er glory than any of his predecessors; that glory, I mean, which
employs so many tongues and pens in its praise; which consists in invading
a great number of provinces in a hostile way, and is often productive of
numberless calamities. He rewarded his officers and soldiers with a truly
royal magnificence, in proportion to their rank and merit. He made it both
his pleasure and duty, to put the companions of his victory in such a
condition as might enable them to enjoy, during the remainder of their
days, a calm and easy repose, the just reward of their past toils.

With regard to himself, for ever careful of his own reputation, and still
more of making his power advantageous to his subjects, he employed the
repose which peace allowed him, in raising works that might contribute
more to the enriching of Egypt, than the immortalizing his name; works, in
which the art and industry of the workman were more admired, than the
immense sums which had been expended on them.

A hundred famous temples, raised as so many monuments of gratitude to the
tutelar gods of all the cities, were the first, as well as the most
illustrious, testimonies of his victories; and he took care to publish in
the inscriptions on them, that these mighty works had been completed
without burdening any of his subjects. He made it his glory to be tender
of them, and to employ only captives in these monuments of his conquests.
The Scriptures take notice of something like this, where they speak of the
buildings of Solomon.(421) But he prided himself particularly in adorning
and enriching the temple of Vulcan at Pelusium, in acknowledgment of the
protection which he fancied that god had bestowed on him, when, on his
return from his expeditions, his brother had a design of destroying him in
that city, with his wife and children, by setting fire to the apartment
where he then lay.

His great work was, the raising, in every part of Egypt, a considerable
number of high banks or moles, on which new cities were built, in order
that these might be a security for men and beasts during the inundations
of the Nile.

From Memphis, as far as the sea, he cut, on both sides of the river, a
great number of canals, for the conveniency of trade, and the conveying of
provisions, and for the settling an easy correspondence between such
cities as were most distant from one another. Besides the advantages of
traffic, Egypt was, by these canals, made inaccessible to the cavalry of