EGYPT UNDER PSAMMETICHUS AND NECHO.
According to the account of Herodotus, a blind man from the city of
Anysis, and bearing the same name as his city, ruled over Egypt at the
time when Sabakon marched through the country. He retired before the
Ethiopians into the marshes, and fled to an island called Elbo. The
island measured ten stades in every direction, and thither, in obedience
to his command, the Egyptians by turns secretly brought him nourishment.
When fifty years had expired from the time that he made himself master
of Egypt, Sabakon saw in a dream a man who bade him summon all the
priests of Egypt, and cause each to be cut into two pieces. Then Sabakon
said that the gods had announced to him by this vision that he would by
some evil deed bring upon himself severe punishment from the gods or
from men. Such a deed he would not commit: the time had passed which was
allotted to him for the rule of Egypt; an oracle in Ethiopia had
announced to him that he would rule over Egypt for fifty years. As this
period was now completed, Sabakon voluntarily retired from Egypt, the
blind man returned from the island of Elbo, and reigned as before. He
was followed by the priest Sethos, against whom Sennacherib, the king
of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched, but the god of Memphis saved him
by sending field mice into the camp (p. 141). After the death of Sethos
the Egyptians became free, but as they could not live without a king
they elected twelve kings, and divided Egypt into twelve parts. These
twelve kings contracted family alliances with each other, and agreed
that none of the twelve should seek greater possessions than another, or
attempt to crush the others, but that all should be on the best terms
with each other. They then determined to leave behind a common memorial,
and with this object built the labyrinth on Lake Moeris, and ruled
with justice. In the course of time it happened that the twelve kings
were sacrificing together in the temple--for they came in a body to all
sacrifices--and when at the close of the sacrifice they poured
libations, the high priest brought only eleven of the golden goblets
from which they were wont to pour libations, instead of twelve. The last
in the list at this sacrifice was Psammetichus of Sais, whose father
Necho had been killed by Sabakon. He had himself fled to Syria, to
escape Sabakon, but after the retirement of the Ethiopians he had been
brought back by the inhabitants of the canton of Sais. As no goblet was
left for him, he took the brazen helmet from his head and poured the
libation from that. Then the rest of the princes remembered a prophecy
given to them at the very beginning of their reign,--that whosoever
among them should pour a libation out of a brazen goblet should be king
over all Egypt. Mindful of this oracle the kings were not inclined to
punish Psammetichus with death, because they found on inquiry that he
had not used his helmet with premeditation; but they took from him the
greater part of his power, confined him to the marshes, and bade him
not to leave them or trouble himself about the rest of Egypt. Perceiving
that injustice was done to him, Psammetichus bethought him how to avenge
himself on those who had driven him out; and when he inquired of the
oracle of Buto he received the answer, "Vengeance would come from the
sea, when the brazen men appeared." Psammetichus did not believe the
oracle. But Ionians and Carians, who had taken ship for plunder, were
driven out of their course to Egypt. When they got on the shore in their
brazen armour, an Egyptian announced to Psammetichus that brazen men who
were come from the sea were laying waste the plains. Then Psammetichus
saw that the oracle was fulfilled. He received the Ionians and Carians
in a friendly manner, and induced them by great promises to stay with
him. And with these, and the Egyptians who were on his side to help him,
he conquered the rest of the kings, and became lord over all Egypt.[564]
Diodorus gives us a similar account. He celebrates the gentle and wise
rule of the Ethiopian Sabakon, and then continues. "His piety is shown
by his conduct in consequence of a dream, and his resignation of the
throne. The god of Thebes appeared to him in a dream, and said that he
could not govern Egypt prosperously and for long unless he collected all
the priests and cut each into two parts, and marched between the parts
with his body-guard. As this dream appeared frequently, he summoned the
priests, and said to them, that he should displease the god if he
remained longer in the land, or he would never have advised such an act
in a dream. He preferred to retire while pure from that guilt, and leave
his future to fortune rather than to rule over all Egypt by outraging
the god, and staining his own life by wicked murder. Then he resigned
the government of Egypt to the Egyptians, and retired to Ethiopia. But
as the people were unquiet, and domestic strife broke out, the most
distinguished princes, twelve in number, met at Memphis, and made a
league, and swore to remain friendly and faithful to each other, and
made themselves kings. In pursuance of this agreement they reigned for
fifteen years in harmony, and formed the resolution, that as in their
lives they shared equal honours, so after death their bodies should rest
in the same place, and that a sepulchre built in common should preserve
the common fame of the kings buried there. The size of this structure,
for which they selected a site on Lake Moeris, was to surpass the
works of all the kings before them. But one of them, Psammetichus of
Sais, who was lord of the coast, secured an extensive trade to all
merchants, especially to the Phenicians and Greeks. By the sale of the
products of his canton and his share in that which the foreigners
brought he not only obtained greater resources, but he won the
friendship of these nations and their princes. Roused by envy the rest
of the kings made war upon Psammetichus, who obtained necessaries from
the Ionians and Carians, and conquered in the battle near the city of
Momemphis. Of the kings, his opponents, some fell in the battle, others
fled to Libya, and were no longer in a position to contest the throne.
