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P.C. 411.

390

28TH AND 29TH DYNASTIES.

APP. BOOK II.

them from the country; but in the second year of Xerxes they were again reduced to subjection, and Achæmenes his brother was made governor of the country.

In the fifth year of Artaxerxes (B.C. 458?) the Egyptians again revolted; and assisted by the Athenians they defied the force of 400,000 men and the fleet of 200 sail sent against them by Artaxerxes. Headed by Inarus the Libyan the son of Psammetichus, and Amyrtæus of Saïs, they routed the Persians with a loss of 100,000 men; and Achæmenes received his death wound from the hand of Inarus. But Artaxerxes resolving to subdue Egypt sent a still larger force, about four years after this, adding 200,000 men and 300 ships to the remnant of the former army, under the command of Megabyzus and Artabazus; when after an obstinate conflict, Inarus being wounded by Megabyzus, the Egyptians were routed (B.C. 452?). Inarus, with a body of Greeks, having fled to Byblus, which was strongly fortified, obtained for himself and his companions a promise of pardon, but was afterwards treacherously crucified by order of Artaxerxes, to satisfy Amytis and revenge the death of her son Achæmenes. Amyrtæus, more fortunate than his coadjutor, escaped to the Isle of Elbo; and in the fifteenth year of Artaxerxes (B.c. 449-8) the Athenians having sent a fleet to the assistance of the Egyptians, hopes were once more entertained of restoring him to the throne. The project, however, was abandoned, and Egypt remained tranquil. It was probably about this time that Pausiris was made viceroy of Egypt by the Persians-his father being still concealed in the marshes-and the post being a nominal one, surrounded as he would be by the Persians, it was a favour that entailed no risk on their authority. But it failed to reconcile the conquered to the presence of their conquerors.

[Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Dynasties.]—At length the hatred 41. of Persian rule once more led the Egyptians to revolt; and in the 10th year of Darius Nothus (B.c. 411?) they succeeded in completely freeing their country from the Persians; when Amyrtæus became independent master of Egypt. His reign constituted the 28th dynasty. Amyrtæus ruled six years, and having made a treaty with the Arabians, he rendered his frontier secure from aggression in that quarter; so that the sceptre passed without interruption into the hands of his successors,* the four Mendesian kings of the 29th

*This does not require his age to have been so great as some have sup

posed; for, if born in 484 B.C., Amyrtæus would only have been 79 at his

CHAP. VIII.

THIRTIETH DYNASTY-NECTANEBO.

391

42.

dynasty. The first of these was Nepherites (Nefaorot of the hiero- B.c. 405. glyphics), who ruled six years, according to Manetho.* In his reign Egypt enjoyed its liberty; and Nepherites was able even to send assistance to the Lacedæmonians against the common enemy, though his fleet of 100 ships laden with corn for their army having put into Rhodes was captured by the Persians, who had lately obtained pos

session of that island.

Acoris, his successor, reigned 13 years (B.c. 399-386). Having made a treaty with Evagoras king of Cyprus, and secured the friendship of the Lacedæmonians, and of Gaus, the son of Tamus, an Egyptian who commanded the Persian fleet, he remained undisturbed by the Persians; and during this time he added considerably to the temples of Thebes and other places, and especially to the sculptures of one at Eileithyias left unfinished by the second Remeses. Of Psammuthis and Muthis, who reigned each one year, and of Nepherites II., who reigned four months, little is known either from historians, or from the monuments; and the only one of them mentioned in the sculptures is the first, whose name Pse-maut ("the son of Maut ") is found at Thebes. The dates, too, at this time are very uncertain; and the accession of the next, or 30th dynasty, of three Sebennytic kings, is variously placed in 387 and 381 B.C.

[Thirtieth Dynasty.]-This dynasty continued 38, or according to Eusebius 20, years. The first king was Nectanebo (Nakht-neb-f). During his reign the Persians sent a large force under Pharnabazus and Iphicrates to recover Egypt; but owing to the dissension of the two generals, and the care taken by Nectanebo to secure the defences of the country, the Persians were unable to re-establish their authority, and entangled amidst the channels of the rising Nile they were forced to retreat. Nectanebo had, therefore, leisure to adorn the temples of Egypt, in many of which his name may still be seen; and he was probably the last of the Pharaohs who erected an obelisk. Pliny, who calls him Nectabis, says it was without hieroglyphics.

After 13 years (or 10 according to Eusebius) B.C. 369, Nectanebo was succeeded by Teos or Tachos, who, profiting by the disturbed

death (B.C. 405), and 18 at his first revolt.

* Diodorus mentions a Psammeti. chus, who preceded Nepherites, or

Nephreus.

I formerly supposed this temple to have been of an older king Uchoreus.

392

THIRTY-FIRST DYNASTY—OCHUS.

APP. BOOK II.

state of the dominions of Persia, and wishing still further to weaken her power, entered into a treaty with the Lacedæmonians, and determined to attack her in Asia. The Lacedæmonians having furnished a strong force, commanded by Agesilaus in person, and assisted by a fleet under Chabrias the Athenian, Tachos advanced into Syria, taking upon himself the supreme direction of the expedition. But in the course of the campaign his nephew Nectanebo, whom he had detached from the army with a large body of Egyptian troops, made a party against him, and being assisted by his father, called also Nectanebo, who had been appointed governor of Egypt by Tachos during his absence, openly revolted. Agesilaus, already affronted at the treatment he had received from Tachos, gladly supported the pretender; and Chabrias, who had refused to join him, having been recalled by the Athenians, Tachos was unable to maintain his authority, and having fled to Sidon, and thence into Persia, his nephew Nectanebo II. was declared king (B.c. 361). There was, however, a rival competitor in a Mendesian chief, who putting himself at the head of the people, and favoured by the incapacity of Nectanebo, would have succeeded in wresting the sceptre from his grasp, had he not been opposed by the talents of Agesilaus, who crushed him at once, and secured Nectanebo on the throne.

