The core of the walls was of burnt bricks, similar to those employed in

the Euphrates valley, but these were covered with a facing of enamelled

tiles, disposed as a skirting or a frieze, on which figured those

wonderful processions of archers, and the lions which now adorn the

Louvre, while the pilasters at the angles, the columns, pillars,

window-frames, and staircases were of fine white limestone or of hard

bluish-grey marble.

[Illustration: 262.jpg ONE OF THE CAPITALS FROM SUSA]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the Louvre by

Faucher-Gudin.

[Illustration: 262b.jpg FREIZE OF ARCHERS AT SUZA]

[Illustration: 263.jpg GENERAL RUINS OF PERSIPOLIS]

The doorways are high and narrow; the moulding which frames them

is formed of three Ionic fillets, each projecting beyond the other,

surmounted by a coved Egyptian lintel springing from a row of alternate

eggs and disks. The framing of the doors is bare, but the embrasures are

covered with bas-reliefs representing various scenes in which the king

is portrayed fulfilling his royal functions--engaged in struggles with

evil genii which have the form of lions or fabulous animals, occupied in

hunting, granting audiences, or making an entrance in state, shaded by

an umbrella which is borne by a eunuch behind him. The columns employed

in this style of architecture constitute its most original feature.

The base of them usually consists of two mouldings, resting either on

a square pedestal or on a cylindrical drum, widening out below into a

bell-like curve, and sometimes ornamented with several rows of inverted

leaves. The shafts, which have forty-eight perpendicular ribs cut on

their outer surface, are perhaps rather tall in proportion to their

thickness. They terminate in a group of large leaves, an evident

imitation of the Egyptian palm-leaf capital, from which spring a sort of

rectangular fluted die or abacus, flanked on either side with four rows

of volutes curved in opposite directions, generally two at the base and

two at the summit. The heads and shoulders of two bulls, placed back to

back, project above the volutes, and take the place of the usual abacus

of the capital. The dimensions of these columns, their gracefulness, and

the distance at which they were placed from one another, prove that they

supported not a stone architrave, but enormous beams of wood, which

were inserted between the napes of the bulls’ necks, and upon which the

joists of the roof were superimposed. The palace of Persepolis, built by

Darius after he had crushed the revolts which took place at the outset

of his reign, was situated at the foot of a chain of rugged mountains

which skirt the plain on its eastern side, and was raised on an

irregularly shaped platform or terrace, which was terminated by a wall

of enormous polygonal blocks of masonry. The terrace was reached by

a double flight of steps, the lateral walls of which are covered

with bas-reliefs, representing processions of satellites, slaves, and

tributaries, hunting scenes, fantastic episodes of battle, and lions

fighting with and devouring bulls. The area of the raised platform was

not of uniform level, and was laid out in gardens, in the midst of which

rose the pavilions that served as dwelling-places. The reception-rooms

were placed near the top of the flight of steps, and the more important

of them had been built under the two preceding kings. Those nearest to

the edge of the platform were the propylæ of Xerxes--gigantic entrances

whose gateways were guarded on either side by winged bulls of Assyrian

type; beyond these was the _apadana_, or hall of honour, where the

sovereign presided in state at the ordinary court ceremonies. To the

east of the _apadana_, and almost in the centre of the raised terrace,

rose the Hall of a Hundred Columns, erected by Darius, and used only

on special occasions. Artaxerxes I. seems to have had a particular

affection for Susa. It had found favour with his predecessors, and they

had so frequently resided there, even after the building of Persepolis,

that it had continued to be regarded as the real capital of the empire

by other nations, whereas the Persian sovereigns themselves had sought

to make it rather an impregnable retreat than a luxurious residence.

Artaxerxes built there an _apadana_ on a vaster scale than any hitherto

designed.

[Illustration: 267.jpg THE PROPYLAEA OF XERXES I. AT PERSEPOLIS]

Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Marcel Dieulafoy.

It comprised three colonnades, which, taken together, formed a rectangle

measuring 300 feet by 250 feet on the two sides, the area being

approximately that of the courtyard of the Louvre. The central

colonnade, which was the largest of the three, was enclosed by walls on

three sides, but was open to the south. Immense festoons of drapery hung

from the wooden entablature, and curtains, suspended from rods between

the first row of columns, afforded protection from the sun and from the

curiosity of the vulgar.

[Illustration: 268.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF THE STAIRCASE LEADING TO THE

APADANA OF XERXES]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Marcel Dieulafoy.

At the hour appointed for the ceremonies, the great king took his seat

in solitary grandeur on the gilded throne of the Achæmenids; at the

extreme end of the colonnade his eunuchs, nobles, and guards ranged

themselves in silence on either side, each in the place which etiquette

assigned to him. Meanwhile the foreign ambassadors who had been honoured

by an invitation to the audience--Greeks from Thebes, Sparta, or Athens;

Sakae from the regions of the north; Indians, Arabs, nomad chiefs from

mysterious Ethiopia-ascended in procession the flights of steps which

led from the town to the palace, bearing the presents destined for its

royal master.

[Illustration: 269.jpg THE KING ON HIS THRONE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Plandin and Coste.

Having reached the terrace, the curtains of the _apadana_ were suddenly

parted, and in the distance, through a vista of columns, they perceived

a motionless figure, resplendent with gold and purple, before whom

they fell prostrate with their faces to the earth. The heralds were

the bearers of their greetings, and brought back to them a gracious or

haughty reply, as the case may be. When they rose from the ground, the

curtains had closed, the kingly vision was eclipsed, and the escort

which had accompanied them into the palace conducted them back to the

town, dazzled with the momentary glimpse of the spectacle vouchsafed to

them.

[Illustration: 270.jpg A VIEW OF THE APADANA OF SUSA, RESTORED]

Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Marcel Dieulafoy.

The Achæemenian monarchs were not regarded as gods or as sons of gods,

like the Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Persian religion forbade their

ever becoming so, but the person of the king was hedged round with such

ceremonial respect as in other Oriental nations was paid only to the

gods: this was but natural, for was he not a despot, who with a word

or gesture could abase the noblest of his subjects, and determine the

well-being or misery of his people? His dress differed from that of his

nobles only by the purple dye of its material and the richness of the

gold embroideries with which it was adorned, but he was distinguished

from all others by the peculiar felt cap, or _kidaris_, which he wore,

and the blue-and-white band which encircled it like a crown; the king

is never represented without his long sceptre with pommelled handle,

whether he be sitting or standing, and wherever he went he was attended

by his umbrella- and fan-bearers. The prescriptions of court etiquette

were such as to convince his subjects and persuade himself that he was

sprung from a nobler race than that of any of his magnates, and that he

was outside the pale of ordinary humanity. The greater part of his

time was passed in privacy, where he was attended only by the eunuchs

appointed to receive his orders; and these orders, once issued, were

irrevocable, as was also the king’s word, however much he might desire

to recall a promise once made. His meals were, as a rule, served to him

alone; he might not walk on foot beyond the precincts of the palace, and

he never showed himself in public except on horseback or in his chariot,

surrounded by his servants and his guards. The male members of the royal

family and those belonging to the six noble houses enjoyed the privilege

of approaching the king at any hour of the day or night, provided he was

not in the company of one of his wives. These privileged persons formed

his council, which he convoked on important occasions, but all ordinary

business was transacted by means of the scribes and inferior officials,

on whom devolved the charge of the various departments of the

government. A vigorous ruler, such as Darius had proved himself,

certainly trusted no one but himself to read the reports sent in by the

satraps, the secretaries, and the generals, or to dictate the answers

required by each; but Xerxes and Artaxerxes delegated the heaviest part

of such business to their ministers, and they themselves only fulfilled

such state functions as it was impossible to shirk--the public

administration of justice, receptions of ambassadors or victorious

generals, distributions of awards, annual sacrifices, and state

banquets: they were even obliged, in accordance with an ancient and

inviolable tradition, once a year to set aside their usual sober habits

and drink to excess on the day of the feast of Mithra. Occasionally they

would break through their normal routine of life to conduct in person

some expedition of small importance, directed against one of the

semi-independent tribes of Iran, such as the Cadusians, but their

most glorious and frequent exploits were confined to the chase. They

delighted to hunt the bull, the wild boar, the deer, the wild ass, and

the hare, as the Pharaohs or Assyrian kings of old had done; and they

would track the lion to his lair and engage him single-handed; in fact,

they held a strict monopoly in such conflicts, a law which punished with

death any huntsman who had the impertinence to interpose between the

monarch and his prey being only abolished by Artaxerxes. A crowd of

menials, slaves, great nobles, and priests filled the palace; grooms,

stool-bearers, umbrella- and fan-carriers, _havasses_, “Immortals,”

bakers, perfumers, soldiers, and artisans formed a retinue so numerous

as to require a thousand bullocks, asses, and stags to be butchered

every day for its maintenance; and when the king made a journey in full

state, this enormous train looked like an army on the march. The women

of the royal harem lived in seclusion in a separate wing of the palace,

or in isolated buildings erected in the centre of the gardens. The

legitimate wives of the sovereign were selected from the ladies of

the royal house, the sisters or cousins of the king, and from the six

princely Persian families; but their number were never very large,

usually three or four at most.*

* Cambyses had had three wives, including his two sisters

Atossa and Roxana. Darius had four wives--two daughters of

Cyrus, Atossa and Artystônê, Parmys daughter of Srnerdis,

and a daughter of Otanes.

