232 HE VANQUISHES THE ELEVEN. BOOK II. had poured from his helmet; on this occasion he fled to the marshes. Feeling that he was an injured man, and designing to avenge himself upon his persecutors, Psammetichus sent to the city of Buto, where there is an oracle of Latona, the most veracious of all the oracles of the Egyptians, and having inquired concerning means of vengeance, received for answer, that "Vengeance would come from the sea, when brazen men should appear." Great was his incredulity when this answer arrived; for never, he thought, would brazen men arrive to be his helpers. However, not long afterwards certain Carians and Ionians, who had left their country on a voyage of plunder, were carried by stress of weather to Egypt, where they disembarked, all equipped in their brazen armour, and were seen by the natives, one of whom carried the tidings to Psammetichus, and, as he had never before seen men clad in brass, he reported that brazen men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. Psammetichus, perceiving at once that the oracle was accomplished, made friendly advances to the strangers, and engaged them, by splendid promises, to enter into his service. He then, with their aid and that of the Egyptians who espoused his cause, attacked the eleven and vanquished them.5 5 The Assyrian inscriptions show that Psammetichus obtained the throne by the aid of troops sent to him from Asia Minor by Gyges. (See above, vol. i. p. 353.) The story told to Herodotus probably grew out of this fact. [This was in fact the first time that the Egyptian Pharaohs had recourse to Greek mercenaries, and began to find their utility; and though the ancient kings in the glorious times of Egypt's great power had foreign auxiliaries (see woodcut, next page; and that in note, B. vii. ch. 61, where three of these people are enemies of Egypt), they were levies composing part of the army, like those of the various nations which contributed to the expeditions of Xerxes and other Persian monarchs. But the introduction of Greek paid troops into the Egyptian service excited the jealousy of the native army (who could not have been long in perceiving the superiority of those strangers); and the favour shown to them led to the defection of the Egyptian troops (see note 3 on ch. 30). The Egyptian army had lost its former military ardour; and now that Syria was so often threatened by the powerful nations of Asia, it was natural that Psammetichus should seek to employ foreigners, whose courage and fidelity he could trust. (See Hist. Notice, App. CH. viii. § 34.) Herodotus states that these Greek troops were the first foreigners allowed to establish themselves in Egypt; that is, after the Shepherds and Israelites left it (see note ch. 112). Strabo CHAP. 152, 153. HIS BUILDINGS. 233 153. When Psammetichus had thus become sole monarch of Egypt, he built the southern gateway of the temple of Vulcan in Memphis, and also a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept whenever he makes his appearance in Egypt. This court is opposite the gateway of Psammetichus, and is sur 234 HIS IONIAN AND CARIAN SOLDIERS. BOOK II. rounded with a colonnade and adorned with a multitude of figures. Instead of pillars, the colonnade rests upon colossal statues, twelve cubits in height. The Greek name for Apis is Epaphus. 154. To the Ionians and Carians who had lent him their assistance Psammetichus assigned as abodes two places opposite to each other, one on either side of the Nile, which received the name of "the Camps."8 He also made good all the splendid promises by which he had gained their support; and further, he intrusted to their care certain Egyptian children, whom they were to teach the language of the Greeks. These children, thus instructed, became the parents of the entire class of interpreters in Egypt, 9 The Ionians and Carians occupied for many years the places assigned them by Psammetichus, which lay near the sea, a little below the city of Bubastis, on the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile.1 King Amasis, long afterwards, removed the Greeks thence, and settled them at Memphis to guard him against the native Egyptians. From the date of the original settlement of these persons in Egypt, we Greeks, through our intercourse with them, have acquired an accurate knowledge of the several events in Egyptian history, from the reign of Psammetichus downwards; but before his time no foreigners had ever