Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
King Psamtik himself came out to Cambyses, accompanied by his principal
nobles, in rent garments, and with every token of mourning. Cambyses
received him coldly and silently, ordering him and his followers to be
guarded and removed. He treated Ladice, the widow of Amasis, who
appeared at the same time as her step-son, with consideration, and, at
the intercession of Phanes, to whom she had always shown favor, allowed
her to return to her native town of Cyrene under safe conduct. She
remained there until the fall of her nephew, Arcesilaus III. and the
flight of her sister Pheretime, when she betook herself to Anthylla, the
town in Egypt which belonged to her, and where she passed a quiet,
solitary existence, dying at a great age.
Cambyses not only scorned to revenge the imposture which had been
practised on him on a woman, but, as a Persian, had far too much respect
for a mother, and especially for the mother of a king, to injure Ladice
in any way.
While he was engaged in the siege of Sais, Psamtik passed his
imprisonment in the palace of the Pharaohs, treated in every respect
as a king, but strictly guarded.
Among those members of the upper class who had incited the people to
resistance, Neithotep, the high-priest of Neith, had taken the foremost
place. He was therefore sent to Memphis and put in close confinement,
with one hundred of his unhappy confederates. The larger number of the
Pharaoh's court, on the other hand, did homage voluntarily to Cambyses at
Sais, entitled him Ramestu, "child of the sun," and suggested that he
should cause himself to be crowned King of Upper and Lower Egypt, with
all the necessary formalities, and admitted into the priestly caste
according to ancient custom. By the advice of Croesus and Phanes,
Cambyses gave in to these proposals, though much against his own will:
he went so far, indeed, as to offer sacrifice in the temple of Neith,
and allowed the newly-created high-priest of the goddess to give him a
superficial insight into the nature of the mysteries. Some of the
courtiers he retained near himself, and promoted different administrative
functionaries to high posts; the commander of Amasis' Nile fleet
succeeded so well in gaining the king's favor, as to be appointed one of
those who ate at the royal table.
[On a statue in the Gregorian Museum in the Vatican, there is an
inscription giving an account of Cambyses' sojourn at Sais, which
agrees with the facts related in our text. He was lenient to his
conquered subjects, and, probably in order to secure his position as
the lawful Pharaoh, yielded to the wishes of the priests, was even
initiated into the mysteries and did much for the temple of Neith.
His adoption of the name Ramestu is also confirmed by this statue.
E. de Rough, Memoire sur la statuette naophore du musee Gregorian,
au Vatican. Revue Archeol. 1851.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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