promise of pardon from Megabyzus, upon condition of their surrendering themselves to the Persian monarch; but the remembrance of Achæmenes' death overcame the regard he owed to the promise of his general, and Inarus, by the command of Artaxerxes, was treacherously crucified. Amyrtæus was more fortunate: he escaped to the Isle of Elbo, and remaining concealed there, awaited better times; the Persian troops again taking possession of the fortified towns, and Sarsamas being appointed satrap or governor of Egypt.

No attempts to throw off the Persian yoke were made by the Egyptians during the remainder of this reign; and though the Athenians sent them a fleet of sixty sail*, in the fifteenth year of Artaxerxes, 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 tenth year of Darius Nothus.

Perceiving that the Egyptians bore with great reluctance the presence of a foreign governor, and anxious to allay as much as possible the turbulent spirit and prejudices of that people, the Persians had permitted Thannyrus the son of Inarus, and Pausiris the son of Amyrtæust, to hold the office and nominal power of governors, or tributary kings; but nothing could conciliate the Egyptians. They beheld their fortified towns garrisoned by Persian

Thucyd. lib. i. The same sixty ships are mentioned by Plutarch in his Life of Cimon, as having been sent by him to the coast of Egypt. Herodot. iii. 15. This must have happened previous to the year 445, since Herodotus had then completed his history.

troops; the degradation of paying tribute to a people they detested was insupportable; and nothing but the restoration of an independent monarch could satisfy them. They therefore 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 finally succeeded in obtaining possession of Memphis and the whole country.

*

Amyrtæus now became independent master of Egypt; and he is stated in Manetho's list to have been the only monarch of the 28th Dynasty. His reign continued six years, during which period he laboured to repair the many losses sustained by his country from the hostile aggressions of Persia. Numerous restorations were made to the temples of Thebes and other cities, many of which had suffered from the sacrilegious fury of Cambyses; and in order still further to weaken their power, and to remove the Persians to a distance from his territories, he engaged the Arabians, by a treaty, to assist him, and advance into Phoenicia. His conquests, however, in that quarter were not extensive, and his efforts were chiefly confined to the defence of his own frontier.

According to Manetho, he was succeeded by Nepherites, the first king of the 29th Dynasty : though Diodorus mentions another, called Psamaticus, descended from the first of that name,

Some gateways and other monuments bearing his name still remain. The sarcophagus in the British Museum, called of Alexander, is of this Pharaoh.

whom he supposes to have preceded Nepherites or Nephreus; but it is uncertain whether he really ruled at this time, or whether he was confounded by the historian with the father of Inarus.*

Of the character of Psamaticus, Diodorus draws a very unfavourable picture, representing† him to have been guilty of an act of cruelty and meanness unequalled in the history of his country. Tamus, a Memphite by birth, had been appointed by the Persians prefect of Ionia; and having held that post some time, he was obliged to leave his province, in order to avoid the resentment of Tissaphernes, and fly to his own country. Feeling persuaded he had nothing to fear from Psamaticus, whom he had formerly obliged by many friendly offices, he scrupled not to take with him all his riches, and to confide in the protection of the Egyptian monarch; but no sooner had Psamaticus become acquainted with this circumstance, than, regardless of the laws of humanity, and of the indulgence he owed to a friend, he perfidiously seized his treasures, and deprived him of life. +

For the name of this Psamaticus it is needless to look on Egyptian monuments; nor do the sculptures of Inarus appear on any of the temples at Thebes, or in the lower country: and Manetho omits the mention of Inarus in his catalogue of kings. But that he was an independent, though

*Herodot. vii. 7.

+ Diodor. lib. xiv.

His quitting the Persian service in the possession of such treasures does not argue in favour of Tamus; and the king may have had some motive for this extraordinary conduct besides avarice.

§ Manetho makes no mention of this Psamaticus. Diodorus omits Amyrtæus.

not the sole, monarch of Egypt, during the short period which elapsed between the commencement of their second revolt and the victory of Megabyzus, is proved by the authority of several ancient historians; and as the unsettled state of affairs during the whole of his reign, and the preparations required in order to resist the expected attack of the Persians, deprived the Egyptians of that tranquillity necessary for the encouragement of art, the absence of monuments bearing the name of Inarus is readily accounted for. By some writers he is supposed to have been a king of Lybia, by others an individual of Libyan origin; but as Libya was included within the dominions of Egypt, it appears more probable that he was the rightful heir to the throne, and had taken refuge there to avoid the tyranny of the Persians, and await an opportunity, which afterwards offered, of liberating his country from a foreign yoke. And the fact of his being a native of Egypt is still farther confirmed by the name of his father, Psamaticus, which is purely Egyptian.

The 28th and 29th Dynasties, according to Manetho, and the monuments, are as follows:

Few monuments of this period occur in Egypt. The arts, which had long been on the decline, received a severe blow from the Persian invasion ; and many of the finest buildings were mutilated or destroyed. Numerous artificers were sent to Persia, and, with the encouragement required for the very existence of art, Egypt had lost the skill for which she was once so conspicuous. Of Nepherites the phonetic name once occurs amidst the ruins of Thebes; and if some additions were made by his two successors to the temples there and in Lower Egypt, the style of the sculpture, like the scale of their monuments, was degraded, and unworthy of a Pharaonic era. Egypt, however, free from a foreign yoke, enjoyed that tranquillity which had been so long denied, and Nepherites was even enabled to join in active hostilities against the enemies

*

*The name of Acoris occurs in the temple of Medeenet Haboo. During his reign many stones were taken from the quarries of the Troici lapidis Mons, opposite Memphis, probably for the erection of buildings in that city.