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Sesostris was king not only of Egypt, but also of Ethiopia. He was
the only Egyptian monarch who ever ruled over the latter country. He
left, as memorials of his reign, the stone statues which stand in
front of the temple of Vulcan, two of which, representing himself and
his wife, are thirty cubits in height, while the remaining four,
which represent his sons, are twenty cubits. These are the statues,
in front of which the priest of Vulcan, very many years afterwards,
would not allow Darius the Persian to place a statue of himself;
"because," he said, "Darius had not equalled the achievements of
Sesostris the Egyptian: for while Sesostris had subdued to the full
as many nations as ever Darius had brought under, he had likewise
conquered the Scythians, whom Darius had failed to master. It was
not fair, therefore, that he should erect his statue in front of the
offerings of a king, whose deeds he had been unable to surpass."
Darius, they say, pardoned the freedom of this speech.
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