The concubines, on the other hand, were chosen from all classes of

society, and were counted by hundreds.

[Illustration: 273.jpg PROCESSIONAL DISPLAY OF TRIBUTE BROUGHT TO THE

KING OF PERSIA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from plates in Flandin and Coste.

They sang or played on musical instruments at the state banquets of the

court, they accompanied their master to the battle-field or the chase,

and probably performed the various inferior domestic duties in the

interior of the harem, such as spinning, weaving, making perfumes, and

attending to the confectionery and cooking. Each of the king’s wives

had her own separate suite of apartments and special attendants, and

occupied a much higher position than a mere concubine; but only one was

actually queen and had the right to wear the crown, and this position

belonged of right to a princess of Achæ-menian race. Thus Atossa,

daughter of Cyrus, was queen successively to Cambyses, Gaumâta, and

Darius; Amestris to Xerxes; and Damaspia to Artaxerxes. Besides the

influence naturally exerted by the queen over the mind of her husband,

she often acquired boundless authority in the empire, in spite of her

secluded life.*

* Thus Atossa induced Darius to designate Xerxes as his

heir-apparent.

Her power was still further increased when she became a widow, if the

new king happened to be one of her own sons. In such circumstances she

retained the external attributes of royalty, sitting at the royal

table whenever the king deigned to dine in the women’s apartments, and

everywhere taking precedence of the young queen; she was attended by her

own body of eunuchs, of whom, as well as of her private revenues,

she had absolute control. Those whom the queen-mother took under her

protection escaped punishment, even though they richly deserved it,

but the object of her hatred was doomed to perish in the end, either by

poison treacherously administered, or by some horrible form of torture,

being impaled, suffocated in ashes, tortured in the trough, or flayed

alive. Artaxerxes reigned for forty-two years, spending his time between

the pleasures of the chase and the harem; no serious trouble disturbed

his repose after his suppression of the revolt under Megabyzos, but on

his death in 424 B.C. there was a renewal of the intrigues and ambitious

passions which had stained with bloodshed the opening years of his

reign. The legitimate heir, Xerxes II., was assassinated, after a reign

of forty-five days, by Secudianus (Sogdianus), one of his illegitimate

brothers, and the _cortège_ which was escorting the bodies of his

parents conveyed his also to the royal burying-place at Persepolis.

Meanwhile Secudianus became suspicious of another of his brothers,

named Ochus, whom Artaxerxes had caused to marry Parysatis, one of the

daughters of Xerxes, and whom he had set over the important province of

Hyrcania. Ochus received repeated summonses to appear in his brother’s

presence to pay him homage, and at last obeyed the mandate, but arrived

at the head of an army. The Persian nobility rose at his approach, and

one by one the chief persons of the state declared themselves in his

favour: first Arbarius, commander of the cavalry; then Arxanes, the

satrap of Egypt; and lastly, the eunuch Artoxares, the ruler of

Armenia. These three all combined in urging Ochus to assume the _Edaris_

publicly, which he, with feigned reluctance, consented to do, and

proceeded, at the suggestion of Parysatis, to open negotiations with

Secudianus, offering to divide the regal power with him. Secudianus

accepted the offer, against the advice of his minister Menostanes, and

gave himself up into the hands of the rebels. He was immediately seized

and cast into the ashes, where he perished miserably, after a reign of

six months and fifteen days.

On ascending the throne, Ochus assumed the name of Darius. His

confidential advisers were three eunuchs, who ruled the empire in his

name--Artoxares, who had taken such a prominent part in the campaign

which won him the crown, Artibarzanes, and Athôos; but the guiding

spirit of his government was, in reality, his wife, the detestable

Parysatis. She had already borne him two children before she became

queen; a daughter, Amestris, and a son, Arsaces, who afterwards became

king under the name of Artaxerxes. Soon after the accession of her

husband, she bore him a second son, whom she named Cyrus, in memory

of the founder of the empire, and a daughter, Artostê; several other

children were born subsequently, making thirteen in all, but these all

died in childhood, except one named Oxendras. Violent, false, jealous,

and passionately fond of the exercise of power, Parysatis hesitated at

no crime to rid herself of those who thwarted her schemes, even though

they might be members of her own family; and, not content with putting

them out of the way, she delighted in making them taste her hatred to

the full, by subjecting them to the most skilfully graduated refinements

of torture; she deservedly left behind her the reputation of being one

of the most cruel of all the cruel queens, whose memory was a terror not

only to the harems of Persia, but to the whole of the Eastern world.

The numerous revolts which broke out soon after her husband’s accession,

furnished occasions for the revelation of her perfidious cleverness.

All the malcontents of the reign of Artaxerxes, those who had

been implicated in the murder of Xerxes II., or who had sided with

Secudianus, had rallied round a younger brother of Darius, named

Arsites, and one of them, Artyphios, son of Megabyzos, took the field in

Asia Minor. Being supported by a large contingent of Greek mercenaries,

he won two successive victories at the opening of the campaign, but was

subsequently defeated, though his forces still remained formidable. But

Persian gold accomplished what Persian bravery had failed to achieve,

and prevailed over the mercenaries so successfully that all deserted him

with the exception of three Milesians.

[Illustration: 276.jpg Darius II.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the

_Cabinet des Médailles._

Artyphios and Arsites, thus discouraged, committed the imprudence of

capitulating on condition of receiving a promise that their lives should

be spared, and that they should be well treated; but Parysatis persuaded

her husband to break his plighted word, and they perished in the ashes.

Their miserable fate did not discourage the satrap of Lydia, Pissuthnes,

who was of Achæmenian race: he entered the lists in 418 B.C., with the

help of the Athenians. The relations between the Persian empire and

Greece had continued fairly satisfactory since the peace of 449

B.C., and the few outbreaks which had taken place had not led to any

widespread disturbance. The Athenians, absorbed in their quarrel with

Sparta, preferred to close their eyes to all side issues, lest the

Persians should declare war against them, and the satraps of Asia Minor,

fully alive to the situation, did not hesitate to take advantage of any

pretext for recovering a part of the territory they coveted: it was thus

that they had seized Colophon about 430 B.C., and so secured once more a

port on the Ægean. Darius despatched to oppose Pissuthnes a man of noble

birth, named Tissaphernes, giving him plenary power throughout the whole

of the peninsula, and Tissaphernes endeavoured to obtain by treachery

the success he would with difficulty have won on the field of battle: he

corrupted by his darics Lycon, the commander of the Athenian contingent,

and Pissuthnes, suddenly abandoned by his best auxiliaries, was forced

to surrender at discretion. He also was suffocated in the ashes, and

Darius bestowed his office on Tissaphernes.

But the punishment of Pissuthnes did not put an end to the troubles:

his son Amorges roused Caria to revolt, and with the title of king

maintained his independence for some years longer. While these incidents

were taking place, the news of the disasters in Sicily reached the East:

as soon as it was known in Susa that Athens had lost at Syracuse the

best part of her fleet and the choicest of her citizens, the moment was

deemed favourable to violate the treaty and regain control of the whole

of Asia Minor. Two noteworthy men were at that time set over the

western satrapies, Tissaphernes ruling at Sardes, and Tiribazus over

Hellespontine Phrygia. These satraps opened negotiations with Sparta

at the beginning of 412 B.C., and concluded a treaty with her at

Miletus itself, by the terms of which the Peloponnesians recognised the

suzerainty of Darius over all the territory once held by his ancestors

in Asia, including the cities since incorporated into the Athenian

league. They hoped shortly to be strong enough to snatch from him what

they now ceded, and to set free once more the Greeks whom they thus

condemned to servitude after half a century of independence, but their

expectations were frustrated. The towns along the coast fell one after

another into the power of Tissaphernes, Amorges was taken prisoner in

lassos, and at the beginning of 411 B.C. there remained to the Athenians

in Ionia and Caria merely the two ports of Halicarnassus and Notium, and

the three islands of Cos, Samos, and Lesbos: from that time the power of

the great king increased from year to year, and weighed heavily on the

destinies of Greece. Meanwhile Darius II. was growing old, and intrigues

with regard to the succession were set on foot. Two of his sons put

forward claims to the throne: Arsaces had seniority in his favour, but

had been born when his father was still a mere satrap; Cyrus, on the

contrary, had been born in the purple, and his mother Parysatis

was passionately devoted to him.* Thanks to her manouvres, he was

practically created viceroy of Asia Minor in 407 B.C., with such

abundant resources of men and money at his disposal, that he was

virtually an independent sovereign. While he was consolidating his

power in the west, his mother endeavoured to secure his accession to the

throne by intriguing at the court of the aged king; if her plans failed,

Cyrus was prepared to risk everything by an appeal to arms.

* Cyrus was certainly not more than seventeen years old in

407 B.C., evening admitting that he was born immediately

after his father’s accession in 424-3 B.C.

[Illustration: 279.jpg CYRUS THE YOUNGER]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the

_Cabinet des Médailles_.

