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 writers.

of Sesostris.

20 HISTORY OF INDIA. [BrjoK I.

n.c. 1500? first Greek writers who throw ,'iiiy li^ht on tlio history of India are Herodotiw, the father of liistory, wliose immortal work, written in the fifth century B.c,, still

firook exists; and Ctesias, wlio, though lie may have been for a short time c^^ntemfK^rary with Herodotus, properly belongs to the immefliately succeeding century. Among other historical work.s, he wrote one expressly on India. His opfioitunities for obtaining materials were considerable. Having been taken prisoner, or been in some other way carried to the Persian capital, he gained the favour of Artar xerxes by his skill as a phy.sician, and Uved at liLs court during the seventeen years preceding B.C. 398. Unfortunately, his work as a whole has perished, but many fragments of it have been preserved, paiticularly by Diodorus Siculus in his Bihliotheca, which was written in the first years of the Christian era, but possesses far more value as an autliority than its date might seem to give it, because it is a compilation, and in many cases apparently an exact tran- script, of more ancient writers, whose -works are lost. The earliest accounts of India, drawn from the materials furnished by these writers, and especially by the last, are presented with aU the gravity of history — a gravity, however, which, when the nature of the details is considered, occasionally becomes ludicrous. Expedition An Egjq^tian king, whom Diodorus calls Sesoosis and most other writers

Sesostris, and who is now generally believed to be identical with Rameses, who belonged to the nineteenth djTiasty, came into the world about 1500 B.C., after happy omens which foretold his future greatness. To prepare him for it, his father caused all the male children bom in Egj-pt on the same day to be brought to court and educated along with him. As they grew up they were trained in all manly exercises, and formed a chosen band, bound to their j'oung prince by the strongest ties of affection, and prepared to follow with unflinching com-age and fidelity wherever he might lead. During his father's lifetime he began his military campaigns, and proceeding first into Arabia and then west- ward into Libya, subdued both. His ambition having been thus inflamed, he had no sooner succeeded to the throne than he resolved on the subjugation of the world. His first step was to conciliate the affections of his subjects — his next to collect an army adequate to the contemplated enterprise. It consisted of 600,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and 27,000 war-chariots. The chief commands were given to the youths who had been brought up with him. The Ethiopians were the first who were made to feel his power. Their country was adjacent to Egypt, and could be reached by a land force, but on turning to the east the necessity of a fleet became apparent. Hitherto the Egj^^tians had been averse to maritime enterprise, but everji^hing pelded to the energy of Sesostris, who built the first ships of war which Egj^t possessed, and ere long had a fleet of 400 sail. He did not allow it to remain idle ; but setting out, proceeded down the Ai'abian Gulf into the main ocean, which then bore the name of the Eryth- raean Sea, and then coasting along the shores continued his voyage as far as