Thus after fifteen years the sovereignty in Egypt again came into the
hands of one man."[565]
We saw that the real course of affairs differed widely from the accounts
given by the Egyptians, from which come the narratives of Herodotus and
Diodorus. Manetho's list, at any rate, does not conceal the fact that
after king Bocchoris had succumbed to the incursion of the Ethiopians,
three kings of Ethiopia ruled over Egypt in succession. The Hebrew
Scriptures and the tablets of the Assyrians then informed us how Israel,
trusting in the help of Sabakon, refused payment of tribute to Nineveh,
and what misfortunes punished this rebellion in the year 722 B.C.--how
Sabakon was defeated two years afterwards at Raphia, in the
neighbourhood of Gaza, by Sargon. Afterwards Sargon could boast of
receiving tribute from the successor of Sabakon, Sevechus, in the year
716 B.C., and later still could demand and obtain the surrender of a
fugitive opponent (711 B.C.). But Tirhaka, the successor of Sevechus,
fought with success at Eltekeh in the year 701 against Sennacherib of
Assyria, and forced him to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Thirty years
afterwards the situation was entirely changed. In order to take from
Sidon, Tyre, Judah, and the Syrian States their hopes in Napata and
Egypt, which caused their resistance to be constantly bursting into
fresh flame, Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, invaded Egypt in the year 672
B.C., and drove Tirhaka back to his native land. Tirhaka's repeated
attempts to win Egypt from this position were wrecked like those of his
successor, Urdamane: they only brought about the sack and devastation of
Thebes and its sanctuaries (663 B.C.).
Hence it was not of their own free will that the Ethiopians retired to
their home; the dominion over Egypt which the Ethiopians of Napata, who
had long acquired the manners and civilisation of Egypt, had exercised
for sixty years, was replaced by another and far heavier foreign
dominion--the rule of the kings on the Tigris. The Egyptians did not set
up twelve kings after the Ethiopians, who pledged themselves to
equality and friendship, as Herodotus supposes, nor did the twelve
leading princes make themselves kings as Herodotus supposes. Still less
did they rule Egypt in common; least of all could they erect the
structure on Lake Moeris, the temple of Amenemha III., for it had
already been in existence fifteen centuries (I. 109). It is the twenty
vassal princes, whom Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal set up over
Egypt--among whom must have been represented some of the dynastic
families which rose under the Pharaohs of Bubastis and Tanis--out of
whom the Egyptians have constructed the twelve kings.
Among these princes, by means of the Assyrians, Necho and his son
Psammetichus rose into power. It was Esarhaddon who entrusted to Necho
the government of Memphis and Sais. If Herodotus states that Sabakon put
Necho, the father of Psammetichus, to death, the inscriptions of
Assurbanipal prove the contrary. It must, therefore, have been the
grandfather of Psammetichus, the Nechepsus of Manetho, who suffered this
fate, and he must have suffered at the hands of Tirhaka, and not at the
hands of Sabakon.[566] The flight of Psammetichus before Sabakon into
Syria, which Herodotus relates, cannot have taken place till Tirhaka's
time. In the account given by Herodotus only so much can be regarded as
certain as is also clear from Manetho's list--_i.e._ that Necho and
Psammetichus belonged to the district of Sais. Though raised by
Esarhaddon, Necho began, after the death of that prince and the first
campaign of Assurbanipal to Egypt, to join in a conspiracy with Tirhaka
in connection with two of his fellow-vassals. He was taken prisoner and
carried to Nineveh, but received pardon, and was, at any rate, again
placed over Sais. His son, who had assumed the Assyrian name of
Neboshezban, received the canton of Athribis. Necho died towards the
year 664 B.C.; his son succeeded him in the administration of the
district of Sais. Ten or twelve years afterwards (653 B.C.[567]),
apparently availing himself of the dissension which broke out in the
royal house of Assyria, the rebellion of Samul-sum-ukin against his
brother, he undertook to liberate Egypt from the dominion of the Medes,
and at the same time to make himself master of Egypt. As to the manner
in which this was done, and the means of doing it, we have no
information beyond very scanty facts, suppositions, and conclusions. We
saw above, from the inscriptions of Assurbanipal, that Psammetichus
acted in concert with Gyges of Lydia, that "Gyges sent his power to aid
him in breaking off the yoke of the Assyrians" (p. 170). The Ionians and
Carians in brazen armour, in Herodotus, who come up from the sea, were
thus the soldiers whom Gyges sent over the sea. He could only send his
auxiliaries or Ionian vessels; and that he was in close combination with
Carians will be made clear below. This fact does not make it at all
impossible that Psammetichus before he revolted did not on his part gain
the favour of the Ionians and Phenicians by opening the harbours of his
canton, and favouring their trade, as Diodorus states (p. 298). This
would give the harbour cities of the Greeks in Asia Minor sufficient
reason to support strongly the rising of Psammetichus. For the
independent support of Psammetichus by the Ionian cities of Asia Minor
we have evidence in a statement of Strabo, according to which thirty
ships from Miletus were active in the cause of Psammetichus, and also
the position afterwards assigned to the Ionians in Egypt under the reign
of Psammetichus. The ships of the Milesians are said to have conquered
Inarus, _i.e._ no doubt one of the princes who opposed the rising of
Psammetichus, in a naval engagement on the Nile.[568]
Beyond this we have no further information about the course of the
struggle, and its duration. Beside Inarus we have the name of one other
opponent of Psammetichus, Tementhes.[569] We do not know whether all the
vassals of Assyria ranged themselves against Psammetichus, or whether
some of these princes followed his leadership against Assyria and the
dependants of Assyria. We do not know whether he had merely to contend
against his own fellow-princes or against Assyrian garrisons also, and
Assyrian forces. According to Polyænus the decisive battle took place in
the neighbourhood of Memphis, five stadia from the city, near the temple
of Isis; Diodorus puts the battle-field at Momemphis in the western
Delta, between the Canopic arm of the Nile and the Mareotic Lake. It is
remarkable that the decisive battle should have been fought so far to
the west, near the border of Libya, but it is not impossible. But we
must not overlook the fact, that according to Herodotus, a later
decisive battle took place at Momemphis--and from the circumstances it
is clear that this battle must have been fought there--so that a
confusion between the two is not impossible.
