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 EGYPT

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EGYPT

tant commercial centre of Egypt. The foreign policy of Araasis, as a rule, was one of prudence; his only conquest was Cj-prus, over which, since the days of Thotmes III, Egj-pt had often exercised suzerainty. He made, however, one fatal mistake: he joined the abortive league formed by Croesus, King of Lydia, against Cyrus, and, although he afterwards carefully avoided crossing the path of the Persian conqueror, the latter's son, Cambyses, taking the will for the deed, did not fail to resent his past inclinations.

Cambyses invaded Egj^pt in 525 b. c, shortly after Psamtik III had succeeded his father. The pharaoh was put to death under cruel circumstances, the tomb of Amasis was violated, his mummy burnt to ashes, and a Persian governor was appointed. Other- wise Cambyses did all he could to conciliate his EgjTp- tian subjects. He assumed the traditional pharaonic titles and ceremonial, and caused himself to be initiated in the mysteries of the goddess Neit. He made good the damages sustained by the temples during the con- quest, led an unsuccessful expedition against the oases of the Libyan desert, and was not much happier in a campaign against the independent Kingdom of Na- pata. Embittered by these reverses, he departed, in later years, from his former conciliatory policy, and committed sacrilegious acts which exasperated the people against him. Darius I (521-4SG) completed the canal begim by Necho between the Nile and the Red Sea. He reopened the road from Keft (Coptos) to the Red Sea, garrisoned the oases, and otherwise fur- thered the prosperity and security of Egj-pt. In his reorganization of the Persian Empire, which he di- vided into a number of governments under a central administration, Egj'pt, with CjTene, Barca, and Lower Nubia, formed the sixth government, or sa- trapy. This, however, affected only the garrisoned cities and their respective territories. Elsewhere the old feudal organization was left untouched, and from time to time the local princes availed themselves of their semi-independence to rebel.

After the battle of Marathon (487) the Egj-ptians revolted and expelled the Persians. But in the fol- lowing year Achemenes, who had just been appointed satrap "by his brother Xerxes I (4S6— 165). brought them back to submission. Of a far more serious char- acter was the insurrection which broke out in 463 imder Artaxerxes I (465-425), and which was not quelled until its leader, Inaros (of the house of Psam- tik), aided by the Athenians, had routed two succes- sive Persian armies (454). Under Darius II the power of the Persians began to decline. The weakness of their administration at that time is attested by the Judso-Aramaic papyri recently discovered at Ele- phantine. From these documents we learn that, while the provincial governor was absent, the commander of the garrison of Syene ha<l been bribed by the Egj-p- tian priests of Chnub (Chnum) to plunder and destroy the temple of the Jewish colony of Elephantine. The culprits, it seems, were put to death by the Persian authorities, yet, when the victims applied for a per- mission to rebuild their temple, their request was granted only on the condition that they should not in future offer up bloody sacrifices — a concession, evi- dently, to the priests of Chnub, who probably ob- jected to the slaughtering of the ram, an animal sacred to their god. The little colony, we may well suppose, did not long enjoy its curtailed privileges; it verj' probably succumbed to Egj^jtian fanaticism during the two following dynasties (Stahelin, "Israel in AegjTJten nach neugefundenen iTkunden", 14 sqq.).

Finally, in 404 b. c, the last year of Darius II (424- 404) and first year of Artaxerxes II (404-362), a cer- tain .^mjTtsos of Saitic birth succeeded in proclaim- ing Egj-pt's independence. His six years of reign con- stitute" the Twenty-eightli DjTiasty. The Twenty- ninth Djmasty (Mendesian"), comprising the reigns of Nepherites, Achoris, and Psammuthis, who took an

active part in the wars of Greece against Artaxerxes II, lasted twenty years. The Thirtieth Dynasty (Sebennj't ic) began with Xectanebo I (378-361), who successfully repelled the Persians. Tachos (360-359), his successor, attempted to invade the Syrian terri- tory, but, as a result of rivalries and dissensions be- tween himself and his namesake Tachos, whom he had appointed as regent, he was supplanted by Nectanebo II (358-342), a cousin of Tachos the regent, and took refuge with Artaxerxes II, at whose court he died. Necfanebo II was at first successful in repelling the attack of Artaxerxes III (Ochus— 362-338) ; later, however, he was defeated, and the Persians once more became masters of Egj-pt (341). The king fled to Ethiopia, and the temples were plundered. It was then that Egj^Jt lost forever the right of being gov- erned by rulers of her own.

