They said that after him, Mycerinus, son of Cheops, reigned over Egypt; that the conduct of his father was displeasing to him; and that he opened the temples, and permitted the people, who were worn down to the last extremity, to return to their employments, and to sacrifices; and that he made the most just decisions of all their kings. On this account, of all the kings that ever reigned in Egypt, they praise him most, for he both judged well in other respects, and moreover, when any man complained of his decision, he used to make him some present out of his own treasury and pacify his anger. To this beneficent Mycerinus, the beginning of misfortunes was the death of his daughter, who was his only child; whereupon he, extremely afflicted, and wishing to bury her in a more costly manner than usual, caused a hollow wooden image of a cow to be made and covered with gold, into which he put the body of his deceased daughter. This cow was not interred in the ground, but even in my time was exposed to view in the city of Sais, placed in the royal palace, in a richly furnished chamber. They burn near it all kinds of aromatics every day, and a lamp is kept burning by it throughout each night.

The cow is covered with a purple cloth, except the head and the neck, which are overlaid with very thick gold; and the orb of the sun imitated in gold is placed between the horns. The cow is kneeling; in size equal to a large, living cow.

After the loss of his daughter, a second calamity befell this king: an oracle reached him from the city of Buto, importing, "that he had no more than six years to live, and should die in the seventh." Thinking this very hard, he sent a reproachful message to the god, complaining, "that his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples, and paid no regard to the gods, and moreover had oppressed men, had lived long; whereas he who was religious must die so soon." But a second message came to him from the oracle, stating, "that for this very reason his life was shortened, because he had not done what he ought to have done; for it was needful that Egypt should be afflicted during one hundred and fifty years; and the two who were kings before him understood this, but he did not." When Mycerinus heard this, and saw that this sentence was now pronounced against him, he ordered a great number of lamps to be made, which were lighted whenever night came on, and he drank and enjoyed himself, never ceasing night or day, roving about the marshes and groves, wherever he could hear of places most suited for pleasure. He had recourse to this artifice for the purpose of convicting the oracle of falsehood, that by turning the nights into days, he might have twelve years instead of six.

This king also left a pyramid, but much smaller than that of his father, being on each side twenty feet short of three plethra; it is quadrangular, and built half way up of Ethiopian stone.

After Mycerinus, the priests said, that Asychis became king of Egypt, and that he built the eastern portico to the temple of Vulcan, which is by far the largest and most beautiful in its wealth of sculptured figures and infinite variety of architecture. This king, being desirous of surpassing his predecessors, left a pyramid, as a memorial, made of bricks; on which is an inscription carved on stone, in the following words: "Do not despise me in comparison with the pyramids of stone, for I excel them as much as Jupiter, the other gods. For by plunging a pole into a lake, and collecting the mire that stuck to the pole, men made bricks, and in this manner built me."

After him there reigned a blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. During his reign, the Ethiopians and their king, Sabacon, invaded Egypt with a large force; whereupon this blind king fled to the fens; and the Ethiopian reigned over Egypt for fifty years, during which time he performed the following actions: When any Egyptians committed any crime, he would not have any of them put to death, but passed sentence upon each according to the magnitude of his offence, enjoining them to heap up mounds of earth, each offender against his own city, and by this means the cities were made much higher; for first of all they had been raised considerably by those who dug the canals in the time of king Sesostris. Although other cities in Egypt were carried to a great height, in my opinion the greatest mounds were thrown up about the city of Bubastis, in which is a beautiful temple of Bubastis corresponding to the Grecian Diana. Her sacred precinct is thus situated: all except the entrance is an island; for two canals from the Nile extend to it, not mingling with each other, but each reaches as far as the entrance to the precinct, one flowing round it on one side, the other on the other. Each is a hundred feet broad, and shaded with trees. The portico is ten orgyæ in height, and is adorned with figures six cubits high, that are deserving of notice. This precinct, being in the middle of the city, is visible on every side to a person going round it; for while the city has been mounded up to a considerable height, the temple has not been moved, so that it is conspicuous as it was originally built. A wall sculptured with figures runs round it; and within is a grove of lofty trees, planted round a large temple in which the image is placed. The width and length of the precinct is each way a stade. Along the entrance is a road paved with stone, four plethra in width and about three stades in length, leading through the square eastward toward the temple of Mercury; on each side of the road grow trees of enormous height. They told me that the final departure of the Ethiopian occurred in the following manner: it appeared to him in a vision that a man, standing by him, advised him to assemble all the priests in Egypt, and to cut them in two down the middle; but he, fearing that the gods held out this as a pretext to him, in order that he, having been guilty of impiety in reference to sacred things, might draw down some evil on himself from gods or from men, would not do so; but as the time had expired during which it was foretold that he should reign over Egypt, he departed hastily from the country. When Sabacon of his own accord had departed from Egypt, the blind king resumed the government, having returned from the fens, where he had lived fifty years, on an island formed of ashes and earth. For when any of the Egyptians came to him bringing provisions, as they were severally ordered to do unknown to the Ethiopian, he bade them bring some ashes also as a present. The kings who preceded Amyrtæus were unable, for more than seven hundred years, to find out where this island was. It was called Elbo, and was about ten stades square.