We do not know what claim Psammetichus could make to the sovereignty of
Egypt besides the summons to the liberation from Assyria, and the
accomplishment of this liberation. His family belonged to the canton of
Sais, from which, in previous times, Tnephachtus and Bocchoris had
sprung. It would be possible that the house of Necho was in some
connection with these princes, that Necho and Psammetichus were
successors or descendants of Tnephactus. From this we may explain the
story that the blind king, who fled before Sabakon into the marshes,
recovered the throne after the retirement of the Ethiopians, and also
the persecution which Necho and Psammetichus had to undergo from the
Ethiopians. From such a connection we could also explain the fact that
Necho took the part of Assyria against Tirhaka in the campaign of
Esarhaddon, and received in reward from Esarhaddon the government of
Memphis and Sais. The subsequent conspiracy of Necho with Tirhaka, when
the latter had been driven back to Napata, would then show that Necho
had attempted first to drive out the Ethiopians by the Assyrians, and
then the Assyrians by the Ethiopians, and liberate Egypt by using one
against the other. However this may be, Psammetichus, when liberating
Egypt from Assyria, succeeded also in removing and destroying the
dynastic families, which had risen up since the times of the Pharaohs of
Bubastis and Tanis, and had maintained themselves under the Ethiopians
and Assyrians, though in diminished importance and with a change in the
position of their families. Thus Psammetichus accomplished the work
which Tnephachtus began and Bocchoris was unable to carry on and
maintain. According to the indications of an Egyptian inscription,
Psammetichus strengthened his royal position by taking to wife
Shabanatep, the heiress of a dynasty of Thebes. She was, apparently, the
daughter of a prince Pianchi, who must have governed the canton of
Thebes under Sabakon, and of Ameniritis, the sister of Sabakon, whom he
gave to Pianchi to wife.[570]
The independence of Egypt was won. After a foreign rule of nearly 80
years (on the lowest calculation the Ethiopians had ruled for 58 years,
and the Assyrians nearly 20), Egypt was again her own mistress, and
obeyed a king taken from her midst. But every one must have made up his
mind to see new armies marching from the Tigris to the Nile, as soon as
the rebellion of Samul-sum-ukin was crushed, and Assurbanipal's hands
were free. The question was, whether Egypt's power was equal to such a
struggle. Psammetichus was not put to this trial. After the capture of
Babylon, Assurbanipal turned the full weight of his arms to the
subjugation and destruction of Elam. The new conflict must have appeared
unavoidable when Assurbanipal, about the year 643 B.C., punished the
Arabian tribes on the borders of the Ammonites and Moabites. If he still
omitted the attack on Egypt he must have regarded his forces as
insufficient for the purpose, or they must have been seriously occupied
in another direction. We may assume with tolerable certainty that it was
the union of the Median tribes by Phraortes, the son of Deioces, and
their combination with the Persians, which drew Assurbanipal back to the
East, and kept him there. According to the statement of Herodotus,
already considered, Psammetichus on his side advanced to the offensive
beyond his own borders towards Syria. This war of Psammetichus in
Syria, and the supposed long conflict for Ashdod, can only mean that
Psammetichus attempted to bring the cities of the Philistines, and
especially those of the desert, into his hands, in order to make the
march through the desert, which must commence from this point,
impossible, or at any rate difficult, for the Assyrians. Here also we
are ignorant whether Psammetichus had to contend with the Philistines
alone or with the Assyrian forces also: this only is clear, that he
could not besiege Ashdod before Gaza and Ascalon were in his hands. If
Psammetichus was really moved to this war by the object we impute to
him, we must put the war in the period in which there was still danger
to be apprehended from the Tigris: _i.e._ in the decade from 640 to 630
B.C. According to this, the impossible 29 years which Herodotus allows
to the siege of Ashdod must be reduced to nine years, just as we had to
cut down the 28 years which he gives for the dominion of the Scythians
in Hither Asia to about ten years. But in the advance of these Scythians
towards Egypt (in the year 625 B.C.), described by Herodotus, he does
not tell us that Ashdod, Ascalon, or Gaza, were subject to Psammetichus;
he represents the Scythians as passing beyond the cities of the
Philistines to the borders of Egypt, where Psammetichus, by gifts and
entreaties, induces them to desist from any further advance, and turn
back to Syria. If the war of Psammetichus in Syria is placed after the
incursion of the Scythians, _i.e._ in the last fifteen years of his
reign, another event shortly to be mentioned will have also to be placed
at the end of his reign,--an event which must certainly have belonged to
a previous period. In no case did Psammetichus obtain success in Syria.
