies here produced are an
indisputable and undeniable attestation to the antiquity of our
nation. And I suppose that what I have already said may be
sufficient to such as are not very contentious.

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