Chapter IV: The Persian Dynasty: Darius I to Darius III (2)

Whilst Hellas, divided against herself, sought favour in the eyes of the satraps of Asia Minor, Egypt, united in hatred of the foreigner, succeeded in expelling him. There had been no serious disturbance since the defeat of Inarus, and the Persian governors had quietly succeeded each other in the palace of Memphis, the aged Amyrtæus had disappeared, and his son Pausiris had been the docile vassal of the Persians. Many little incidents, however, had shown that the old spirit of rebellion was only waiting for an opportunity to break out again. The rebellion of Megabyzus in Syria had shown how easily the Great King could henceforth be defied, and the rebellions of Zopyrus and Pissuthenes, following one upon another, sapped the strength of the empire for several years, and a grandson of Amyrtæus, who bore his name, proclaimed the independence of Egypt. He did not utterly expel the Persians, for Artaxerxes still had Egyptian troops in his army in 401, at the time of the campaign against Cyrus, and he also had to endure rival princes, for the monuments record that a Psamthek, descendant of the old family of the Saïtes was his contemporary and bore the title of “King of the Egyptians.” This feudalism was too strong and turbulent to permit the sceptre to remain long in one family, so the XXVIIIth Dynasty only lasted six years, which was the length of the reign of Amyrtæus [Amen-Rut], and it was followed by the Mendesian dynasty.

Niafaarut I completed the work of deliverance, and under his rule, Egypt recovered her old activity. Her course was controlled by circumstances, for the disproportion of the forces of an isolated province and an empire almost covering the west of Asia was too apparent for the Pharaohs to think of going to war without outside help, so they instinctively followed the policy of Psamthek and his successors. Egypt tried to establish lines of posts along the front which would bear the brunt of the enemy’s first attack. Then she intrigued in Syria and Cyprus, hoping to win over the allies, or even to re-establish the ancient suzerainty of the Theban princes there, and if beaten on this outlying front of their lines, she would have time to muster an army, or even a fleet, before the conqueror arrived on the frontier. All the revolts of the different races, and all the quarrels of the satraps were to the advantage of Egypt, and as they obliged the Great King to divide his troops, she assiduously fomented them and on occasions even provoked them, and managed so well, that for some time only the weakest part of the Persian armies were stationed in her country. Mercenaries were now substituted in Greece for troops raised from the citizens, and war had become a lucrative occupation to those competent to excel in it. The Pharaohs never hesitated to lavish their treasures on the purchase of these formidable companies. Iphicrates, Chabrias, Timotheus, and all the celebrated generals appeared in turn at the head of the Egyptian or Persian masses, engaged on the banks of the Nile, sometimes with the consent, and sometimes against the will of their country. When Niafaarut ascended the throne, Sparta was at the height of her grandeur and had even declared war against Persia, and Agesilaus was commanding his campaign in Phrygia; so Niafaarut concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the Lacedæmonians, and sent them a fleet laden with arms, corn, and ammunition, but it was intercepted by Conon, the Athenian, who commanded the Persian squadron. The recall of Agesilaus and the abandonment of Asia Minor chilled the good will of the king of Egypt, and the forces which he had seemed disposed to send to Sparta’s assistance were now probably stationed on the frontier of Syria to repel the attack which he thought was imminent.

The attack, however, did not come as quickly as was expected. The retreat of the Lacedæmonians had not terminated the affairs of Asia Minor, for since the rising of Cyrus the majority of the indigenous races, such as the Mysians, Pisidians, and the people of the Black Sea regions and of Paphlagonia, had asserted their independence; so Artaxerxes sent against them the army which he had meant to despatch to Egypt, but it was only at Cyprus that much stand was made. The island was now divided between two races, the Phœnician and the Greek, and since the Achæans settled there after uniting with the maritime people, vanquished by Meneptah, the Greek influence had increased. All the adventurers, in quest of fresh countries to occupy, assembled on this frontier of the Eastern world.

[Sidenote: [399-387 B.C.]]

As time went on the Semitic constituent decreased still more as the Phœnicians, driven back slowly but surely, concentrated themselves around Citium, or Cition, and Amathus. But, albeit diminished, the number of the Semitic forces was sufficient to prevent the princes of Soli, or Salamis, uniting the whole island into one state. It had been successively subjugated, by the Assyrians under Sargon II, the Babylonians under Nebuchadrezzar, the Egyptians under Aahmes II, and the Persians under Cyrus and Cambyses, and each of these conquests left profound traces on the customs and the arts of the country.