If his successor had to conquer Gaza, _i.e._ the city nearest Egypt, it
is obvious that Psammetichus maintained none of these border cities,
though one or other may have been brought for a time into his power.
Egypt had been liberated and restored, but not by her own power. We saw
that even from the times of the later Ramessids the military power of
Egypt had been replaced by foreign mercenaries, especially by Libyans;
that the house of the Pharaohs of Bubastis owed its rise to the command
of these troops. We saw how under these Pharaohs, and those of the
succeeding house of Tanis, the leaders of these troops became hereditary
lords of the districts--how these dynasties summoned the Ethiopians
against Tnephachtus and Bocchoris, and then others, including Necho and
Psammetichus, joined Assyria against the Ethiopians. Before the reign of
Sabakon it was chiefly Libyans on whom the power of the princes rested;
under Sabakon, Sevechus, and Tirhaka it was the Ethiopians who supported
the authority of the crown; and in the same way Psammetichus succeeded
in breaking loose from Assyria, and establishing his authority in Egypt,
and on the throne of the Pharaohs, mainly by strangers and mercenaries,
by Ionians and Carians. Psammetichus could not do without them. In his
internal administration they were required to keep down the overthrown
dynastic families, and he needed them to protect his kingdom from
without. His elevation, the foundation of his power, the restoration of
Egypt, rested on the attempt to establish Egypt and his own crown, as
against Ethiopia and Assyria, on a third external power, the mariners of
the north. Psammetichus therefore was compelled to give preference to
Ionians and Carians over the native soldiers, the warrior caste, who,
under the dominion of the kings of Napata, must obviously have received
a considerable addition of Ethiopians from the native land of the
kings. In the Syrian war also, as Diodorus tells us, the Ionians and
Carians received the place of honour on the right wing, in the order of
battle. The Ionians and Carians were entrusted with the protection of
the eastern border, the most important border of the kingdom. There they
were placed in a standing camp, on the Pelusic arm of the Nile; on one
bank was the camp of the Ionians, on the other the camp of the
Carians.[571] These Ionians and Carians--their numbers under the
successors of Psammetichus reached 30,000 men--received valuable
allotments of land, and were so handsomely treated that the prophet
Jeremiah compares them to "stall-fed oxen."[572] They had also to
educate Egyptians in their language, their customs, and their mode of
war: Psammetichus placed in their hands Egyptian boys for education and
training, and caused even his own sons to be instructed in Greek.[573]
The old warrior caste was limited to the protection of the southern and
western borders against Napata and the Libyans, the border service at
Elephantine and Marea.
