to be raised higher, and built a Temple in every city for the worship of the Nome, and in the Temples set up Oracles, some of which remained ’till the days of Herodotus:  and by this means the Egyptians of every Nome were induced to worship the great men of the Kingdom, to whom the Nome, the City, and the Temple or Sepulchre of the God, was dedicated:  for every Temple had its proper God, and modes of worship, and annual festivals, at which the Council and People of the Nome met at certain times to sacrifice, and regulate the affairs of the Nome, and administer justice, and buy and sell; but Sesac and his Queen, by the names of Osiris and Isis, were worshipped in all Egypt:  and because Sesac, to render the Nile more useful, dug channels from it to all the capital cities of Egypt; that river was consecrated to him, and he was called by its names, AEgyptus, Siris, Nilus. Dionysius [282] tells us, that the Nile was called Siris by the Ethiopians, and Nilus by the people of Siene.  From the word Nahal, which signifies a torrent, that river was called Nilus; and Dionysius [283] tells us, that Nilus was that King who cut Egypt into canals, to make the river useful:  in Scripture the river is called Schichor, or Sihor, and thence the Greeks formed the words Siris, Sirius, Ser-Apis, O-Siris; but Plutarch [284] tells us, that the syllable O, put before the word Siris by the Greeks, made it scarce intelligible to the Egyptians.

I have now told you the original of the Nomes of Egypt and of the Religions and Temples of the Nomes, and of the Cities built there by the Gods, and called by their names:  whence Diodorus [285] tells us, that of all the Provinces of the World, there were in Egypt_ only many cities built by the ancient Gods, as by Jupiter, Sol, Hermes, Apollo, Pan, Eilithyia, and, many others_:  and Lucian [286] an Assyrian, who had travelled into Phoenicia and Egypt, tells us, that the Temples of Egypt_ were very old, those in Phoenicia built by Cinyras as old, and those in Assyria almost as old as the former, but not altogether so old_:  which shews that the Monarchy of Assyria rose up after the Monarchy of Egypt; as is represented in Scripture; and that the Temples of Egypt then standing, were those built by Sesostris, about the same time that the Temples of Phoenicia and Cyprus were built by Cinyras, Benhadad, and Hiram.  This was not the first original of Idolatry, but only the erecting of much more sumptuous Temples than formerly to the founders of new Kingdoms:  for Temples at first were very small;