But if the external side of civilisation often followed Eastern models, internally it became more and more Hellenic. The people of Cyprus had been the earliest among the people of their race to possess the art of writing. They had adopted, doubtless soon after their arrival, a particular system of spelling, and they retained it, even when the Greeks were beginning to use the Cadmean alphabet.

Onasilas, the king of Salamis, in Cyprus, united with Miletus, and, with the exception of the king of Amathus, all the other princes joined the alliance, which resisted the forces of the Great King for a year. But when the rebellion was quelled, Darius made the Greek population pay for its disaffection; its commerce was stopped, its ports were shut to the ships coming from Hellas, and in many towns, like Salamis, the tyrants of the old race were replaced by those of Phœnician descent. In fact, the Great King now looked to the Semitic race for respect for his authority. Citium, almost ruined by its vicinity to Salamis, recovered her old position as the head and chief market of the island; and, in spite of the intermittent appearance of Athenian fleets on her coasts, more than a century elapsed before the Cypriotes found an opportunity of freeing themselves from their crushing bondage.

It was Evagoras who delivered them. He was descended from the old kings of Salamis, and after having driven away Abdemon, the Tyrian, who was in command of the town, he took the whole of the island, with the exception of Citium and Amathus. Artaxerxes soon took umbrage at his ambition and activity, and not without reason, for in 391 he was in open war against Evagoras. If he had not been assisted, the struggle would have been short, but both Greece and Egypt helped him with both money and arms. Haker had succeeded Niafaarut in 393, and after protecting his western frontier by making an alliance with the Libyans at Barca, he made a treaty with Evagoras and the Athenians. He gave corn, ammunition, vessels, and money to Athens in return for several thousands of men under Chabrias, one of her best generals; and not only was the first Persian expedition under Autophradates utterly beaten, but after taking Citium and Amathus, Evagoras crossed the sea, took Tyre by assault, and laid waste Phœnicia and Cilicia.

[Sidenote: [387-378 B.C.]]

The princes of Asia Minor then became alarmed, and Hecatomnus of Caria joined the allies. Sparta, weakened by the war, then made a sudden treaty with the Persians, and Antalcidas went to Susa to arrange this Peace, so celebrated in the history of Greece, and thereupon a decree from Asia notified to all the people of Hellas that hostilities were to be suspended and the liberty of all sides was henceforth to be respected; and as no state was in a position to resist the united kingdoms of Sparta and Persia, the command was obeyed. A little more than half a century before, Athens by a treaty with an Artaxerxes, forced him to acknowledge the independence of the Greeks of Asia; and now Sparta, treating with a second Artaxerxes, gave the Hellenes back into his power.

The Great King, being now free to turn his whole attention to the rebellious countries, Evagoras was the one to be first attacked; Cyprus was in effect a sort of open road to Egypt and the people possessing it had command of the sea and could intercept an army on its way to the Delta from Palestine. So Artaxerxes mustered three hundred ships and three hundred thousand foot-soldiers, and after placing them under the command of Tiribazus he despatched them to the island. The Cypriote corsairs intercepted the convoy and reduced it to such a wretched condition that a mutiny broke out. However, Evagoras was finally beaten at sea near Citium, and his fleet was destroyed. But still hopeful, he left his son to find a way out of the difficulty and repaired to Egypt to implore the help of the Pharaoh (385).

But Haker had enough to do for his own safety without risking the best part of his forces in a distant expedition; so Evagoras and the subsidies he brought back from Egypt were very insufficient. Reduced to an army of three thousand men, he shut himself up in Salamis, where he was besieged for years. The treachery of one of the Persian generals, Gaos, son-in-law of Tiribazus, gave him a moment’s hope, for Gaos, after joining Haker, asked for the help of the Lacedæmonians, but he died without having done anything, so Evagoras was again alone in the presence of the enemy. Whilst the officers of the Great King were engaged in besieging him, Artaxerxes himself nearly lost his life in an unfortunate campaign against the Cadusians. A brave soldier, but an incompetent general, his troops, worn out with hunger and fatigue, would have perished in their march across the mountains by the hand of an implacable enemy had not Tiribazus cleverly persuaded the barbarians to sue for peace at the moment of their triumph.

