Paris, relates how Nectanebo was censured by the god Mars (Anhur), in a dream, for leaving his temple at Sebennytus 5 unrepaired, and how he made ample amends for his unintentional neglect by restoring the edifice with great splendour.6 2. When ZIHO, the TEOS (Téwe) of Manetho, and Tachos (Taxes) of other Greek and Latin writers (B.C. 364-361), succeeded to the throne, the suppression of the revolts in Asia Minor left Artaxerxes II. at liberty for the reconquest of Egypt. Fearing a new attack from the whole power of Persia, Tachos gathered an army of 80,000 Egyptians and 10,000 Greek mercenaries, and a fleet of 200 ships. He placed his fleet under the Athenian general Chabrias, and applied to Sparta for Agesilaus to take command of all his forces. It is said that Tachos, disappointed at seeing in the Spartan king a little old man of homely habits, treated him with scorn and disrespect, and set him over the mercenaries only, reserving the supreme command to himself. In opposition to the advice of Agesilaus, Tachos led his fleet and army in person into Phoenicia, leaving the government of Egypt to his brother, whose son Nectanebo accompanied the king, and was sent by him with his Egyptian forces to reduce the cities of Syria. Nectanebo seized the opportunity to stir up a mutiny among the native troops, while his father raised a rebellion in Egypt. Agesilaus, whom the king had bitterly offended, went over to Nectanebo with the Greek mercenaries, and Tachos, trouble in its carriage and elevation than had been originally expended in quarrying it;' and he gives an account of the process. 5 Anhur was the tutelar god of Sebennytus and its nome (the 12th of Lower Egypt: see p. 348), and his name enters twice into the regal title of Nectanebo. 7 Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. pp. 139, 140; 2nd edition by Dr. Birch. 8 We follow here the dates given by Maspero and the writers on Greek history, in preference to those given in Dr. Brugsch's lists of the kings (Appendix A.), inasmuch as the authorities place Tachos in the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, not of Ochus; and besides, the later date is inconsistent with the death of Agesilaus in B.C. 360. We do not, however, alter our author's dates in his Table. 9 We choose what seems the most probable account amidst a considerable conflict of the authorities. finding himself abandoned, took refuge in Sidon, and afterwards fled to Artaxerxes, by whom he was received kindly, and died at his court.9 3. NAKHTNEBEF, with the regal name RA-KHEPER-KA, the NECTANEBO II. of Manetho and the classic writers (B.c. 361-340), had first to defend his usurped crown against a rival prince of Mendes.1 Though the latter had much the larger force—some say 100,000 men, but composed of townsmen and artificers-the military skill of Agesilaus won the victory for Nectanebo. The Spartan king left Egypt with an immense reward from the king (no less, it is said, than 220 talents), and died on his way home (B.C. 360). Chabrias also and his mercenaries were recalled by the Athenians, and the defence of Egypt's independence was left to a king whose taste inclined him rather to foster her arts and science. The monuments of Nectanebo throughout all the land exhibit the perfection of the later style of Egyptian art; and it was said that, had he shown the same skill as a general that he displayed as a builder and a magician,2 the triumph of Egypt was certain. But he had at last, like Psammetichus III. nearly two centuries before, an enemy too strong for him. The cruel but energetic Ochus (who assumed the name of Artaxerxes III.), coming to the throne of Persia in B.C. 359, at once bent all efforts to reconquer Egypt. At first, however, fortune seemed to favour the national cause. The generals of Ochus were again and again defeated through the skill of the Greek commanders in the service of Nectanebo, Diophantus the Athenian, and the Spartan Lamia. These disasters excited Phoenicia and Cyprus to revolt, and Nectanebo sent 4,000 mercenaries to aid the Phoenicians under the Rhodian refugee Mentor, who, with his brother Memnon, had already played a conspicuous part against the Persians. Ochus 9 Xenoph. Ages.; Plut. Ages.; Paus. iii. 10; Polyæn. iii. 1; Ælian, V. H. v. 1; Nepos, Ages. and Chabrias: the account of Diodorus, xv. 92, 93, is in some respects less probable. 1 This is doubtless meant by a certain Mendesian' (Merdows) which some of the authorities seem to take for a proper name. We seem to have here another sign of that contest of supremacy between Mendes and Sebennytus, which may have caused the transition from the Twenty-ninth to the Thirtieth Dynasty. 2 For the magical arts of Nectanebo, see above, p. 293, and the Pseudo-Callisthenes, i. 1-14. DYN. XXXI., XXXI. LAST PERSIANS AND MACEDONIANS. 