The consent of time disciphering the errors of the Grecians in their Olympiads, the vncertaine computation of the Romanes in their penteterydes and building of Rome, of the Persians in their accompt of Cyrus, and of the vanities of the Gentiles in fables of antiquities, disagreeing with the Hebrewes, and with the sacred histories in consent of time. VVherein is also set downe the beginning, continuance, succession, and ouerthrowes of kings, kingdomes, states, and gouernments. By Lodovvik Lloid Esquire.

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Title
The consent of time disciphering the errors of the Grecians in their Olympiads, the vncertaine computation of the Romanes in their penteterydes and building of Rome, of the Persians in their accompt of Cyrus, and of the vanities of the Gentiles in fables of antiquities, disagreeing with the Hebrewes, and with the sacred histories in consent of time. VVherein is also set downe the beginning, continuance, succession, and ouerthrowes of kings, kingdomes, states, and gouernments. By Lodovvik Lloid Esquire.
Author
Lloyd, Lodowick, fl. 1573-1610.
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Imprinted at London :: By George Bishop, and Ralph Nevvberie,
Anno 1590.
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History, Ancient.
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A06134.0001.001
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"The consent of time disciphering the errors of the Grecians in their Olympiads, the vncertaine computation of the Romanes in their penteterydes and building of Rome, of the Persians in their accompt of Cyrus, and of the vanities of the Gentiles in fables of antiquities, disagreeing with the Hebrewes, and with the sacred histories in consent of time. VVherein is also set downe the beginning, continuance, succession, and ouerthrowes of kings, kingdomes, states, and gouernments. By Lodovvik Lloid Esquire." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A06134.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.

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CHAP. II.

Of the kings of Egypt after Ramesses time sirnamed Aegyptus' at what time Oceana was called Egypt, after the name of Aegyptus, before Mizreia.

NOw after the great ouerthrowe of the E∣gyptians in the red sea, after a while began to raigne in Egypt Ramesses, sirnamed Ae∣gyptus, after whose name Egypt was then called, as Manethon writeth: for at the first, Egypt was named Oceana, or Mizreia, * 1.1 and the second time it was named Aerea, and nowe the thirde time called Egypt, as you reade before. This Aegyptus after hee had vanquished his brother Danaus, he vsurped vpon the Egyptians, and raigned king of Egypt 68. yeeres: for Egypt had not recouered her former state as yet, since the ouerthrowe of Chencres and all the states of Egypt, who perished in the red Sea pursuing the Israelites.

Of this, Manethon seemeth most ignorant, saying that the * 1.2 shepheards were driuen out of Egypt, for some natural foule

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filthie disease as leprosie, which the Israelites had, affirming * 1.3 that Moses was an Egyptian, borne in the citie of Heliopolis, and that he was named Onarsiphus, and became leprous and * 1.4 then went to the Israelites, which euery where Manethon na∣meth Hicsos, shepheards or captiues, and became conuer∣sant with them, and was driuen out of Egypt with them.

In the beginning of this Aegyptus raigne, Moses died, after whom succeeded Iosua the second Iudge of Israel. This time raigned in Assyria Amintes their 19. king. Also Dionysius other∣wise Bacchus, whom the Greekes call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, subdued India, and builded a towne after his owne name called Nisa, in remem∣brance of his great victories that he had ouer the Indians.

Now succeeded in Egypt Myris or Moeris, as Herodotus doth * 1.5 call him: this king restored Egypt againe, and recouered strength and great power, and builded many notable and fa∣mous monuments worthy to be remembred: he brought the riuer Nilus, being out of hope to be repaired, in course a∣gaine: he made the lake Miris of such wonderfull bignes, that he farre excelled the rest of the kings before him. This Myris made the Labirinths of Egypt, which after Dedalus taking an example of those Labirinths, made the like in Creete, imita∣ting Myris in all points: he builded such monuments for Vul∣can in Egypt, as Herodotus calleth them, Digna Vulcano vestibu∣la, * 1.6 where you may reade more.