The marked preference shown to the new troops as opposed to the old
could not be without an effect on the latter. Jealousy and hatred were
unavoidable. But they attempted no rebellion. Curiously enough, a
considerable portion of the old warrior caste contented themselves with
abandoning Egypt. Herodotus tells us: "The Egyptians who for years had
kept guard at Elephantine were not relieved. They consulted together,
and unanimously came to the conclusion to revolt from Psammetichus, and
retire to Egypt, being in number 240,000. Psammetichus pursued them,
and entreated them on many grounds not to desert their wives and
children, and the gods of the land. Then one of the soldiers exposed
himself, and said, that for men there would be no lack of wives and
children. When they arrived in Ethiopia they put themselves at the
service of the king, who bade them drive out the Ethiopians with whom he
was at variance, and take their land." This was done, and the emigrants
dwelt on the Nile, 112 days' journey to the south of Elephantine.[574]
Diodorus tells us: "Displeased at the preference shown to the
mercenaries, the Egyptians, more than 200,000 in number, revolted, and
marched to Ethiopia with the intention of obtaining there a land for
themselves. The king first sent some officers to prevent them: when
these availed nothing he hastened after them on ship with his most
trusted followers. The soldiers marched up the Nile, and had already
crossed the borders of Egypt, when Psammetichus entreated them to alter
their minds, and reminded them of their father-land, their wives and
children. Then they struck their lances on their shields, and said that
so long as they had these they would easily find a father-land, and
raising their coats they said that they should have no lack of wives and
children. Thus firmly despising what to most men seems of the greatest
importance, they took the best part of Ethiopia for their dwelling,
allotting large portions of land to each other." According to the
evidence of Eratosthenes the land of the emigrants lay above the
confluence of the Astaboras and the Nile, on an island south-east of the
later Meroe.[575]
The number of the emigrants in this narrative, which is obviously part
of the tradition of Egypt, is of course exaggerated. Manetho gives the
same number (240,000) for the Hyksos who emigrated from Egypt, and for
these emigrants. Even Diodorus found a difficulty in this number; he
diminished it, and says, "more than 200,000." Moreover, in any case, a
considerable number of the old military order must have remained in
Egypt. The successors of Psammetichus, who favoured the Greek
mercenaries as much as Psammetichus himself, certainly did not increase
the native military order, still less did the Persians after their
conquest of the land. Yet Herodotus tells us that about the middle of
the fifth century, _i.e._ more than a century and a half after the
emigration, the military order in Egypt numbered more than 400,000. If
the number of the emigrants really reached 240,000 men, it is
inexplicable why so strong a body did not prefer to make themselves
masters of Egypt, rather than go in laborious search of uncertain
conquests in distant lands. Herodotus' statement that it was the
garrison at Elephantine which emigrated no doubt leads us in the
direction of the actual occurrence. This garrison cannot have been
240,000 strong, as his narrative states; we cannot assume that it was
stronger than the ordinary border garrison against Syria, _i.e._ from
30,000 to 40,000 men. It may have been a part of the army, of about this
strength, encamped on the southern border, which deserted to the king of
Napata, and preferred service with the Ethiopians to service with
Psammetichus. To Psammetichus himself it could only appear a desirable
thing, if the discontented elements of the old army left the country.
But this desertion to the king of Napata added considerably to the
fighting strength of the latter, and might entice him even into an
attack on Egypt. The emigration could not be hindered by force; it was
the garrison in charge of the border who were emigrating. To pursue the
emigrants with a force was only to be too late, and kindle war with
Napata. It entirely suits this situation that Psammetichus should send
after the fugitives, and then go in person, in order to induce them to
return by gracious promises. According as the Syrian war of Psammetichus
is placed before or after the Scythian invasion, this emigration, which
in Diodorus is a consequence of that war, must be placed after the year
630 B.C. or after the year 615 B.C.
The Greeks were not favoured in the army only. It was part of the
political system of Psammetichus to open the mouths of the Nile to them
and the Phenicians, to give them access to all the harbours, and allow
them, the "unclean" in the view of the older Egyptians, to settle on
Egyptian soil. The Greeks soon came in considerable numbers. The
Milesians obtained permission to build a citadel on the Bolbitinic
mouth, and higher up, at the separation of the Bolbitinic and Canopic
arms, they built the city of Naucratis, the name of which was taken, no
doubt, from the conflict on the Nile (p. 302). The Phenicians obtained a
special quarter on the Nile, "the camp of the Tyrians," in which to
erect a temple to the Syrian goddess.
Psammetichus continued to sit on the throne of the Pharaohs for 40 years
after he had expelled the Assyrians, and obtained the absolute power
(from 650-610 B.C.). How far he succeeded, in this space of time, in
healing the grievous wounds inflicted on the country by the alternating
struggle of Ethiopians and Assyrians, and the war of liberation, the
civil war,--in restoring Memphis, Sais, Tanis, and Thebes, after their
destruction, we cannot ascertain. But the impulse given to trade and
intercourse by the opening of the harbours, the favour shown to the
Greeks and Phenicians, in any case increased the welfare of Egypt, and
the industrial and artistic activity which begins in the reign of
Psammetichus presupposes considerable prosperity in the land.
Psammetichus knew how to restore the ancient splendour of the double
crown. He built at Karnac and on the island of Philæ. At Sais, the home
of his family and his residence, he built a splendid residence. The
ancient shrine of Ptah at Memphis he surrounded with a wall, and added a
new gate to the temple towards the south. Opposite this gate he built a
new hall for the Apis, the walls of which were covered with sculptures,
and the porticoes had colossi 12 cubits in height.[576] In the
burying-ground at Memphis he caused the temple of Osiris-Apis, "his
father," the grave-temple on the eminence, to which the double row of
sphinxes led from the city (I. 67), to be restored; "that it might be as
it had been before." As the gallery which Ramses II. had caused to be
hewn in the rock for the reception of the Apis bulls was no longer
sufficient, Psammetichus added one still larger and more beautiful. The
two Apis bulls which died in his reign--in the twentieth and the
thirty-fifth year--were buried with due solemnity and pomp, the second
being placed in the new gallery.[577] From no reign is the number of
monuments in these tombs of the Apis, by which those who dedicated them
sought to recommend themselves to the favour of Osiris, greater than
from the reign of Psammetichus. With his buildings Egyptian art took a
new impulse, which was also the last. The forms are lighter, more
delicate, more mobile, and far more natural; the hieroglyphics are
carried to a marvellous degree of delicacy. For the statues the artists
of this period preferred the black and grey basalt to granite. In the
dimensions, sculpture as well as architecture remained far behind the
period of the ancient kingdom, behind the period of the Tuthmosis and
Amenophis, of Sethos and Ramses.
