A ruler of Egypt, a usurper named Aahmes, had been raised to the kingship over Egypt by a soldier’s mutiny. He had legitimised his position by marrying a granddaughter of Psametik I. Carrying out a series of successful expeditions, he once more opened a way to the commerce of Nubia and the Upper Nile. He intervened in the affairs of Asia Minor to support a small state there against encroachments by the Persian conqueror Cyrus. The son of Cyrus the Great, whom we know as Cambyses, but whose real name was probably in Persian Kambujiya, resolved to punish Egypt for this interference. Aahmes, whom the Greeks called Amasis, died before he could resist the invasion, and his son, Psametik III., lost his throne and the independence of Egypt in the battle of Pelusium. Cambyses became the conqueror, and was crowned the legitimate King of Egypt. He seems to have been an erratic and cruel conqueror, but, like Nero, somewhat fantastically interested in science and exploration. He sent one great expedition into the Libyan Desert which was never heard of again, and is supposed to have perished in the sand; and he led a great army himself up the Nile with some vague intention of conquering the Ethiopians. His soldiers, however, had marched only a small distance into the desert when their commissariat failed, and many perished, while others became cannibals in their mad hunger. This disaster put a stop to any further efforts on the part of the Persian Overlords of Egypt. For nearly two hundred years Persia maintained her hold over Egypt, though for brief intervals native dynasties arose in this part and that part and flickered for a time in a state of semi-independence. Then happened one of the great events in the history of Egypt and of the development of Africa,--an event which may be paralleled by the descent on Egypt of Napoleon Bonaparte two thousand one hundred and thirty-one years later: Alexander the Great, continuing his war against the Persian Empire, attacked that power in Egypt and won the day. Alexander left in charge in Egypt one of his generals (who was perhaps also his illegitimate half-brother), Ptolemy. After his death Ptolemy refused to acknowledge the claims of Alexander’s posthumous son, and made himself King of Egypt. He thus founded a Greek dynasty in that country which lasted till the advent of the Cæsars and expired in the person of the world-famed Cleopatra. CHAPTER II THE GREEKS INTEREST EUROPE IN THE NILE QUESTION