This king raigned fourtie yeeres in Egypt, and had a sonne * 1.7 succeeded him, of no lesse fame then himselfe, named Seso∣stris, of whom the priestes of Egypt spake much: he began to augment the kingdome of Egyyt with diuers victories ouer * 1.8 the Syrians, Phoenicians, Thracians, Scithians, and the most part of Asia. This king onely conquered Aethiopia, and was king proclaimed both of Egypt and Aethiopia: this king waxed strong on land and sea: he made more monuments of his vi∣ctories in diuers strange kingdoms, leauing behinde him his statues and Images erected vp in forraine countreys: some of them Herodotus doeth affirme to haue seene in his dayes, * 1.9 which liued about Xerxes time: one he saw in Palestina cut in

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a large stone with letters written round about his picture. And about Ionia he saw two statues or pictures of this king Sesostris, the one betweene Ionia and the citie of Eph•…•…sus, the other as men goe from Sardinia into Smirna: he was cut in two great high stones of fiue cubites length, holding in his right hand a speare, and in the left hande a bow, being in all * 1.10 points of his apparell armed like an Egyptian, with this sen∣tence written betweene his two shoulders in the Egyptian tongue, I haue caried this Countrey vpon my shoulders. Some take * 1.11 these statues to be Memnon, but the priestes of Egypt affirmed that it was Sesostris in his returne from his victories into E∣gypt, euen he that caried kings captiues bound to his chariot from towne to towne, from countrey to countrey. In Aetho∣pia and Egypt he had many of these pictures, and many sta∣tues set vpon pillars and arches, according to the maner of Egyptian triumphes.

This king was so honoured in Egypt, and his statues after * 1.12 his death so esteemed, that whē Darius Histaspis long after that time came into Egypt, being by his predecessor Cambyses con∣quered & brought into subiection vnder the Persians, yet he was not suffred by the priests of Vulcan to put his statue aboue the picture of Sesostris in Memphis, affirming that Sesostris had conquered as many countreis, and gotten as many victories as Darius had: and beside, Sesostris had ouerthrowne the strong and inuincible Scithians, which Darius neuer could: which speaches Darius tooke in good part, and would not reuenge, though well he might.

This Sesostris is named in Functius table, Amenophis, imita∣ting Manethon the Egyptian writer, where he is set downe to be the thirde in that gouernment Dynastia. Larthes is a name likewise of dignitie, as were Pharaos, before the gouernours and potentats: for in the first gouernment of Larthes which endured 194. yeres, Zetus was the first (as Manethon affirmeth) * 1.13 and raigned 55. yeres. After Zetus succeeded in this kinde of gouernment Ranses Larthes, which gouerned 66. yeres: after * 1.14 whom succeeded this king Sesostris the thirde Larthes, which raigned 40. yeeres.

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The fourth Larthes was named Phero, the sonne of this Se∣sostris * 1.15 of which I spake last. Herodotus reciteth a historie of this Phero, that it happened to him to become blinde, and so continued 11. yeeres: at what time he was instructed by the oracle of Butis, to finde out a temperat chaste woman which had neuer knowen carnalitie, but onely one man, and that hee should wash his eyes with this womans vrine, and hee should receiue againe his sight. This Phero Larthes making great speach and search for such a woman, after many vaine trials, he found one woman whose vrine healed him, whom (after he had his sight) hee maried, and caused all those wo∣men whose water could not helpe him, to bee brought into the citie called Rubragleba red clay, where both they and the citie were commaunded by the king to be burned.

After this Phero Larthes succeeded Thuoris, the fift and last Larthes of those Potentates: this king is named in Diodorus, Cetes, which the Greekes (as Melancthon saith) called Proteus, * 1.16 for diuers illusions which he vsed in magicke, whose temple was long seene after his death in Memphis. To this king came Paris Priamus sonne, at what time hee rauished Helen Menelaus wife, from Sparta to Greece, and was driuen of force into Egypt, of his hard welcome there, and of the kings-com∣mandement to Alexander to depart from Egypt, with threat∣ning of death vnlesse he would be gone within three dayes with all Grecians with him, sauing that the king stayed Helen in Egypt, where Menelaus came after the siege of Troy, and * 1.17 was honourably receiued by Proteus the king, and welcōmed of his wife Helen. Others write that Menelaus and Helen went both together after Troy was destroyed, by force of tempest * 1.18 into Egypt: it is not much materiall.

