was occupied by Psamatik, son of Neco. He was, according to all
appearance, of Libyan origin; his stock was new; his name and his
father's name are unheard of hitherto in Egyptian history;
etymologically, they are non-Egyptian; and Psamatik has a non-Egyptian
countenance. He was probably of the same family as "Inarus the Libyan,"
whose father was a Psamatik. He belonged thus to a Libyan stock, which
had, however, been crossed, more than once, with the blood of the
Egyptians. The family was one of those Libyan families which had long
been domiciled at Saïs, and had intermarried with the older Saites, who
were predominantly Egyptian. He had also for twenty years or more been
an important unit in the Egyptian political system, having shared the
vicissitudes of his father's fortunes from B.C. 672 to B.C. 667, and
having then been placed at the head of one of the many principalities
into which Egypt was divided. In the same, or the next, year he seems to
have succeeded his father; and he had reigned at Saïs for sixteen or
seventeen years before he felt himself called upon to take any step that
was at all abnormal, or attempt in any way to change his position.
[Illustration: HEAD OF PSAMATIK I.]
Familiar with the politics and institutions of Egypt, yet, as a
semi-Libyan, devoid of Egyptian prejudices, and full of the ambition
which naturally inspires young princes of a vigorous stock, Psamatik had
at once the desire to shake off the yoke of Assyria, and reunite Egypt
under his own sway, and also a willingness to adopt any means, however
new and strange, by which such a result might be accomplished. He had
probably long watched for a favourable moment at which to give his
ambition vent, and found it at last in the circumstances that ushered in
the second half of the seventh century. Assyria was, about B.C. 651,
brought into a position of great difficulty, by the revolt of Babylon in
alliance with Elam, and was thus quite unable to exercise a strict
surveillance over the more distant parts of the Empire. The garrison by
which she held Egypt had probably been weakened by the withdrawal of
troops for the defence of Assyria Proper; at any rate, it could not be
relieved or strengthened under the existing circumstances. At the same
time a power had grown up in Asia Minor, which was jealous of Assyria,
having lately been made to tremble for its independence. Gyges of Lydia
had, in a moment of difficulty, been induced to acknowledge himself
Assyria's subject; but he had emerged triumphant from the perils
surrounding him, had reasserted his independent authority, and was
anxious that the power of Assyria should be, as much as possible,
diminished. Psamatik must have been aware of this. Casting his eyes
around the political horizon in search of any ally at once able and
willing to lend him aid, he fixed upon Lydia as likely to be his best
auxiliary, and dispatched an embassy into Asia Minor. Gyges received his
application favourably, and sent him a strong Asiatic contingent,
chiefly composed of Ionians and Carians. Both races were at this time
warlike, and wore armour of much greater weight and strength than any
which the Egyptians were accustomed to carry. It was in reliance,
mainly, on these foreigners, that Psamatik ventured to proclaim himself
"King of the Two Countries," and to throw out a gage of defiance at once
to his Assyrian suzerain and to his nineteen fellow-princes.
The gage was not taken up by Assyria. Immersed in her own difficulties,
threatened in three quarters, on the south, on the south-east, and on
the east by Babylonia, by Elam, and by Media, she had enough to do at
home in guarding her own frontiers, and seeking to keep under her
immediate neighbours, and was therefore in no condition to engage in
distant expeditions, or even to care very much what became of a remote
and troublesome dependency. Thus Assyria made no sign. But the petty
princes took arms at once. To them the matter was one of life or death;
they must either crush the usurper or be themselves swept out of
existence. So they gathered together in full force. Pakrur from Pisabtu,
and Petubastes from Tanis, and Sheshonk from Busiris, and Tafnekht from
Prosopitis, and Bek-en-nefi from Athribis, and Nakh-he from
Heracleopolis, and Pimai from Mendes, and Lamentu from Hermopolis, and
Mentu-em-ankh from Thebes, and other princes from other cities, met and
formed their several contingents into a single army, and stood at bay
near Momemphis, the modern Menouf, in the western Delta, on the borders
of the Libyan Desert. Here a great battle was fought, which was for some
time doubtful; but the valour of the Greco-Carians, and the superiority
of their equipment, prevailed. The victory rested with Psamatik; his
adversaries were defeated and dispersed; following up his first success,
he proceeded to attack city after city, forcing all to submit, and
determined that he would nowhere tolerate even the shadow of a rival.