taken up their residence in that land. The docks where their vessels were laid up, and the ruins of their habitations, were still to be seen in my day at the place where they dwelt 7 The Carians seem to have been fond of engaging themselves as mer. cenary soldiers from very early date, and to have continued the practice so long as they were their own masters. According to some commentators, the expression in Homer (II. ix. 378), ev Καρὸς αἴσῃ, is to be understood in this sense. (See the Schol. ad Platon. ed. Ruhnken, p. 322, and comp. the note of Heyne, vol. v. p. 605.) Archilochus certainly spoke of them as notorious for mercenary service, as appears from the well-known line καὶ δὴ ἐπίκουρος, ὥστε Κάρ, κεκλήσομαι. The Scholiast on Plato says that they were the first to engage in the occupation, and quotes Ephorus as an authority. 8 See note 5 on ch. 112. 9 See end of note 5 on ch. 164. 1 The site chosen for the Greek camps shows that they were thought necessary as a defence against foreign invasion from the eastward. (See Diodor. i. 67.) The Roman Scence Veteranorum were not very far from this.-[G. W.] CHAP. 153-155. TEMPLE OF BUTO. 235 originally, before they were removed by Amasis. Such was the mode by which Psammetichus became master of Egypt. 155. I have already made mention more than once of the Egyptian oracle; 2 and, as it well deserves notice, I shall now proceed to give an account of it more at length. It is a temple of Latona, situated in the midst of a great city on the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile, at some distance up the river from the The name of the city, as I have before observed, is Buto; and in it are two other temples also, one of Apollo and one of Diana. Latona's temple, which contains the oracle, is a spacious building with a gateway ten fathoms in height. The most wonderful thing that was actually to be seen about this temple 5 sea. 2 Supra, chs. 83, 133, and 152. There were several other oracles, but that of Buto, or Latona, was held in the highest repute. (See ch. 83.) 3 Herodotus says that this goddess was one of the great deities (ch. 156). She appears to be a character of Maut, and may, in one of her characters, be Thriphis the Goddess of Athribis, where the Mygale or shrew-mouse, which was sacred to Buto, was said by Strabo to have been worshipped. I have seen a small figure of a hedgehog with the name of Buto upon it. Buto, as Champollion supposed, was probably primæval darkness. (See notes 2 and on B. ii. ch. 59, and App. CH. iii. § 2, Maut.) Lucian (De Deâ Syrâ, s. 36) says there were many oracles in Egypt, as in Greece, Asia, and Libya, the responses of which were given "by priests and prophets." The principal ones in Egypt were of Buto, Hercules (Gem), Apollo (Horus), Minerva (Neith), Diana (Bubastis), Mars (Honurius, or more probably Mandoo, see note on ch. 63), and Jupiter (Amun, at Thebes; see chs. 54, 57, 83, 111, 133). That of Besa was also noted, which was said by Ammianus Marcellinus to have been at Abydus, or, according to others, near the more modern Antinoöpolis; but it is uncertain who that Deity was. Heliopolis had also its oracle (Macrob, Satur. i, 30); but the most 4 celebrated was that of "Ammon" in the Oasis. The position of the city of Latona, near the Sebennytic mouth, was on the W. bank, between that branch of the Nile and the lake, about 20 miles from the sea. The isle of Chemmis was in that lake. Herodotus is supposed to have been in. debted to Hecatans for the mention of this island. (See Müller's Fragm. Hist. Græc. vol. i.)-[G. W.] 4 This is the height of the pyramidal towers of the propylæum, or court of entrance. The 10 orgyiæ, or 60 feet, is the full height of those towers, which seldom exceed 50. In front, on either side of the entrance, was usually a colossus of the king, before which stood two obelisks terminating an avenue, or dromos, of sphinxes. Clemens confounds the propylæum with the pronaos. Pylon, pylôné, and propylon are applied to the stone gateway, when standing alone before the temple; and the same kind of entrance is repeated between the two towers of the inner court or propylæum, immediately "before the door" of the actual temple, or at least of its portico. A stone pylon is also placed as a side entrance to the crude brick enclosure of a temenos.-[G. W.] 5 Herodotus says, "the most wonderful thing that was actually to be seen," because he considers that the wonder of the floating island, which |