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ancient capital of Lower Egypt. Hoping, however, to obtain advantageous terms without another contest, Cambyses sent a Persian up the river in a Mitylenian vessel, to treat with the Egyptians but as soon as they saw the vessel enter Memphis, they rushed in a crowd from the citadel, destroyed it, and tore the crew to pieces. At the news of this outrage, the indignation of Cambyses knew no bounds; he immediately laid seige to Memphis, and having succeeded in reducing that city, he indulged his resentment by putting many of the inhabitants to the sword: the king was taken prisoner, and 2,000 Egyptians of the same age as the son of Psammenitus were compelled first to march in procession before the conqueror, and were then put to death, as a retaliation for the murder of the Persian and Mitylenian herald. There were 200 Mitylenians destroyed in the vessel, so that ten of the first rank among the Egyptians suffered for every one who was destroyed on that occasion. Psammenitus himself was pardoned; and such was the respect entertained by the Persians for the persons of kings, that he would probably have been restored to a tributary throne; but being detected in fomenting a rebellion, he was put to death by Cambyses, after a brief reign of six months.

From this date, B. c. 525, to B. c. 413, Egypt was governed by the Persian kings.

Great havoc followed the reduction of Egypt by Cambyses. Temples and public buildings were destroyed; tombs were violated, and the bodies burned;* religion was insulted, private property pillaged or destroyed, and every thing which could tempt the avarice or reward the labour of the spoiler was seized and appropriated either by the chief or his troops. Gold and silver statues, and other objects of value, were sent to Persia; and it would appear that numerous Egyptian captives were also sent thither by the conqueror.

The name of Cambyses, says Mr. Wilkinson, as may be easily imagined, is never met with on Egyptian monuments; but a visitor to the slate and breccia quarries, on the road from Coptos to the Red Sea, has, at a later period, recorded the name of this monarch in hieroglyphics, adding to it the

*The officers of the French frigate, Luxor, it is said, who removed the obelisk, found the sarcophagus of the queen of Amasis in a pit at El Qnooreeh, the body entirely burned, though placed in its original repository. The tomb had been violated, probably, by the Persians, and the body thus treated, and was afterwards reclosed by the Egyptians in the sarcophagus. The body had been gilded.

date of his sixth year. On the same rock two other ovals also occur: one of Darius, with the number 36; the other of Xerxes, with the year twelve; showing the inscription to have been written in the twelfth of Xerxes; and the date 36, intended as the full extent of the reign of Darius. On another rock, at the same place, are the sixteenth year of Xerxes, and the fifth of Artaxerxes Longimanus; and in the principal temple of El Khargeh, in the great Oasis, that of Darius again occurs, a considerable portion of the building having been erected by him: and it is remarkable, that he is the only Persian king whose Phonetic name is accompanied by a prenomen like those of the ancient Pharaohs; a circumstance which confirms the remark of Diodorus, namely, that he, and he alone, of all the Persian monarchs, obtained while living the appellation of Divus, or "Good God," which was a title given by the Egyptians to all the ancient Pharaohs.

Upon the death of Cambyses, whose history will be recorded in future pages, B. c. 487, the Persian empire fell into the hands of

SMERDIS, THE MAGIAN,

who usurped the Persian throne, by pretending to be Smerdis, a son of Cyrus, who had been slain by order of his brother Cambyses. This pretext was soon discovered, and the pseudo-Smerdis, after a brief reign of seven months, was slain as an usurper by

DARIUS HYSTASPES,

who, by means of a stratagem, established himself upon the

throne.

The rule of Darius was mild and equitable; he was not only careful to avoid every thing that might offend the religious prejudices or hurt the feelings of his foreign subjects, but having made diligent inquiry respecting the jurisprudence and constitution of the Egyptians, he corrected some abuses, and introduced many salutary laws, which continued to form part of their code, until, in common with many of those enacted by the Pharaohs, they were altered or abrogated by the Ptolemies, after the Macedonian conquest.

The Egyptians, however, impatient of foreign rule, and anxious to free their country from the presence of a people whose cruelties, at the time of the invasion of Cambyses, they could never pardon or forget, and thinking the reverse

of Persia, during the Greek war, offered a favorable oppor tunity for throwing off the yoke, revolted towards the end of this monarch's reign, and succeeded in expelling the Persians from the valley of the Nile. Darius made great preparations, during three successive years, in order to restore it to the empire. At the end of that time, B. c. 484, he resolved to make war in person against Egypt as well as Greece; but death frustrated his designs. He was succeeded in his empire by

XERXES,

who, in the second year of his reign, B. c. 482, invaded Egypt in person at the head of a powerful army. He quickly defeated the Egyptians, and having subdued the whole country, he made the yoke of their subjection more heavy than before. He then gave the government of that province to Achæmenes, his brother, after which he returned to Susa, the seat of the Persian government.