The son and successor of Psammetichus, who was called Necho after his
grandfather, followed in the path which his father had pointed out and
opened. He paid especial attention to the foreign trade, the arming of
Egypt on the sea. He hastened to create a navy for Egypt on the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Herodotus observes that he had himself
seen the docks for the ships on his journey to Egypt.[578] Egypt was
stronger by sea if the same fleet could be used on the Mediterranean and
the Red Sea. Thus Necho came back to the views of Ramses II., to the
great canal for uniting the Nile with the Red Sea. By this the trade of
Egypt with South Arabia, and the trade on the Arabian Gulf, was brought
into direct connection with the marine trade of the Mediterranean. Necho
took up the excavation of the canal commenced by Ramses II., which was
at that time carried as far as the region of the Bitter Lakes. The
excavation was first to be carried eastward as far as the Bitter Lakes,
and from this point the land was to be pierced in a southerly direction
as far as the apex of the Red Sea. At the same time the canal was to be
widened, and the new watercourse made so broad, that two triremes could
easily find a place side by side--an undertaking worthy to be placed by
the side of the buildings of the ancient kings. The old canal was soon
excavated more completely, the Bitter Lakes were reached,[579] but the
reach from this point to the Red Sea remained unaccomplished, though the
work was carried on so vigorously and even ruthlessly that, according to
Herodotus, 120,000 men perished there in the desert. According to
Herodotus too, a prophecy induced the king to desist from the completion
of the canal: it was announced to him that he was working for
barbarians, but Strabo, with greater probability, states that the death
of the king interrupted the work.
Necho did not wait for the completion of the canal in order to explore
the coasts of the Arabian Gulf and the Sea in the South. The Phenicians
who, from the times of Solomon in Israel, had desired to gain the trade
with South Arabia by sea, who under Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Uzziah,
had commenced and carried on navigation thither from Elath and
Eziongeber, could now renew these voyages from Egypt. With a view of
furthering trade and navigation, Necho sent, as Herodotus tells us,
Phenicians down the Red Sea, with the injunction to return through the
pillars of Heracles. These Phenicians, we are told, passed into the
South Sea; "and when it was autumn they went ashore and sowed the land,
whereon they happened to be in Libya, and waited for the harvest, and
when they had gathered it in, they again went on board ship, so that
after they had been two years at sea, they rounded the pillars in the
third year, and came to Egypt. And they told a story, which to me is
incredible, though perhaps not equally so to another. They said that
when they sailed round Libya, they had the sun on the right hand." By
this to him incredible statement Herodotus proves the reality of this,
the most ancient circumnavigation of Africa. As soon as the equator was
passed, the expedition would see the sun on the north, _i.e._ on the
right hand, which to Herodotus, according to the Greek conception of the
sun and the earth, must have seemed incredible.
The kingdom of the Assyrians, which for more than a hundred years had
threatened Egypt, governed her, and threatened her again, was at the
last gasp when Necho, in the year 610 B.C., ascended the throne of his
father. The inundation of the Sacæ had shattered the cohesion of the
Assyrian power; Nabopolassar of Babylon, and Cyaxares of Media, had
already been united against Assyria for ten years past; even now, after
Nabopolassar had brought about a peace between Lydia and Media, they set
themselves to give the last blow to the fallen remnant of Assyria.
Psammetichus had attempted to establish himself in the south-west corner
of Syria; a more favourable moment could not come to Egypt for winning
Syria, for repeating the campaigns of the ancient Pharaohs to the
Euphrates, and showing in this direction also the new royal house to be
the restorer of the ancient glory. Apart from such considerations,
prudence bade them not to leave the spoil to the Babylonians alone. What
would Egypt win by the fall of Assyria, if Babylon took her place in
Syria and became the neighbour of Egypt? Necho marched against Syria. It
seems that in order to avoid the difficult route through the desert, he
transported his army on board his fleet to the Syrian coast. The
landing took place in the neighbourhood of Carmel--at any rate we find
that the first collision of the Egyptians and Syrians took place there.
