Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/61

 

PaaBBrtiekvs yns snooeeded by his son Neoo or Xbcraov tile Phanflh Nedio of the aeoond bode of Kngtf w]io rdgned 16 yews, b. c. 617 — 601. ABKBg ibe greatest of hb works was the canal be- tvea the Nile and the Red Sea. Whether he coDpfeted it or not is doobtful; in the reign of DtetBs it irae, however, certainly open for vesseb ef hige harden, and was finished by the Ptolemies (PIb. vi 33). liodem sorreys have ascertained tAat this canal left the Nile in the neighbourhood of the modern town of Belbeis — probably the Bnbastis AgnA vi the Greeks — and nm £. and S! to Suez. (Hcnd. ir. 43 ; Diod. L 33.) At Neoo's oonunand also the Flwenicians undertook the circnmnavig»tion of the African rpninsnla. The saooeas of tlds en- terrdse is problematkal, but, as Major Bennell, in ki5 Essay on the Geography of Herodotus, has Acnn, bj no means impottible. In the reign of Xecho Ej^yptcame into direct collision with theBaby- irsisn empire, at that time rising upon the rnins of the Aasrnan. Egyptseems to have been in alliance viih the ktter, since about the time when Cyaxares RMnned the siege of IGniveh, Necho marched to- wadb the Euphntes, apparently to rdieve the be- letcasral dty. Judah was then in league with fiebykn; and its king Josiah threw himself in the way of Necho, and was defeated by him at Hegiddo. Hk Jewish monarch died of his wounds at Jeru- eshn, and the oanqnenir entered tiie holy city, pro- bsUy the Cadytis of Herodotus (iL 159, iiL 5). Secho deposed and sent captive to Egypt Jehoshaz, the SOB and snocessor of Josiah, made his younger brother FJiakim king in ins stead, and imposed an sBDoal tribute on Judaea. The Judaean monaicha wen finr jean later avenged. From the plains of Carehemish or Clroesium, on the eastern bank of the Enphrstes, Neoo fled to Egypt, leaving all his Asiatic csntpiestB to the victor Nebuchadnezzar.

Nedio was succeeded by his son PSAioas, who raped 6 years, b. c. 601 — 595, and Psammis by his son Afsies, the Uaphris of the monuments, sad the Pharaoh Hc^ihxa of the Scriptures, who ragoed 25 years, n. c 595 — 570. The earlier yein of i^nes were signaKiwd by his victories over the Tynans, Sidonians, Phoenicians, and Cypriots. Bet these acquisitions were transient, and Uiere Ib nana to suppose that Lower Egypt at least was ■mded by Ndmchadnezzar (Strab. p. 687; Jere- miad iliiL 12, xlvL 13—26 ; JEzekiely zziz). .Apries experienced even greater calamities on his iwrtwu frontier, a quarter firom which Egypt had bea hitherto unassailed. The Greeks of Gyrene at«Rninated his anny at Irasa {Ain Erseni), be- twetn the bay of Booiba and Gyrene. His defeat, aad the emdties to which it led, rendered him «£«» to his subjects. A fortunate soldier, Amasis m Aaaosis, deposed, succeeded, and finally strangled bxDL

AjfAOB reigned 44 years, B. a 570 — 526. He » ti» first E^fTptian monarch with whose personal chanctcr we have any acquaintance. His friend^ ihipvithPolyczates is well known. Hewas ashrewd, active, and intelligent sovereign, who possessed the k«e d^ the soldieis and the people, and nearly dis- vxnded the rules and ceremonies of the priests. His icigB was eminently prosperous, and his death weaned just in time to yrerent his witnessing the nbJQgatian of Egypt by the Persians under Gam- tvsea, which took place in the reign of lus son Psak- xmrrs (b.c. 525), who sat upon the throne only 5 nweiths.

The 27th dynasty contains 8 Persian kings, and extends over a period of 124 years, b. c. 525 — 401. Egypt became a satrapy, not, however, without much reluctation and various revolutions; for be-» tween the worshippers of animals and the vror- shippers of fire a religions antipathy snbsistod which aggravated the pressure of conquest and the burden of subjection. The Persians indeed were the only masters of Egypt who assailed by violence, as weU as regarded with contempt, its religious and political institutions. From this cause, no less than from the numerous Greek and Hebrew settlers in the Delta, the Macedonian conqueror, in b. c. 332, found scarcely any impediment to his occupation of Egypt. During the 27th dynasty Egypt became, for the first time, involved in European politics. A revolt, which commenced in the reign of Darius, b. c. 488, and which delayed for three years the second Per- sian invasion crif Greece, was repressed by his son and successor Xerxes, in b. o. 486. A second re- Tolt, in B. c. 462, was put down, in b. c. 456, by the satrap Megabyzus; but its leader Inaros, son of Psammitidius, was aided by the Athenians.

The 28th dynasty contams only one name, that of Ahtbtaxus the Saite. In his reign of six years, through some unexplained weakness in Persia, Egypt regained its independenee, for monuments at KanuUs and ESethya prove that the Saite monarch was king of the whole land. Amyrtaeus was mag- nificently interred in a sarcophagus of green breccia, which, after passing fix)m an Egyptian tomb to a Greek basilica, from a Greek basilica to a Moslem mosque, finally rests in the British Museum. The 29th dynasty contuned four kings, of whom hardly any thing is related, and the 30th dynasty three kings, Nectakebus I., Tachos, and Nectane- Bus II., who are better known firom their con< nection with Grecian history. In the reign of Nectanebus II., and in the year b. a 350, Egypt was reconquered by Bagoas and Mentor, the gene- rals of Darius Ochus, and the last Pharaoh of the 30 dynasties retired an exile into Aethiopia. The succession of Egyptian monarchs, embracing a pe-^ riod of 3553 years, is unexampled in history. Upon the annals of their successors the Ptolemies we shall not however enter, since the lives of the Macedonian kings are given in the Dictionaiy of Biography (art. Ptolemaeug). It wiU suffice in this place to make a few general remarks upon the political aspect of Eg3rpt under its Greek and Roman masters.

Many causes rendered the accession of a Greek dynasty an easy and even a welcome transition to the E^ptian people. In the decline of the native monarchy, they had suffered much from anarchy and civil wars. For two centuries the yoke of Persia had pressed heavily upon their trade, agriculture and religion: their wealth had been drained, their chil- dren enslaved, their ceremonial and national prejudices systematically outraged by their rulers. For the advent of the Greeks a gradual preparation had been made since the reign of Psammetichus. Hellenic cdonies had penetrated to the Great Oasis and the coast of the Bed Sea. Greek travellers and philo- sophers had explored the Thebaid, and Greek immi- grants had established ntunerous colonies in the Delta. Lower Egypt too had admitted Spartans and Athenians alternately as the allies of the Saite and Memphite sovereigns: so that when in b.c. 332.