After him reigned a priest of Vulcan, whose name was Sethon: he held in no account the military caste of the Egyptians, as not having need of their services; and accordingly, among other indignities, he took away their lands; to each of whom, under former kings, twelve chosen acres had been assigned. After this, when Sennacherib, king of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched a large army against Egypt, the Egyptian warriors refused to assist him; and the priest, being reduced to a strait, entered the temple, and bewailed before the image the calamities he was in danger of suffering. While he was lamenting, sleep fell upon him, and it appeared to him in a vision, that the god stood by and encouraged him, assuring him that he should suffer nothing disagreeable in meeting the Arabian army, for he would himself send assistants to him. Confiding in this vision, he took with him such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusium, at the entrance into Egypt; but none of the military caste followed him, only tradesmen, mechanics, and sutlers. When they arrived there, a number of field mice, pouring in upon their enemies, devoured their quivers and their bows, and the handles of their shields; so that on the next day, when they fled bereft of their arms, many of them fell. And to this day, a stone statue of this king stands in the temple of Vulcan, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to the following effect: "Whoever looks on me, let him revere the gods."

The Egyptians and the priests show that from the first king to this priest of Vulcan who last reigned, were three hundred and forty-one generations of men; and the same number of chief priests and kings. Now, three hundred generations are equal to ten thousand years, for three generations of men are one hundred years; and the forty-one remaining generations that were over the three hundred, make one thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus, they say, in eleven thousand three hundred and forty years, no god has assumed the form of a man. They relate that during this time the sun has four times risen out of his usual quarter, and that he has twice risen where he now sets, and twice set where he now rises; yet, that no change in the things in Egypt was occasioned by this, either in respect to the productions of the earth or the river, or to diseases or deaths.

CHAPTER VI.
THIRD LINE; FROM THE TWELVE KINGS TO AMASIS.

What things both other men and the Egyptians agree in saying occurred in this country, I shall now proceed to relate, and shall add to them some things of my own observation. The Egyptians having become free, after the reign of the priest of Vulcan, since they were at no time able to live without a king, divided all Egypt into twelve parts and established twelve others. These contracted intermarriages, and agreed that they would not attempt the subversion of one another, and would maintain the strictest friendship. They made these regulations and strictly upheld them, for the reason that it had been foretold them by an oracle when they first assumed the government, "that whoever among them should offer a libation in the temple of Vulcan from a bronze bowl, should be king of all Egypt"; for they used to assemble in all the temples. Now, being determined to leave in common a memorial of themselves, they built a labyrinth, a little above the lake of Mœris, situated near that called the city of Crocodiles; this I have myself seen, and found it greater than can be described. For if any one should reckon up all the buildings and public works of the Greeks, they would be found to have cost less labor and expense than this labyrinth alone, though the temple in Ephesus is deserving of mention, and also that in Samos. The pyramids likewise were beyond description, and each of them comparable to many of the great Greek structures. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. For it has twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another; and the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground I myself went through and saw, and relate from personal inspection. But the underground rooms I know only from report; for the Egyptians who have charge of the building would, on no account, show me them, saying that they held the sepulchres of the kings who originally built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore only relate what I have learnt by hearsay concerning the lower rooms; but the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw. The passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder, as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted. And adjoining the extremity of the labyrinth is a pyramid, forty orgyæ in height, on which large figures are carved, and a way to it has been made under ground.

