leprosy? for the gods are not angry at the imperfection of
bodies, but at wicked practices; and as to eighty thousand
lepers, and those in an ill state also, how is it possible to
have them gathered together in one day? nay, how came the king
not to comply with the prophet? for his injunction was, that
those that were maimed should be expelled out of Egypt, while the
king only sent them to work in the quarries, as if he were rather
in want of laborers, than intended to purge his country. He says
further, that" this prophet slew himself, as foreseeing the anger
of the gods, and those events which were to come upon Egypt
afterward; and that he left this prediction for the king in
writing." Besides, how came it to pass that this prophet did not
foreknow his own death at the first? nay, how came he not to
contradict the king in his desire to see the gods immediately?
how came that unreasonable dread upon him of judgments that were
not to happen in his lifetime? or what worse thing could he
suffer, out of the fear of which he made haste to kill himself?
But now let us see the silliest thing of all: - The king,
although he had been informed of these things, and terrified with
the fear of what was to come, yet did not he even then eject
these maimed people out of his country, when it had been foretold
him that he was to clear Egypt of them; but, as Manetho says, "he
then, upon their request, gave them that city to inhabit, which
had formerly belonged to the shepherds, and was called Avaris;
whither when they were gone in crowds," he says, "they chose one
that had formerly been priest of Hellopolls; and that this priest
first ordained that they should neither worship the gods, nor
abstain from those animals that were worshipped by the Egyptians,
but should kill and eat them all, and should associate with
nobody but those that had conspired with them; and that he bound