As the defeat of Evagoras showed Haker that the submission of Cyprus was only a question of time, he went meanwhile to Asia Minor, where he made a not very advantageous alliance with the Pisidians, who were then in full revolt. He found more assistance in Greece, for the Peace of Antalcidas having left a number of mercenaries without employment, he soon mustered twenty thousand men. The Persians, being still busy in Cyprus, offered no opposition to the arrival of the reinforcements, and this was fortunate for Egypt, for as Haker died in 380 and as his heirs Psamut and Niafaarut II succeeded each other on the throne within a short time, the settlement of the succession plunged the country into two years’ warfare.

The turbulence of the great feudal chiefs which had robbed the Saïtes of their power was equally fatal to the Mendesians, and the prince of Sebennytus, Nekht-Hor-heb (Nectanebo I), was borne to the throne by the soldiers. According to Ptolemaic tradition, he was the son of Niafaarut I, and had been kept from the throne by the jealousy of the gods. But whatever was his origin, Egypt had no cause to repent his coronation. Feeling that a continuance of the supplies which had been allowed by Haker to Evagoras would be waste of money, he stopped them, and the inevitable fall of the tyrant of Salamis ensued. Although abandoned by all, and weary of a six years resistance, he would only surrender on the most advantageous terms. Not only was Artaxerxes to pardon his rebellion, but he was to retain his title and prerogatives for the payment of an annual tribute. Nectanebo, now brought in contact with the Great King, redoubled his activity. The events of the last few years having proved the talents of Chabrias, the Athenian, Nectanebo invited him to organise his army. Chabrias accepted the offer, albeit without his government’s authority, and he soon transformed the Delta into a regularly fortified camp. The Persians strove to measure their attack according to the means of the enemy’s defence. Akko, on the southern coast of Syria, was the only port large enough to harbour the Persian fleets against tempests and surprises, so Pharnabazus made it his headquarters and the base of his operations. For three years it was the place of muster for provisions and ammunition, sailors and soldiers, and the Phœnician and Greek fleets. The advance of the enterprise was several times nearly arrested by the rivalries of the Persian chiefs, Tithraustes, Datames, and Abrocomas, and the intrigues of the court, but Pharnabazus always succeeded in getting rid of his rivals; and at the beginning of 373 the expedition was ready to start. It consisted of 200,000 soldiers, 20,000 mercenaries, 300 picked men, 200 twenty-oared galleys and many transport ships.

[Sidenote: [378-373 B.C.]]

But at the last moment Egypt lost her best commander, for Artaxerxes asked Athens by what right she authorised Chabrias to serve against him in the Egyptian ranks; and at the same time he begged his friends, the Athenians, to lend him their general, Iphicrates, for a time. So the Athenians ordered the return of Chabrias, and sent Iphicrates to Syria, where he took command of the Greek auxiliaries; and thus reinforced, the Persians started in 373.

(After Du Sommerard)]

On arriving at Pelusium, Iphicrates saw he had but slight chance of forcing its surrender, for not only had the fortifications of the town been increased, but the inhabitants had cut the canals, and inundated the approaches. Iphicrates advised the Persians to take it by surprise. So three thousand men were secretly despatched to the Mendesian mouth of the Nile, where they attacked the entrenchments which guarded it. The garrison, imprudently sallying forth, was beaten and pursued with such vigour that victors and vanquished entered pell mell into the fort. The breach being made, the Persians could have promptly taken possession of the place, but the opportunity was lost through the dissensions of the generals. Iphicrates having learned from the prisoners that Memphis was short of soldiers, advised Pharnabazus quickly to reascend the Nile and take the capital before Nectanebo’s reinforcements arrived. But Pharnabazus thought the plan too dangerous and decided to wait for the whole army to rejoin him. Iphicrates then suggested attempting the venture with his own company; but the Egyptians, suspicious of his having some secret design upon Egypt, declined the offer. As these delays gave the enemy time to recover from the first reverse, Nectanebo again took the offensive, attacked the Persians, and obtained the victory in several skirmishes.

In the meanwhile summer arrived, the land was inundated, and Iphicrates and Pharnabazus beat a retreat and returned to Syria, from whence Iphicrates, weary of the recriminations of his Asiatic colleagues, secretly fled to Greece, and the remainder of his fleet and army dispersed soon after his departure; thus Egypt was saved for a quarter of a century.

[Sidenote: [373-361 B.C.]]

But this failure in no way deflected from the influence exercised by the Great King over Greece since the Peace of 387; and Sparta, Athens, and Thebes disputed for his alliance more hotly than ever.

