Title: Manetho Content: Manetho was an ancient Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos. He lived during the Ptolemaic era, in about 300 BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt). His book is used by Egyptologists to work out the dates for events in ancient Egypt. The earliest reference to Manetho's Aegyptiaca is in Jewish historian Josephus's book, "Against Apion". ==Name== We do not know what Manetho's name means, some suggestions are "Gift of Thoth", "Beloved of Thoth", "Truth of Thoth", "Beloved of Neith", or "Lover of Neith", Myinyu- heter ("Horseherd" or "Groom") and Ma'ani-Djehuti ("I have seen Thoth"). ==Life and work== We do not know when he was born or died. His book may have been written during the rule of Ptolemy I Soter (323–283 BC) and Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). The Hibeh Papyri, dated to 241/40 BC, suggests he may been writing during the rule of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246–222 BC). He wrote in the Greek language. Other works he wrote include Against Herodotus, The Sacred Book, On Antiquity and Religion, On Festivals, On the Preparation of Kyphi, and the Digest of Physics. The Book of Sothis on astrology, may also be written by him. He was probably a priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. He knew a lot about the cult of Sarapis based on Osiris and Apis. Sarapis was a Greco-Macedonian version of the Egyptian cult dating back to Alexander the Great. Tacitus and Plutarch wroteTacitus, Histories 4.83, Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 28 that Ptolemy (probably Ptolemy Soter) imported a statue of the god. ==Aegyptiaca== The Aegyptiaca, the "History of Egypt", may have been Manetho's largest work. It was in date order and divided into three volumes. In Aegyptiaca, he invented the word dynasty to mean a group of kings with a common origin. It came from the Greek word dynasteia, meaning "governmental power". He was the first person to group the rulers into dynasties. He did not use the word to mean families. He began a new dynasty when there was a break or change in the power of government. For example, there was a break between the Fourth Dynasty in Memphis, and the Fifth Dynasty at Elephantine. He included details of many of the kings. Aegyptiaca may have been written as an Egyptian history, to be more accurate than Herodotus' Histories. Hiis other book, Against Herodotus, may be just have been a short version of Aegyptiaca. There are no original copies of either book. ===Copies of the book=== Aegyptiaca has not survived as a complete book. It is very possible that what has been kept was rewritten by other writers to support their Egyptian, Jewish, or Greek histories. This makes it difficult for modern historians to know how reliable it is as a history. The earliest mention of Manetho is in Josephus' Contra Apionem ("Against Apion"). This was written nearly 400 years after Aegyptiaca. It is clear that Josephus did not have the original of Manethos' book. At about the same time, a short version, the Epitome, of the book was being used. This kept Manetho's brief list of dynasties and a some parts that were seen as important. For example, it had that the first Dynasty, Menes, "was snatched and killed by a hippopotamus". It is not known if any of the short version is Manetho's original writing. Copies were written by Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius of Caesarea. Eusebius's copy was used by Jerome in his Latin translation, an Armenian translation, and by George Syncellus. Syncellus saw that the copies by Eusebius and Africanus were almost the same, so he placed them side by side in his work, Ecloga Chronographica. These last four copies are the only copies of the epitome of Manetho. Other sections are in Malalas's Chronographia and Excerpta Latina Barbari ("Excerpts in Bad Latin"). =