Affairs remained in this state until the death of Xerxes, B. C. 460, when

ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS

succeeded to the empire. At this period, considerable confusion occurred in Persia, which being augmented by the intrigues of Artabanus and the rebellion of Bactria, afforded the Egyptians another opportunity for asserting their independence. They prevailed on the Athenians to assist them with a fleet of forty sail; and they attacked and overwhelmed the Persian garrisons. Upon intelligence of this, an army of 400,000 foot, and a fleet of 200, or, according to Diodorus, eighty sail were equipped by Artaxerxes, and placed under the command of Achæmenes. Inarus, the son of Psammiticus, a native of Libya, and Amyrtaus, of Sais, who had been invested with sovereign power, and were charged with the defence of the country, made every effort to resist him; and the two armies having met, the Persians were defeated with great slaughter, and Achæmenes received a wound from the hand of Inarus, of which he died.

Artaxerxes, enraged at this defeat, resolved on sending an overwhelming force under the combined command of Megabyzus and Artabazus, consisting, according to ancient au thors, of 500,000 men. Both armies fought valiantly, and many were slain on both sides; at length, Megabyzus hav

ing wounded Inarus in the thigh, obliged him to retire from the field, and the rout became general. Inarus, with a body of Greek auxiliaries, took refuge in Byblus, which was strongly fortified. He there obtained for himself and companions a promise of pardon from Megabyzus, upon condition of their surrendering themselves to the Persian monarch: but the remembrance of the death of Achæmenes overcame the regard he owed to the promise of this general, and Inarus, by the command of Artaxerxes, was crucified. Amyrtæus escaped to the Isle of Elbo, and remaining concealed there, awaited better times. The Persian troops again took possession of the fortified towns, and Sarsamus was appointed satrap, or governor of Egypt.

No attempts were made to throw off the Persian yoke during the remainder of the reign of Artaxerxes; and though the Athenians sent them a fleet of sixty sail, in the fifteenth year of that reign, and some hopes were entertained of restoring Amyrtæus to the throne, these projects were abandoned, and the Persians continued in undisturbed possession of the country till the reign of

DARIUS NOTHUS.

This monarch, perceiving that the Egyptians bore with great reluctance the presence of a foreign governor, and anxious to allay the turbulent spirit and prejudices of that people, permitted Thannyrus, the son of Inarus, and Pansiris, the son of Amyrtæus,* to hold the office and nominal power of governors, or tributary kings. But nothing could conciliate the Egyptians. They beheld the fortified towns garrisoned by Persian troops; the tribute they had to pay to a people they detested was insupportable; and hence nothing would satisfy them, but the restoration of an independent monarch. To obtain this end they made secret preparations. for expelling the Persians, and Amyrtæus being invited to put himself at their head, advanced from his place of concealment, routed the Persians, and succeeded eventually in obtaining possession of the whole country.

This must have occurred previous to the year B. c. 445, since the history from whence it is derived, that of Herodotus, was then completed.

CHAPTER VII.

THE KINGDOM OF EGYPT.

EGYPTIAN ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT.

AMYRTEUS.

AMYRTEUS, or Aomahorte, was a Saite. Having estab lished himself on the throne, he prepared to pursue the Persians as far as Phenicia, and had already concerted measures with the Arabians to attack them in that country. Darius was informed of this, and he recalled a fleet, which he had promised the Lacedemonians, to employ in the defence of his own dominions, by which means the designs of Amyrtæus were frustrated.

Amyrtæus is stated in Manetho's list to have been the only monarch of the twenty-eighth dynasty. His reign continued six years, during which period he laboured to repair the many losses sustained by his country from the sway of Persia. Numerous restorations were made to the temples of Thebes and other cities, many of which had suffered from the rage of Cambyses; some gateways, and other monuments bearing his name, are still in existence.

PSAMMITICUS II.

According to Manetho, Amyrtæus was succeeded in his kingdom by Nepherites, the first king of the twenty-ninth dynasty; but Diodorus mentions Psammiticus, who was descended from the first of that name, whom he supposed to have preceded Nepherites. It is uncertain, however, whether he really ruled at this time, or whether the historian confounded him with the father of Inarus.

Psammiticus is chiefly remarkable for an act of perfidy and ingratitude, crimes which are alike hateful to God and

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