Germanicus, not yet informed that his journey was censured, sailed up the
Nile, beginning at Canopus, [Footnote: Near Aboukir.] one of its mouths:
it was built by the Spartans, as a monument to Canopus, a pilot buried
there, at the time when Menelaus returning to Greece was driven to
different seas and the Lybian continent. Hence he visited the next mouth
of the river sacred to Hercules: him the nations aver to have been born
amongst them; that he was the most ancient of the name, and that all the
rest, who with equal virtue followed his example, were, in honour, called
after him. Next he visited the mighty antiquities of ancient Thebes;
[Footnote: Karnak and Luxor.] where upon huge obelisks yet remained
Egyptian characters, describing its former opulency: one of the oldest
priests was ordered to interpret them; he said they related "that it once
contained seven hundred thousand fighting men; that with that army King
Rhamses had conquered Lybia, Ethiopia, the Medes and Persians, the
Bactrians and Scythians; and to his Empire had added the territories of
the Syrians, Armenians, and their neighbours the Cappadocians; a tract of
countries reaching from the sea of Bithynia to that of Lycia:" here also
was read the assessment of tribute laid on the several nations; what
weight of silver and gold; what number of horses and arms; what ivory and
perfumes, as gifts to the temples; what measures of grain; what quantities
of all necessaries, were by each people paid; revenues equally grand with
those exacted by the denomination of the Parthians, or by the power of the
Romans.
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