Nowe while these fiue potentats called Larthes raigned in Egypt, which continued for the space of one hundreth ninetie and foure yeres, it began in the second Iubilee, at what time Lamprides the two and twentieth king raigned in Egypt, and Tros the third king raigned in Troy, Proteus the thirteenth king raigned ouer the Argiues, and Shamgar iudged Israel.

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This gouernment of Larthes ended when Tautanes the 28. king of the Assyrians raigned, and when Abdon the twelfth * 1.19 Iudge iudged Israel. After this gouernment of Larthes, Mane∣thon writeth of another kinde of Potentats, which continued 177. yeeres, whom Functius followeth, and reciteth not one king that raigned in Egypt during that time, but hee rehear∣seth who flourished most, and who gouerned chiefly in Chaldea, Assyria, and in other kingdoms, and maketh no men∣tion of any king in Egypt during 177. yeeres, and therefore I will returne to Herodotus, whom Melancthon doeth followe in this, and write of those kings orderly as I finde them: this kinde of Potentats began three hundreth and thirtie yeeres after Israel departed out of Egypt.

About which time, Troy was destroyed by the Grecians, a∣bout * 1.20 tenne yeeres before the sixt Iubilee, and in the seuenth yeere of Thuoris king of Egypt, otherwise called Proteus. The kingdome of the Latines began this time, when that Aeneas with his sonne Ascanius after Troy was destroyed came to king Latinus, where raigned fiue kings before Aeneas came, by the name of kings of the Latines, of whom I wrote in that historie.

But now to the kings of Egypt: for after that Proteus died, * 1.21 the kingdome happened to Rampsinitus a king of the greatest wealth that euer raigned in Egypt, whose treasures were such, that he inuented to build some strong place for his treasure: and hauing cunning and subtile workemen to builde this worke: one of them perceiuing the infinite treasure that the king should put there, made a stone of that bignesse that two men might remoue it, and likewise of that length & bredth, that a man might creepe well through the place of that stone being thence remooued. Before this fellowe died, he * 1.22 opened to his two sonnes howe they might haue treasure ynough in remouing such a stone, which he for that purpose had made. When he had taught them in all points to know this stone, and how to bring their purpose to passe, he died, and they practised the fathers counsel, and found as their

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father told them twise or thrise. In continuance of time the king also found that much of his treasure was taken away: he inuented by some policie the next time to preuent them: engines and snares were layd for them, in the which one of the two brothers being taken fast, called for his other bro∣ther and willed him to cut off his head, lest hee should be knowen thereby, and so likewise lose his life.

This being done, the king came the next time into his treasurie, and found a dead man without a head, and musing much who it should be, deuised in this sort, that this body * 1.23 should be hanged vpon some gibbet with men to watch and to see who would weepe, and who should take him away. The mother of this dead man within a while after threatned her sonne, that vnlesse he would bury his brother, she would reueile vnto the king the whole matter: he also (to please his mother) deuised to saue himself, & inuented meanes to make the watchmen drunken, and tooke his brother from the tree * 1.24 the watchmen being asleepe, & after returned to the watch∣men, fained himselfe drunken, and to haue slept with them.

The king perceiuing that he was deceiued, punished the watchmen, & mused how he might know how these things came to passe, or who should take him away: then he inuen∣ted this policie, hauing only one daughter, he promised she should lye with any man in the kings house that could tel a∣ny likenes of this matter, or any els within Egypt, and should be his wife afterward. Euery man was willing to haue the kings daughter to wife, but none could aduertise her howe these things were done. The thiefe at length that robbed the king of his treasure, that did cut his brothers head in the treasurie, and after deceiued the kings watch and stole him from the gibbet, he thought once againe to trie his skill for * 1.25 a kings daughter: he went to his brother late dead, and cut off his hand, and caried it vnder his cloake, and went into a darke chamber into the kings daughter as the custome was, and tolde her the whole matter how it was, that he did all things, robd the king, kild his brother, made the watchmen

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drunken, and buried his brother. She hearing this, layd * 1.26 hand vpon him in the chamber: and seeking his hand in the darke to lead him to her father, hee secretly conueyed the dead mans hand into her hand, and conueyed himselfe a∣way: and she thought that she had him by the hand all the way as she went to her father, vntil she came to the light and saw she was deceiued.