He realised that the Greeks would prove powerful auxiliaries in such

a contingency; and as soon as he had set up his court at Sardes, he

planned how best to conciliate their favour, or at least to win over

those whose support was likely to be most valuable. Athens, as a

maritime power, was not in a position to support him in an enterprise

which especially required the co-operation of a considerable force of

heavily armed infantry. He therefore deliberately espoused the cause

of the Peloponnesians, and the support he gave them was not without its

influence on the issue of the struggle: the terrible day of Ægos Potamos

was a day of triumph for him as much as for the Lacedaemonians (405

B.C.).

His intimacy with Lysander, however, his constant enlistments of

mercenary troops, and his secret dealings with the neighbouring

provinces, had already aroused suspicion, and the satraps placed under

his orders, especially Tissaphernes, accused him to the king of treason.

Darius summoned him to Susa to explain his conduct (405 B.C.), and he

arrived just in time to be present at his father’s death (404), but

too late to obtain his designation as heir to the throne through the

intervention of his mother, Parysatis; Arsaces inherited the crown, and

assumed the name of Artaxerxes.

[Illustration: 280.jpg ARTAXERXES MNEMON]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des

Médailles. This coin, which was struck at Mallos, in

Cilicia, bears as a counter-mark the figure of a bull and

the name of the city of Issus.

Cyrus entered the temple of Pasargadae surreptitiously during the

coronation ceremony, with the intention of killing his brother at the

foot of the altar; but Tissaphernes, warned by one of the priests,

denounced him, and he would have been put to death on the spot, had not

his mother thrown her arms around him and prevented the executioner from

fulfilling his office. Having with difficulty obtained pardon and been

sent back to his province, he collected thirty thousand Greeks and a

hundred thousand native troops, and, hastily leaving Sardes (401 B.C.),

he crossed Asia Minor, Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, encountered the

royal army at Cunaxa, to the north of Babylon, and rashly met his end

at the very moment of victory. He was a brave, active, and generous

prince, endowed with all the virtues requisite to make a good Oriental

monarch, and he had, moreover, learnt, through contact with the Greeks,

to recognise the weak points of his own nation, and was fully determined

to remedy them: his death, perhaps, was an irreparable misfortune for

his country. Had he survived and supplanted the feeble Artaxerxes, it is

quite possible that he might have confirmed and strengthened the power

of Persia, or, at least, temporarily have arrested its decline. Having

lost their leader, his Asiatic followers at once dispersed; but the

mercenaries did not lose heart, and, crossing Asia and Armenia, gained

at length the shores of the Black Sea. Up to that time the Greeks had

looked upon Persia as a compact state, which they were sufficiently

powerful to conquer by sea and hold in check by land, but which

they could not, without imprudence, venture to attack within its own

frontiers. The experience of the Ten Thousand was a proof to them that

a handful of men, deprived of their proper generals, without guides,

money, or provisions, might successfully oppose the overwhelming forces

of the great king, and escape from his clutches without any serious

difficulty. National discords prevented them from at once utilising

the experience they thus acquired, but the lesson was not lost upon

the court of Susa. The success of Lysander had been ensured by Persian

subsidies, and now Sparta hesitated to fulfil the conditions of the

treaty of Miletus; the Lacedæmonians demanded liberty once more for the

former allies of Athens, fostered the war in Asia in order to enforce

their claims, and their king Agesilaus, penetrating to the very heart of

Phrygia, would have pressed still further forward in the tracks of the

Ten Thousand, had not an opportune diversion been created in his rear by

the bribery of the Persians. Athens once more flew to arms: her fleet,

in conjunction with the Phoenicians, took possession of Cythera; the

Long Walls were rebuilt at the expense of the great king, and Sparta,

recalled by these reverses to a realisation of her position, wisely

abandoned her inclination for distant enterprises. Asia Minor was

reconquered, and Persia passed from the position of a national enemy

to that of the friend and arbiter of Greece; but she did so by force of

circumstances only, and not from having merited in any way the supremacy

she attained. Her military energy, indeed, was far from being exhausted;

but poor Artaxerxes, bewildered by the rivalries between his mother and

his wives, did not know how to make the most of the immense resources

still at his disposal, and he met with repeated checks as soon as he

came face to face with a nation and leaders who refused to stoop to

treachery. He had no sooner recovered possession of the Ægean littoral

than Egypt was snatched from his grasp by a new Pharaoh who had arisen

in the Nile valley. The peace had not been seriously disturbed in Egypt

during the forty years which had elapsed since the defeat of Inarus.

Satrap had peaceably succeeded satrap in the fortress of Memphis;

the exhaustion of Libya had pre-vented any movement on the part of

Thannyras; the aged Amyrtæus had passed from the scene, and his son,

Pausiris, bent his neck submissively to the Persian yoke. More than

once, however, unexpected outbursts had shown that the fires of

rebellion were still smouldering. A Psammetichus, who reigned about 445

B.C. in a corner of the Delta, had dared to send corn and presents to

the Athenians, then at war with Artaxerxes I., and the second year of

Darius II. had been troubled by a sanguinary sedition, which, however,

was easily suppressed by the governor then in power; finally, about

410 B.C., a king of Egypt had, not without some show of evidence,

laid himself open to the charge of sending a piratical expedition into

Phoenician waters, an Arab king having contributed to the enterprise.*

* The revolt mentioned by Ctesias has nothing to do with the

insurrection of the satrap of Egypt which is here referred

to, the date of which is furnished by the Syncellus.

It was easy to see, moreover, from periodical revolts--such as that of

Megabyzos in Syria, those of Artyphios and Arsites, of Pissuthnes and

Amorges in Asia Minor--with what impunity the wrath of the great king

could be defied: it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that, about

405 B.C., an enemy should appear in the heart of the Delta in the person

of a grandson and namesake of Amyrtæus. He did not at first rouse the

whole country to revolt, for Egyptian troops were still numbered in the

army of Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C.; but he succeeded

in establishing a regular native government, and struggled so resolutely

against the foreign domination that the historians of the sacred

colleges inscribed his name on the list of the Pharaohs. He is there

made to represent a whole dynasty, the XXVIIIth which lasted six years,

coincident with the six years of his reign. It was due to a Mendesian

dynasty, however, whose founder was Nephorites, that Egypt obtained its

entire freedom, and was raised once more to the rank of a nation. This

dynasty from the very outset adopted the policy which had proved so

successful in the case of the Saites three centuries previously, and

employed it with similar success. Egypt had always been in the position

of a besieged fortress, which needed, for its complete security, that

its first lines of defence should be well in advance of its citadel: she

must either possess Syria or win her as an ally, if she desired to be

protected against all chance of sudden invasion. Nephorites and his

successors, therefore, formed alliances beyond the isthmus, and even on

the other side of the Mediterranean, with Cyprus, Caria, and Greece, in

one case to purchase support, and in another to re-establish the ancient

supremacy exercised by the Theban Pharaohs.*

* This is, at any rate, the idea given of him by Egyptian

tradition in the time of the Ptolemies, as results from a

passage in the _Demotic Rhapsody_, where his reign is

mentioned.

Every revolt against the Persians, every quarrel among the satraps,

helped forward their cause, since they compelled the great king to

suspend his attacks against Egypt altogether or to prosecute them at

wide intervals: the Egyptians therefore fomented such quarrels, or even,

at need, provoked them, and played their game so well that for a long

time they had to oppose only a fraction of the Persian forces. Like the

Saite Pharaohs before them, they were aware how little reliance could

be placed on native troops, and they recruited their armies at great

expense from the European Greeks. This occurred at the time when

mercenary forces were taking the place of native levies throughout

Hellas, and war was developing into a lucrative trade for those who

understood how to conduct it: adventurers, greedy for booty, flocked

to the standards of the generals who enjoyed the best reputation for

kindness or ability, and the generals themselves sold their services

to the highest bidder. The Persian kings took large advantage of this

arrangement to procure troops: the Pharaohs imitated their example, and

in the years which followed, the most experienced captains, Iphicrates,

Chabrias, and Timotheus, passed from one camp to another, as often

against the will as with the consent of their fatherland. The power of

Sparta was at her zenith when Nephorites ascended the throne, and she

was just preparing for her expedition to Phrygia. The Pharaoh concluded

an alliance with the Lacedomonians, and in 396 B.C. sent to Agesilaus

a fleet laden with arms, corn, and supplies, which, however, was

intercepted by Conon, who was at that moment cruising in the direction

of Rhodes in command of the Persian squadron. This misadventure and the

abrupt retreat of the Spartans from Asia Minor cooled the good will of

the Egyptian king towards his allies. Thinking that they had abandoned

him, and that he was threatened with an imminent attack on the shore

of the Delta, he assembled, probably at Pelusium, the forces he had

apparently intended for a distant enterprise.