Twelve years had elapsed since king Josiah of Judah had introduced the
new law, and rigorously enforced the worship of Jehovah. The dominion of
the kings of Nineveh over Syria was past: Josiah was not inclined to
exchange this for the yoke of Egypt. Had the Egyptians come by land,
Josiah must have met the army of Necho in the South of Judah. The armies
met under Carmel on the Kishon: the battle broke out in the valley of
Megiddo. The numbers of the Egyptian army ensured victory, they must
have been overpowering. The Jews were defeated; Josiah fell; his corpse
was carried from the battle-field by his servants (609 B.C.). In the
camp at Hadad Rimmon the remnant of the Jewish army lamented over the
pious king--who then found his resting-place in the sepulchres of his
fathers at Jerusalem--and sang songs of lamentation.[580] Passing by the
two elder sons of Josiah, the people raised to the throne the third son,
Jehoahaz.[581] If Necho afterwards dedicated the armour which he wore at
the victory of Megiddo to Apollo, in his ancient temple at Miletus,
where the Branchidæ were his ministers, the conclusion may be drawn that
the Ionian soldiers in his army had especially distinguished themselves
in winning the victory. He did not pursue the army of Judah, but rather
turned to the North, towards Damascus. Soon after his accession, the
successor of Josiah repaired to the camp of the Pharaoh, to pledge his
obedience. Necho was encamped at Riblah (now Ribleh), south of Emesa, in
a grassy plain on the Orontes, where the road which leads from the
Euphrates to the coast is cut by the road which follows the valley of
the Orontes. Necho caused Jehoahaz to be secured, and sent him as a
prisoner to Egypt. There he remained till his death: he had sat on the
throne only three months. The Judæans were not permitted to raise any
more kings to the throne: on the contrary, Necho made Jehoiakim, the
second son of Josiah, prince of Judah, and imposed on the land a
contribution of 100 kikkar of silver, and one kikkar of gold. Of the
subsequent achievements of Necho in Syria, we have precise information
only about the capture of Gaza. From the subsequent events we must
conclude that Necho succeeded in subjugating all the Syrian states to
his supremacy.[582]
Meanwhile Jehoiakim, set up by Necho to be king of Judah, undisturbed by
his dependence on Egypt, or by the contribution which the land had to
pay, occupied himself with building palaces in Jerusalem, and for that
object extorted money and service from his subjects. The prophet
Jeremiah, who had supported the introduction of the Book of the Law
under the reign of his father, opposed this action of the king without
regard to consequences: "Weep not for the dead king," Jeremiah said to
the Jews, "neither bemoan him; weep rather for him who is carried away
(Jehoahaz): he will die there, and see no more his native country. They
will not lament for Jehoiakim, saying, Ah! my brother. Woe unto him that
buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that
useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his
work. Woe to him that saith, I will build me a wide house and large
chambers, and cutteth him out windows, and it is ceiled with cedar, and
painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign because thou contendest with
houses of cedar? Thy father did eat and drink, but he did judgment and
justice; he judged the cause of the poor and needy, and it was well with
him. But thine eyes and thy heart are for nought but thy covetousness,
and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression and violence. He
shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn forth and cast beyond
the gates of Jerusalem."[583] The prophet had to thank the protection of
Ahikam, a son of the scribe Zaphan (p. 213), that he escaped the anger
of the king. Another prophet who prophesied in the same strain, Urijah
by name, was brought by Jehoiakim out of Egypt, whither he had fled, and
put to death.[584]
While Necho, in Syria, subjugated one district after another, the
Babylonians and Medes were engaged in a severe struggle with the remnant
of Assyria. At length Nineveh fell. Soon after, in the year 605 B.C.,
Necho marched to the Euphrates, no doubt with the intention of extending
his dominion as far as Karchemish. The roads through the deserts,
traversed by the caravans, by which the armies of the Assyrians had so
often travelled, ran from Hamath and Damascus to Thipsach and
Karchemish, which lay opposite the modern Biredshik.
Nabopolassar of Babylon found himself at the goal of his wishes. Nineveh
was at his feet. When after his long and heavy labour he had entered
into the enjoyment of the independent sovereignty over Babylon, a new
enemy appeared unexpectedly, an army from the Nile, in order to encamp
on the Euphrates, and set foot on the borders of Babylon, and endanger
the state which Nabopolassar had just restored, if he did not actually
diminish the results obtained.[585] He felt himself no longer equal to
the toil of war, so Berosus tells us, and handed over a part of the army
to Nebuchadnezzar, who "was in his youthful strength."[586]
Nebuchadnezzar and the Egyptians met at Karchemish. Necho suffered a
severe defeat, which put a speedy end to all his schemes of conquest.
"Who is this," exclaims Jeremiah, "that cometh up as the Nile, whose
waters are moved as the rivers? The Egyptian cometh up like the Nile,
and saith, I will go up and will cover the earth, and will destroy the
city, and the inhabitants thereof. Order ye the buckler and shield, and
draw near to the battle. Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen.
Put on the helmets and the brigandines, and furbish the spears. Come up,
ye horses, and rage, ye chariots; let the Ethiopians come forth that
handle the shield, and the Libyans that bend the bow. But why have I
seen them dismayed and turned back, and their mighty ones are beaten
down, and are fled apace and look not back? Let not the swift flee away,
nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble and fall toward the north
by the river Euphrates, and the sword shall devour, and it shall be made
satiate, and shall be drunk with the blood of the Egyptians. Go up into
Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt. But there is no
medicine for thee. The people have heard thy shame, and thy cry has
filled the land."[587]
FOOTNOTES:
[564] Herod. 2, 137 ff; 147 ff.
[565] Diod. I, 65, 66.
[566] Manetho's list would put the death of Nechepsus in 672 B.C.