The king being deceiued three times before, made a ge∣neral decree throughout all Egypt, making good his promise by an othe, that he should marry his daughter whosoeuer he was, if he would come vnto the king and confesse his faults, for the king was amazed at these great enterprises: for (saith * 1.27 the king Rampsinitus) the Egyptians in trueth excell all other nations in policie and wit, but this passeth all the Egyptians: and therefore the king married his daughter vnto this cun∣ning thiefe, as to a man of great knowledge and wisdome.

After this king Rampsinitus died, succeeded Cheops, a king * 1.28 of great wickednesse: during this kings time, Egypt so mour∣ned, that their temples were shut, their sacrifices stayed, * 1.29 and all Egypt by this king put to toyle and slauerie, almost in the like state as the poore Hebrewes were in Moses time, carying great huge stones, to builde monstrous and vaine workes: hee had a hundreth thousande men, to make vp one Piramides, who continued in this worke twentie yeeres: the charges thereof (as Herodotus affirmeth) for rootes, gar∣licke and onions onely, beside all other meate, came to one thousand six hundreth talents of siluer, so that the worke be∣ing great, & the people many, Cheops thereby fel to want, and * 1.30 hauing not to perfourme his worke, forced his daughter by her body to gaine as much as she could, to finish the worke begun: but she for a memoriall of her selfe, sought of euery man a stone, & she had therby so many stones, as she her selfe caused an other Piramides to be made equall to the highest.

This foolish king as it is thought to auoyde idlenes a∣mongst the people, occupied them in these vaine and mon∣strous workes, as places and sepulchres for kings burials: for

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vntill the time of Rampsinitus, all things prospered in Egypt. This Cheops after he had raigned 50. yeeres died, after whom succeeded his brother named Cephrim, a king no lesse hateful * 1.31 to the people of Egypt then his brother was, who in like sort vsed them with toile, and with all kinde of bondage as Cheops did, and therefore the like praise they had. For after they had raigned both an hundred sixe yeres, during which time Egypt suffered great calamitie, they disdained after their death to call them by the names of kings, but suffered shepherds to lodge in their stately Piramides, loathing once to thinke vp∣on these two kings.

By this time ended the gouernment of 177. vnder the Po∣tentats, during which time many things happened in other kingdomes, as erection of the kingdome of Israel after Sam∣sons time their last Iudge, by appointing Saul their first king, * 1.32 about the 60. yeres of these last Potentats of Egypt. At what time the kings of Peloponesus in Greece, and their gouernment of Monarchia ended, & priestes which were called Carni were appointed magistrates. After 26. kings had raigned in Scicio∣num, about the 80. of this gouernment, the kingdome of La∣cedemonia * 1.33 and the kingdome of Corinth beganne both at one time: at what time raigned in Athens Codrus their last king: after whom the state altered into the gouernment of Iudges, in the 114. yeere of this Dynastia, during which time raigned in Assyria foure kings, and ouer the Albanes, otherwise called * 1.34 the Latins raigned sixe kings: this was the twentie Dynastie of the Egyptians: this began tenne yeeres before the sixt Iubilee, and ended 19. yeeres after the beginning of the ninth Iubilee.

In Egypt gouerned by this time Mycerinus or Cerinus (in * 1.35 Diodorus) the sonne of Cheops, a iust king and gentle, vsing the people with much more clemencie then either his father or his vncle did before him: he opened the temples, which of an hundreth and sixe yeeres were shut vp, he restored all E∣gypt into her former libertie, which had bene long in cala∣mitie and misery vnder his father: he commaunded the peo∣ple to be free from their taxes and toiles, and vsed them with

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greatlenitie: hee iudged iustly, and shewed himselfe such a king, that all the Egyptians thought themselues happie of his gouernment: for he loathed tyrannie and crueltie, and was much ashamed of his fathers reproche amongst the people.