Matters took longer to come to a crisis than he had expected. The

retreat of Agesilaus had not pacified the Ægean satrapies; after the

disturbance created by Cyrus the Younger, the greater number of the

native tribes--Mysians, Pisidians, people of Pontus and Paphlagonia--had

shaken off the Persian yoke, and it was a matter of no small difficulty

to reduce them once more to subjection. Their incessant turbulence gave

Egypt time to breathe and to organise new combinations. Cyprus entered

readily into her designs. Since the subjugation of that island in 445

B.C., the Greek cities had suffered terrible oppression at the hands of

the great king. Artaxerxes I., despairing of reducing them to obedience,

depended exclusively for support on the Phoenician inhabitants of the

island, who, through his favour, regained so much vigour that in the

space of less than two generations they had recovered most of the ground

lost during the preceding centuries: Semitic rulers replaced the Achaean

tyrants at Salamis, and in most of the other cities, and Citium became

what it had been before the rise of Salamis, the principal commercial

centre in the island. Evagoras, a descendant of the ancient kings,

endeavoured to retrieve the Grecian cause: after driving out of Salamis

Abdemon, its Tyrian ruler, he took possession of all the other towns

except Citium and Amathus. This is not the place to recount the

brilliant part played by Evagoras, in conjunction with Conon, during the

campaigns against the Spartans in the Peloponnesian war. The activity he

then displayed and the ambitious designs he revealed soon drew upon him

the dislike of the Persian governors and their sovereign; and from

391 B.C. he was at open war with Persia. He would have been unable,

single-handed, to maintain the struggle for any length of time, but

Egypt and Greece were at his back, ready to support him with money or

arms. Hakoris had succeeded Nephorites I. in 393 B.C.,* and had repulsed

an attack of Artaxerxes between 390 and 386.**

* The length of the reign of Nephorites I. is fixed at six

years by the lists of Manetho; the last-known date of his

reign is that of his fourth year, on a mummy-bandage

preserved in the Louvre.

** This war is alluded to by several ancient authors in

passages which have been brought together and explained by

Judeah; but unfortunately the detailed history of the

events is not known.

He was not unduly exalted by his success, and had immediately taken wise

precautions in view of a second invasion. After safeguarding his western

frontier by concluding a treaty with the Libyans of Barca, he entered

into an alliance with Evagoras and the Athenians.

[Illustration: 287.jpg HAKORIS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.

He sent lavish gifts of corn to the Cypriots, as well as munitions of

war, ships, and money while Athens sent them several thousand men under

the command of Chabrias; not only did an expedition despatched

against them under Autophradates fail miserably, but Evagoras seized

successively Citium and Amathus, and, actually venturing across the sea,

took Tyre by assault and devastated Phoenicia and Cilicia. The princes

of Asia Minor were already preparing for revolt, and one of them,

Hecatomnus of Caria, had openly joined the allies, when Sparta suddenly

opened negotiations with Persia: Antalcidas presented himself at Susa

to pay homage before the throne of the great king. The treaty of Miletus

had brought the efforts of Athens to naught, and sold the Asiatic

Greeks to their oppressors: the peace obtained by Antalcidas effaced the

results of Salamis and Platsæ, and laid European Greece prostrate at

the feet of her previously vanquished foes. An order issuing from the

centre of Persia commanded the cities of Greece to suspend hostilities

and respect each other’s liberties; the issuing of such an order was

equivalent to treating them as vassals whose quarrels it is the function

of the suzerain to repress, but they nevertheless complied with the

command (387 B.C.), Artaxerxes, relieved from anxiety for the moment,

as to affairs on the Ægean, was now free to send his best generals into

the rebel countries, and such was the course his ministers recommended.

Evagoras was naturally the first to be attacked. Cyprus was, in fact, an

outpost of Egypt; commanding as she did the approach by sea, she was in

a position to cut the communications of any army, which, issuing from

Palestine, should march upon the Delta. Artaxerxes assembled three

hundred thousand foot-soldiers and three hundred triremes under the

command of Tiribazus, and directed the whole force against the island.

At first the Cypriot cruisers intercepted the convoys which were

bringing provisions for this large force, and by so doing reduced the

invaders to such straits that sedition broke out in their camp; but

Evagoras was defeated at sea off the promontory of Citium, and

his squadron destroyed. He was not in any way discouraged by this

misfortune, but leaving his son, Pnytagoras, to hold the barbarian

forces in check, he hastened to implore the help of the Pharaoh (385

B.C.). But Hakoris was too much occupied with securing his own immediate

safety to risk anything in so desperate an enterprise. Evagoras was

able to bring back merely an insufficient subsidy; he shut himself up

in Salamis, and there maintained the conflict for some years longer.

Meanwhile Hakoris, realising that the submission of Cyprus would oppose

his flank to attack, tried to effect a diversion in Asia Minor, and by

entering into alliance with the Pisidians, then in open insurrection, he

procured for it a respite, of which he himself took advantage to prepare

for the decisive struggle. The peace effected by Antalcidas had left

most of the mercenary soldiers of Greece without employment. Hakoris

hired twenty thousand of them, and the Phoenician admirals, still

occupied in blockading the ports of Cyprus, failed to intercept the

vessels which brought him these reinforcements. It was fortunate for

Egypt that they did so, for the Pharaoh died in 381 B.C., and his

successors, Psamuthis IL, Mutis, and Nephorites IL, each occupied the

throne for a very short time, and the whole country was in confusion for

rather more than two years (381-379 B.c.) during the settlement of the

succession.*

* Hakoris reigned thirteen years, from 393 to 381 B.C. The

reigns of the three succeeding kings occupied only two years

and four months between them, from the end of 381 to the

beginning of 378. Muthes or Mutis, who is not mentioned in

all the lists of Manetho, seems to have his counterpart in

the _Demotic Rhapsody_. Wiedemann has inverted the order

usually adopted, and proposed the following series:

Nephorites I., Muthes, Psamuthis, Hakoris, Nephorites II.

The discovery at Karnak of a small temple where Psamuthis

mentions Hakoris as his predecessor shows that on this point

at least Manetho was well informed.

The turbulent disposition of the great feudatory nobles, which had so

frequently brought trouble upon previous Pharaohs during the

Assyrian wars, was no less dangerous in this last century of Egyptian

independence; it caused the fall of the Mendesian dynasty in the very

face of the enemy, and the prince of Sebennytos, Nakht-har-habît,

Nectanebo I., was raised to the throne by the military faction.

According to a tradition current in Ptolemaic times, this sovereign was

a son of Nephorites I., who had been kept out of his heritage by the

jealousy of the gods; whatever his origin, the people had no cause

to repent of having accepted him as their king. He began his reign

by suppressing the slender subsidies which Evagoras had continued to

receive from his predecessors, and this measure, if not generous, was

at least politic. For Cyprus was now virtually in the power of the

Persians, and the blockade of a few thousand men in Salamis did not

draught away a sufficiently large proportion of their effective force to

be of any service to Egypt: the money which had hitherto been devoted to

the Cypriots was henceforth reserved for the direct defence of the Nile

valley. Evagoras obtained unexpectedly favourable conditions: Artaxerxes

conceded to him his title of king and the possession of his city (383

B.C.), and turned his whole attention to Nectanebo, the last of his

enemies who still held out.

Nectanebo had spared no pains in preparing effectively to receive his

foe. He chose as his coadjutor the Athenian Chabrias, whose capacity as

a general had been manifested by recent events, and the latter accepted

this office although he had received no instructions from his government

to do so, and had transformed the Delta into an entrenched camp. He had

fortified the most vulnerable points along the coast, had built towers

at each of the mouths of the river to guard the entrance, and had

selected the sites for his garrison fortresses so judiciously that they

were kept up long after his time to protect the country. Two of them are

mentioned by name: one, situated below Pelusium, called the Castle of

Chabrias; the other, not far from Lake Mareotis, which was known as his

township.*

* Both are mentioned by Strabo; the exact sites of these two

places are not yet identified. Diodorus Siculus, describing

the defensive preparations of Egypt, does not state

expressly that they were the work of Chabrias, but this fact

seems to result from a general consideration of the context.

[Illustration: 291.jpg PHARNABAZUS]

Drawn by faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des

Médailles_.

The Persian generals endeavoured to make their means of attack

proportionate to the defences of the enemy. Acre was the only port in

Southern Syria large enough to form the rendezvous for a fleet, where it

might be secure from storms and surprises of the enemy. This was chosen

as the Persian headquarters, and formed the base of their operations.

During three years they there accumulated supplies of food and military

stores, Phoenician and Creek vessels, and both foreign and native

troops. The rivalries between the military commanders, Tithraustes,

Datâmes, and Abrocomas, and the intrigues of the court, had on several

occasions threatened the ruin of the enterprise, but Pharnabazus, who

from the outset had held supreme command, succeeded in ridding himself

of his rivals, and in the spring of 374 B.C. was at length ready for

the advance. The expedition consisted of two hundred thousand Asiatic

troops, and twenty thousand Greeks, three hundred triremes, two hundred

galleys of thirty oars, and numerous transports. Superiority of numbers

was on the side of the Persians, and that just at the moment when

Nectanebo lost his most experienced general. Artaxerxes had remonstrated

with the Athenians for permitting one of their generals to serve in

Egypt, in spite of their professed friendship for himself, and, besides

insisting on his recall, had requested for himself the services of the

celebrated Iphicrates. The Athenians complied with his demand, and while

summoning Chabrias to return to Athens, despatched Iphicrates to Syria,

where he was placed in command of the mercenary troops. Pharnabazus

ordered a general advance in May, 374 B.C.,* but when he arrived before

Pelusium, he perceived that he was not in a position to take the town

by storm; not only had the fortifications been doubled, but the banks of

the canals had been cut and the approaches inundated. Iphicrates advised

him not to persevere in attempting a regular siege: he contended that it

would be more profitable to detach an expeditionary force towards some

less well-protected point on the coast, and there to make a breach in

the system of defence which protected the enemies’ front.

