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
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph: the head and
hands are a restoration of the eighteenth century, in the
most inappropriate Graeco-Roman style.
He removed his troops from the temple of Nit, which they had turned into
a barrack to the horror of the faithful, and restored at his own expense
the damage they had done to the building. He condescended so far as
to receive instruction in the local religion, and was initiated in the
worship of the goddess by the priest Uzaharrisniti. This was, after
all, a pursuance of the policy employed by his father towards the
Babylonians, and the projects which he had in view necessitated his
gaining the confidence of the people at all costs. Asia having no more
to offer him, two almost untried fields lay open to his ambition--Africa
and Europe--the Greek world and what lay beyond it, the Carthaginian
world and Ethiopia. The necessity of making a final reckoning with Egypt
had at the outset summoned him to Africa, and it was therefore in that
continent that he determined to carry on his conquests. Memphis was
necessarily the base of his operations, the only point from which
he could direct the march of his armies in a westerly or southerly
direction, and at the same time keep in touch with the rest of his
empire, and he would indeed have been imprudent had he neglected
anything which could make him acceptable to its inhabitants. As soon as
he felt he had gained their sympathies, he despatched two expeditions,
one to Carthage and one to Ethiopia. Cyrene had spontaneously offered
him her homage; he now further secured it by sending thither with all
honour Ladike, the widow of Amasis, and he apparently contemplated
taking advantage of the good will of the Cyrenians to approach Carthage
by sea. The combined fleets of Ionia and Phonicia were without doubt
numerically sufficient for this undertaking, but the Tyrians refused to
serve against their own colonies, and he did not venture to employ the
Greeks alone in waters which were unfamiliar to them. Besides this, the
information which he obtained from those about him convinced him that
the overland route would enable him to reach his destination more surely
if more slowly; it would lead him from the banks of the Nile to the
Oases of the Theban desert, from there to the Ammonians, and thence by
way of the Libyans bordering on the Syrtes and the Liby-phoenicians. He
despatched an advance-guard of fifty thousand men from Thebes to occupy
the Oasis of Ammon and to prepare the various halting-places for
the bulk of the troops. The fate of these men has never been clearly
ascertained. They crossed the Oasis of El-Khargeh and proceeded to
the north-west in the direction of the oracle. The natives afterwards
related that when they had arrived halfway, a sudden storm of wind fell
upon them, and the entire force was buried under mounds of sand during
a halt. Cambyses was forced to take their word; in spite of all his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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