Yet more wonderful than this labyrinth is the lake named from Mœris, near which this labyrinth is built; its circumference measures three thousand six hundred stades, or a distance equal to the sea-coast of Egypt. The lake stretches lengthways, north and south, being in depth in the deepest part fifty orgyæ. That it is made by hand and dry, this circumstance proves, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, each rising fifty orgyæ above the surface of the water, and the part built under water extends to an equal depth; on each of these is placed a stone statue, seated on a throne. Thus these pyramids are one hundred orgyæ in height. The water in this lake does not spring from the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed through a channel from the Nile, and for six months it flows into the lake, and six months out again into the Nile. And during the six months that it flows out it yields a talent of silver every day to the king's treasury from the fish; but when the water is flowing into it, twenty minæ. The people of the country told me that this lake discharges itself under ground into the Syrtis of Libya, running westward toward the interior by the mountain above Memphis. But when I did not see anywhere a heap of soil from this excavation, for this was an object of curiosity to me, I inquired of the people who lived nearest the lake, where the soil that had been dug out was to be found; they told me where it had been carried, and easily persuaded me, because I had heard that a similar thing had been done at Nineveh, in Assyria. For certain thieves formed a design to carry away the treasures of Sardanapalus, King of Nineveh, which were very large, and preserved in subterraneous treasuries; the thieves, therefore, beginning from their own dwellings, dug under ground by estimated measurement to the royal palace, and the soil that was taken out of the excavations, when night came on, they threw into the river Tigris, that flows by Nineveh; and so they proceeded until they had effected their purpose. The same method I heard was adopted in digging the lake in Egypt, except that it was not done by night, but during the day; for the Egyptians who dug out the soil carried it to the Nile, and the river receiving it, soon dispersed it.

While the twelve kings continued to observe justice, in course of time, as they were sacrificing in the temple of Vulcan, and were about to offer a libation on the last day of the festival, the high priest, mistaking the number, brought out eleven of the twelve golden bowls with which he used to make the libation. Whereupon he who stood last of them, Psammitichus, since he had not a bowl, having taken off his helmet, which was of bronze, held it out and made the libation. All the other kings were in the habit of wearing helmets, and at that time had them on. Psammitichus therefore, without any sinister intention, held out his helmet; but they having taken into consideration what was done by Psammitichus, and the oracle that had foretold to them, "that whoever among them should offer a libation from a bronze bowl, should be sole king of Egypt"; calling to mind the oracle, did not think it right to put him to death, since upon examination they found that he had done it by no premeditated design. But they determined to banish him to the marshes, having divested him of the greatest part of his power; and they forbade him to leave the marshes, or have any intercourse with the rest of Egypt. With the design of avenging himself on his persecutors, he sent to the city of Buto to consult the oracle of Latona, the truest oracle that the Egyptians have, and the answer was returned "that vengeance would come from the sea, when men of bronze should appear." He was very incredulous that men of bronze would come to assist him; but not long after a stress of weather compelled some Ionians and Carians, who had sailed out for the purpose of piracy, to bear away to Egypt; and when they had disembarked and were clad in bronze armor, an Egyptian, who had never before seen men clad in such manner, went to the marshes to Psammitichus, and told him that men of bronze had arrived from the sea, and were ravaging the plains. He felt at once that the oracle was accomplished, and treated these Ionians and Carians in a friendly manner, and by promising them great things, persuaded them to join with him; and, with their help and that of such Egyptians as were well disposed toward him, he overcame the other kings.

Psammitichus, now master of all Egypt, constructed the portico to Vulcan's temple at Memphis that faces the south wind; he built a court for Apis, in which he is fed whenever he appears, opposite the portico, surrounded by a colonnade, and full of sculptured figures; and instead of pillars, statues twelve cubits high are placed under the piazza. Apis, in the language of the Greeks, means Epaphus. To the Ionians, and those who with them had assisted him, Psammitichus gave lands opposite each other, with the Nile flowing between. These bear the name of "Camps." He royally fulfilled all his promises; and he moreover put Egyptian children under their care to be instructed in the Greek language; from whom the present interpreters in Egypt are descended. The Ionians and the Carians continued for a long time to inhabit these lands, situated near the sea, a little below the city of Bubastis. They were the first people of a different language who settled in Egypt. The docks for their ships, and the ruins of their buildings, were to be seen in my time in the places from which they had removed.

Psammitichus reigned in Egypt fifty-four years; during twenty-nine of which he sat down before and besieged Azotus, a large city of Syria, until he took it. This Azotus, of all the cities we know of, held out against a siege the longest period. Neco was son of Psammitichus, and became king of Egypt: he first set about the canal that leads to the Red Sea, which Darius the Persian afterward completed. Its length is a voyage of four days, and in width it was dug so that two triremes might sail rowed abreast. The water is drawn into it from the Nile, and enters it a little above the city Bubastis. The canal passes near the Arabian city Patumos, and reaches to the Red Sea. In the digging of it one hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians perished in the reign of Neco.

