Thebes

THEBES, a very famous City in Higher Egypt, and Capital of Thebais. Its Name is not to be found in the Vulgate, nor is it known by what Name the ancient Hebrews called it. Bochart pretends it was the City of No-ammon, or No, which is often mentioned by the Prophets,¹ and which is commonly translated by Alexandria. But we have endeavoured to prove from Nahum, that No-ammon rather signifies the City of Diospolis in the Lower Egypt.

These are the Reasons that may prevail with us to believe that Thebes, the great Thebes, had an hundred Gates, which is celebrated in Homer, and marked out in Scripture² by the Name No, or Ammon- No, or No-ammon, and in the Vulgate by that of Alexandria. Nahum describes the Situation of No-Ammon, or of No the populous, the great; No signifies an Habitation, and Hammon a great Flock of People, a multitude of Inhabitants. I cannot say whether that Etymology may be admitted, which derives No-ammon from Ham, as if it were, the Habitation of Ham, or of Hammon. For in the Hebrew it is never wrote with Heth, or Cheth, but with Aleph, or with He.³

Nahum thus describes the Situation of No-Ammon; Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? Thebes the Capital of Thebais stands upon the Nile. This River is often expressed in the plural Number, because of the multitude of its Arms, Inlets, and Canals. A City so large as Thebes was, having a Circumference of four hundred Stadia⁴ which make thirteen Leagues, or forty thousand Paces, and an hundred Gates of constant Use, full of innumerable multitudes of People, could not but be well water’d by Canals made by the Industry of Men; since the Waters of the Nile, which ran on the other side, could not of their own accoord penetrate to all its Parts, nor into its Fields. To be convinced of this we need only know Egypt, and the ancient Egyptians.

Nahum adds, that the Sea was the Occasion of its Riches. ‘Tis plain that Thebes was at a good Distance from the Sea; but by means of the Nile it might have a great Trade in the Mediterranean, might send its Merchandises thither in Vessels, and take the advantage of the Riches of all the Coasts of this Sea, by Vessels that could come back thither. But besides, by the Name of Sea the sacred Authors often denote great Rivers, and particularly the Nile and the Euphrates. We have given Proofs of this before, under the Article SEA.

Diodor. l. 1. Bibl.Diodorus Siculus observes, that the Grecians gave to Thebes the Name of Diospolis, that is, the City of Jupiter. The Septuagint do the same in Ezek. xxx. 14, 16. But the Name Diospolis is modern, if compared with the sacred Authors. They were the Greeks after the Conquests of Alexander, who gave it the Name of the City of Jupiter. The ancient Thebes was demolish’d and made desolate, according to the Predictions of the Prophet before quoted. But they built near that the City of Diospolis, or new Thebes, which was destroy’d and sack’d by Cornelius Gallus. See Bibl. Or. p. 274.Strabo l. 17. M. d’Herbelot in his Bibliotheca Orientalis, is of opinion that the City of Coss, situate in the Upper Thebais, and upon the Banks of the Nile, is the ancient and famous Thebes we are now speaking of. Thebais is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower. The Cities of Asovan, otherwise Siene, that of Asna, of Coos, and of Kiphe, which is the ancient Coptos, and Aksur, are in the Upper Thebais. Abdelmoel, an Arabian Geographer, says, that next to Grand Cairo, Coos is the largest City in Egypt.

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