Disintegration had been the curse of Egypt for the space of above a
century; Psamatik put an end to it. No more princes of Bubastis, or of
Tanis, or of Saïs, or of Mendes, or of Heracleopolis, or of Thebes! No
more eikosiarchies, dodecarchies, or heptarchies even! Monarchy pure,
the absolute rule of one and one only sovereign over the whole of Egypt,
from the cataracts of Syene to the shores of the Mediterranean, and from
Pelusium and Migdol to Momemphis and Marea, was established, and
henceforth continued, as long as Egyptian rule endured. The lesson had
been learnt at a tremendous cost, but it had now at last been thoroughly
learnt, that only in unity is there strength--that the separate sticks
of the faggot are impotent to resist the external force which the
collective bundle might without difficulty have defied and scorned.
Psamatik had gained the object of his ambition--sovereignty over all
Egypt; he had now to consider how it might best be kept. And first, as
that which is won by the sword must be kept by the sword, he made
arrangements with the troops sent to his aid by Gyges, that they should
take permanent service under his banner, and form the most important
element in his standing army. His native troops were quartered at
Elephantine, in the extreme south, and in Marea and Daphnæ, at the two
extremities of the Delta towards the west and east. The new accession to
his military strength he stationed at no great distance from the
capital, settling them in permanent camps on either side of the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile, near the city of Bubastis. We are told that this
exaltation of the new corps to the honourable position of keeping watch
upon the capital, greatly offended the native troops, and induced
200,000 of them to quit Egypt and seek service with the Ethiopians. The
facts have probably been exaggerated, for Ethiopia certainly does not
gain, or Egypt lose, in strength, either at or after this period.
Psamatik, further, for the better securing of his throne against
pretenders, thought it prudent to contract a marriage with the
descendant of a royal stock held in honour by many of his subjects. The
princess, Shepenput, was the daughter of a Piankhi, who claimed descent
from the unfortunate Bek-en-ranf, the king burnt alive by Shabak, and
who had also probably some royal Ethiopian blood in his veins. By his
nuptials with this princess, Psamatik assured to his crown the
legitimacy which it had hitherto lacked. Uniting henceforth in his own
person the rights of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth dynasties, those
of the Saïtes and those of the Ethiopians, he became the one and only
legal king, and no competitor could possibly arise with a title to
sovereignty higher or better than his own.
Being now personally secure, he could turn his attention to the
restoration and elevation of the nationality of which he had taken it
upon him to assume the direction. He could cast his eyes over the
unhappy Egypt--depressed, down-trodden, well-nigh trampled to death--and
give his best consideration to the question what was to be done to
restore her to her ancient greatness. There she lay before his eyes in a
deplorable state of misery and degradation. All the great cities, her
glory and her boast in former days, had suffered more or less in the
incessant wars; Memphis had been besieged and pillaged half a dozen
times; Thebes had been sacked and burnt twice; from Syene to Pelusium
there was not a town which had not been injured in one or other of the
many invasions. The canals and roads, carefully repaired by Shabak, had
since his decease met with entire neglect; the cultivable lands had been
devastated, and the whole population decimated periodically. Out of the
ruins of the old Egypt, Psamatik had to raise up a new Egypt. He had to
revivify the dead corpse, and put a fresh life into the stiff and
motionless limbs. With great energy and determination he set himself to
accomplish the task. Applying himself, first of all, to the restoration
of what was decayed and ruined, he re-established the canals and the
roads, encouraged agriculture, favoured the development of the
population. The ruined towns were gradually repaired and rebuilt, and
vast efforts made everywhere to restore, and even to enlarge and
beautify the sacred edifices. At Memphis, Psamatik built the great
southern portal which gave completeness to the ancient temple of the god
Phthah, and also constructed a grand court for the residence of the
Apis-Bulls, surrounded by a colonnade, against the piers of which stood
colossal figures of Osiris, from eighteen to twenty feet in height. At
Thebes he re-erected the portions of the temple of Karnak, which had
been thrown down by the Assyrians; at Saïs, Mendes, Heliopolis, and
Philæ he undertook extensive works. The entire valley of the Nile became
little more than one huge workshop, where stone-cutters and masons,
bricklayers and carpenters, laboured incessantly. Under the liberal
encouragement of the king and of his chief nobles, the arts recovered
themselves and began to flourish anew. The engraving and painting of the
hieroglyphics were resumed with success, and carried out with a
minuteness and accuracy that provokes the admiration of the beholder.
