History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
Matters took longer to come to a crisis than he had expected. The
retreat of Agesilaus had not pacified the AEgean satrapies; after the
disturbance created by Cyrus the Younger, the greater number of the
native tribes--Mysians, Pisidians, people of Pontus and Paphlagonia--had
shaken off the Persian yoke, and it was a matter of no small difficulty
to reduce them once more to subjection. Their incessant turbulence gave
Egypt time to breathe and to organise new combinations. Cyprus entered
readily into her designs. Since the subjugation of that island in 445
B.C., the Greek cities had suffered terrible oppression at the hands of
the great king. Artaxerxes I., despairing of reducing them to obedience,
depended exclusively for support on the Phoenician inhabitants of the
island, who, through his favour, regained so much vigour that in the
space of less than two generations they had recovered most of the ground
lost during the preceding centuries: Semitic rulers replaced the Achaean
tyrants at Salamis, and in most of the other cities, and Citium became
what it had been before the rise of Salamis, the principal commercial
centre in the island. Evagoras, a descendant of the ancient kings,
endeavoured to retrieve the Grecian cause: after driving out of Salamis
Abdemon, its Tyrian ruler, he took possession of all the other towns
except Citium and Amathus. This is not the place to recount the
brilliant part played by Evagoras, in conjunction with Conon, during the
campaigns against the Spartans in the Peloponnesian war. The activity he
then displayed and the ambitious designs he revealed soon drew upon him
the dislike of the Persian governors and their sovereign; and from
391 B.C. he was at open war with Persia. He would have been unable,
single-handed, to maintain the struggle for any length of time, but
Egypt and Greece were at his back, ready to support him with money or
arms. Hakoris had succeeded Nephorites I. in 393 B.C.,* and had repulsed
an attack of Artaxerxes between 390 and 386.**
* The length of the reign of Nephorites I. is fixed at six
years by the lists of Manetho; the last-known date of his
reign is that of his fourth year, on a mummy-bandage
preserved in the Louvre.
** This war is alluded to by several ancient authors in
passages which have been brought together and explained by
Judeah; but unfortunately the detailed history of the
events is not known.
He was not unduly exalted by his success, and had immediately taken wise
precautions in view of a second invasion. After safeguarding his western
frontier by concluding a treaty with the Libyans of Barca, he entered
into an alliance with Evagoras and the Athenians.
[Illustration: 287.jpg HAKORIS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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