339 meanwhile had taken the field in person with a great force, intent on the subjugation both of Phoenicia and Egypt. Mentor, probably foreseeing on which side the victory must remain, went over to Ochus with his mercenaries, and, after the reduction of Phoenicia, accompanied the king's march against Egypt. The vast preparations for defence were neutralized by the incompetence of Nectanebo, who insisted on keeping the chief command in his own hands. The Persian king appeared before Pelusium with an army of 300,000 Asiatics and 40,000 Greeks; and, instead of making the most of the natural difficulties presented by the marshes and canals, Nectanebo, on the first repulse of a portion of his force, shut himself up in Memphis, and thence fled with his treasures to Ethiopia. Other stories are told of his escape, with an evident view to gloze over the last shameful disaster, which ended the long majestic line' of Egypt's Pharaohs; but, from a sepulchral figure lately found, he seems to have been buried at Memphis. The date of this reconquest of Egypt by Persia is given variously by chronologers as B.C. 353, 345, and 340. 3 § V. THE THIRTY-FIRST DYNASTY OF PERSIANS (B.C. 340-332) held their recovered possession only for eight years. 1. OCHUS (B.C. 340-338) died two years after his restoration to the double crown, poisoned by the eunuch Bagoas. His youngest son 2. ARSES (B.C. 338-336) was set up and murdered within three years by the same minister, who placed on the throne his friend 3. DARIUS III. CODOMANNUS (B.c. 336-332), only to succumb in the contest with the Macedonian conqueror, who was welcomed in Egypt as a deliverer. (See Chap. XX. p. 319.) § VI. THE THIRTY-SECOND DYNASTY OF MACEDONIANS (B.C. 332-311). 1. ALEXANDER THE GREAT (B.c. 332–323). 2. PHILIP ARRHIDÆUS (B.c. 323–317). 3. ALEXANDER AGUS (B.C. 323-311). These names are given to complete the outline down to the 3 Mariette-Bey, Monuments divers, 1872, pl. 32. 4 The year B.C. 332 is that of the end of the Persian Dynasty in Egypt by Alexander's conquest of the country. The death of Darius and the end of the Persian Empire took place in the next year, B.C. 331. Ptolemaic epoch; but the deeds of Alexander in and for Egypt are left to be read in the records of his life. Arrhidæus, the bastard son of Philip the Great, and the only remaining scion of the royal house of Macedon, being at Babylon when Alexander died, was elected his successor by the name of Philip. A few months later Roxana, the Bactrian wife of Alexander, gave birth to a son, who was named Alexander Ægus, and was recognized as the associate of Philip in the empire. Of these merely titular possessors of the thrones for which the generals of Alexander were contending, Philip fell a victim to the hatred of his father's widow, Olympias, in B.C. 317, and Alexander Ægus was murdered by Cassander in B.C. 311. Their royal cartouches are found on the Egyptian monuments, and that their titular sovereignty was recognized in that country is proved, at least in the case of Alexander Ægus, by the inscription distinctly dated in his seventh year, in which Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, the real possessor of the land, designates himself as satrap.5 But, in fact, the rule over Egypt was all this time in the hands of Ptolemy, who chose it in the division of Alexander's dominions after his death, and hastened at once to take possession. It was not till B.C. 306 that, after the example set by Antigonus, he assumed the title of king, by the name of PTOLEMÆUS I. SOTER; but, this step once taken, his regnal years were dated from the real beginning of his rule, in B.C. 323. § VII. THE THIRTY-THIRD DYNASTY OF THE (GREEK) PTOLEMIES (B.C. 323-30) lasted just 300 years, till, after Octavian's victory over Antony and Cleopatra, and the suicide of that last heiress of the line, Egypt was reduced to a Roman province. The Roman Cæsars are sometimes reckoned as a Thirty-fourth Dynasty; but it must be remembered that that title is only properly applied to the Thirty Dynasties of Manetho. The History of the Ptolemies in Egypt is to form the Second Division of Dr. Brugsch's great work. 5 This inscription has been cited in the text, pp. 289, 315. APPENDIX. A. LIST OF THE KINGS, WITH THEIR EPOCHS, who ruled in Egypt, from the first Pharaoh, Mena, to the end of the XXXIst Dynasty. Their names and order, down to the Pharaoh Ramses II. (about B.C. 1350), are founded on the List of Kings in the Table of Abydus (Nos. 1-77). The numbers added, to mark their Epochs, refer to the succession of generations assumed in our work; but these, from the year 666 onwards, are superseded by the regnal years actually proved. |