Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
160. While this Psammis was king of Egypt, there came to him men sent by
the Eleians, who boasted that they ordered the contest at Olympia in the
most just and honourable manner possible and thought that not even the
Egyptians, the wisest of men, could find out anything besides, to be
added to their rules. Now when the Eleians came to Egypt and said that
for which they had come, then this king called together those of the
Egyptians who were reputed the wisest, and when the Egyptians had come
together they heard the Eleians tell of all that which it was their part
to do in regard to the contest; and when they had related everything,
they said that they had come to learn in addition anything which the
Egyptians might be able to find out besides, which was juster than this.
They then having consulted together asked the Eleians whether their own
citizens took part in the contest; and they said that it was permitted
to any one who desired it, both of their own people and of the other
Hellenes equally, to take part in the contest: upon which the Egyptians
said that in so ordering the games they had wholly missed the mark of
justice; for it could not be but that they would take part with the man
of their own State, if he was contending, and so act unfairly to the
stranger: but if they really desired, as they said, to order the games
justly, and if this was the cause for which they had come to Egypt, they
advised them to order the contest so as to be for strangers alone to
contend in, and that no Eleian should be permitted to contend. Such was
the suggestion made by the Egyptians to the Eleians.
161. When Psammis had been king of Egypt for only six years and had made
an expedition to Ethiopia and immediately afterwards had ended his life,
Apries the son of Psammis received the kingdom in succession. This man
came to be the most prosperous of all the kings up to that time except
only his forefather Psammetichos; and he reigned five-and-twenty years,
during which he led an army against Sidon and fought a sea-fight with
the king of Tyre. Since however it was fated that evil should come upon
him, it came by occasion of a matter which I shall relate at greater
length in the Libyan history, 138 and at present but shortly. Apries
having sent a great expedition against the Kyrenians, met with
correspondingly great disaster; and the Egyptians considering him
to blame for this revolted from him, supposing that Apries had with
forethought sent them out to evident calamity, in order (as they said)
that there might be a slaughter of them, and he might the more securely
rule over the other Egyptians. Being indignant at this, both these men
who had returned from the expedition and also the friends of those who
had perished made revolt openly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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