Bas-reliefs of extreme beauty and elaboration characterize the period.
There rests upon some of them "a gentle and almost feminine tenderness,
which has impressed upon the imitations of living creatures the stamp of
an incredible delicacy both of conception and execution." Statues and
statuettes of merit were at the same time produced in abundance. The
"Saïtie art", as that of the revival under the Psamatiks has been
called, is characterized by an extreme neatness of manipulation in the
drawings and lines, the fineness of which often reminds us of the
performances of a seal-engraver, by grace, softness, tenderness, and
elegance. It is not the broad, but somewhat realistic style of the
Memphitic period, much less the highly imaginative and vigorous style of
the Ramesside kings; but it is a style which has quiet merits of its
own, sweet and pure, full of refinement and delicacy.
[Illustration: BAS-RELIEFS OF THE TIME OF PSAMATIK I.]
Egypt was thus rendered flourishing at home; her magnificent temples and
other edifices put off their look of neglect; her cities were once more
busy seats of industry and traffic; her fields teemed with rich
harvests; her population increased; her whole aspect changed. But the
circumstances of the time led Psamatik to attempt something more. His
employment of Greek and Carian mercenaries naturally led him on into an
intimacy with foreigners, and into a regard and consideration for them
quite unknown to previous Pharaohs, and in contradiction to ordinary
Egyptian prejudices. Egypt was the China of the Old World, and had for
ages kept herself as much as possible aloof from foreigners, and looked
upon them with aversion. Foreign vessels were, until the time of
Psamatik, forbidden to enter any of the Nile mouths, or to touch at an
Egyptian port. Psamatik saw that the new circumstances required an
extensive change. The mercenaries, if they were to be content with
their position, must be allowed to communicate freely with the cities
and countries from which they came, and intercourse between Greece and
Egypt must be encouraged rather than forbidden. Accordingly the Greeks
were invited to make settlements in the Delta, and Naucratis, favourably
situated on the Canopic branch of the Nile, was specially assigned to
them as a residence. Most of the more enterprizing among the commercial
states of the time took advantage of the opening, and Miletus, Phocæa,
Rhodes, Samos, Chios, Mytilene, Halicarnassus, and Ægina established
factories at the locality specified, built temples there to the Greek
gods, and sent out a body of colonists. A considerable trade grew up
between Egypt and Greece. The Egyptians of the higher classes especially
appreciated the flavour and quality of the Greek wines, which were
consequently imported into the country in large quantities. Greek
pottery and Greek glyptic art also attracted a certain amount of favour.
On her side Egypt exported corn, alum, muslin and linen fabrics, and the
excellent paper which she made from the _Cyperus Papyrus_.
The trade thus established was carried on mainly, if not wholly, in
Greek bottoms, the Egyptians having a distaste to the sea, and regarding
commerce with no great favour. Nevertheless, the life and stir which
foreign commerce introduced among them, the familiarity with strange
customs and manners, engendered by daily intercourse with the Greeks,
the acquisition (on the part of some) of the Greek language, the sight
of Greek modes of worship, of Greek painting and Greek sculpture, the
insight into Greek habits of thought, which could not but follow,
produced no inconsiderable effect upon the national character of the
Egyptians, shaking them out of their accustomed groove, and awakening
curiosity and inquiry. The effect was scarcely beneficial. Egyptian
national life had been eminently conservative and unchanging. The
introduction of novelty in ten thousand shapes unsettled and disturbed
it. The old beliefs were shaken, and a multitude of superstitions rushed
in. The corruptions introduced by the Greeks were more easy of adoption
and imitation than the sterling points of their character, their
intelligence, their unwearied energy, their love of truth. Egypt was
awakened to a new life by the novel circumstances of the Psamatik
period; but it was a fitful life, unquiet, unnatural, feverish. The
character of the men lost in dignity and strength by the discontinuance
of military training consequent upon the substitution for a native army
of an army of mercenaries. The position of the women sank through the
adoption of those ideas concerning them which their contact with
orientals had engrained into the minds of the Asiatic Greeks. The
national spirit of the people was sapped by the concentration of the
royal favour on a race of foreigners whose manners and customs were
abhorrent to them, and whom they regarded with envy and dislike. If some
improvement is to be seen on the surface of Egyptian life under the
Psamatiks, some greater activity and enterprise, some increased
intellectual stir, some improved methods in art, these ameliorations
scarcely compensate for the indications of decline which lie deeper, and
which in the sequel determined the fate of the nation.
