B.C. 664.]

ACCESSION OF PSAMMETICHUS I.

131

Sabaco the Ethiopian, Psammetichus himself escaping to Syria. Returning to Saïs, after the withdrawal of the Ethiopians, he became one of the Twelve Kings,* who divided Egypt among them, and strengthened their confederacy by intermarriages and by meeting to sacrifice in the temple of Ptah at Memphis. An oracle had declared, that whichsoever of them should pour his libation to the god from a bronze cup would be the sole ruler of all Egypt. Now, on the last day of a great festival, when the high priest had brought out the golden goblets for the princes, there were found to be only eleven. Psammetichus, who happened to stand last, poured out his libation from his helmet, and so fulfilled the oracle. By the jealousy of his colleagues, he was driven from his government into the marshes, and forbidden to hold intercourse with his countrymen. Enquiring again of the oracle of the goddess Buto (Latona), he was told, that "Vengeance should come from the sea, when brazen men should appear." The strange prediction was soon fulfilled by the landing of certain Carians and Ionians, pirates, driven to the shores of Egypt by stress of weather. News was brought to Psammetichus that brazen men had come from the sea, and were plundering the land. He at once engaged them in his service, and conquered his eleven competitors by their aid. The important fact embodied in this legend is the engagement of Greek mercenaries by Psammetichus to secure his title to the crown. Foreign auxiliaries had long been employed in the armies of Egypt, and Cretans (probably) appear among the forces of the Theban kings. We cannot believe that those engaged by Psammetichus were a wandering band, thrown by accident on the coast. The states of Greece, especially on the shores and islands of Asia Minor, were now at that period of transition when the tyrants were setting up their power on the weakness of contending factions. Numerous exiles were driven forth to seek subsistence on the sea, and were ready to accept foreign service. In such auxiliaries Psammetichus probably saw the means at once of securing the throne and of forming an army to protect the country against her rival of Assyria. Besides the Ionians and Carians mentioned by Herodotus, he engaged Phoenician sailors. His policy was at first successful, and his foreign mercenaries

* Probably governors of the twelve nomes of the Delta. The historian's incidental memorial of the Labyrinth, near lake Moeris, as their common monument, is a mistake, The ruins, which scarcely justify his excessive admiration, bear the names of Amenemha III., of the Twelfth Dynasty, and of Rameses II.

If the story represents an actual occurrence, it was probably a trick concerted between Psammetichus and the priests, though Herodotus affirms the contrary.

enabled him to recover the glory of Egypt in war and to enter on the last brilliant period of her history.

His chief enterprise was the recovery of the Philistine city of Ashdod (Azotus), the key to the whole frontier, which had been taken by the Assyrians under Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, with its garrison of Egyptians and Ethiopians (Isaiah xx). If we are to believe Herodotus, the siege of Ashdod lasted for twenty-nine years, so much had the power of Egypt declined, while the Assyrians had acquired that skill in the attack and defence of fortresses, to which their monuments bear witness. At home the king cultivated the arts of peace, and the monuments of his reign show a revival of the skill and beauty displayed under the Nineteenth Dynasty. For the first time in Egyptian history foreigners were encouraged to trade with the country, and Psammetichus even caused his subjects to learn Greek. But his dependence on foreign mercenaries brought on the usual punishment of such a policy. He gave his Greek soldiers settlements apart from the Egyptians, which obtained the name of the Ionian and Carian "Camps," on the two banks of the Nile. Mention is also made of the "Camp of the Tyrians," but this may have been an older settlement. Thus the foreigners obtained, to a great extent, the command of the Nile. The favour shown to them alienated the native Egyptian soldiers, already disgusted by their detention in the frontier garrisons. They deserted in a body, marched up the valley to Elephantine, and, being joined by the garrison of that frontier city, crossed over into Ethiopia, to the number, probably exaggerated in Herodotus, of 240,000. Psammetichus went as far as Elephantine, in the vain hope of inducing them to return; and the memorial of his journey is still to be seen at Abou-Simbel. They were settled by the Ethiopian king to the south of Meroë, where they long formed a distinct community under the name of the "Deserters." Their departure left the independence of Egypt at the mercy of the foreign troops. Towards the close of this reign occurred the great invasion of Western Asia by the Scythians, of which we shall have to speak hereafter. They had advanced into Palestine on their way to Egypt, when Psammetichus prevailed on them to turn back.

After a reign of fifty-four years,* Psammetichus was succeeded by his son NEKO, the Nekao II. of Manetho and the PharaohNecho of Scripture (B.c. 611). The recovery of Ashdod had opened the way to Asiatic conquests, to which the declining power of *This number is given by Herodotus, and confirmed by the Apis-stelæ.

B.C. 610.] NEKO, JOSIAH, AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

133

Assyria invited him. Neko's first object was the strengthening of his frontier by securing the city of Carchemish on the Euphrates. After an involuntary conflict with the Jews under Josiah, who was killed in battle at Megiddo,* he succeeded in his object, and left a powerful army at Carchemish. On his return he strengthened his party in Judæa by deposing Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and setting up his brother Jehoiakim, on whom he imposed a large tribute. But this was Egypt's last successful expedition. The new Babylonian kingdom rose on the ruins of the Assyrian, and Nebuchadnezzar at once turned his attention to the western provinces. The Egyptian army at Carchemish was overpowered,† Jerusalem was taken, the king whom Neko had set up became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar, and revolting three years afterwards, was taken prisoner during the siege, and put to death (B.c. 599). The entire prostration of Egypt is shown by Neko's inability to help Jehoiakim, and we are expressly told that "the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt."+

