Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/25

 DARIUS NOTHUS. 3 The wars between the Persian empire, and Athens as the head of the confederacy of Delos (477-449 B. c.), have been already related in one of my earlier volumes. But the internal history of the Persian empire during these reigns is scarcely at all known to us ; except a formidable revolt of the satrap Megabyzus, obscurely noticed in the Fragments of Ktesias. 1 About 414 B. c. the Egyp- tians revolted. Their native prince Amyrta3us maintained his independence, though probably in a part only, and not the whole, of that country, 2 and was succeeded by a native Egyptian dynasty for the space of sixty years. A revolt of the Medes, which took place in 408 B. c., was put down by Darius, and subsequently a like revolt of the Kadusians. 3 The peace concluded in 449 B. c., between Athens and the Persian empire, continued without open violation, until the ruinous catastrophe which befel the former near Syracuse, in 413 B. c. Yet there had been various commu- nications and envoys from Sparta to the Persian court, endeavoring to procure aid from the Great King during the early years of the war; communications so confused and contradictory, that Arta- xerxes (in a letter addressed to the Spartans, in 425 B. c., and carried by his envoy Artaphernes who was captured by the Athe- nians), complained of being unable to understand what they meant, no two Spartans telling the same story. 4 It appears that Pis- sutlmes, satrap of Sardis, revolted from the Persian king, shortly after this period, and that Tissaphernes was sent by the Great King to suppress this revolt ; in which having succeeded, by brib- ing the Grecian commander of the satrap's mercenary troops, ht was rewarded by the possession of the satrapy. 5 We find Tissa- 1 Ktesias, Persica, c. 38-40. note, p. 317. There were some Egyptian troops in the army of Artaxerxes at the bat- tle of Kunaxa ; on the other hand, there were other Egyptians in a stato of pronounced revolt. Compare two passage* of Xenophon's Anabasis, i, 8, 9; ii, 5, 13 ; Diodor. xiii, 46 ; and the Dissertation of F. Ley, Fata et Conditio JSgypti sub imperio Persarum, p. 20-56 (Cologne, 1830). 8 Xen. Hellen. i, 2, 19 ; ii, 1, 13. 4 Thucyd. IT, 50. no7JMv yap LMovruv Trpea/Seuv ovdeva TO.VTU 7*.eyeiv. This incompetence, or duplicity, on the part of the Spartan envoys, helpa to explain the facility with which Alkibiades duped them at Athens (Thn cyd. v, 45). See above, in this History, Vol. VII. ch. Iv. D. 47 6 Ktesias. Persic, c. 52.
 * See the Appendix of Mr. Eynes Clinton, mentioned in the preceding