This Mycerinus in the middest of his good gouernment * 1.36 had onely one daughter, that died, of whom her father (to shewe the great loue which hee bare vnto her) made such a monument for her buriall, that it past all the burials of the kings of Egypt: hee caused a coffine of the likenes of an oxe to be made, set ouer all with golde, wherein hee layed his daughter, and hanged the same vp from the ground in his pallace at the citie of Sai, where euery day the priestes came with frankincense and other sweete odours, to doe sacrifice: the oxe of Apis, which was the God of Memphis, and the * 1.37 oxe Mneum which was the God of Heliopolis, were not so set foorth as this oxe of Sai, where Mycerinus daughter * 1.38 was buried.

An other misfortune was denounced by an Oracle vnto Mycerinus, that hee likewise should be buried within sixe yeres after his daughter, for that he altered the state of Egypt, * 1.39 and eased the Egyptians from such bondage as they were to abide for an hundreth and fiftie yeeres, of the which Cheops and Cephrim two brethren perfourmed an hundreth and sixe, remayning yet behinde fourtie and foure yeeres of the cala∣mitie, which by an Oracle was appointed for Egypt: and to seeke to please the Oracle, Mycerinus became a little better then his father Cheops, or his vncle Cephrim, two tyrants that plagued Egypt.

After this king, the priests of Egypt doe set downe a king named Asichis, of whom I finde in Herodotus, that he past the * 1.40 rest of the kings of Egypt in building and vexing of his sub∣iects, in so much that hee made one Piramides to excell the rest, with this inscription, This Piramides doeth passe the rest as farre as Iupiter doeth excell the rest of the gods. This king is named also Anisis in Melancthon and in Functius, but in Hero∣dotus, Anisis, * 1.41

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or Asichis, a king who came not to be king of E∣gypt by succession of blood, but by election of the priestes, who after he had raigned sixe yeeres, was driuen out of Egypt by Sabacus an Aethiopian, which raigned after Anisis 50. yeeres * 1.42 king of Egypt: this king is called Sesac in the booke of the Kings, of whom you may reade more: for in the fift yeere of Roboam * 1.43 king of Iuda this Sesac king of Egypt is spoken of.

After Sabacus, succeeded Sethon a priest of Vulcan: this king * 1.44 after many ouerthrowes, being left and forsaken of his owne people, made his complaint to Vulcan, of whom he was cer∣tified in a dreame, that he should haue ayde and helpe, if he would meete the king of Arabia and his armie, and giue him battel. Being thus encouraged, with a smal cōpany of Egyptiās * 1.45 that folowed him, he camped before the city of Pelusiū, where the armie of the Arabians pitched their tents: while the first night they lay in their tents, rats, vermine, and myse, of al the coūtrey about, deuoured their arrows, their bowstrings, their quiuers, their targets, & their instrumēts which they prepa∣red for the warres, so that the Arabians in the next morning fled. In memory of this victory, Sethon when he died, caused * 1.46 himselfe to be buried in the temple of Vulcan, and commaun∣ded that his statue should be made in a stone, with a rat in his hand, with this sentence written about it, In me quis intuēs pius * 1.47 esto. In that place where Herodotus doth intreat of this Sethon, he seemed very fabulous, & saith, that the Isle of Foemis swim∣meth on a lake, and that the priests of Egypt affirme, that from the first king of Egypt vntil this kings time, 341. kings are past, which are 11. more kings then Manethon before affirmed: during which time the sunne foure times altered his course; rising in the West, and going downe in the East, with such o∣ther vaine and friuolous fables cōcerning their antiquities.