Psammis his son reigned only six years over Egypt. He made an expedition into Ethiopia, and shortly afterward died, Apries his son succeeding to the kingdom. He, next to his grandfather Psammitichus, enjoyed greater prosperity than any of the former kings, during a reign of five and twenty years, in which period he marched an army against Sidon, and engaged the Tyrians by sea. But it was destined for him to meet with adversity. For, having sent an army against the Cyrenæans, he met with a signal defeat. And the Egyptians, complaining of this, revolted from him, suspecting that Apries had designedly sent them to certain ruin, in order that they might be destroyed, and he might govern the rest of the Egyptians with greater security. Both those that returned and the friends of those who perished, being very indignant at this, openly revolted against him. Apries, having heard of this, sent Amasis to appease them by persuasion. But when he had come to them, and was urging them to desist from their enterprise, one of the Egyptians, standing behind him, placed a helmet on his head, and said: "I put this on you to make you king." And this action was not at all disagreeable to Amasis, as he presently showed. When Apries heard of this, he armed his auxiliaries and marched against the Egyptians with Carian and Ionian auxiliaries to the number of thirty thousand. They met near the city Momemphis, and prepared to engage with each other. Apries had a palace in the city of Sais that was spacious and magnificent.

There are seven classes of people among the Egyptians—priests, warriors, herdsmen, swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters, and pilots. Their warriors are called Calasiries or Hermotybies. The Hermotybies number, when they are most numerous, a hundred and sixty thousand. None of these learn any business or mechanical art, but apply themselves wholly to military affairs. The Calasiries number two hundred and fifty thousand men: nor are these allowed to practise any art, but they devote themselves to military pursuits alone, the son succeeding to his father.

When Apries, leading his auxiliaries, and Amasis, all the Egyptians, met together at Momemphis, the foreigners fought well, but being far inferior in numbers, were, on that account, defeated. Apries is said to have been of opinion that not even a god could deprive him of his kingdom, so securely did he think himself established; but he was beaten, taken prisoner, and carried back to Sais, to that which was formerly his own palace, but which now belonged to Amasis: here he was maintained for some time in the royal palace, and Amasis treated him well. But at length the Egyptians complaining that he did not act rightly in preserving a man who was the greatest enemy both to them and to him, he delivered Apries to the Egyptians. They strangled him, and buried him in his ancestral sepulchre, in the sacred precinct of Minerva, very near the temple, on the left hand as you enter.

Apries being thus dethroned, Amasis, who was of the Saitic district, reigned in his stead; the name of the city from which he came was Siuph. At first the Egyptians held him in no great estimation, as having been formerly a private person, and of no illustrious family; but afterward he conciliated them by an act of address, without any arrogance. He had an infinite number of treasures among them a golden foot-pan, in which Amasis himself and all his guests were accustomed to wash their feet. This he broke in pieces, had the statue of a god made from it, and placed it in the most suitable part of the city. The Egyptians flocked to the image and paid it the greatest reverence. Thus, Amasis called the Egyptians together and said: "This statue was made out of the foot-pan in which the Egyptians formerly spat and washed their feet, and which they then so greatly reverenced; now, the same has happened to me as to the foot-pan; for though I was before but a private person, I now am your king; you must therefore honor and respect me." By this means he won over the Egyptians, so that they thought fit to obey him. He adopted the following method of managing his affairs: early in the morning, until the time of full-market, he assiduously despatched the business brought before him; after that he drank and jested with his companions, and talked loosely and sportively. But his friends, offended at this, admonished him, saying: "You do not, O king, control yourself properly, in making yourself too common. For it becomes you, who sit on a venerable throne, to pass the day in transacting public business; thus the Egyptians would know that they are governed by a great man, and you would be better spoken of. But now you act in a manner not at all becoming a king." But he answered them: "They who have bows, when they want to use them, bend them; but when they have done using them, they unbend them; for if the bow were to be kept always bent, it would break. Such is the condition of man; if he should incessantly attend to serious business, and not give himself up sometimes to sport, he would shortly become mad or stupefied. I, being well aware of this, give up a portion of my time to each."

