Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/351

 AMASIS. 33$ thousand lonians and Karians, whom be summoned from their etratopeda on the Pelusiac Nile to his residence at Sai's ; and this force, the creation of his ancestor Psammetichus, and the main reliance of his family, still inspired him with such unabated confidence, that he marched to attack the far superior numbers under Ama-sis at Momemphis. Though his troops behaved with bravery, the disparity of numbers, combined with the excited feeling of the insurgents, overpowered him : he was defeated and carried prisoner to Sai's, where at first Amasis not only spared his life, but treated him with generosity. 1 Such, however, was the antipathy of the Egyptians, that they forced Amasis to sur- render his prisoner into their hands, and immediately strangled him. It is not difficult to trace in these proceedings the outbreak of a long-suppressed hatred on the part of the Egyptian soldier- caste towards the dynasty of Psammetichus, to whom they owed their comparative degradation, and by whom that stream of Hel- lenism had been let in upon Egypt, which doubtless was not wit- nessed without great repugnance. It might seem, also, that this dynasty had too little of pure Egypt ianism in them to find favor with the priests. At least Herodotus does not mention any reli- gious edifices erected either by Nekos or Psammis or Apries, though he describes much of such outlay on the part of Psammetichus, who built magnificent propylaea to the temple of Hephasstos at Memphis, 2 and a splendid new chamber or stable for the sacred bull Apis, and more still on the part of Amasis. Nevertheless, Amasis. though he had acquired the crown by this explosion of native antipathy, found the foreign adjuncts both already existing and eminently advantageous. He not only countenanced, but extended them ; and Egypt enjoyed under him a degree of power and consideration such as it neither before pos- sessed, nor afterwards retained, for his long reign of forty-four years (570-526 B. c.) closed just six months before the Persian conquest of the country. He was eminently phil-Hellenic, and the Greek merchants at Naukratis, the permanent settlers, as well as the occasional visitors, obtained from him valuable en 1 Ilerodot. ii, 162-169 ; Diodor. i, C8.
 * Hcrodot. ii. 15.3.