In 372 Antalcidas reappeared at Susa to again beg for the king’s interposition in Greece, so in 367 Pelopidas and Ismenias obtained a rescript bidding the Greeks keep the peace; upon which Athens sent ambassadors to obtain subsidies from Persia. The Great King seems to have become a sort of supreme arbiter to whom each city came to plead her cause. But capable as was this arbiter in imposing his will abroad, he was not master in his own domains, for, kind and easy-going, and more inclined to give than to exact, Artaxerxes had not the energy necessary to repress the ambition of the provincial governors.

Ariobarzanes of Pontus was the first to rebel, and Datames and Aspis of Cappadocia soon followed suit, and defied their sovereign for years.

When these leaders were defeated by treachery, all the satraps of the western provinces from the frontiers of Egypt to the Hellespont, entered into an offensive and defensive alliance; and the empire was in danger of foundering; for Egypt, always on the watch, had profited by this revolt to exhibit her hatred of Persia, and to add to her own security. Nectanebo had died in 364 and Tachus, who had succeeded him, did not hesitate to negotiate with the rebels, who despatched Rheomithres to him to discuss the terms of the treaty.

Tachus having inherited from Nectanebo a fine fleet and a full treasury loaned the ambassador five hundred talents of silver, and fifty ships with which he sailed for Leucas on the coast of Asia Minor, where his colleagues were waiting for him delighted with the success of the mission. But not having confidence in the issue of the struggle, Rheomithres sought an early opportunity of reconciliation with the Great King, and he had scarcely arrived when he joined with Orontes in despatching the insurgents to Susa in chains. Tachus had thus benevolently assisted the Persian king to fill his coffers and to master his armies, but in spite of this last disappointment the position of Egypt was so brilliant and that of Persia so wretched that he decided to take the offensive and invade Syria. In this design he was supported by Chabrias, whom the reverses of an adventurous life had again brought back to Egypt; but Tachus had not sufficient funds for a long campaign in a foreign country, so the Greek pointed out the means of procuring them.

The Egyptian priesthood was rich, so Chabrias told the king that as the money disbursed annually for the sacrifices and for the support of the temples, would be better spent in the service of the state, he advised him to demolish the majority of the sacerdotal colleges. The priests, however, retained them at the expense of their personal property, and after the king had graciously accepted this sacrifice, he told them that in the future, and during the expedition against the Persians, he would exact from them nine-tenths of the sacred revenues. This tax would have sufficed for the needs had it been fully paid, but the priests doubtless found means to avoid paying the whole sum.

Chabrias then advised the increase of the capitation tax and the tax on houses, the exaction of an obole on each ardeb of grain sold, the levying of a tenth on navigation, fabrics, and manual trades. These charges soon added to the resources, but another difficulty ensued, which the Greek overcame with equal energy.

Egypt had little coin and the system of exchange was used by the people in the ordinary transactions of life.

The Greek mercenaries, however, declined to be paid in kind or in metals uncoined, and they demanded ringing pieces of money as the price of their blood. So the order was issued that the people should bring to the treasury all the minted or unminted gold and silver in their possession with the understanding that they were to be gradually reimbursed from the taxes of the future.

[Sidenote: [361-352 B.C.]]

If these measures cost Tachus his popularity, they empowered him to raise 24,000 native soldiers and 10,000 Greeks to equip a fleet of two hundred sail and to hire the best generals of the period. But he was too emulative to succeed, he was not contented with Chabrias and the alliance with Athens, but he also wanted Agesilaus and the alliance of Sparta. In spite of his infirmities and his eighty years, Agesilaus was not insensible to gain and flattery; and tempted by the promise of supreme command, he set out with a thousand soldiers. On his arrival he was met by a disappointment, for Tachus only gave him the command of the mercenaries, as he kept the chief leadership for himself and put the fleet in the hands of Chabrias.

The old hero, after showing his vexation by an exhibition of Spartan temper, was appeased by the presents he was given, and he consented to accept the proffered post. However, disputes of a more serious character soon broke out between him and his allies, for he wished Tachus to remain in Egypt, and leave the conduct of the operations to his generals. But the facility with which the captains of the troops passed from one camp to another was not calculated to inspire the Egyptian with confidence, so he refused, and after nominating his brother-in-law, who also bore the name of Tachus, regent, he repaired to the camp. The Persians were not strong enough to appear in the open, so Tachus commanded his cousin Nekht-neb-ef (Nectanebo II), the son of the regent, to besiege them in their fortresses. The war then dragged along and discontent broke out among the troops, and treachery lurked in the army. The financial expedient of Chabrias had exasperated the priests and the common people, and the complaints which had been stifled by fear of the mercenaries, were voiced as soon as the expedition had crossed the frontier. The regent, instead of quelling this discontent, secretly fomented it, and wrote to tell his son to claim the crown.