He built an admirable portico to the temple of Minerva at Sais, far surpassing all others both in height and size, as well as in the dimensions and quality of the stones; he likewise dedicated large statues, and huge andro-sphinxes, and brought other stones of a prodigious size for repairs: some from the quarries near Memphis; but those of greatest magnitude, from the city of Elephantine, distant from Sais a passage of twenty days. But that which I rather the most admire, is this: he brought a building of one stone from the city of Elephantine, and two thousand men, who were appointed to convey it, were occupied three whole years in its transport, and these men were all pilots. The length of this chamber, outside, is twenty-one cubits, the breadth fourteen, and the height eight. But inside, the length is eighteen cubits and twenty digits, the width twelve cubits, and the height five cubits. This chamber is placed near the entrance of the sacred precinct; for they say that he did not draw it within the precinct for the following reason: the architect, as the chamber was being drawn along, heaved a deep sigh, being wearied with the work, over which so long a time had been spent; whereupon Amasis, making a religious scruple of this, would not suffer it to be drawn any farther. Some persons however say, that one of the men employed at the levers was crushed to death by it, and that on that account it was not drawn into the precinct. Amasis dedicated in all the most famous temples, works admirable for their magnitude; and amongst them, at Memphis, the reclining colossus before the temple of Vulcan, of which the length is seventy-five feet; and on the same base stand two statues of Ethiopian stone, each twenty feet in height, one on each side of the temple. There is also at Sais another similar statue, lying in the same manner as that at Memphis. It was Amasis also who built the temple to Isis at Memphis, which is spacious and well worthy of notice.

Under the reign of Amasis, Egypt is said to have enjoyed the greatest prosperity, both in respect to the benefits derived from the river to the land, and from the land to the people; and it is said to have contained at that time twenty thousand inhabited cities. Amasis it was who established the law among the Egyptians, that every Egyptian should annually declare to the governor of his district, by what means he maintained himself; and if he failed to do this, or did not show that he lived by honest means, he should be punished with death. Solon the Athenian brought this law from Egypt and established it at Athens. Amasis, being partial to the Greeks, bestowed other favors on various of the Greeks, and gave the city of Naucratis for such as arrived in Egypt to dwell in; and to such as did not wish to settle there, but only to trade by sea, he granted places where they might erect altars and temples to the gods. Now, the most spacious of these sacred buildings, which is also the most renowned and frequented, called the Hellenium, was erected at the common charge of the following cities: of the Ionians,—Chios, Teos, Phocæa, and Clazomenæ; of the Dorians,—Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Phaselis; and of the Æolians,—Mitylene alone. So that this temple belongs to them, and these cities appoint officers to preside over the mart: and whatever other cities claim a share in it, claim what does not belong to them. Besides this, the people of Ægina built a temple to Jupiter for themselves; and the Samians another to Juno, and the Milesians one to Apollo. Naucratis was anciently the only place of resort for merchants, and there was no other in Egypt: and if a man arrived at any other mouth of the Nile, he was obliged to swear "that he had come there against his will"; and having taken such an oath, he must sail in the same ship to the Canopic mouth; but if he should be prevented by contrary winds from doing so, he was forced to unload his goods and carry them in barges round the Delta until he reached Naucratis. So great were the privileges of Naucratis. When the Amphyctions contracted to build the temple that now stands at Delphi for three hundred talents—for the temple that was formerly there had been burned by accident, and it fell upon the Delphians to supply a fourth part of the sum—the Delphians went about from city to city to solicit contributions, and brought home no small amount from Egypt. For Amasis gave them a thousand talents of alum, and the Greeks who were settled in Egypt twenty minæ.

Amasis also dedicated offerings in Greece. In the first place, a gilded statue of Minerva at Cyrene, and his own portrait painted; secondly, to Minerva in Lindus two stone statues and a linen corselet well worthy of notice; thirdly, to Juno at Samos two images of himself carved in wood, which stood in the large temple even in my time, behind the doors. He was the first who conquered Cyprus, and subjected it to the payment of tribute.

BOOK III. THALIA.

CHAPTER I.
EXPEDITIONS OF CAMBYSES.

Cambyses, son of Cyrus, made war against Amasis, leading with him his own subjects, together with Greeks, Ionians and Æolians. The cause of the war was this: Cambyses sent a herald into Egypt to demand the daughter of Amasis. The suggestion was made by an Egyptian physician, who out of spite served Amasis in this manner, because Amasis had selected him out of all the physicians in Egypt, torn him from his wife and children, and sent him as a present to the Persians, when Cyrus had sent to Amasis, and required of him the best oculist in Egypt. The Egyptian therefore, having this spite against him, urged on Cambyses by his suggestions, bidding him demand the daughter of Amasis, in order that if he should comply he might be grieved, or if he refused he might incur the hatred of Cambyses. But Amasis, dreading the power of the Persians, resorted to a piece of deceit. There was a daughter of Apries, the former king, very tall and beautiful, the only survivor of the family, named Nitetis. This damsel, Amasis adorned with cloth of gold, and sent to Persia as his own daughter. After a time, when Cambyses saluted her, addressing her by her father's name, the damsel said to him: "O king, you do not perceive that you have been imposed upon by Amasis, who dressed me in rich attire, and sent me to you, presenting me as his own daughter; whereas, I am really the daughter of Apries, whom he put to death, after he had incited the Egyptians to revolt." These words enraged Cambyses, and led him to invade Egypt.

