Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/344

 328 HISTORY OF CREECH. a city of Egyptian origin, in which these foreigners were }x:f mitted to take up their abode, not a Greek colony, as Strabo would have us believe. The language of Herodotus seems rather to imply that it was king Arnasis between whom and the death of Psammetichus there intervened nearly half a century who first allowed Greeks to settle at Naukratis ; but on comparing what the historian tells us respecting the courtezan Rhodopis and the brother of Sappho the Poetess, it is evident that there must have been both Greek trade and Greek establishments in that town long before Amasis came to the throne. We may con- sider, then, that both the eastern and western mouths of the Nile became open to the Greeks in the days of Psammetichus ; the former as leading to the head-quarters of the mercenary Greek troops in Egyptian pay, the latter for purposes of trade. While this event afforded to the Greeks a valuable enlarge- ment both of their traffic and of their field of observation, it seems to have occasioned an internal revolution in Egypt. The nome of Bubastis, in which the new military settlement of for- eigners was planted, is numbered among those occupied by the Egyptian military caste : l whether their lands were in part taken away from them, we do not know ; but the mere introduction of such foreigners must have appeared an abomination, to (he strong conservative feeling of ancient Egypt. And Psammetichus why Kyaxares should be here mentioned, and who noted his difficulty in words which have subsequently found their way into the text. Then again, Inarus belongs to the period between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars : at least we know no other person of that name than the chief of the Egyp- tian revolt against Persia (Thucyd. i, 114) who is spoken of as a "Libyan. the son of Psammetichus." The mention of Kvaxares, therefore, here appears unmeaning, while that of Inarus is an anachronism : possibly, the story that the Milesians founded Naukratis " after having worsted Inarus in a sea-fight," may have grown out of the etymology of the name Naukratis. in the mind of one who found Inarus the son of Psammetichus mentioned two centuries afterwards, and identified the two Psammetichuses with each other. The statement of Strabo has been copied by Steph. Byz. v, NavKpartc Eusebius also announces (Chron. i, p. 108) the Milesians as the founders of Naukratis, but puts the event at 753 B. c., during what he calls the Milesian thalassokraty : see Mr. Fynes Clinton ad ann. 732 B. c. in the Fasti Hellenic!. * Herod -t ii, 166