Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/809

Rh relieved cuneiform characters of Cambyses, the brother of Cyrus, a personage of whom we possess 110 historical notice whatsoever.&quot; The only other, and the best known, king of this name is the elder son and successor of Cyrus, who reigned over the Persian empire, according to Herodotus, for seven years and five months from 529 to 521 B.C. Of his proceed ings before his famous invasion of Egypt little is known. To this period we must now, on the authority of the Behistun inscription (i. 10), in opposition to Herodotus (iii. 30), assign the secret murder of his brother, Bardiya (the Smerdis, Merdis, Mardus, or Mergis of the Greeks, called Tanyoxarces by Ctesias, and Tanyoxares by Xeno- phon). Egypt at this time lay on the borders of the Persian empire ; its subjugation had long been an object of ambition to the great Asiatic conquerors ; it had recently provoked reprisals from Persia by sending help to Lydia against Cyrus ; and in resolving to attack that country Cambyses was both carrying out the settled policy of his predecessors and accomplishing the purpose of his own lather. If therefore, as is not unlikely, there was such an occasion given for the enterprise as that which Herodotus relates, it is not necessary to suppose that this was more than a pretext. A year or two were spent in collecting the forces of the empire, and the preparatory measures taken seem to have been marked by prudence and skill. A fleet of Phoenician and Greek ships was collected to operate against the vessels of the Egyptians ; and the help of an Arabian chief was secured to provide water for the army in crossing the desert on the south and west of Palestine. The old king of Egypt, Amasis, under whom the country had enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity, died a few months before the invasion, and was succeeded by his son Psammenitus, under whom the measures of defence proved unsuccessful. An obstinately contested but decisive victory was gained by the Persian arms near Pelusium, and this was speedily followed up by the siege and capture of the capital, Memphis, and by the subjugation of the whole country. The date of this conquest is commonly regarded as 525 B.C. (see Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., vol. i. p. 385), though some find cause to place it one or even two years earlier (cf. v. Gumpach, Zeitrechnung d. Ass. u. Bab., pp. 165, /. ; Lauth, op. cit., pp. 13, /. ; Brugsch, Hist, d Egypte, i. p. 267 ; Duncker, Gesch. d. Alterthums, vol. ii. p. 792, n. ; Lepsius, Koniysbuch, p. 89). Henceforward the life and activity of Cambyses centred in his new dominion. We know from an important hieroglyphic inscription proceeding from a priest of Neith at Sais, that he assumed the responsibilities and titles proper to a king of Egypt, taking as his throne-name that of Ramesut. Moreover, it is evident that for a time at least lie cultivated the good-will of his new subjects. We learn that he took Egyptians who had been officers of Psam- i.ienitus into his immediate service ; that he sought in struction in regard to the rites of their religion, and was initiated into certain of its mysteries ; that he listened to complaints in regard to the profanation of the temples by Persian and other foreign soldiers, and gave orders for their removal from the sacred precincts ; that he secured the priests in the receipt of the temple-revenues, and arranged for the due and continued celebration of the customary ceremonies and festivals. A monument is still extant on which he is represented adoring, on bended knee, the god Apis. (See De Rouge&quot;, Memoire sur la statue naophore du Vatican, passim; Brugsch, op. cit., vol. i. pp. 266, /. ; Lauth, op. cit., pp. 17,/.) One act, indeed, of a different complexion is reported by Herodotus (iii. 1C), viz., his outraging and finally consuming by fire the embalmed body of Amasis, an act, the historian assures us, which shocked the feelings alike of Egyptians and of Persians, and which strongly attests the same jealous and resentful temper which prompted the murder of his brother. After having established himself in his new possession, Cambyses, Herodotus (iii. 17, /.) informs us, planned three expeditions. One was against Carthage, in regard to which, however, he was thwarted by the refusal of his Phoenician mariners, who formed the principal portion of his sea-forces, to operate against their kindred. Another was directed against the Oasis and temple of Jupiter Ammon in the desert west of Egypt (see Heeren, D. afrikan. Volker, i. p. 416), the issue of which was that the whole of the force sent on this enterprise, numbering, it is said, 50,000 men, perished in the sand. The third was intended for the subjugation of the Ethiopians on the south of Egypt (regarding whose locality see Heeren, op. cit., i. pp. 337, /. ; Rawlinson, Herod., vol. ii. p. 421 ; Maspero, Histoire ancienne, pp. 533, /.), and of this Cambyses himself took the command. The army, how ever, had marched less than a fifth of the distance when their provisions failed, and they were reduced to the utmost straits, even, it is said, to cannibalism. Cambyses was thus forced to retrace his steps and to lead back the rem nant of his army to Egypt in disappointment and disgrace. Under the smart of this threefold discomfiture the conduct of Cambyses towards the Egyptians assumed a new and much more stern and cruel aspect. The people of Memphis were rejoicing on occasion of the discovery of a calf bearing the marks of their god Apis, when he arrived there on his return from his unfortunate expedition. Irritated by their apparent lack of sympathy, and miscon struing their joy, he ordered some of the magistrates of the city to be put to death ; and what was still more fatal to his popularity, he commanded the newly-found god to be led into his presence, and inflicted upon it with his dagger a mortal wound. The epitaph of this unfortunate god &quot; has been found by M. Mariette in the Serapeum, and is now in the museum of the Louvre &quot; (Lenormant, Manual of Anc. Hist., vol. ii. p. 99). We hear also of his violating the sepulchres of the Egyptians, and of his penetrating into the sanctuaries of their gods, and making sport of the more grotesque images. According to Herodotus, it seemed to the Egyptians that he had gone mad ; and it is certain that they retained the most gloomy recollections of this period of their history. In the inscription already mentioned, drawn up while the Persians were still supreme in the country, and therefore with due reserve and caution, reference is made to the procedure of Cambyses in such language as the following : &quot; There happened a calamity in this district along with the very great calamity which befell the whole land;&quot; &quot;a frightful misfortune befell Egypt, the like of which never occurred in this land &quot; (Brugsch, op. cit., i. p. 271 ; Lauth, op. cit., p. 19, cf. p. 49). It is, in all probability, the sense of this &quot; frightful misfortune &quot; the keenness of feeling excited by the out rageous deeds of Cambyses towards their gods which led the Egyptians to allege that he was smitten with frenzy, and to put in circulation some at least of the many stories relating to his cruelty towards his own countrymen and relatives which Herodotus and others report. After an absence from Persia of several years, Cambyses, having appointed Aryandes, a Persian, governor of Egypt, set out on his homeward march. He was met, according to Herodotus (iii. 64), at a place in Syria called Agbatana, supposed by some to be Batansea, or Bashan, by others to be Hamath, by the tidings of the Median revolution, the usurpation of the sovereignty by Gomates, the Magian, and the impersonation by the usurper of his own brother whom, as has been noticed, he had caused to be secretly murdered. Springing hastily upon his horse, his sword fell from the sheath and wounded him mortally in the thigh. According 