A circumstance that few of those who have made voyages to Egypt have noticed, I shall now proceed to mention. From every part of Greece, and also from Phœnicia, earthen vessels filled with wine are imported into Egypt twice every year, and yet not a single one of these wine jars is afterward to be seen. In what way, then, you may ask, are they disposed of? Every magistrate is obliged to collect all the vessels from his own city, and send them to Memphis; the people of that city fill them with water, and convey them to the arid parts of Syria; so that the earthen vessels continually imported and landed in Egypt, are added to those already in Syria. The Persians, as soon as they became masters of Egypt, facilitated the passage into that country, by supplying it with water in this manner. But as, at that time, water was not provided, Cambyses, by the advice of a Halicarnassian stranger, sent ambassadors to the Arabian, and requested a safe passage, which he obtained, giving to, and receiving from him, pledges of faith.

The Arabians observe pledges as religiously as any people: when any wish to pledge their faith, a third person, standing between the two parties, makes an incision with a sharp stone in the palm of the hand, near the longest fingers, of both the contractors; then taking some of the nap from the garment of each, he smears seven stones, placed between them, with the blood; and as he does this, he invokes Bacchus and Urania. When this ceremony is completed, the person who pledges his faith, binds his friends as sureties to the stranger, or the citizen, if the contract be made with a citizen, and the friends also hold themselves obliged to observe the engagement. They acknowledge no other gods than Bacchus and Urania, and they say that their hair is cut in the same way as Bacchus' is cut, in a circular form, banged round the temples. They call Bacchus, Orotal; and Urania, Alilat. When the Arabian had exchanged pledges with the ambassadors who came from Cambyses, he filled camels' skins with water, loaded them on all his living camels, and drove them to the arid region, and there awaited the army of Cambyses. This is the most credible of the accounts that are given; yet it is right that one less credible should be mentioned, since it is likewise affirmed. There is a large river in Arabia called Corys, which discharges itself into the Red Sea. From this river it is said that the king of the Arabians, having sewn together a pipe of ox-hides and other skins, reaching in length to the desert, conveyed the water through it; and that in the arid region he dug large reservoirs, to receive and preserve the water. It is a twelve days' journey from the river to the desert, yet he conveyed water through three pipes into three different places.

Amasis died after a reign of forty-four years, during which no great calamity had befallen him. He was embalmed and buried in the sepulchre within the sacred precinct, which he himself had built. During the reign of Psammenitus, son of Amasis, a most remarkable prodigy befell the Egyptians; rain fell at Egyptian Thebes, which had never happened before, nor since, to my time, as the Thebans themselves affirm. For no rain ever falls in the upper regions of Egypt; but at that time rain fell in drops at Thebes. The Persians, having marched through the arid region, halted near the Egyptians, as if with a design of engaging; there the auxiliaries of the Egyptians, consisting of Greeks and Carians, condemning Phanes because he had led a foreign army against Egypt, adopted the following expedient against him: Phanes had left his sons in Egypt; these they brought to the camp, within sight of their father, placed a bowl midway between the two armies, then dragging the children one by one, they slew them over the bowl, into which they also poured wine and water; then all the auxiliaries drank of the blood, and immediately joined battle. After a hard fight, when great numbers had fallen on both sides, the Egyptians were put to flight. Here I saw a very surprising fact, of which the people of the country informed me. As the bones of those who were killed in that battle lie scattered about separately, the bones of the Persians in one place, and those of the Egyptians in another, the skulls of the Persians were so weak that if you should hit one with a single pebble, you would break a hole in it; whereas those of the Egyptians are so hard, that you could scarcely fracture them by striking them with a stone. The cause of this, they told me (and I readily assented), is that the Egyptians begin from childhood to shave their heads, and the bone is thickened by exposure to the sun; from the same cause also they are less subject to baldness, and one sees fewer persons bald in Egypt than in any other country. But the Persians have weak skulls, because they shade them from the first, wearing tiaras for hats.

The Egyptians fled in complete disorder from the battle. When they had shut themselves up in Memphis, Cambyses sent a Mitylenæan bark up the river, with a Persian herald on board, to invite the Egyptians to terms. But when they saw the bark entering Memphis they rushed in a mass from the wall, destroyed the ship, and having torn the crew to pieces, limb by limb, they carried them into the citadel. After this the Egyptians were besieged, and at length surrounded. The neighboring Libyans, fearing what had befallen Egypt, gave themselves up without resistance, submitted to pay a tribute, and sent presents, which Cambyses received very graciously.

