Ff.B.4] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.recorded in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel. These 390 years,
decreedfor the 'iniquity' of Israel, are implied to have begunby a
siegeof Jerusalem, evidentlythatof Shishak ; for if reckoned from
b.c. 928, the 390 years reachto 538, the year of Cyrus' edict,which
permittedthe return to Jerusalem. To this year of 'redemption'
refers the fortieth chapter in the Book of Isai ih. The author
announcesto Jerusalem thather ' time of servitude is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned.'*
A further confirmationof the year B.C. 928 for reckoning back
wardsthe regnal yearsof Egyptian dynastiesas corre< tly transmitted
by Manetho, is contained in his statement thatthe fall of Troy took
placeduringthe seven regnalyears of Thuoris, the last Pharaohof
the XlXth Dynasty. He is said to have cometo the throne in the
150thyearbeforeSheshenk'saccession,thatis, B.C. 1208, and this is
one of the two traditional yearsfor the fall of Troy. A still more
importantconfirmationof the Manethonian listsis presented by the
hithertounexplainedperiod of 400 years,the era of Seti-Nubti, to
whichRamsesII refers in the Tanis inscription. It can now be
assertedto have lastedfromthe sixtieth yearof his reign backwards
to the accession to the throne of his ancestor SetiI, of the XVI 1th
Dynasty,thatis, from 1284 to 1684.!
Finally,we now get an at least possiblecalendrianyearfor the
accession of Menes to the throne. Syncellusthe Byzantian, born
abouta.d. 800, has transmitted a Manethonian periodof 3555 years,
whichbegan with Menes.J WhenHerodotuswas in Egypt, about
B.C. 455, the priests readto him froma papyrus 'thenamesof 330
monarchswho(theysaid)werehis (Men's, the first king's) successors
uponthe throne... The last was named Mceris.§ Diodorus
Siculusstates,andhe may haveknownit from historicaltradition,
that this Pharaoh Mcerisof Herodotus was identical withMendesor
Smendes,thuswith HerHor, the first of the Royal High-priests.[|
Accordingto the Manethonian liststhis Pharaoh cameto the throne
- Is. xl, I, 2 ; lxvii, 4.
t Comp. ' Egyptian dynasties' in my Uebcrliefcrung, App.I, pp. 346, 341.
X Syncellus doesnot recognise the correctnessof this period, whichhe wrongly
understoodto have includedthe successive regnalyearsof the thirty dynastiesto
whichManethoreferred. He asserts that the period of 3555 yearscannot
have been historical,becauseMenesand ' Mizraim ' were identical. (Fragmenta
HisloricorumGnecorum,CarolusMiillerius,Parisii,Didot,1848,Vol.II, p. 517.)
§ Herodotus, II, 100, 101. || Diodorus Siculus,I, 61, 87.
161