* As Kenrick justly observes, “the Persian and Athenian

generals committed the same mistake which led to the defeat

of Saint Louis and the capture of his army in 1249 A.D., and

which Bonaparte avoided in his campaign of 1798.” Anyhow, it

seems that the fault must be laid on Pharnabazus alone, and

that Iphicrates was entirely blameless.

Three thousand men were despatched with all secrecy to the mouth of the

Mendesian branch of the Nile, and there disembarked unexpectedly before

the forts which guarded the entrance. The garrison, having imprudently

made a sortie in face of the enemy, was put to rout, and pursued so

hotly that victors and vanquished entered pell-mell within the walls.

[Illustration: 293.jpg ARTAXERXES II.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet

des Médailles_.

After this success victory was certain, if the Persians pursued their

advantage promptly and pushed forward straight into the heart of the

Delta; the moment was the more propitious for such a movement, since

Nectanebo had drained Memphis of troops to protect his frontier.

Iphicrates, having obtained this information from one of the prisoners,

advised Pharnabazus to proceed up the Nile with the fleet, and take

the capital by storm before the enemy should have time to garrison it

afresh; the Persian general, however, considered the plan too hazardous,

and preferred to wait until the entire army should have joined him.

Iphicrates offered to risk the adventure with his body of auxiliary

troops only, but was suspected of harbouring some ambitious design, and

was refused permission to advance. Meanwhile these delays had given the

Egyptians time to recover from their first alarm; they boldly took

the offensive, surrounded the position held by Pharnabazus, and were

victorious in several skirmishes. Summer advanced, the Nile rose more

rapidly than usual, and soon the water encroached upon the land; the

invaders were obliged to beat a retreat before it, and fall back towards

Syria. Iphicrates, disgusted at the ineptitude and suspicion of his

Asiatic colleagues, returned secretly to Greece: the remains of the

army were soon after disbanded, and Egypt once more breathed freely.

The check received by the Persian arms, however, was not sufficiently

notorious to shake that species of supremacy which Artaxerxes had

exercised in Greece since the peace of 387. Sparta, Thebes, and Athens

vied with each other in obtaining an alliance with him as keenly as if

he had been successful before Pelusium. Antalcidas reappeared at Susa in

372 B.C. to procure a fresh act of intervention; Pelopidas and Ismenias,

in 367, begged for a rescript similar to that of Antalcidas; and finally

Athens sent a solemn embassy to entreat for a subsidy. It seemed as if

the great king had become a kind of supreme arbiter for Greece, and that

all the states hitherto leagued against him now came in turn to submit

their mutual differences for his decision. But this arbiter who thus

imposed his will on states beyond the borders of his empire was never

fully master within his own domains. Of gentle nature and pliant

disposition, inclined to clemency rather than to severity, and,

moreover, so lacking in judgment as a general that he had almost

succumbed to an attack by the Cadusians on the only occasion that he

had, in a whim of the moment, undertaken the command of an army in

person, Artaxerxes busied himself with greater zeal in religious reforms

than in military projects. He introduced the rites of Mithra and Anâhita

into the established religion of the state, but he had not the energy

necessary to curb the ambitions of his provincial governors. Asia Minor,

whose revolts followed closely on those of Egypt, rose in rebellion

against him immediately after the campaign on the Nile, Ariobarzanes

heading the rebellion in Phrygia, Datâmes and Aspis that in Cilicia and

Cappadocia, and both defying his power for several years. When at length

they succumbed through treachery, the satraps of the Mediterranean

district, from the Hellespont to the isthmus of Suez, formed a coalition

and simultaneously took the field: the break-up of the empire would have

been complete had not Persian darics been lavishly employed once more in

the affair. Meanwhile Nectanebo had died in 361,* and had been succeeded

by Tachôs.**

* The lists of Manetho assign ten or eighteen years to his

reign. A sarcophagus in Vienna bears the date of his

fifteenth year, and the great inscription of Edfu speaks of

gifts he made to the temple in this town in the eighteenth

year of his reign. The reading eighteen is therefore

preferable to the reading ten in the lists of Manetho; if

the very obscure text of the _Demotic Rhapsody_ really

applies the number nine or ten to the length of the reign,

this reckoning must be explained by some mystic calculations

of the priests of the Ptolemaic epoch.

** The name of this king, written by the Greeks Teôs or

Tachôs, in accordance with the pronunciation of different

Egyptian dialects, has been discovered in hieroglyphic

writing on the external wall of the temple of Khonsu at

Karnak.

The new Pharaoh deemed the occasion opportune to make a diversion

against Persia and to further secure his own safety: he therefore

offered his support to the satraps, who sent Eheomitres as a delegate

to discuss the terms of an offensive and defensive alliance. Having

inherited from Nectanebo a large fleet and a full treasury, Tachôs

entrusted to the ambassador 500 talents of silver, and gave him fifty

ships, with which he cruised along the coast of Asia Minor towards

Leukê. His accomplices were awaiting him there, rejoicing at the success

of his mission, but he himself had no confidence in the final issue of

the struggle, and merely sought how he might enter once more into favour

with the Persian court; he therefore secured his safety by betraying his

associates. He handed over the subsidies and the Egyptian squadron to

Orontes, the satrap of Daskylium, and then seizing the insurgent

chiefs sent them in chains to Susa. These acts of treachery changed

the complexion of affairs; the league suddenly dissolved after the

imprisonment of its leaders, and Arta-xerxes re-established his

authority over Asia Minor.

[Illustration: 296.jpg DATAMES III.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des

Médailles_.

Egypt became once more the principal object of attack, and by the

irony of fate Pharaoh had himself contributed to enrich the coffers and

reinforce the fleet of his foes. In spite of this mischance, however,

circumstances were so much in his favour that he ventured to consider

whether it would not be more advantageous to forestall the foe by

attacking him, rather than passively to await an onslaught behind his

own lines. He had sought the friendship of Athens,* and, though it had

not been granted in explicit terms, the republic had, nevertheless,

permitted Ghabrias to resume his former post at his side.

* The memory of this embassy has been preserved for us by a

decree of the Athenian assembly, unfortunately much

mutilated, which has been assigned to various dates between

362 and 358 B.C. M. Paul Foucart has shown that the date of

the decree must be referred to one of three archon-ships--

the archonship of Callimedes, 360-59; that of Eucharistus,

359-8; or that of Cephisodotus, 358-7^ Without entering into

a discussion of the other evidence on the subject, it seems

to me probable that the embassy may be most conveniently

assigned to the archonship of Callimedes, towards the end of

360 B.C., at the moment when Chabrias had just arrived in

Egypt, and was certain to endeavour to secure the help of

Athens for the king he served.

Chabrias exhorted him to execute his project, and as he had not

sufficient money to defray the expenses of a long campaign outside his

own borders, the Athenian general instructed him how he might procure

the necessary funds. He suggested to him that, as the Egyptian priests

were wealthy, the sums of money annually assigned to them for the

sacrifices and maintenance of the temples would be better employed

in the service of the state, and counselled him to reduce or even to

suppress most of the sacerdotal colleges. The priests secured their own

safety by abandoning their personal property, and the king graciously

deigned to accept their gifts, and then declared to them that in future,

as long as the struggle against Persia continued, he should exact from

them nine-tenths of their sacred revenues. This tax would have sufficed

for all requirements if it had been possible to collect it in full, but

there is no doubt that very soon the priests must have discovered means

of avoiding part of the payment, for it was necessary to resort to other

expedients. Chabrias advised that the poll and house taxes should be

increased; that one obol should be exacted for each “ardeb” of corn

sold, and a tithe levied on the produce of all ship-building yards,

manufactories, and manual industries. Money now poured into the

treasury, but a difficulty arose which demanded immediate solution.

Egypt possessed very little specie, and the natives still employed

barter in the ordinary transactions of life, while the foreign

mercenaries refused to accept payment in kind or uncoined metal; they

demanded good money as the price of their services. Orders were issued

to the natives to hand over to the royal exchequer all the gold and

silver in their possession, whether wrought or in ingots, the state

guaranteeing gradual repayment through the nomarchs from the future

product of the poll-tax, and the bullion so obtained was converted into

specie for the payment of the auxiliary troops. These measures, though

winning some unpopularity for Tachôs, enabled him to raise eighty

thousand native troops and ten thousand Greeks, to equip a fleet of

two hundred vessels, and to engage the best generals of the period. His

eagerness to secure the latter, however, was injurious to his cause.

Having already engaged Chabrias and obtained the good will of Athens, he

desired also to gain the help of Agesilaus and the favourable opinion

of the Lacedaemonians. Though now eighty years old, Agesilaus was still

under the influence of cupidity and vanity; the promise of being placed

in supreme command enticed him, and he set sail with one thousand

hoplites. A disappointment awaited him at the moment of his

disembarkation: Tachôs gave him command of the mercenary troops only,

reserving for himself the general direction of operations, and placing

the whole fleet under the orders of Chabrias. The aged hero, having

vented his indignation by indulging a more than ordinary display of

Spartan rudeness, allowed himself to be appeased by abundant presents,

and assumed the post assigned to him. But soon after a more serious

subject of disagreement arose between him and his ally; Agesilaus was

disposed to think that Tachôs should remain quietly on the banks of the

Nile, and leave to his generals the task of conducting the campaign.