The later years of the reign of Psamatik were coincident with a time of
extreme trouble and confusion in Asia, in the course of which the
Assyrian Monarchy came to an end, and south-western Asia was partitioned
between the Medes and the Babylonians. A tempting field was laid open
for an ambitious prince, who might well have dreamt of Syrian or even
Mesopotamian conquest, and of recalling the old glories of Seti,
Thothmes, and Amenhotep. Psamatik did go so far as to make an attack
upon Philistia, but met with so little success that he was induced to
restrain any grander aspirations which he may have cherished, and to
leave the Asiatic monarchs to settle Asiatic affairs as it pleased them.
Ashdod, we are told, resisted the Egyptian arms for twenty-nine years;
and though it fell at last, the prospect of half-a-dozen such sieges was
not encouraging. Psamatik, moreover, was an old man by the time that the
Assyrian Empire fell to pieces, and we can understand his shrinking from
a distant and dangerous expedition. He left the field open for his son,
Neco, having in no way committed him, but having secured for him a ready
entrance into Asia by his conquest of the Philistine fortress.
Neco, the son of Psamatik I., from the moment that he ascended the
throne, resolved to make the bold stroke for empire from which his
father had held back. Regarding his mercenary army as a sufficient land
force, he concentrated his energies on the enlargement and improvement
of his navy, which was weak in numbers and of antiquated construction.
Naval architecture had recently made great strides, first by the
inventiveness of the Phœnicians, who introduced the bireme, and then by
the skill of the Greeks, who, improving on the hint furnished them,
constructed the trireme. Neco, by the help of Greek artificers, built
two fleets, both composed of triremes, one in the ports which opened on
the Red Sea, the other in those upon the Mediterranean. He then, with
the object of uniting the two fleets into one, when occasion should
require, made an attempt to re-open the canal between the Nile and the
Red Sea, which had been originally constructed by Seti I. and Ramesses
II., but had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The Nile mud and the
desert sand had combined to silt it up. Neco commenced excavations on a
large scale, following the line of the old cutting, but greatly widening
it, so that triremes might meet in it and pass each other, without
shipping their oars. After a time, however, he felt compelled to desist,
without effecting his purpose, owing to an extraordinary mortality among
the labourers. According to Herodotus, 120,000 of them perished. At any
rate, the suffering and loss of life, probably by epidemics, was such as
induced him to relinquish his project, and to turn his thoughts toward
gaining his end in another way.
[Illustration: HEAD OF NECO.]
Might not Nature have herself established a water communication between
the two seas by which Egypt was washed? It was well known that the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea both communicated with an open ocean, and
it was the universal teaching of the Greek geographers, that the ocean
flowed round the whole earth. Neco determined to try whether Africa was
not circumnavigable. Manning some ships with Phœnician mariners, as the
boldest and most experienced, accustomed to brave the terrors of the
Atlantic outside the Pillars of Hercules, he dispatched them from a port
on the Red Sea, with orders to sail southwards, keeping the coast of
Africa on their right, and see if they could not return to Egypt by way
of the Mediterranean. The enterprise succeeded. The ships, under the
skilful guidance of the Phœnicians, anticipated the feat of Vasco di
Gama--rounded the Cape of Storms, and returned by way of the Atlantic,
the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean to the land from which
they had set out. But they did not reach Egypt _till the third year_.