Nectanebo soon won over to his side the Egyptians under his command, but they were insufficient so long as the Greeks had not declared for him. Chabrias refused to withdraw from his engagements with the king; but Agesilaus was not so scrupulous. His vanity had been deeply wounded whilst in Egypt, for not only had he been refused the command to which he considered he was entitled, but his small figure, his infirmities and his rough Lacedæmonian ways had been made fun of by the courtiers. When Tachus begged Agesilaus to take the field against the rebels, he ironically replied that he had been sent to help the Egyptians, not to fight against them. However, before finally deciding which side to take, he consulted the ephores, and, as they permitted him to do his best to advance the interests of the country, he declared himself for Nectanebo, in spite of the entreaties of Chabrias.

Tachus, thus abandoned by his allies, took refuge at Sidon, and from thence he repaired to Artaxerxes, who received him kindly and placed him at the head of a fresh expedition against Egypt in the year 361.

The news of the king’s application to Persia excited general revolt in the valley of the Nile, and as the support of the foreigner aroused the suspicion of the native races, they joined the prince of Mendes.

Nectanebo having abandoned the conquests of his predecessors brought back his forces to Egypt, and arrived at Pelusium, where he found himself at the head of a large and resolute army with which, albeit undisciplined, Agesilaus advised the king to attack the insurgents before they had time to take the field. But unfortunately the Spartan was not in favour, for the prince of Mendes had tried to corrupt him, and although he had on that occasion shown unhoped-for loyalty, he was not trusted. Nectanebo made Tanis his headquarters, and his enemies hoped to besiege him there. The circle of ditches encompassing the town was almost completed, and provisions were getting scarce, when Agesilaus received orders to attempt a sortie, but he forced the blockade under shadow of the night, and a few days later, gained a decisive victory.

Nectanebo would gladly have kept him with him, for he was in fear of a surprise by the Persians, but the Spartan, being tired of Egypt and her intrigues, left the country, and died of exhaustion on the coast of Cyrenaica [probably 360].

The onset soon followed, as Pharaoh had anticipated, but it was weak and uncertain: Tachus, who was to have led it, died before it began, and the discords of the royal family prevented the other generals from acting in concert. The old Artaxerxes had three sons by his wife Statira--Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. Darius the eldest had been solemnly recognised as heir presumptive, but threatened with seeing himself supplanted by Ochus, he conspired the death of his father; however, he was discovered, imprisoned, and executed in his cell. So Ariaspes became the successor-elect, but Ochus told him that his father intended to have him put to an ignominious death, and he persuaded him to commit suicide so as to escape it. Arsames, a bastard son of one of the harem ladies, still remained as an heir to the throne, but he was assassinated by Ochus, and Artaxerxes succumbed to this last misfortune and died of sorrow, after a reign of forty-six years [358].

ARTAXERXES III

Artaxerxes III (Ochus) opened his reign with a massacre of all the princes of the royal family; then, thus freed from the pretenders who might have disputed the crown, he continued the war preparations, which had been interrupted by the death of his father and his own accession. Never had it been more important to re-establish the Persian dominion on the banks of the Nile. Egypt had been a source of continual trouble to the Great King ever since the recovery of her independence sixty years before.

The first attack of Ochus was repelled with loss. Two adventurers who commanded the troops of Nectanebo, Diophantes of Athens and Lamius of Sparta, gained a complete victory over the assailants, and obliged them to retire with loss.

[Sidenote: [352-340 B.C.]]

The provinces on the coast of the Mediterranean, always unquiet since the campaign of Tachus and the revolt of Evagoras, took advantage of the seemingly favourable opportunity, and Artabazus revolted in Asia Minor, and nine of the little kings of Cyprus proclaimed their independence. Phœnicia still hesitated, but the satrap’s insolence, the rapacity of the generals, and the want of discipline of the soldiers returned from Egypt decided her. At a meeting held at Tripolis the representatives of the Phœnician cities conferred on Tennes, the prince of Sidon, the perilous honour of directing the military operations, and his first act was to destroy the royal park, which the Persians had in the Lebanon Mountains, and to burn the provisions stored in the ports for the war in Egypt. At first Ochus thought that his lieutenants would soon avenge these acts, and, indeed, it was not long before Idrieus, tyrant of Caria, supported by eight thousand mercenaries, quelled the Cypriotes. But in Asia Minor, Artabazus, aided by Athens and Thebes, withstood the troops sent against him, and Tennes gained an important victory in Syria. He had naturally implored the help of Nectanebo, and he had sent him four thousand Greeks under his best general, Mentor, the Rhodian; and Belesys, the satrap of Syria, and Mazæus, the satrap of Cilicia, were beaten. Then enraged at these reverses Ochus convened his vanguard and rear-guard of thirty thousand Asiatics and ten thousand Greeks for a final effort; and the Sidonians, on their side, surrounded their city with a triple moat, increased the height of their walls and burnt their ships. Their leader was, unfortunately, wanting in energy, for Tennes, until the day of revolt, had lived a life of pleasure, surrounded with dancers and musicians, whom he had brought from Ionia and Greece at great expense.

