ls which now are in Egypt; and thus (having no such
purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was all fit for riding and
driving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from that
time forward Egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit for
riding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which are
many and run in all directions. But the reason why the king cut up
the land was this, namely because those of the Egyptians who had their
cities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in want
of water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackish
because they had it from wells.

109. For this reason Egypt was cut up; and they said that this king
distributed the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square
portion to each man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed
them to pay a certain rent every year: and if the river should take away
anything from any man's portion, he would come to the king and declare
that which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to
find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in
order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the
rent appointed: and I think that thus the art of geometry was found out
and afterwards came into Hellas also. For as touching the sun-dial 91
and the gnomon 92 and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt
by the Hellenes from the Babylonians.

110. He moreover alone of all the Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia;
and he left as memorials of himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos
two stone statues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his
wife, and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and
long afterwards the priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios the
Persian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying that
deeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done by
Sesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris had subdued other nations besides,
not fewer than he, and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been able
to conquer the Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set
up a statue in front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he did
not surpass him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took in
good part.

111. Now after Sesostris had brought his life to an end, his son Pheros,
they told me, received in succession the kingdom, and he made no