The ease with which mercenary leaders passed from one camp to the other,

according to the fancy of the moment, was not calculated to inspire the

Egyptian Pharaoh with confidence: he refused to comply with the wishes

of Agesilaus, and, entrusting the regency to one of his relatives,

proceeded to invade Syria. He found the Persians unprepared: they shut

themselves up in their strongholds, and the Pharaoh confided to his

cousin Nectanebo, son of the regent, the task of dislodging them. The

war dragged on for some time; discontent crept in among the native

levies, and brought treachery in its train. The fiscal measures which

had been adopted had exasperated the priests and the common people;

complaints, at first only muttered in fear, found bold expression as

soon as the expeditionary force had crossed the frontier.

[Illustration: 299.jpb NECTANEBO I]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.

The regent secretly encouraged the malcontents, and wrote to his son

warning him of what was going on, and advised him to seize the crown.

Nectanebo could easily have won over the Egyptian troops to his cause,

but their support would have proved useless as long as the Greeks did

not pronounce in his favour, and Chabrias refused to break his oaths.

Agesilaus, however, was not troubled by the same scruples. His vanity

had been sorely wounded by the Pharaoh: after being denied the position

which was, he fancied, his by right, his short stature, his ill-health,

and native coarseness had exposed him to the unseemly mockery of the

courtiers. Tachôs, considering his ability had been over-estimated,

applied to him, it is said, the fable of the mountain bringing forth a

mouse; to which he had replied, “When opportunity offers, I will prove

to him that I am the lion.” When Tachôs requested him to bring the

rebels to order, he answered ironically that he was there to help the

Egyptians, not to attack them; and before giving his support to either

of the rival claimants, he should consult the Ephors. The Ephors

enjoined him to act in accordance with the welfare of his country, and

he thereupon took the side of Nectanebo, despite the remonstrances of

Chabrias. Tachôs, deserted by his veterans, fled to Sidon, and thence to

Susa, where Artaxerxes received him hospitably and without reproaching

him (359 B.C.); but the news of his fall was not received on the banks

of the Nile with as much rejoicing as he had anticipated. The people had

no faith in any revolution in which the Greeks whom they detested took

the chief part, and the feudal lords refused to acknowledge a sovereign

whom they had not themselves chosen; they elected one of their

number--the prince of Mendes--to oppose Nectanebo. The latter was

obliged to abandon the possessions won by his predecessor, and return

with his army to Egypt: he there encountered the forces of his enemy,

which, though as yet undisciplined, were both numerous and courageous.

Agesilaus counselled an immediate attack before these troops had time to

become experienced in tactics, but he no longer stood well at court;

the prince of Mendes had endeavoured to corrupt him, and, though he had

shown unexpected loyalty, many, nevertheless, suspected his good

faith. Nectanebo set up his headquarters at Tanis, where he was shortly

blockaded by his adversary. It is well known how skilfully the Egyptians

handled the pick-axe, and how rapidly they could construct walls of

great strength; the circle of entrenchments was already near completion,

and provisions were beginning to fail, when Agesilaus received

permission to attempt a sortie. He broke through the besieging lines

under cover of the night, and some days later won a decisive victory

(359 B.C.). Nectanebo would now have gladly kept the Spartan general at

his side, for he was expecting a Persian attack; but Agesilaus, who had

had enough of Egypt and its intrigues, deserted his cause, and shortly

afterwards died of exhaustion on the coast near Cyrene. The anticipated

Persian invasion followed shortly after, but it was conducted without

energy or decision. Artaxerxes had entrusted the conduct of the

expedition to Tachôs, doubtless promising to reinstate him in his former

power as satrap or vassal king of Egypt, but Tachôs died before he could

even assume his post,* and the discords which rent the family of the

Persian king prevented the generals who replaced him from taking any

effective action.

* Ælian narrates, probably following Dinon, that Tachôs died

of dysentery due to over-indulgence at dinner.

The aged Artaxerxes had had, it was reported, one hundred and fifteen

sons by the different women in his harem, but only three of those by his

queen Statira were now living--Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. Darius,

the eldest of the three, had been formally recognised as

heir-apparent--perhaps at the time of the disastrous war against the

Cadusians* --but the younger brother, Ochus, who secretly aspired to

the throne, had managed to inspire him with anxiety with regard to

the succession, and incited him to put the aged king out of the way.

Contemporary historians, ill informed as to the intrigues in the

palace, whose effects they noted without any attempt to explore their

intricacies, invented several stories to account for the conduct of the

young prince. Some assigned as the reason of his conspiracy a romantic

love-affair. They said that Cyrus the Younger had had an Ionian mistress

named Aspasia, who, after the fatal battle of Cunaxa, had been taken

into the harem of the conqueror, and had captivated him by her beauty.

Darius conceived a violent passion for this damsel, and his father was

at first inclined to give her up to him, but afterwards, repenting of

his complaisance, consecrated her to the service of Mithra, a cult which

imposed on her the obligation of perpetual chastity. Darius, exasperated

by this treatment, began to contemplate measures of vengeance, but,

being betrayed by his brother Ochus, was put to death with his whole

family.**

* Pompeius Trogus asserts that such co-regencies were

contrary to Persian law; we have seen above that, on the

contrary, they were obligatory when the sovereign was

setting out on a campaign.

** This is the version of the story given by Dinon and

accepted by Pompoius Trogus. A chronological calculation

easily demonstrates its unlikelihood. It follows from the

evidence given by Justin himself that Artaxerxes died of

grief soon after the execution of his son; but, on the other

hand, that the battle of Cunaxa took place in 400 B.C.:

Aspasia must then have been fifty or sixty years old when

Darius fell in love with her.

By the removal of this first obstacle the crafty prince found himself

only one step nearer success, for his brother Ariaspes was acknowledged

as heir-apparent: Ochus therefore persuaded him that their father,

convinced of the complicity of Ariaspes in the plot imputed to Darius,

intended to put him to an ignominious death, and so worked upon him that

he committed suicide to escape the executioner. A bastard named Arsames,

who might possibly have aspired to the crown, was assassinated by Ochus.

This last blow was too much for Artaxerxes, and he died of grief after a

reign of forty-six years (358 B.C.).* Ochus, who immediately assumed the

name of Artaxerxes, began his reign by the customary massacre: he put to

death all the princes of the royal family,** and having thus rid

himself of all the rival claimants to the supreme power, he hastened on

preparations for the war with Egypt which had been interrupted by his

father’s death and his own accession.

* This is the length attributed by Plutarch to this reign,

and which is generally accepted. It was narrated in after-

days that the king kept the fact of his father’s death

hidden for ten months, but it is impossible to tell how much

truth there is in this statement, which was accepted by

Dinon.

** According to the author followed by Pompeius Trogus, the

princesses themselves were involved in this massacre. This

is certainly an exaggeration, for we shall shortly see that

Darius III., the last king of Persia, was accounted to be

the grandson of Darius II.; the massacre can only have

involved the direct heirs of Artaxerxes.

The necessity for restoring Persian dominion on the banks of the Nile

was then more urgent than at any previous time. During the half-century

which had elapsed since the recovery of her independence, Egypt had

been a perpetual source of serious embarrassment to the great king. The

contemporaries of Amyrtseus, whether Greeks or barbarians, had at first

thought that his revolt was nothing more than a local rising, like many

a previous one which had lasted but a short time and had been promptly

suppressed. But when it was perceived that the native dynasties had

taken a hold upon the country, and had carried on a successful contest

with Persia, in spite of the immense disproportion in their respective

resources; when not only the bravest soldiers of Asia, but the best

generals of Greece, had miserably failed in their attacks on the

frontier of the Delta, Phoenicia and Syria began to think whether what

was possible in Africa might not also be possible in Asia. From that

time forward, whenever a satrap or vassal prince meditated revolt, it

was to Egypt that he turned as a natural ally, and from Egypt he sought

the means to carry out his project; however needy the Pharaoh of that

day might be, he was always able to procure for such a suitor sufficient

money, munitions of war, ships, and men to enable him to make war

against the empire. The attempt made by Ochus failed, as all previous

attempts had done: the two adventurers who commanded the forces of

Nectanebo, the Athenian Diophantes and Lamius of Sparta, inflicted a

disastrous defeat on the imperial troops, and forced them to beat a

hasty retreat. This defeat was all the more serious in its consequences

because of the magnitude of the efforts which had been made: the king

himself was in command of the troops, and had been obliged to turn his

back precipitately on the foe. The Syrian provinces, which had been in

an unsettled condition ever since the invasion under Tachôs, flew to

arms; nine petty kings of Cyprus, including Evagoras II., nephew of the

famous prince of that name, refused to pay tribute, and Artabazus

roused Asia Minor to rebellion. The Phoenicians still hesitated; but

the insolence of their satrap, the rapacity of the generals who had

been repulsed from Egypt, and the lack of discipline in the Persian

army forced them to a decision. In a convention summoned at Tripoli, the

representatives of the Phoenician cities conferred on Tennes, King

of Sidon, the perilous honour of conducting the operations of the

confederate army, and his first act was to destroy the royal villa

in the Lebanon, and his next to burn the provisions which had been

accumulated in various ports in view of the Egyptian war (351-350 B.C.).

[Illustration: 305.jpg evagoras ii. of salamis]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the _Cabinet des

Médailles_.