[567] Above, p. 171 _n._, where the grounds for this date are given.
According to the statement of Diodorus, the anarchy after the Ethiopians
lasted two years, the Dodecarchy 15 years. If Esarhaddon conquered Egypt
in 672 B.C., 17 years bring us to the year 655 B.C. as the beginning of
the defection from Assyria.
[568] Strabo, p. 801.
[569] Polyæn. "Strateg.," 7, 30.
[570] On the side of the alabaster statue of Ameniritis, which was dug
up in a chapel at Karnak, we find under the name: "The regent of the
South and the North, the royal sister of ---- the royal daughter
of ----" the names are chiselled out. But a Scarabæus of Gurnah informs
us: "Ameniritis, goddess, consort, daughter of Kashta;" and legends in
the place where the statues were found run thus: "The royal sister of
Raneserke (Sabakon), the royal daughter of Kashta, the just." Mariette,
"Revue Archæeolog." N.S. 1863, p. 418, 419.
[571] Herod. 2, 154.
[572] Diod. 1, 67. [Greek: Chôran pollên katelêrouchêse.] Jerem. xlvi.
21.
[573] Herod. 2, 112, 154; Diod. 1, 67.
[574] Herod. 2, 30.
[575] Diod. 1, 67; Strabo, p. 770, 786. Plin. "Hist. Nat.," 6, 35. Vol.
I. p. 14. The statement of Diodorus repeated in the text--that the
Greeks had the right wing--might seem to have been borrowed from Greek
customs, if Herodotus did not tell us that the emigrants were called
Asmach (2, 30), which means standing on the left side of the king. The
monuments show that the Egyptians denoted the order of precedence,
according to the right and left side of the king; we find bearers of the
fan on the right side and on the left of the king. According to Brugsch,
Asmach really means what is found on the left side. Klöder ("Das
Stromsystem des oberen Nil," s. 36 ff. 86) assumes that the settlement
of the emigrant warriors is to be sought at Axum.
[576] Herod. 2, 105, 163. Diod. 1, 68.
[577] Brugsch "Hist. of Egypt," 2, 286. That the Egyptians counted the
reign of Psammetichus from the end of Tirhaka's, _i.e._ from 664 B.C.,
is proved above, p. 71 _n._
[578] Herod. 2, 159.
[579] Lepsius, "Ægypt. Chronologie," s. 351.
[580] The Chronicles (2, xxxv. 20 ff) represent Josiah as dying in
Jerusalem, but they can hardly be correct. In order to explain the
unhappy death of the pious king, who had introduced the Book of the Law,
and destroyed the worship of idols, by a transgression, they represent
Josiah as not hearkening to the words of Necho "out of the mouth of
God," and making an attack on the Egyptians, who were not at war with
them. But though the Chronicles represent Necho as declaring that he was
hastening to the Euphrates, it is, on the other hand, clear that he did
not march to the Euphrates till four years after the battle of Megiddo.
The Magdolus of Herodotus is, no doubt, the Megiddo of the Hebrews.
Josephus ("Antiq." 10, 5, 1) names Mende as the place of the battle.
Whether the camp of the Jews was really pitched at Hadad Rimmon, to the
south-east of Megiddo, is not clear.
[581] On the sons of Josiah, Johanan, Jehoiakim, Shallum (by Zebudah),
Jehoahaz, and Zedekiah (by Hamutal), cf. 1 Chron. iii. 15, 16.
[582] Jerem. xlvii. 1. Cadytis in Herodotus 2, 159 is Gaza. The name is
formed after the Egyptian "Kazatu."
[583] Jerem. xxii. 10-19.
[584] Jerem. xxvi. 12-14; 20-23.
[585] The opinion that Necho marched to the Euphrates to the relief of
Nineveh seems to me quite untenable. Setting aside the fact that for
this object Necho must have been at the Euphrates earlier,--which he
could well have done,--what interest had Necho in Assyria, from whose
power his father had liberated Egypt? Nor can I adopt the opinion of M.
Niebuhr that Necho marched to Assyria merely to defend Syria. Josephus
("Antiq." 10, 5, 1) tells us, "that Necho marched to the Euphrates in
order to make war upon the Medes and Babylonians, who had destroyed the
Assyrian power." This idea of offensive warfare is confirmed by the
words in Jeremiah: "I will go up and destroy their cities." Syria was
easier of defence when he had the desert before him, than when it lay
behind him.
[586] Berosi Frag. 14 ed. Müller. That in Berosus the satrap of Syria
has taken the place of Necho, may be explained by the supposition that
Nabopolassar had laid claim to Syria as an appurtenance of the part of
the Assyrian kingdom which had fallen to him, and perhaps announced to
Necho that he was prepared to give him Syria as a dependency of
Babylon--an offer which Necho did not accept. But the "satrap" is also
sufficiently explained by the point of view of the historian of Babylon,
who sees the period of Nebuchadnezzar in the most brilliant light.
[587] Jerem. xlvi. 1-13, 15, 16, 17.