Maspeho, Histoire ancienne des peuples de VOrient dassique (3 vols., Paris, 1897-9); also IIcCluhe, tr. of same, ed. S.wce, The Dawn of CivUizatian (.Egypt, Chaldcea), and The Struggle of the Nations {Egypt. Syria and Assyria) (3rd ed., 2 vols., London, 1S97): SIaspeho, //i^^oire ancienne des peuples de VOrient (7th ed., Paris, 190S): Breasted. The Ancient Records of Egypt (the Egyptian historical documents in English, complete from the earliest times to the Persian Conquest — 5 vols., Chicago, 1906-7); Breasted, A History of Egypt (New York, 1905); Id., A History of the Ancient Egyptians (!ie-K York. 1908); Meter, Geschichte des alten Aegyptens (Berlin, 1887); Wiedemann, Aegyptische Geschichte (Gotha. 1884-1885); Bissing, Ge- schichte Aegyptens (Berlin, 1904); Budge, History of Egypt (7 vols., London); Petrte (ed.). Illustrated History of Egypt I-III. From the Earliest Times to the End of the XXXth Dynasty

(3 vols., London. 1897 ); Mahafft, History of Egypt under

the Ptolemaic Dynasty (London. 1899); Milne. History of Egypt under Roman Rule (London. 1S9S); Lane-Poole, History of Egypt in the Middle Ages (London, 1901) — these three forming vols. IV-VI in Petrie's series.

Egypt and the Bible. — Vigouroux, La Bible et les decou- vertes modemes (4 vols., Paris, 1884^); Meter, ed.. Die Israeli- ten und ihre Xachbarstamme; Steindorff in Recent Research in Bible Lands, ed. Hilprecht (Philadelphia, 1906); Griffith in Authority and Archwology, ed. Hogarth (New York, 1899); Ml'LLER, Asien und Europa nach altagyptischen Denkmalem (Leipzig. 1893); Spiegelberg, Aegyptische Randglossen zum Alten Testament (Strasburg. 1904); Idem, AufenthaU Israels in Aegypten (Strasburg, 1904).

III. Ancient Egy'ptian Religion. — Godand man, thosetwo essential terras of every religion, are but im- perfectly reflected in the Egj'ptian religious monu- ments. .\ book similar in scope to our Bible certainly never existed in Egj'pt.and if their different theologi- cal schools, or the priests of some particular theological school, ever agreed on certain truths aliout God and man, which they consigned to official didactic writings, such writings have not reached us. Nor is the vast bod}' of religious monuments bequeathed to us by ancient Egj'pt of such a nature as to compensate for this lack of positive and systematic information. The figured and inscribed moimments discovered in the temples, and especially in the tombs, acquaint us with the names and external aspects of numerous deities, with the material side of the funerary rites, from which we may safely conclude that they admitted the dependency of man on superior beings, and a certain survival of man after death. But as to the essence of those gods, their relation to the world and man as e.x- pressed by the worship of which they were the objects, the significance and sjTnbolism of the rites of the dead, the nature of the surviving principle in man, the na- ture and modes of the survival itself as depending on earthly life, and the like, the monuments are either silent about or offer us such contradictory and incon- gruous notions that we are forced to conclude that the Egyptians never evolved a clear and complete system of religious views. What light can be brought out of this chaos we shall concentrate on two chief points:

(a) The Pantheon, corresponding to the term God; and

(b) The Future Life, as best representing the term Man.

(a) The Egyptian Pantheon. — By this word we un- derstand such gods as were officially worshipped in one or more of the various nomes. or in the country at large. We exclude, therefore, the multitude of