Ochus imagined at the outset that his generals would soon suppress these

rebellions, and, in fact, Idrieus, tyrant of Caria, supported by eight

thousand mercenaries under the Athenian Phocion, overcame the petty

tyrants of Cyprus without much difficulty; but in Asia Minor, Artabazus,

supported by Athens and Thebes, held at bay the generals sent to oppose

him, and Tennes won a signal victory in Syria. He turned for support

to Egypt, and Nectanebo, as might be expected, put Greek troops at his

disposal to the number of four thousand, commanded by one of his best

generals, Mentor of Ehodes: Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazseus,

satrap of Cilicia, suffered a total defeat. Ochus, exasperated at their

want of success, called out every available soldier, three hundred

thousand Asiatics and ten thousand Greeks; the Sidonians, on their side,

dug a triple trench round their city, raised their ramparts, and set

fire to their ships, to demonstrate their intention of holding out

to the end. Unfortunately, their king, Tennes, was not a man of firm

resolution. Hitherto he had lived a life of self-indulgence, surrounded

by the women of his harem, whom he had purchased at great cost in Ionia

and Greece, and had made it the chief object of his ambition to surpass

in magnificence the most ostentatious princes of Cyprus, especially

Nicocles of Salamis, son of Evagoras. The approach of Ochus confused

his scanty wits; he endeavoured to wipe out his treachery towards his

suzerain by the betrayal of his own subjects. He secretly despatched

his confidential minister, a certain Thessalion, to the Persian camp,

promising to betray Sidon to the Persian king, and to act as his guide

into Egypt on condition of having his life preserved and his royal rank

guaranteed to him. Ochus had already agreed to these conditions, when

an impulse of vanity on his part nearly ruined the whole arrangement.

Thessalion, not unreasonably doubting the king’s good faith, had

demanded that he should swear by his right hand to fulfil to the letter

all the clauses of the treaty; whereupon Ochus, whose dignity was

offended by this insistence, gave orders for the execution of the

ambassador. But as the latter was being dragged away, he cried out that

the king could do as he liked, but that if he disdained the help of

Tennes, he would fail in his attacks both upon Phonicia and Egypt. These

words produced a sudden reaction, and Thessalion obtained all that he

demanded. When the Persians had arrived within a few days’ march of

Sidon, Tennes proclaimed that a general assembly of the Phoenician

deputies was to be held, and under pretext of escorting the hundred

leading men of his city to the appointed place of meeting, led them into

the enemy’s camp, where they were promptly despatched by the javelins of

the soldiery. The Sidonians, deserted by their king, were determined

to carry on the struggle, in the expectation of receiving succour from

Egypt; but the Persian darics had already found their way into the hands

of the mercenary troops, and the general whom Nectanebo had lent them,

declared that his men considered the position desperate, and that he

should surrender the city at the first summons. The Sidonians thereupon

found themselves reduced to the necessity of imploring the mercy of the

conqueror, and five hundred of them set out to meet him as suppliants,

carrying olive branches in their hands. Bub Ochus was the most cruel

monarch who had ever reigned in Persia--the only one, perhaps, who was

really bloodthirsty by nature; he refused to listen to the entreaties of

the suppliants, and, like the preceding hundred delegates, they were all

slain. The remaining citizens, perceiving that they could not hope for

pardon, barricaded themselves in their houses, to which they set fire

with their own hands; forty thousand persons perished in the flames, and

so great was the luxury in the appointments of the private houses,

that large sums were paid for the right to dig for the gold and silver

ornaments buried in the ruins. The destruction of the city was almost as

complete as in the days of Esarhaddon. When Sidon had thus met her fate,

the Persians had no further reason for sparing its king, Tennes, and he

was delivered to the executioner; whereupon the other Phoenician kings,

terrified by his fate, opened their gates without a struggle.

Once more the treachery of a few traitors had disconcerted the plans of

the Pharaoh, and delivered the outposts of Egypt into the hands of the

enemy: but Ochus renewed his preparations with marvellous tenacity, and

resolved to neglect nothing which might contribute to his final success.

His victories had confirmed the cities of the empire in their loyalty,

and they vied with one another in endeavouring to win oblivion for their

former hesitation by their present zeal: “What city, or what nation of

Asia did not send embassies to the sovereign? what wealth did they not

lavish on him, whether the natural products of the soil, or the rare and

precious productions of art? Did he not receive a quantity of tapestry

and woven hangings, some of purple, some of diverse colours, others of

pure white? many gilded pavilions, completely furnished, and containing

an abundant supply of linen and sumptuous beds? chased silver, wrought

gold, cups and bowls, enriched with precious stones, or valuable for the

perfection and richness of their work? He also received untold supplies

of barbarian and Grecian weapons, and still larger numbers of draught

cattle and of sacrificial victims, bushels of preserved fruits, bales

and sacks full of parchments or books, and all kinds of useful articles?

So great was the quantity of salted meats which poured in from all

sides, that from a distance the piles might readily be mistaken for

rows of hillocks or high mounds.” The land-force was divided into three

corps, each under a barbarian and a Greek general. It advanced along

the sea coast, following the ancient route pursued by the armies of the

Pharaohs, and as it skirted the marshes of Sirbonis, some detachments,

having imprudently ventured over the treacherous soil, perished to a

man. When the main force arrived in safety before Pelusium, it found

Nectanebo awaiting it behind his ramparts and marshes. He had fewer men

than his adversary, his force numbering only six thousand Egyptians,

twenty thousand Libyans, and the same number of Greeks; but the

remembrance of the successes won by himself and his predecessors with

inferior numbers inspired him with confidence in the issue of the

struggle. His fleet could not have ventured to meet in battle the

combined squadrons of Cyprus and Phoenicia, but, on the other hand, he

had a sufficient number of flat-bottomed boats to prevent any adversary

from entering the mouths of the Nile. The weak points along his

Mediterranean seaboard and eastern frontier were covered by strongholds,

fortifications, and entrenched camps: in short, his plans were

sufficiently well laid to ensure success in a defensive war, if the

rash ardour of his Greek mercenaries had not defeated his plans. Five

thousand of these troops were in occupation of Pelusium, under command

of Philophrôn. Some companies of Thebans, who were serving under

Lacrates in the Persian army, crossed a deep canal which separated them

from the city, and provoked the garrison to risk an encounter in

the open field. Philophrôn, instead of treating their challenge with

indifference, accepted it, and engaged in a combat which lasted till

nightfall. On the following day, Lacrates, having drawn off the waters

of the canal and thrown a dyke across it, led his entire force up to the

glacis of the fortifications, dug some trenches, and brought up a

line of battering-rams. He would soon have effected a breach, but the

Egyptians understood how to use the spade as well as the lance, and

while the outer wall was crumbling, they improvised behind it a second

wall, crowned with wooden turrets. Nectanebo, who had come up with

thirty thousand native, five thousand Greek troops, and half the

Libyan contingent, observed the vicissitudes of the siege from a short

distance, and by his presence alone opposed the advance of the bulk

of the Persian army. Weeks passed by, the time of the inundation was

approaching, and it seemed as if this policy of delay would have its

accustomed success, when an unforeseen incident decided in a moment the

fate of Egypt. Among the officers of Ochus was a certain Nicostratus of

Argos, who on account of his prodigious strength was often compared to

Heracles, and who out of vanity dressed himself up in the traditional

costume of that hero, the lion’s skin and the club. Having imbibed,

doubtless, the ideas formerly propounded by Iphicrates, Nicostratus

forced some peasants, whose wives and children he had seized as

hostages, to act as his guides, and made his way up one of the canals

which traverse the marshes of Menzaleh: there he disembarked his men in

the rear of Nectanebo, and took up a very strong position on the

border of the cultivated land. This enterprise, undertaken with a very

insufficient force, was an extremely rash one; if the Egyptian generals

had contented themselves with harassing Nicostratus without venturing on

engaging him in a pitched battle, they would speedily have forced him to

re-embark or to lay down his arms. Unfortunately, however, five thousand

mercenaries, who formed the garrison of one of the neighbouring towns,

hastened to attack him under the command of Clinias of Cos, and suffered

a severe defeat. As a result, the gates of the town were thrown open

to the enemy, and if the Persians, encouraged by the success of this

forlorn hope, had followed it up boldly, Nectanebo would have run the

risk of being cut off from his troops which were around Pelusium, and of

being subsequently crushed. He thought it wiser to retreat towards the

apex of the Delta, but this very act of prudence exposed him to one of

those accidental misfortunes which are wont to occur in armies formed

of very diverse elements. While he was concentrating his reserves at

Memphis, the troops of the first line thought that, by leaving

them exposed to the assaults of the great king, he was deliberately

sacrificing them. Pelusium capitulated to Lacrates; Mentor of Ehodes

pushed forward and seized Bubastis, and the other cities in the eastern

portion of the Delta, fearing to bring upon themselves the fate

of Sidon, opened their gates to the Persians after a mere show of

resistance. The forces which had collected at Memphis thereupon

disbanded, and Nectanebo, ruined by these successive disasters,

collected his treasures and fled to Ethiopia. The successful issue of

the rash enterprise of Nicostratus had overthrown the empire of the

Pharaohs, and re-established the Persian empire in its integrity (342

B.C.).*

* The complete history of this war is related by Diodorus

Siculus, who generally follows the narrative of Theopompus.

