Kitap 2
After returning from there back to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , he gathered a great army (according to the account of the priests) and marched over the mainland, subjugating every nation to which he came.
When those that he met were valiant men and strove hard for freedom, he set up pillars in their land, the inscription on which showed his own name and his country's, and how he had overcome them with his own power;
but when the cities had made no resistance and been easily taken, then he put an inscription on the pillars just as he had done where the nations were brave; but he also drew on them the private parts of a woman, wishing to show clearly that the people were cowardly.
He marched over the country doing this until he had crossed over from Asia (continent) Asia to Europe (continent) Europe and defeated the Scythians and Thracians. Thus far and no farther, I think, the Egyptian army went; for the pillars can be seen standing in their country, but in none beyond it.
From there, he turned around and went back home; and when he came to the Phasis river, that King, Sesostris, may have detached some part of his army and left it there to live in the country (for I cannot speak with exact knowledge), or it may be that some of his soldiers grew weary of his wanderings, and stayed by the +Poti [41.683,42.183] (inhabited place), regions under republican jurisdiction, Georgia, Asia Phasis.
For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians;
the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision.
The Phoenicians and the Syrians of +Palestine [35.333,31.916] (region (general)), Asia Palestine acknowledge that they learned the custom from the Egyptians, and the Syrians of the valleys of the Thermodon and the Parthenius, as well as their neighbors the Macrones, say that they learned it lately from the Colchians. These are the only nations that circumcise, and it is seen that they do just as the Egyptians.
But as to the Egyptians and Ethiopians themselves, I cannot say which nation learned it from the other; for it is evidently a very ancient custom. That the others learned it through traffic with Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , I consider clearly proved by this: that Phoenicians who traffic with Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas cease to imitate the Egyptians in this matter and do not circumcise their children.
Listen to something else about the Colchians, in which they are like the Egyptians: they and the Egyptians alone work linen and have the same way of working it, a way peculiar to themselves; and they are alike in all their way of life, and in their speech. Linen has two names: the Colchian kind is called by the Greeks Sardonian There seems to be no reason for connecting Colchian linen with +Sardinia [9,40] (region), Italy, Europe Sardinia (as Σαρδωνικόν would imply). The Colchian word may have had a similar sound.; that which comes from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is called Egyptian.
As to the pillars that Sesostris, king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , set up in the countries, most of them are no longer to be seen. But I myself saw them in the +Palestine [35.333,31.916] (region (general)), Asia Palestine district of +Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria , with the aforesaid writing and the women's private parts on them.
Also, there are in Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia two figuresTwo such figures have been discovered in the pass of Karabel, near the old road from +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus to +Smyrna [27.1667,38.4167] (Perseus) Smyrna . They are not, however, Egyptian in appearance. of this man carved in rock, one on the road from +Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus to +Foca [26.75,38.666] (inhabited place), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Phocaea , and the other on that from Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis to +Smyrna [27.1667,38.4167] (Perseus) Smyrna .
In both places, the figure is over twenty feet high, with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment proportional; for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian;
and right across the breast from one shoulder to the other a text is cut in the Egyptian sacred characters, saying: “I myself won this land with the strength of my shoulders.” There is nothing here to show who he is and whence he comes, but it is shown elsewhere.
Some of those who have seen these figures guess they are Memnon, but they are far indeed from the truth.
Now when this Egyptian Sesostris (so the priests said) reached +Daphnae [32.183,30.866] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Daphnae of +Pelusium (deserted settlement), Shamal Sina', Desert, Egypt, Africa Pelusium on his way home, leading many captives from the peoples whose lands he had subjugated, his brother, whom he had left in charge in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , invited him and his sons to a banquet and then piled wood around the house and set it on fire.
When Sesostris was aware of this, he at once consulted his wife, whom (it was said) he had with him; and she advised him to lay two of his six sons on the fire and make a bridge over the burning so that they could walk over the bodies of the two and escape. This Sesostris did; two of his sons were thus burnt but the rest escaped alive with their father.
After returning to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , and avenging himself on his brother, Sesostris found work for the multitude which he brought with him from the countries which he had subdued.
It was these who dragged the great and long blocks of stone which were brought in this king's reign to the temple of Hephaestus; and it was they who were compelled to dig all the canals which are now in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , and involuntarily made what had been a land of horses and carts empty of these.
For from this time Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , although a level land, could use no horses or carts, because there were so many canals going every which way. The reason why the king thus intersected the country was this:
those Egyptians whose towns were not on the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile , but inland from it, lacked water whenever the flood left their land, and drank only brackish water from wells.
For this reason Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt was intersected. This king also (they said) divided the country among all the Egyptians by giving each an equal parcel of land, and made this his source of revenue, assessing the payment of a yearly tax.
