Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    594-539. 589-5G4. 564-526. 525-521. Psammetikh II. (Psammis, or Psammuthis). Uahbr& (Gr. Apries or Vaphris; the Hophrah of the Bible), observing that the Babylonians were encroach- ing on Palestine, fitted, out an army and fleet, cap- tured Sidon , defeated the Cyprians and the Tyrians in a naval battle, and marched to the relief ofZedekiah, King of Judah, who was besieged in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. That city having been again besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and captured, Uapliris accorded an asylum to its exiled inhabitants. He afterwards sustained a defeat from Bat- tus II., King of Cyrene, in consequence of which his army rebelled against him. Aahmes, who had been dispatched by him to treat with the insurgents, was then proclaimed king, and he himself was dethroned. Aahmes II. (Gr. Amasis; p. 386) succeeded in securing his supremacy by alliances with Cyrene, with the tyrant Polycrates of Samos, and with the Greeks. He assigned land to foreign colonists , granting them religious toleration , and diverted the stream of commerce from the semi-Phoenician cities of the Delta (Tanis, Mendes, and Buhastis) towards the Greek city of Naucratis (see p 207). During his reign the country enjoyed peace and prosperity, but the balance ot* power among the great nations of that era underwent a con- siderable change. Cyrus had meanwhile founded the vast Per- sian empire, and consolidated it by means of the conquest of the Babylonian and Lydian kingdoms. His son Cambyses next marched against Egypt, the only great power which still rivalled Persia. Having advanced to Pelusium with a large army, he there defeated Psammetikh III., son of Amasis, who was now dead (p. 374), captured Memphis, and took the king prisoner. Psammetikh was afterwards executed for attempting to organise an insurrection to shake off the foreign yoke. The Persian Domination. XXVII. DYNASTY (Persians). Cambyses (Pers. Kambuziya II., Egypt. Kembut; pp. 374, 386, 446) at first behaved with great moderation. He tolerated the Egyptian religion, and to his own name he added the Egyptian agnomen of Ramesut 1 or ‘child of the sun’. After, however, he had failed in several rash enter- prises, such as his campaigns against the inhabitants of the oasis of Ammon and against the Ethiopians, his temper became soured, and his conduct violent and cruel. He died at Acbatana in Syria, while marching to Persia against Qaumata, a usurper who personated Bardiya (Gr. Smcrdis),