successes of the victorious Nebuchadnezzar. It is therefore reasonable to conclude they disguised the truth from the Greek historian; and, without mentioning the disgrace which had befallen their country, and the interposition of a foreign power, attributed the change in the succession, and the elevation of Amasis to the throne, solely to his ambition and the choice of the Egyptian soldiery. Megasthenes and Berosus affirm that Nebuchadnezzar conquered a great part of Africa, and, having invaded Egypt, took many captives, who were committed to the charge of persons appointed to conduct them after him to Babylon. But as this is said to have happened at the period of his father's death, and consequently in the reign of Neco, it cannot refer to the point in question. Josephus, however, expressly states, that the Assyrian mo. narch "led an army into Colo-Syria, of which he obtained possession, and then waged war on the Ammonites and Moabites. These being subdued, he invaded and conquered Egypt; and, having put the king of that country to death, he appointed another in his stead."* If Josephus be correct in this statement, there is reason to suppose he alludes to Apries being deposed and succeeded by Amasis; and we can readily imagine that the Assyrians, having extended their conquests to the extremity of Palestine, would, on the rumour of intestine commotions in Egypt, hasten to take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded them of attacking the

VOL. I.

* Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. c. ix. 7.

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country. And the civil war, and the fatal consequences of the disturbed state of Egypt, appear to be noticed by Isaiah* in the following prophecy: "I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom; ... and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. † And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them."

From a comparison of all these authorities, I conclude that the civil war between Apries and Amasis did not terminate in the single conflict at Momemphis, but lasted several years; and that either Amasis solicited the aid and intervention of Nebuchadnezzar, or this prince, availing himself of the disordered state of the country, of his own accord invaded it, deposed the rightful sovereign, and placed Amasis on the throne, on condition of paying tribute to the Assyrians. The injury done. to the land and cities of Egypt by this invasion, and the disgrace with which the Egyptians felt themselves overwhelmed after such an event, would justify the account given in the Bible of the fall of Egypt: and to witness many of their compatriots taken captive to Babylon, and to become tributary

* Isaiah, xix. 2. et seq.

That is, consult the oracles, as Amasis is said to have done previous to his obtaining the sovereignty of Egypt. The account given by Herodotus (ii. 174.) of Amasis' early conduct, and the answers of the oracles, is ridiculous.

to an enemy * whom they held in abhorrence, would be considered by the Egyptians the greatest calamity, as though they had for ever lost their station in the scale of nations. And this last would satisfactorily account for the title Melek, given to inferior or to tributary kings, being applied to Amasis in some of the hieroglyphic legends accompanying his name.

It still remains a matter of uncertainty, whether Psamaticus III. and Apries are the same person; but the marriage of Amasis with the daughter of Psamaticus is no objection to their identity, since ambition, or many other causes, might have urged him to rise against his father-in-law, and dispossess him of the throne. That this marriage actually took place we have abundant testimonies from the sculptures of Thebes; and it goes far to disprove the statement of Herodotus, relative to the " plebeian origin" of Amasis. Athenæus attributes his previous rise to the circumstance of his having presented Apries with a beautiful chaplet of flowers on his birthday, which so delighted the king that he invited him to the feast, and admitted him among the number of his friends. Diodorus, however, who is more to be depended upon in this instance, asserts that Amasis was a person of considerable consequence, which accords with his rank as a general, and a distinguished member of the military caste, as

* Ammianus Marcellinus says, the Carthaginians also invaded Egypt; but this statement is very improbable.

Vide my Materia Hierogl. p. 100.

He is generally styled, like the other Pharaohs, king of the upper and lower country; a Pharaoh, and an independent sovereign.

well as with monumental record, and his marriage with the daughter of his sovereign. And the idle tales told by the priests respecting his rise and the fall of Apries seem only to have been intended to deceive Herodotus, and to conceal from him the real state of Egypt at that period.

According to the same historian, the reign of Amasis was the epoch at which Egypt was most flourishing, both "with regard to the advantages conferred by the river on the soil, and by the soil on the inhabitants ;" and that country "could boast no less than 20,000 well inhabited cities." * The former assertion, indeed, if not fully proved, gains considerable weight, from the appearance of public and private buildings raised during the reigns of this monarch and his two predecessors, from the number of splendid monuments erected by Amasis, and from the immense booty carried out of Egypt by the Persians. That private persons enjoyed unusual affluence is evident from the style and richness of their sepulchres, far exceeding in extent and ornamental detail any of those executed during the flourishing era of the 18th Dynasty: and this can only be attributed to an increase of wealth. In order, therefore, to reconcile that fact with the state of Egypt, mentioned in the prophecies, we may suppose the tributary condition to which it was reduced by the Babylonian conqueror, though severely wounding the pride of the Egyptians, and degrading them as a nation, did not affect the

*Herodot. ii. 177. Plin, v. 11.

riches of individuals, which might continue to increase through the immense resources of a fertile country, or, to repeat the words of Herodotus, through "the advantages conferred by the river on the soil, and by the soil on the inhabitants :" and the historian may refer to the latter end of Amasis' reign, when he had been freed from the humiliating necessity of paying tribute to the Babylonians, themselves at length conquered by the arms of Cyrus. It is very possible that the prophecies may partly relate to the intervention of Nebuchadnezzar, and the degraded condition of Egypt, as tributary to the Babylonians; and partly to the final downfal of the country, when the Persians invaded it under Cambyses: for so remarkable an event would scarcely be omitted in a prophecy announcing the "desolation of Egypt;" and, if this last and the previous invasion of the Babylonians are not distinctly described, we may conclude that both are included in the general prediction.*

Nor was the military power of Egypt annihilated by the civil war between Apries and Amasis, or by the unfortunate intervention of Nebuchadnezzar; and though Amasis did not think it prudent, by refusing the tribute he had promised to pay, and by invading Syria, to provoke a powerful enemy, or to engage in a doubtful struggle with that prince, yet

Xenophon pretends that Cyrus even invaded Egypt; but his mode of expressing himself is as vague as the circumstance is improbable. Xen. Cyropad. preliminary section.