EGYPT. however, did not long enjoy this extensive power; for about three years afterwards he was totally defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who recovered Carchemis, and all the neighbouring provinces. The Egyptian monarch being stripped of all his conquests, confined himself within the limits of his own kingdom, and died about eight years after his defeat by the Babylonians. Psamnis, his son, next ascended the throne; but his reign affords nothing that is worthy of historical notice. He was succeeded by his son Apries, the Pharaoh Hophra spoken of in the Scripture. The commencement of this prince's reign was brilliant and happy; but its termination was extremely unfortunate. He entered into a treaty with Zedekiah, king of Judah, whom he promised to support in his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. When Jerusalem was besieged, the king of Egypt marched his army into Syria, but not daring to hazard a battle with the Babylonians, he retreated into his own country, and left the Jews to the mercy of their enemies. Soon after this transaction, Amasis, an artful and ambitious courtier, rebelled against Apries, and almost all the Egyptians favoured his revolt, while the king was supported only by his foreign troops. During the civil war, which on this occasion convulsed Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, having completed his conquests of Tyre and Jerusalem, entered that country, which, in its divided state, was far from being capable of resisting so warlike and powerful an invader. Profane history makes no mention of this event; and all we can gather from scripture is, that the Babylonian monarch ravaged the country, and carried off an immense booty.* What convention might take place between this conqueror and Amasis, is unknown all that is left on record is, that the usurper having vanquished Apries, and, according to the denunciation of the prophet, delivered him into the hands of those who sought his life, the unfortunate king was strangled by his rebellious subjects. Historians have assigned to Amasis, who now became sovereign of Egypt, a prosperous reign of forty-four years, and assure us that the kingdom was never more potent and : * Jeremiah. ch. 61. flourishing than during this period. According to their relations, he shewed a great predilection for the people and manners of Greece. He encouraged the Greeks to settle in Egypt, and to construct temples to the honour of the Grecian gods. Solon, the celebrated legislator of Athens, paid a visit to this prince, by whom he was graciously received. Amasis adorned the great temple of Vulcan at Memphis, and several others, with colassel statues and superb ornaments. He is said to have exceedingly enriched his kingdom by trade; and the Grecian historians assert, that Egypt never displayed greater wealth and magnificence than during his reign. These accounts would induce us to believe that the country had soon retrieved the losses sustained by the Babylonian invasion. They are, however, far from corresponding with the predictions of the Hebrew prophets, relative to the desolate state of Egypt during forty years under the lash of foreign oppression. But the prophetical denunciations, although not explicit in that respect, seem to allude to the Persian rather than the Babylonian conquest of that kingdom. The period, however, which elapsed between the revolt of Amasis, and the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, is extremely confused and obscure; and the relations of historians in regard to the events which took place during that interval are perplexed and contradictory." But whatever might be the prosperity of the reign of Amasis, it is certain, that the glory and splendor of ancient Egypt expired with that monarch. His son, Psammenitus, had no sooner ascended the throne than the kingdom was conquered by Cambyses, king of Persia, and felt all the weight of his merciless hand. The body of Amasis was dragged from the sepulchre, torn in pieces, and reduced to ashes; and Psammenitus, the reigning king, was put to death by the command of the conqueror. Egypt, which had so long flourished in splen. dour, in power, and celebrity, now saw her cities pillaged, her temples prophaned, and her gods destroyed. These violent proceedings gave rise to that inextinguishable hatred which the Egyptian nation ever after entertained. The compilers of the universal history have taken great pains in elucidating this confused period of the Egyptian annals, without being able to reduce it to consistency. See Univ. Hist. vol. 2. against the Persians. This implacable animosity was religious. as well as political, and was kept up by a variety of moral cir cumstances which in a particular manner distinguished the two nations. The disciples of Zoroaster despised and abhor.. red the idolatry of Egypt; and the Egyptians being zealously. attached to their ancient superstitions and prejudices, were beyond measure exasperated at the contempt which the Per-w sians, shewed for their gods, their religion, and laws. They were therefore incessantly occupied in forming schemes for throwing off so insupportable a yoke, and in the reign of Daq rius Hystaspes broke out into an open rebellion, in which they persisted till the second year of Xerxes, when they were again t reduced to obedience, and experienced, in a still greater des gree, the rigour of the Persian government. Wearied out o with oppression, they revolted a second time in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, placed Inarus, king of Lybia, on the throne of Egypt, and called in to their aid the Athenians, the declared enemies of Persia.