Neko had, however, made good use of the period of his prosperity. He carried on his father's schemes of foreign commerce, and maintained fleets both in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea Herodotus was informed that a fleet sent out by Neko from the Red Sea came home by the Mediterranean, having accomplished the circumnavigation of Africa. The voyage occupied three years, the sailors wintering on shore, and staying to sow and reap the harvest. Men of science and critics are never likely to agree as to the truth of this story in the absence of further confirmatory evidence. The historian's own reason for rejecting it, -that the sailors said they had had the sun on their right hand, at noon, which it would be to persons sailing westward south of the tropics,—is a strong confirmatory argument. Major Rennell has shown how the set of the currents round the African coast would favour the voyage, while they opposed it when attempted by the Carthaginians in the opposite direction. These arguments must not be overrated; but, when they are resisted on the vague ground of general improbability, the question arises, whether the story is likely to have been invented if the enterprise had never

* For further particulars of this battle, and of the relations of Jewish politics to Egypt, see chapter viii,

This was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, B.C. 607 or 606; Jeremiah xlvi. 2. 2 Kings xxiv. 7.

been achieved. Neko renewed the attempt of Rameses II. to effect a direct communication between the two seas by means of a canal. The work was left unfinished, and its track has remained for nearly twenty-five centuries to tempt the repetition of the effort, till at last the experiment is fairly under trial, whether modern engineering skill and commercial co-operation can achieve and maintain a work which was too great for the resources of the Pharaohs.

Neko reigned sixteen years, and was succeeded (B.c. 595) by Psammetichus II., the Psammis of Herodotus, who reigned six. Keeping within his own frontier, he was left unmolested by Nebuchadnezzar, and Egypt seems to have prospered under him. He enlarged the temples both at Thebes and in Lower Egypt, and erected a small temple on the frontier, opposite to Philae, probably on the occasion of his expedition into Ethiopia. The continued intercourse of Egypt with Greece is attested by Herodotus's curious story of an embassy from the Eleans, to consult the Egyptians on the wisdom of their rules for the Olympic Games.*

This king died, immediately after his return from Ethiopia, before he had time to prosecute the war with Babylon, which was renewed by his successor UAPHRA, the Vaphres or Apries of Manetho and Herodotus, and the Pharaoh-Hophra of Scripture (B.C. 589). After a brilliant opening, his reign of twenty-five years proved one series of disasters. He made a successful campaign into Palestine and Phoenicia, took Sidon, and gained naval victories over the Tyrians and the Cyprians. These successes elated both the Egyptian king and his partisans at Jerusalem; and in spite of the prophecies of Jeremiah against both, Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The advance of Pharaoh-Hophra forced the Chaldæans to raise the siege of Jerusalem. But the clouds were only lifted for a moment. The city fell, and the temple was razed to the ground. The asylum which Egypt offered to the fugitives was violated by the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, and there seems every reason to believe that he overran Egypt and even took Thebes itself. His victory might not have been so easy, but for new disasters which befell the king of Egypt from the opposite side. Greek colonies, of which we shall have again to speak, had been planted on the beautiful terraces of the peninsula that sweeps forwards into the Mediterranean, between the Great Syrtis and the Libyan Desert west of Egypt. The entire defeat of an army sent against Cyrene, the chief of these colonies, and consisting apparently of native Egyptian troops, caused the *Herodotus, ii. 160.

B.C. 570.]

REIGN OF AMASIS.

135

cry of treachery to be raised against the king himself. Then was seen the fruit of the policy of the first Psammetichus. The Egyptian army mutinied. Amasis, sent to appease the revolt, was crowned king by the rebels. Another courtier, returning unsuccessful, was so cruelly outraged by Apries, that all the old Egyptian party abandoned him. His mercenaries failed him in the hour of need; he was defeated at Momemphis, brought back as a prisoner to Saïs, and put to death at the demand of the people.* Such is the story of Herodotus; but it is suspected by modern critics to have been an invention of the priests, to conceal the fact that Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, and Amasis set upon the throne as his vassal.

The weakness of Nebuchadnezzar's successors permitted Egypt to enjoy nearly half a century of prosperity under her new king, Amasis, or Aah-mes II. (B.c. 570-525).† He husbanded the internal resources of Egypt, encouraged commerce, and was so successful at sea as to add Cyprus to his dominions. Nabonidus was glad to accept his alliance against the growing power of Cyrus. If we may believe a story in the Cyropædia of Xenophon, which -romance as it is-may contain fragments of history among its incidents, Amasis performed his part in the league against Cyrus, by sending to the aid of Croesus 120,000 Egyptians, who, after the bravest resistance, were received to an honourable capitulation, and settled in Larissa and Cyllene. The loss of this army would go far to account for the ease with which Egypt was overrun by Cambyses.

The monuments contain but slight records of Amasis. His chief works were doubtless in Lower Egypt, where the edifices even of later kings have perished more rapidly than the oldest temples of the Thebaid. Herodotus assigns to him the splendid propylæa of the temple of Neith at Saïs, as well as the colossal statues and immense andro-sphinxes of its avenue. He mentions, too, a shrine out of a single block of granite, of enormous size, from the quarries of Elephantine. It took two thousand boatmen three years to transport the block to Saïs, and, after all this labour, an evil omen prevented its being set up. It is more likely

* His death literally fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, xliv. 30.

The name is identical with that of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Amosis of Manetho. Hence the king named in the text is often called Amasis II.

‡ Taking the cubit at 20 inches, it was 35 feet long, 23 feet 4 inches broad, and 13 feet 4 inches high, on the outside; and the excavated interior was 31 feet 3 inches by 20 feet by 8 feet 4 inches. A similar monolith of the same king has been found erect at Tel-et-mai, the ancient Thmuis or Leontopolis, the dimensions of which are