thing will I endeavor to do; for I will bring the Egyptians and the
Phoenicians as my principal witnesses, because nobody can complain Of
their testimony as false, on account that they are known to have borne
the greatest ill-will towards us; I mean this as to the Egyptians in
general all of them, while of the Phoenicians it is known the Tyrians
have been most of all in the same ill disposition towards us: yet do
I confess that I cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since our first
leaders and ancestors were derived from them; and they do make mention
of us Jews in their records, on account of the kindred there is between
us. Now when I shall have made my assertions good, so far as concerns
the others, I will demonstrate that some of the Greek writers have made
mention of us Jews also, that those who envy us may not have even this
pretense for contradicting what I have said about our nation.

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 p