This Sethon is named of Eusebius, Spethon, with whom Ma∣nethon * 1.48 supposeth in his chronicles, that it was he that Sanna∣herib had warres with, and after ouerthrew him: for I reade in Eusebius and Iosephus, who make mention of one Tarachus king of Aethiopia, which came to ayde Sethon king of Egypt a∣gainst

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Sanneherib, at what time God had raised many enemies to plague Israel and Iuda for their transgressions against their God, which so mercifully had saued them oftentimes, as As∣sar, Salmanasser, which in the histories of the Prophets is cal∣led Tiglat Assar, to whose hands God gaue ouer Samaria, and tenne tribes of Israel, and afterward Ierusalem to the hands of Nabuchodonosor, with the other two tribes of Iuda & Beniamin: for both the kings, of Assyria and of Egypt, made a pray of Iuda, as in the history of the Assyrians is more at large declared.

In Egypt after Sethon the priest of Vulcan died, the gouern∣ment * 1.49 changed betweene 12. Princes which should equally gouerne the whole kingdome of Egypt, & so did for 15. yeres, as Diodorus affirmeth. After this, one of the 12. princes ob∣tained into his owne hand the whole kingdome, and gouer∣ned 54. yeres after, augmenting the confines of Egypt by the ayde of certaine Grecians, which against their wils were dri∣uen into Egypt by a tempest, with whom Psammiticus entred into friendship, and came thereby to be king of Egypt.

To these Grecians did the king giue a countrey to dwell in, farre from Nilus: with these Greekes Psammiticus cōmaunded * 1.50 that certaine yong gentlemen of Egypt should be brought vp in the Greeke tongue, which afterward made Egypt acquain∣ted therewith. While yet Psammiticus was one of the 12. ma∣gistrats, before he became king, these 12. consented to make some monument in memory of their gouernment, & there∣fore they erected many huge & strange works, as pillars, por∣ches, labirinths, Piramides, temples, & other sumptuous buil∣dings: they also studying how to passe these monuments, in∣uented to make a Labirinth vpō the lake of Meris, not far frō * 1.51 the city of Crocodiles: for so the Egyptians had cities according to the names of those fowles, fishes, and beastes, which they had honored for their gods, and had erected temples for sa∣crifices in these cities: and though the temple of Diana in E∣phesus, & the temple of Iuno in Samos were huge & monstrous * 1.52 for their bignes, yet the Piramides of Egypt were farre more greater. But the Labirinth far excelled this greatest Piramides:

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for within this Labirinth were chambers, parlers, halles and * 1.53 other roomes, to the number of three thousand, whereof an hundreth and fiftie were made vnder the ground, and the other aboue ground, with such artificiall worke, with the pictures and likenes of all kinde of creatures, that it farre ex∣celled all the monuments of Egypt: and the place whereup∣on it was made and builded, was a lake of three thousand sixe hundreth furlongs, which are three hundreth seuentie and fiue miles, which is more wonderfull then the Labirinth it selfe. Herodoti fabula. * 1.54

But now to the king Psammiticus againe, who hauing long layd siege to Azotum a citie of Syria, and after many yeeres ouerthrowen (for it was the longest siege that euer endured which may be read of;) Psammiticus died: after whom succee∣ded his sonne Necho, of whom the Prophets make true men∣tion, and therefore Herodotus, Diodorus, and others, may be the better spared being prophane writers, because hee and his doings is mentioned in the sacred histories: of whom the Prophets write, that the wrath of God was ripe to giue iudgement against Egypt at this time: for Egypt had so long offended the Lorde with their vaine superstition and ido∣latrie.

Now Necho was cried out vpon by the Prophet Ezechiel, * 1.55 which was by the riuer Perath, and gaue sentence against all Egypt in this sort: Howle and crie, woe be vnto Egypt, the sworde shall come vpon Egypt, and feare shall come vpon Aethiopia. Pa∣thros shall be desolate, and fire shall be in Zoan, (which is Taph∣nis.) Thus the Prophet cried out againe, I will powre out my wrath vpon Shin, (which is named in histories, Pelusium) and I will destroy the multitude of No, the yong men of Auen, (which * 1.56 is otherwise called Heliopolis) and of Phibeseth (which is also named of olde, Pubastum) shall fall by the sworde.

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