On the tenth day after Cambyses had taken the citadel of Memphis, he seated Psammenitus, the King of the Egyptians, who had reigned only six months, at the entrance of the city. And by way of insult, he dressed his daughter in the habit of a slave, and sent her with a pitcher to fetch water, with other maidens selected from the principal families, dressed in the same manner. As the girls, with loud lamentation and weeping, came into the presence of their fathers, all the other fathers answered them with wailing and weeping, when they beheld their children thus humiliated. But Psammenitus only bent his eyes to the ground. When these water-carriers had passed by, he next sent his son, with two thousand Egyptians of the same age, with halters about their necks, and a bridle in their mouths; and they were led out to suffer retribution for those Mitylenæans who had perished at Memphis with the ship. For the royal judges had given sentence, that for each man ten of the principal Egyptians should be put to death. Yet, when he saw them passing by, and knew that his son was being led out to death, though all the rest of the Egyptians who sat round him wept and made loud lamentations, he did the same as he had done in his daughter's case. But just then it happened that one of his boon-companions, a man somewhat advanced in years, who had lost his all, and possessed nothing but such things as a beggar has, asking alms of the soldiery, passed by Psammenitus, and the Egyptians seated in the suburbs. Then, indeed, he wept bitterly, and calling his companion by name, smote his head. Cambyses, surprised at this behavior, sent a messenger to say: "Psammenitus, your master Cambyses inquires why, when you saw your daughter humiliated and your son led to execution, you did not bewail or lament; and have been so highly concerned for a beggar, who is no way related to you, as he is informed." Psammenitus answered: "Son of Cyrus, the calamities of my family are too great to be expressed by lamentation; but the griefs of my friend were worthy of tears, who, having fallen from abundance and prosperity, has come to beggary on the threshold of old age." When this answer was brought back by the messenger, it appeared to Cambyses to be well said; and, as the Egyptians relate, Crœsus wept, for he had attended Cambyses into Egypt, and the Persians that were present wept also; Cambyses himself, touched with pity, gave immediate orders to preserve his son out of those who were to perish, but those who were sent found the son no longer alive, having been the first that suffered; but Psammenitus himself they conducted to Cambyses, with whom he afterward lived, without experiencing any violence. And had it not been suspected that he was planning innovations, he would probably have recovered Egypt, so as to have the government intrusted to him. For the Persians are accustomed to honor the sons of kings, and even if they have revolted from them, sometimes bestow the government upon their children. Psammenitus, devising mischief, received his reward, for he was discovered inciting the Egyptians to revolt; and when he was detected by Cambyses he was compelled to drink the blood of a bull, and died immediately.

Cambyses proceeded from Memphis to the city of Sais, and entering the palace of Amasis, commanded the dead body of Amasis to be brought out of the sepulchre; he gave orders then to scourge it, to pull off the hair, to prick it, and to abuse it in every possible manner. But when they were wearied with this employment, for the dead body, since it was embalmed, resisted, and did not at all fall in pieces, Cambyses gave orders to burn it, commanding what is impious. For to burn the dead is on no account allowed by either nation: not by the Persians, for they consider fire to be a god, and say it is not right to offer to a god the dead body of a man; nor by the Egyptians, as fire is held by them to be a living beast, which devours every thing it can lay hold of, and when it is glutted with food it expires with what it has consumed; therefore, as it is their law on no account to give a dead body to wild beasts, for that reason they embalm them, that they may not lie and be eaten by worms.

Cambyses determined to send to Elephantine for some of the Ichthyophagi, who understood the Ethiopian language, that he might despatch them as spies to Ethiopia. When the Ichthyophagi came, he despatched them to the Ethiopians, having instructed them what to say, carrying presents, consisting of a purple cloak, a golden necklace, bracelets, an alabaster box of ointment, and a cask of palm wine. These Ethiopians, to whom Cambyses sent, are said to be the tallest and handsomest of all men; and have customs different from those of other nations, especially with regard to the regal power; for they confer the sovereignty upon the man whom they consider to be of the largest stature, and to possess strength proportionate to his size.