The success obtained was thus of no practical value, so far as the
Pharaoh's warlike projects were concerned. He had to relinquish the
idea of uniting his two fleets in one, owing to the length of the way
and the dangers of the navigation.
He had, however, no mind to relinquish his warlike projects, Syria,
Phœnicia, and Palestine were still in an unsettled state, the yoke of
Assyria being broken, and that of Babylon not yet firmly fixed on them.
Josiah was taking advantage of the opportunity to extend his authority
over Samaria. Phœnicia was hesitating whether to submit to Nabopolassar
or to assert her freedom. The East generally was In a ferment. Neco in
B.C. 608, determined to make his venture. At the head of a large army,
consisting mainly of his mercenaries, he took the coast route into
Syria, supported by his Mediterranean fleet along the shore, and
proceeding through the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon, prepared to
cross the ridge of hills which shuts in on the south the great plain of
Esdraëlon; but here he found his passage barred by an army. Josiah,
either because he feared that, if Neco were successful, his own position
would be imperilled, or because he had entered into engagements with
Nabopolassar, had resolved to oppose the further progress of the
Egyptian army, and had occupied a strong position near Megiddo, on the
southern verge of the plain. In vain did Neco seek to persuade him to
retire, and leave the passage free. Josiah was obstinate, and a battle
became unavoidable. As was to be expected, the Jewish army suffered
complete defeat; Neco swept it from his path, and pursued his way, while
Josiah mortally wounded, was conveyed in his reserve chariot to
Jerusalem. The triumphant Pharaoh pushed forward into Syria and carried
all before him as far as Carchemish on the Euphrates. The whole country
submitted to him. After a campaign which lasted three months, Neco
returned in triumph to his own land, carrying with him Jehoahaz, the
second son of Josiah, as a prisoner, and leaving Jehoiakim, the eldest
son, as tributary monarch, at Jerusalem.
For three years Egypt enjoyed the sense of triumph, and felt herself
once more a conquering power, capable of contending on equal terms with
any state or kingdom that the world contained. But then Nemesis swooped
down on her. In B.C. 605 Nabopolassar of Babylon woke up to a
consciousness of his loss of prestige, and determined on an effort to
retrieve it. Too old to undertake a distant campaign in person, he
placed his son, Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of his troops, and sent him
into Syria to recover the lost provinces. Neco met him on the Euphrates.
A great battle was fought at Carchemish between the forces of Egypt and
Babylon, in which the former suffered a terrible defeat. We have no
historical account of it, but may gratefully accept, instead, the
prophetic description of Jeremiah:--
"Order ye the buckler and the shield, and draw ye near to battle;
Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen,
and stand forth with your helmets;
Furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
Wherefore have I seen them dismayed, and turned away backward?
And their mighty ones are beaten down, and fled apace,
and look not behind them;
For fear is round about, saith Jehovah.
Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape;
They shall stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.
Who is this that cometh up as a flood [like the Nile],
whose waters are moved as the rivers?
Egypt rises up as a flood [like the Nile],
and his waters are moved as the rivers;
And he saith, I will go up, and I will cover the earth;
I will destroy the city, with its inhabitants.
Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots;
and let the mighty men come forth;
Cush and Phut, that handle the shield,
and Lud that handles and bends the bow.
For this is the day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
a day of vengeance, that he may smite his foes;
And the sword shall devour, and be made satiate and drunk with blood;
For the Lord, the Lord of Hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country,
by the river Euphrates.
Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain shalt thou use many medicines; to thee no cure shall come.
The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land;
For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty,
and both are fallen together."[29]
The disaster was utter, complete, not to be remedied--the only thing to
be done was to "fly apace," to put the desert and the Nile between the
vanquished and the victors, and to deprecate the conqueror's anger by
submission. Neco gave up the contest, evacuated Syria and Palestine, and
hastily sought the shelter of his own land, whither Nebuchadnezzar would
probably have speedily followed him, had not news arrived of his
father's, Nabopolassar's, death. To secure the succession, he had to
return, as quickly as he could, to Babylon, and to allow the Egyptian
monarch, at any rate, a breathing space.