* The Athenian fleet at tacking that of the Persians, captured and destroyed a great number of their vessels. The combined army of the Athenians, Egyptians, and Lybians, also totally defeated the Persians, d killed an almost incredible number, and drove the rest into Memphis. But the Persians being hard pressed by the close pursuit of the victors, took refuge in a strongly fortified quar-> ter, while the Egyptians remained masters of the rest of the [ city, and kept the Persians besieged in their fortress during the space of three years, So long were the different of the Egyptian metropolis divided between two hostile pow- ⠀ quarters ers. Inarus being apprised of the march of a formidable Persian army, redoubled his efforts on their fortress in Memphis; but met with so, vigorous and persevering a resistance, that he was at length obliged to relinquish the enterprise and evacuate the capital. After suffering a defeat from the Persian army, he retired into the isle of Prosopotis, which was formed by two branches of the Nile, where he in his turn had the mortification to see himself besieged. The Persians at last 1 having, by means of a canal, drained that branch of the Nile in which the Athenian fleet was stationed near the island, Ina. rus with his Egyptian adherents and Grecian confederates, was obliged to surrender on conditions, which were afterwards inhumanly violated by the Persians. Through the solicitations of the mother of Artaxerxes, Inarus was crucified, and the rest of the Egyptian and Athenian prisoners were beheaded.* Such was the disastrous termination of the war which Inarus, king of Egypt and Lybia, undertook against Artaxerxes. The Egyptians were again reduced to subjection; but their spirit of independence was not extinguished. Amyrteus, one of their chiefs, retired with a chosen band into the marshes and other inaccessible situations, until the tenth year of Darius Nothus, when a general revolt of the kingdom taking place, he issued out from his retreat, and putting himself at the bead of the patriots, expelled the Persians, and placed himself on the throne of Egypt. Those revolts of the Egyptians had been constantly favoured by the Greeks, the declared enemies of the Persian power.‡ Egypt having at last thrown off the Persian yoke, was again governed by a succession of native princes, who seem to have been sometimes independent, sometimes tributary to the kings of Persia. In general, however, a hostile system subsisted between the two nations, and Egypt joined in almost every confederacy that was formed against the Persians. After thirty years of this hostile independence, during which period the Egyptians neglected no opportunity of shewing their irreconcileable aversion to the Persians, Artaxerxes Mnemon at last resolved to make a grand effort for the reduction of Egypt. Achoris, who at that time swayed the sceptre of that kingdom, perceiving the impending storm, made the most vigorous preparations for averting the danger with which he was threatened. Before the commencement of the contest, however, Achoris died. The reign of Psammethis, his successor, lasted only a year. After him Nepherotes reigned no more than a month; and Nectanebus then ascended the throne, During this time the Persian preparations had been slowly. carried forward; but at length their whole army, consisting Univ. Hist. vol. 2 and 5. † Euseb. Chron. of 200,000 Persians, commanded by Pharnabazus, and 20,000 Greeks, under Iphicrates, the famous Athenian general, entered Egypt. Since the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians had changed their system of politics, and were extremely desirous of culivating the friendship of the great king, in order to counterbalance the power of the Lacedemonians, and the enmity of other Grecian states. They had therefore not only recalled their auxiliary troops from the Egyptian service, but sent to the Persian king the ablest of their generals to cómmand the Greeks, whom he entertained in his pay. The differences, however, which arose between the Persian and the Athenian general, crippled their operations, and they were finally expelled from Egypt.* After the lapse of twelve years, Artaxerxes, notwithstanding the miscarriage of his former attempt, made preparations for another expedition. Tachos, who had succeeded Nectanebus in the throne of that kingdom, concluded a treaty with the Lacedemonians, who sent him a powerful force under the command of their celebrated king Agesilaus, whom the Egyptian monarch had promised to make generalissimo of his forces. But Tachos, in his first interview with Agesilaus, formed so disadvantageous an idea of that great man, that he never had any regard for his person or counsels. He had expected to see a man of a noble and majestic presence, the splendor of whose dress and equipage, as well as the dignity of his personal appearance, should correspond with the fame of his exploits, and was disgusted, as well as surprised, when he found an old man of a mean and vulgar physiognomy, and clothed in plain apparel. This capricious contempt for the Lacedemonian king, and the consequent neglect of his counsels, however, caused the ruin of Tachos. Having, contrary to the advice of Agesilaus, marched to attack the Persians in Syria, the Egyptians revolted, "placed on the throne another king of the name of Nectanebus, and expelled Tachos from the kingdom. Nectanebus was no sooner seated on the throne, than a powerful competitor, a native Egyptian, at the head of 100,000 men, was ready to dispute with him the possession of the kingdom. Egypt now became the theatre of a civil war, in which * Univ. Hist. vol. 5. ch. 41. |