Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/590

 486 APPE^^)IX III. institutions. Based exclusively on conservative principles and on the spirit of seclusion, the Egyptian civilisation could maintain its ground only by continuing changeless. As soon as it came in direct contact with the outer world, and especially with the spirit of progress as personified in the Hellenic race and culture, it was doomed to perish. The military caste having nearly all migrated southwards, the nation remained disarmed and at the mercy of foreign conquerors. Strangers detested by the people had been entrusted with the defence of the empire, and public discontent gradually broke into open revolt. A daring adventurer had already siezed the tlirone, establishing the twenty-sixth dynastj', and he had found the country so ripe for change that he showed himself even more favourably disposed than his predeces- sors to the foreigners. For a time this policy tended to enrich the nation by the development of its commercial relations with the neighbouring states. But it ended by exciting the cupidity of the foreign settlers and mercenaries. "When these turned their arms against their employers, Egypt had nothing to oppose to them except an unarmed midtitude unaccustomed to military service. Hence soon after the accession of PsAMMETiCHUS III., son of Ahmes, a single campaign sufficed to extinguish the political independence of Egypt. This sovereign was overthrown at Pelusium, on the north-east frontier, by Cambyses, King of Persia, who speedily reduced the whole country to the position of a Persian satrajiy, 528 B.C. XXYII. Dynasty: Peksi-aji. M. and B. 527. Cambyses. 527. Darius Hystaspes. 521. Xerxes I. 486. Artaxerxes Longimanus. 465. Darius Nothos. XXVin. Dynasty: Saite. M. and B. 406. Amyet^eus, who succeeded in expelling the Persians and restoring the ancient Egyptian monarchy, fixing his capital at Sa. Eeigned six years. XXIX. Dynasty: Mekdesian. M. and B. 399. Naifatjktjt (Nepherites) I. Hakok (Achoris). psemaut (psammuthis). Naifaijrut II. This short djmasty (399 — 378) maintained the national independence, and ruled the whole country from its capital, Mendes, in Lower Eg}-pt.