Though preparations were set on foot by Artaxerxes to recover 43. Egypt, no expedition was sent thither by him, and dying in 363 B.C., he was succeeded by Ochus, or Artaxerxes III., in whose reign some attempts were made to reconquer the country, but without success; the consequence of which failure was a confederacy between Nectanebo and the Phoenicians, who were thus encouraged to throw off the yoke of Persia. To aid them in their revolt, and expel the Persians, Nectanebo sent them 4000 Greeks under the orders of Mentor the Rhodian; but Ochus having soon afterwards put himself at the head of a formidable army, advanced into and overran all Phoenicia; and Mentor having deserted to the enemy, Nectanebo was forced to take measures for the defence of his own country. Pelusium was garrisoned by 5000 Greeks, and his army, composed of 100,000 men, of whom 10,000 were Greeks, prepared to repel the invader. And had it not been for the blunders of Nectanebo, the Persians might have been again foiled, as their chief attack on Pelusium was repulsed; but Nectanebo, panic-struck on seeing the Persians occupy an unguarded point, and fearing lest his retreat should be cut off, fled to Memphis. Pelusium then surrendered, and Mentor, who had

CHAP. VIII.

DURATION OF THE EGYPTIAN KINGDOM.

393

44.

accompanied the Persians, having taken all the fortified places of Lower Egypt, Nectanebo retired into Ethiopia, and Egypt once more became a Persian province.

[Thirty-first Dynasty.]—The reign of Ochus is represented to have B.C. 313. been most cruel and oppressive. Persecuting the people, and insulting their religion, he ordered the sacred bull Apis to be roasted and eaten, so that the Egyptians, according to Plutarch, "represented him in their catalogue of kings by a sword" (de Is. s. 2). He had recovered the country in his 20th year, and reigned over it two years, and being followed by Arses and Darius, these three compose Manetho's 31st dynasty, which was terminated by Alexander's conquest of Egypt (B.c. 332), and the rule of the Macedonian kings. These constituted the Ptolemaic, or Lagide, dynasty; and at length in 30 B.C. Egypt became a Roman province.

Though Egypt had long ceased to be a dominant kingdom before the time of the Caesars, the duration of its power, without reckoning its revival as a state under the Ptolemies, was far greater than generally fell to the lot of other nations; and when we compare with it the brief glory of the Persian empire to the conquest by Alexander, or that of Babylon, or even the whole period of Assyrian greatness, we find that Egypt continued to be a conquering state, and extended its arms beyond its own frontier for a far longer period than any of those countries; and calculating only its most glorious days, from the reign of Thothmes III. to that of Neco, when it lost its possessions in Asia, it may be said to have lasted as a powerful kingdom upwards of 800 years. [For the various monuments erected by different Egyptian kings, see the Historical Chapter in my Manners and Customs of the Antient Egyptians,' and my Topography of Thebes,' and 'Modern Egyptians.']—(G. W.)

6

394 DIFFERENT VIEWS OF EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY.

APP. BK. II.

NOTE. [G. R. 1875.]

Ir has been thought best to retain the above sketch of the Early History of Egypt unchanged. It will always have a value as expressing the matured judgment of one of the most judicious and painstaking of English Egyptologers. At the present time, however, it seems to the general editor only fair to students, that they should have presented to them, together with the views of Sir G. Wilkinson, the conclusions to which other savans have come on the subject of Egyptian history and chronology. The views are up to a certain point so similar, beyond that so widely divergent, that the statement and comparison of them is the best mode of showing to what extent Egyptian History and Chronology may be regarded as tolerably well established, at what point serious doubt begins, and where doubt changes into the wildest confusion and uncertainty. The views which it is proposed to consider, and tabulate, are those, in the first place, of M. Mariette and M. Lenormant, with which Dr. Brugsch in the main agrees; secondly, those of the late Chevalier Bunsen, embodied in his great work, "Egypt's Place in Universal History;" and thirdly, those of what may be called "the English School," represented especially by Sir Gardner Wilkinson and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, the learned head of the Numismatic Department at the British Museum. These writers all agree in regarding the dynasties of Manetho as historical, and making them the basis of their respective schemes; but they all more or less depart from Manetho's numbers. The differences between them arise mainly from the different views which they take as to the extent to which Manetho's dynasties are contemporary. M. Mariette, indeed, lays it down in the most formal way, that contemporary dynasties are wholly absent from Manetho's scheme;1 but his follower, M. Lenormant, gives up this view. He makes the eleventh dynasty contemporary with the ninth and tenth, and the

1 The original work of M. Mariette is not accessible to me; but I find the following quoted from it by M. Lenormant (Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, vol. i. pp. 323-4) :

:

"Il y eut donc incontestablement en Egypte des dynasties simultanées; mais Manéthon les a rejetées pour n'admettre que celles qui furent réputées légitimes, et elles ne sont plus dans ses

listes.... Les preuves monumentales surabondent et ont été recueillies en grand nombre par les Égyptologues qui démontrent que toutes les races royales énumerées par le prêtre de Sébennytus ont occupé le trône les unes après les autres."

2 Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, vol. i. p. 348. "C'est de Thèbes que sortirent les six rois de la onzième

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