When the Ichthyophagi arrived among this people, they gave the presents to the king, and addressed him as follows: "Cambyses, King of the Persians, desirous of becoming your friend and ally, has sent us to confer with you, and he presents you with these gifts, which are such as he himself most delights in." But the Ethiopian, knowing that they came as spies, spoke thus to them: "Neither has the king of the Persians sent you with presents to me, because he valued my alliance; nor do you speak the truth; for ye are come as spies of my kingdom. Nor is he a just man; for if he were just, he would not desire any other territory than his own; nor would he reduce people into servitude who have done him no injury. However, give him this bow, and say these words to him: 'The king of the Ethiopians advises the king of the Persians, when the Persians can thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war on the Macrobian Ethiopians with more numerous forces; but until that time let him thank the gods, who have not inspired the sons of the Ethiopians with a desire of adding another land to their own.'" Having spoken thus and unstrung the bow, he delivered it to the comers. Then taking up the purple cloak, he asked what it was, and how made; and when the Ichthyophagi told him the truth respecting the purple, and the manner of dyeing, he said that the men are deceptive, and their garments are deceptive also. Next he inquired about the necklace and bracelets, and when the Ichthyophagi explained to him their use as ornaments, the king, laughing, and supposing them to be fetters, said that they have stronger fetters than these. Thirdly, he inquired about the ointment; and when they told him about its composition and use, he made the same remark as he had on the cloak. But when he came to the wine, and inquired how it was made, being very much delighted with the draught, he further asked what food the king made use of, and what was the longest age to which a Persian lived. They answered, that he fed on bread, describing the nature of wheat; and that the longest period of the life of a Persian was eighty years. Upon this the Ethiopian said, that he was not at all surprised if men who fed on earth lived so few years; and he was sure they would not be able to live even so many years, if they did not refresh themselves with this beverage, showing the wine to the Ichthyophagi: for in this he admitted they were surpassed by the Persians. The Ichthyophagi inquiring in turn of the king concerning the life and diet of the Ethiopians, he said, that most of them attained to a hundred and twenty years, and some even exceeded that term, and that their food was boiled flesh, and their drink milk. When the spies expressed their astonishment at the number of years, he led them to a fountain, by washing in which they became more sleek, as if it had been of oil, and an odor proceeded from it as of violets. The water of this fountain, the spies said, is so weak, that nothing is able to float upon it, neither wood, nor such things as are lighter than wood; but every thing sinks to the bottom. If this water is truly such as it is said to be, it may be they are long-lived by reason of the abundant use of it. Leaving this fountain, he conducted them to the common prison, where all were fettered with golden chains; for among these Ethiopians bronze is the most rare and precious of all metals. After this, they visited last of all their sepulchres, which are said to be prepared from crystal in the following manner. When they have dried the body, either as the Egyptians do, or in some other way, they plaster it all over with gypsum, and paint it, making it as much as possible to resemble real life; they then put round it a hollow column made of crystal, which they dig up in abundance, and is easily wrought. The body being in the middle of the column is plainly seen, and it does not emit an unpleasant smell, nor is it in any way offensive; and it is all visible[16] as the body itself. The nearest relations keep the column in their houses for a year, offering to it the first-fruits of all, and performing sacrifices; after that time they carry it out and place it somewhere near the city.

When the spies returned home and reported all that had passed, Cambyses, in a great rage, immediately marched against the Ethiopians, without making any provision for the subsistence of his army, or once considering that he was going to carry his arms to the remotest parts of the world; but, as a madman, and not in possession of his senses, as soon as he heard the report of the Icthyophagi, he set out on his march, ordering the Greeks who were present to stay behind, and taking with him all his land forces. When the army reached Thebes, he detached about fifty thousand men, and ordered them to reduce the Ammonians to slavery, and to burn the oracular temple of Jupiter, while he with the rest of his army marched against the Ethiopians. But before the army had passed over a fifth part of the way, all the provisions that they had were exhausted, and the beasts of burden themselves were eaten. Now if Cambyses had at this juncture altered his purpose, and had led back his army, he would have proved himself to be a wise man. But he obstinately continued advancing. The soldiers supported life by eating herbs as long as they could gather any from the ground; but when they reached the sands, some of them had recourse to a dreadful expedient, for taking one man in ten by lot, they devoured him: when Cambyses heard this, shocked at their eating one another, he abandoned his expedition against the Ethiopians, marched back and reached Thebes, after losing a great part of his army. From Thebes he went down to Memphis, and suffered the Greeks to sail away. Thus ended the expedition against the Ethiopians. Those who had been sent against the Ammonians, after having set out from Thebes, under the conduct of guides, are known to have reached the city Oasis, which is inhabited by Samians, distant seven days' march from Thebes, across the sands. This country in the Greek language is called the Island of the Blessed. But afterward none, except the Ammonians and those who have heard their report, are able to give any account of them; for they neither reached the Ammonians, nor returned back. But the Ammonians make the following report: When they had advanced from this Oasis toward them across the sands, and were about half-way between them and Oasis, as they were taking dinner, a vehement south wind blew, carrying with it heaps of sand, and completely destroyed the whole army.