The chronology is still sufficiently uncertain to leave some

doubt as to the exact date of each event; I have followed

that arrangement which seems to accord best with the general

history of the period. The following table may be drawn up

of the last Egyptian dynasties as far as they can be

restored at present:--

[Illustration: 312.jpg TABLE OF THE LAST EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES]

Egypt had prospered under the strong rule of its last native Pharaohs.

Every one of them, from Amyrtous down to Nectanebo, had done his best

to efface all traces of the Persian invasions and restore to the country

the appearance which it had presented before the days of its servitude;

even kings like Psamutis and Tachôs, whose reign had been of the

briefest, had, like those who ruled for longer periods, constructed or

beautified the monuments of the country. The Thebaid was in this respect

a special field of their labours. The island of Philæ, exposed to the

ceaseless attacks of the Ethiopians, had been reduced to little more

than a pile of ruins.

[Illustration: 313.jpg SMALL TEMPLE OF NECTANEBO, AT THE SOUTHERN

EXTREMITY OF PHILAE]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.

Nectanebo II. erected a magnificent gate there, afterwards incorporated

into the first pylon of the temple built by the Ptolemies, and one

at least of the buildings that still remain, the charming rectangular

kiosk, the pillars of which, with their Hathor capitals, rise above

the southern extremity of the island and mark the spot at which the

Ethiopian pilgrims first set foot on the sacred territory of the

bountiful Isis. Nectanebo I. restored the sanctuaries of Nekhabît at

El-Kab, and of Horus at Edfu, in which latter place he has left an

admirable naos which delights the modern traveller by its severe

proportions and simplicity of ornament, while Nectanebo II. repaired the

ancient temple of Mînu at Coptos; in short, without giving a detailed

list of what was accomplished by each of these later Pharaohs, it may be

said that there are few important sites in the valley of the Nile where

some striking evidence of their activity may not still be discovered

even after the lapse of so many centuries.

[Illustration: 314.jpg NAOS OF NECTANEBO IN THE TEMPLE AT EDFU]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.

It will be sufficient to mention Thebes, Memphis, Sebennytos, Bubastis,

Pahabît, Patumu, and Tanis. Nor did the Theban oases, including that of

Amon himself, escape their zeal, for the few Europeans who have visited

them in modern times have observed their cartouches there.

[Illustration: 315.jpg GREAT GATE OF NECTANEBO AT KARNAK]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.

Moreover, in spite of the brief space of time within which they were

carried out, the majority of these works betray no signs of haste

or slipshod execution; the craftsmen employed on them seem to have

preserved in their full integrity all the artistic traditions of earlier

times, and were capable of producing masterpieces which will bear

comparison with those of the golden age. The Eastern gate, erected at

Karnak in the time of Nectanebo II., is in no way inferior either in

purity of proportion or in the beauty of its carvings to what remains of

the gates of Amenôthes III.

[Illustration: 316.jpg fragment of a Naos of THE time of nectanebo II.

in the Bologna Museum]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Flinders Pétrie.

The sarcophagus of Nectanebo I. is carved and decorated with a

perfection of skill which had never been surpassed in any age, and

elsewhere, on all the monuments which bear the name of this monarch the

hieroglyphics have been designed and carved with as much care as though

each one of them had been a precious cameo.*

* The sarcophagus was for a long time preserved near the

mosque of Ibn-Tulun, and was credited with peculiar virtues

by the superstitious inhabitants of Cairo.

The basalt torso of Nectanebo II., which attracts so much admiration

in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris for accuracy of proportion and

delicacy of modelling, deserves to rank with the finest statues of the

ancient empire. The men’s heads are veritable portraits, in which such

details as a peculiar conformation of the skull, prominent cheekbones,

deep-set eyes, sunken cheeks, or the modelling of the chin, have all

been observed and reproduced with a fidelity and keenness of observation

which we fail to find in such works of the earlier artists as have come

down to us. These later sculptors display the same regard for truth in

their treatment of animals, and their dog-headed divinities; their dogs,

lions, and sphinxes will safely bear comparison with the most lifelike

presentments of these creatures to be found among the remains of the

Memphite or Theban eras. Egypt was thus in the full tide of material

prosperity when it again fell under the Persian yoke, and might have

become a source of inexhaustible wealth to Ochus had he known how to

secure acceptance of his rule, as Darius, son of Hystaspes, had done in

the days of Amasis.

[Illustration: 317.jpg ONE OF THE LIONS IN THE VATICAN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Flinders Pétrie.

The violence of his temperament, however, impelled him to a course of

pitiless oppression, and his favourite minister, the eunuch Bagoas,

seems to have done his best to stimulate his master’s natural cruelty.

In the days when they felt themselves securely protected from his anger

by their Libyan and Greek troops, the fellahîn had freely indulged in

lampoons at the expense of their Persian suzerain; they had compared him

to Typhon on account of his barbarity, and had nicknamed him “the Ass,”

this animal being in their eyes a type of everything that is vile.

On his arrival at Memphis, Ochus gave orders that an ass should be

installed in the temple of Phtah, and have divine honours paid to it; he

next had the bull Apis slaughtered and served up at a set banquet which

he gave to his friends on taking possession of the White Wall. The

sacred goat of Mendes suffered the same fate as the Apis, and doubtless

none of the other sacred animals were spared. Bagoas looted the temples

in the most systematic way, despatched the sacred books to Persia, razed

the walls of the cities to the ground, and put every avowed partisan of

the native dynasty to the sword. After these punitive measures had been

carried out, Ochus disbanded his mercenaries and returned to Babylon,

leaving Pherendates in charge of the reconquered province.*

* It seems that a part of the atrocities committed by Ochus

and Bagoas soon came to be referred to the time of the

“Impure” and to that of Cambyses.

The downfall of Egypt struck terror into the rebellious satraps who were

in arms elsewhere. Artabazus, who had kept Asia Minor in a ferment ever

since the time of Artaxerxes II., gave up the struggle of his own accord

and took refuge in Macedonia. The petty kings of the cities on the

shores of the Hellespont and the Ægean submitted themselves in order to

regain favour, or if, like Hermias of Atarnasa, the friend of Aristotle,

they still resisted, they were taken prisoners and condemned to death.

The success of Ochus was a reality, but there was still much to be done

before things were restored to the footing they had occupied before the

crisis. We know enough of the course of events in the western provinces

to realise the pitch of weakness to which the imbecility of Darius II.

and his son Artaxerxes II. had reduced the empire of Darius and

Xerxes, but it is quite certain that the disastrous effects of their

misgovernment were not confined to the shores of the Mediterranean,

but were felt no less acutely in the eastern and central regions of the

empire. There, as on the Greek frontiers, the system built up at the

cost of so much ingenuity by Darius was gradually being broken down with

each year that passed, and the central government could no longer

make its power felt at the extremities of the empire save at irregular

intervals, when its mandates were not intercepted or nullified in

transmission. The functions of the “Eyes” and “Ears” of the king had

degenerated into a mere meaningless formality, and were, more often

than not, dispensed with altogether. The line of demarcation between

the military and civil power had been obliterated: not only had the

originally independent offices of satrap, general, and secretary ceased

to exist in each separate province, but, in many instances, the satrap,

after usurping the functions of his two colleagues, contrived to extend

his jurisdiction till it included several provinces, thus establishing

himself as a kind of viceroy. Absorbed in disputes among themselves, or

in conspiracies against the Achsemenian dynasty, these officials had no

time to look after the well-being of the districts under their control,

and the various tribes and cities took advantage of this to break the

ties of vassalage. To take Asia Minor alone, some of the petty kings

of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and certain districts of Cappadocia or the

mountainous parts of Phrygia still paid their tribute intermittently,

and only when compelled to do so; others, however, such as the

Pisidians, Lycaonians, a part of the Lycians, and some races of Mount

Taurus, no longer dreamed of doing so. The three satrapies on the shores

of the Caspian, which a hundred years before had wedged themselves in

between that sea and the Euxine, were now dissolved, all trace of them

being lost in a confused medley of kingdoms and small states, some of

which were ready enough to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, while

others, such as the Gordiseans, Taochi, Chalybes, Colchi, Mosynoki, and

Tibarenians, obeyed no rule but their own.

[Illustration: 321.jpg MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE]

All along the Caspian, the Cadusians and Amardians, on either side of

the chain of mountains bordering the Iranian plateau, defied all the

efforts made to subdue them.* India and the Sakse had developed from

the condition of subjects into that of friendly allies, and the

savage hordes of Gedrosia and the Paropamisus refused to recognise any

authority at all.**

* They appear in the history of every epoch as the

irreconcilable foes of the great king, enemies against whom

even the most peacefully disposed sovereigns were compelled

to take the field in person.

** The Sakæ fought at Arbela, but only as allies of the

Persians. The Indians who are mentioned with them came from

the neighbourhood of Cabul; most of the races who had

formerly figured in Darius’ satrapy of India had become

independent by the time Alexander penetrated into the basin

of the Indus.

The whole empire needed to be reconquered and reorganised bit by bit if

it was to exercise that influence in the world to which its immense size

entitled it, and the question arose whether the elements of which it

consisted would lend themselves to any permanent reorganisation or

readjustment.