And any man who was robbed by the river of part of his land could come to Sesostris and declare what had happened; then the king would send men to look into it and calculate the part by which the land was diminished, so that thereafter it should pay in proportion to the tax originally imposed.
From this, in my opinion, the Greeks learned the art of measuring land; the sunclock and the sundial, and the twelve divisions of the day, came to Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas from +Babylonia (region (general)), Iraq, Asia Babylonia and not from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt .
Sesostris was the only Egyptian king who also ruled Ethiopia [39,8] (nation), Africa Ethiopia . To commemorate his name, he set before the temple of Hephaestus two stone statues, of himself and of his wife, each fifty feet high, and statues of his four sons, each thirty-three feet.
Long afterwards, Darius the Persian would have set up his statue before these; but the priest of Hephaestus forbade him, saying that he had achieved nothing equal to the deeds of Sesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris (he said) had subjugated the Scythians, besides as many nations as Darius had conquered, and Darius had not been able to overcome the Scythians;
therefore, it was not just that Darius should set his statue before the statues of Sesostris, whose achievements he had not equalled. Darius, it is said, let the priest have his way.
When Sesostris died, he was succeeded in the kingship (the priests said) by his son Pheros Manetho's list shows no such name. It is probably not a name but a title, Pharaoh.. This king waged no wars, and chanced to become blind, for the following reason: the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile came down in such a flood as there had never been, rising to a height of thirty feet, and the water that flowed over the fields was roughened by a strong wind;
then, it is said, the king was so audacious as to seize a spear and hurl it into the midst of the river eddies. Right after this, he came down with a disease of the eyes, and became blind. When he had been blind for ten years, an oracle from the city of +Kawm al-Farain [30.733,31.2] (deserted settlement), Kafr ash-Shaykh, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Buto declared to him that the term of his punishment was drawing to an end, and that he would regain his sight by washing his eyes with the urine of a woman who had never had intercourse with any man but her own husband.
Pheros tried his own wife first; and, as he remained blind, all women, one after another. When he at last recovered his sight, he took all the women whom he had tried, except the one who had made him see again, and gathered them into one town, the one which is now called “Red Clay”; having concentrated them together there, he burnt them and the town;
but the woman by whose means he had recovered his sight, he married. Most worthy of mention among the many offerings which he dedicated in all the noteworthy temples for his deliverance from blindness are the two marvellous stone obelisks which he set up in the temple of the Sun. Each of these is made of a single block, and is over one hundred and sixty-six feet high and thirteen feet thick.
Pheros was succeeded (they said) by a man of Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis , whose name in the Greek tongue was Proteus. This Proteus has a very attractive and well-appointed temple precinct at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis , south of the temple of Hephaestus.
Around the precinct live Phoenicians of +Tyre [35.183,33.266] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Tyre , and the whole place is called the Camp of the Tyrians. There is in the precinct of Proteus a temple called the temple of the Stranger Aphrodite; I guess this is a temple of Helen, daughter of Tyndarus, partly because I have heard the story of Helen's abiding with Proteus, and partly because it bears the name of the Foreign Aphrodite: for no other of Aphrodite's temples is called by that name.
When I inquired of the priests, they told me that this was the story of Helen. After carrying off Helen from Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta , Alexandrus sailed away for his own country; violent winds caught him in the +Aegean Sea [25,38.5] (sea) Aegean and drove him into the Egyptian sea; and from there (as the wind did not let up) he came to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , to the mouth of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile called the Canopic mouth, and to the Salters'.
Now there was (and still is) on the coast a temple of Heracles; if a servant of any man takes refuge there and is branded with certain sacred marks, delivering himself to the god, he may not be touched. This law continues today the same as it has always been from the first.
Hearing of the temple law, some of Alexandrus' servants ran away from him, threw themselves on the mercy of the god, and brought an accusation against Alexandrus meaning to injure him, telling the whole story of Helen and the wrong done Menelaus. They laid this accusation before the priests and the warden of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile mouth, whose name was Thonis.
When Thonis heard it, he sent this message the quickest way to Proteus at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis :
“A stranger has come, a Trojan, who has committed an impiety in Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas . After defrauding his guest-friend, he has come bringing the man's wife and a very great deal of wealth, driven to your country by the wind. Are we to let him sail away untouched, or are we to take away what he has come with?”
Proteus sent back this message: “Whoever this is who has acted impiously against his guest-friend, seize him and bring him to me, that I may know what he will say.”
Hearing this, Thonis seized Alexandrus and detained his ships there, and then brought him with Helen and all the wealth, and the suppliants too, to Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis .