Man'Etho, an Egyptian historian, who nourished in the reign of Ptolemy Soter, at the beginning of the 3d century B. C. He was a priest of Sebennytus in Lower Egypt, ami wrote in Greek a work on the religion and another on the history of his country, the title of the former being and of the latter Both books are lost, but numerous fragments have been preserved by Josephus, Julius Africanus, Eusebius, and by Syncellus, who compiled from the two latter. The list of the«Egyptian dynasties, as preserved in the Armenian" version of Eusebius, is the most valuable remnant of Manetho's history, the dates of which appear to have been derived from genuine documents, including the sacred books of the Egyptian priests. Attacked as a fabulist by various critics. Manetho has found zealous defenders among the most distinguished Egyptologists, and the recent discoveries in hieroglyphic archaeology have vindicated his authority (see Egypt, vol. vi., pp. 458-9); but parts of the fragments are now generally acknowledged to be spurious, as is the astrological poem ' which bears his name, but is of late date. - The best critical editions of the fragments of Manetho are by Fruin (Ley-den, 1847) and Mtiller, in vol. ii. of the Fragments Historicorum Graecorum (Paris, 1848).