Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in the Coin Room in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. The king here represented is Arkesilas II. the Bad. Now that he could rely on the support of the Libyans, he hesitated no longer to run these risks. Deeming it imprudent, with good reason, to employ his mercenary troops against their own compatriots, Apries mobilised for his encounter with Battos an army exclusively recruited from among his native reserves. The troops set out full of confidence in themselves and of disdain for the enemy, delighted moreover at an opportunity for at length convincing their kings of their error in preferring barbarian to native forces. But the engagement brought to nought all their boastings. The Egyptians were defeated in the first encounter near Irasa, hard by the fountain of Theste, near the spot where the high plateaus of Cyrene proper terminate in the low cliffs of Marmarica: and the troops suffered so severely during the subsequent retreat that only a small remnant of the army regained in safety the frontier of the Delta.* * The interpretation I have given to the sentiments of the Egyptian army follows clearly enough from the observation of Herodotus, that "the Egyptians, having never experienced themselves the power of the Greeks, had felt for them nothing but contempt." The site of Irasa and the fountain of Theste has been fixed with much probability in the fertile district watered still by the fountain of Ersen, Erazem, or Erasan.