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H. is here probably attacking Hecataeus (F. H. G. i 22, fr. 295), who seems to have thought that the Delta only was Egypt. ἀπὸ Περσέος. The usual identification of the ‘watch-tower of Perseus’ is with C. Aboukir, in which case it would lie outside the Delta. Strabo (801) places it near the Bolbitic mouth, which is probably right. In that case H. is wrong in making it the extreme west limit of the Delta (Sourdille, H. E. 58-9). τῶν Πηλουσιακῶν. Pelusium was the east gate of Egypt (cp. 141. 4 and 154 n., where H. describes the planting of the Greek mercenaries of Psammetichus there. The estimate of ‘40 schoenes’ is nearer right than H.'s 60 (6. 1 n.). Cercasorus is about four miles north of Cairo; the Nile now divides a little lower down. λεγόντων: agrees with Ἰώνων, but is parallel to λέγοντες, which goes with οἵ φασι. Canobus lies about fifteen miles north-east of Alexandria, at the north-east end of Aboukir Bay, the scene of Nelson's great victory in 1798. It was said to have been founded by Menelaus, in memory of his pilot, who died there of snake-bite (Tac. Ann. ii. 60); at any rate, it was a comparatively recent town. It was famous for its temple of Serapis, and still more for its vice (cf. Juv. vi. 84; Sen. Ep. 51). It is to be noticed that Greek myths in Egypt were especially connected with the north-west corner of the Delta (cf. 178 nn.): so we have the watch-tower of Perseus (15. 1), Archandrus (98. 2), and Helen (113. 1) in these parts.
H. adopts the view that Egyptian culture began up the Nile and came down stream ‘gradually’ (ὑπο-); this was inevitable, as he thought the Delta so comparatively recent; it was also supported by the fact that ‘Thebes’ only was mentioned by Homer. He is confirmed by the First Dynasty tombs at Abydos (King and Hall, pp. 59 f.), though the buildings of Thebes belong to the ‘Middle’ and the ‘New Kingdom’. περίμετρον. This figure, 6, 120 stades, for the ‘circumference’ of the Thebaic nome, was given to H.; it is not the result of his own measurements. But its exact recurrence here and in 9. 2 is suspicious.
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