The approach of Ochus robbed him of the little courage he possessed, and he tried by treachery to his subjects to atone for the treason of which he was guilty to his sovereign. His confidential minister was a certain Thessalion, and he sent him to the Persian camp and offered to betray Sidon, and act as a guide to Egypt, in return for the retention of his life and rank.

Ochus had accepted the conditions of his rebellious vassal when a moment of pride nearly compromised the affair. For Thessalion asked the king to give him his right hand on the promise of the fulfilment of the engagement; and this presumption so enraged Ochus, that he gave orders for his execution. As they were taking him away, Thessalion cried out that if the Great King forfeited the proffered assistance of Tennes, he would fail in his efforts against Phœnicia and Egypt; whereupon, Ochus granted the request made of him.

When the Persians were only a few days’ march from the city, Thessalion lured the hundred chief citizens to the camp on the pretext of a general meeting, and they were put to death by javelin blows. The Sidonians, although abandoned by their king, still wished to hold out, but Mentor told them that their mercenaries would bring the enemy into the place at a moment’s notice; so after deciding to throw themselves on the mercy of the conqueror, five hundred of them were sent as deputies with olive branches in their hands. But Ochus was the cruellest, most blood-thirsty king Persia had ever had, and he treated the envoys in his usual way. The rest of the population, therefore, seeing that death was inevitable, shut themselves up in their houses and set fire to them. Forty thousand persons perished in the fire, and such was the wealth of the best houses, that the right of extracting from the ruins the ingots of gold and silver was sold at a high price. The punishment of the town was followed by the execution of Tennes, and the other cities, alarmed at his fate, opened their gates without striking a blow.

After the settlement of Syria, Ochus marched to Egypt without further delay. The Great King’s victories recalled the vacillating provinces to submission.

[Sidenote: [340-338 B.C.]]

The army was divided into three parts, each one commanded by a barbarian and by a Greek. In passing through the marsh lands, several battalions were lost in the shifting sands; and on arriving at Pelusium, the enemy was found ready. Nectanebo had fewer men than his adversary, his force consisting of sixty thousand Egyptians, twenty thousand Libyans, and as many Greeks, but the recollection of his own successes and those of his predecessors, in spite of unequal numbers, inspired him with courage in the issue of the struggle. His squadron was likewise unequal to the combined fleets of Cyprus and Phœnicia, but he had sufficient flat-bottomed boats to defend the mouths of the Nile. The weak points of his position were defended by fortresses or entrenched camps; in short, all measures were taken for a defensive war.

The imprudent ardour of his Greek auxiliaries, however, spoiled his plan. Pelusium was occupied by five thousand men, under the command of Philophron. Some of the Thebans, who had served under Lacrates in the Persian army, desirous of again justifying their renown for bravery gained in the campaigns of Epaminondas, crossed a deep canal, which separated them from the town, and provoked the garrison to an encounter in the open field. Philophron accepted the challenge, and disputed the victory till nightfall. The following day Lacrates, having bridged the canal with a dike, led his company to the attack, and began storming the town. In a few days a breach was made, but the Egyptians, being as clever in the use of the pickaxe as the sword, built a new wall crowned with towers, whilst the old one was being demolished. Nectanebo, accompanied by thirty thousand native soldiers, five thousand Greeks, and half of the Libyan contingent, followed the course of the siege from a distance; and his presence prevented the Persians from approaching nearer.

Weeks elapsed, and it seemed that the tactics of temporisation would have their usual result, when an unforeseen incident complicated the situation. Among the chiefs of companies who fought under Ochus, there was a certain Nicostratus from Argos, whose personal strength likened him to Hercules, and who, like the traditional hero, was equipped with a lion’s skin and a club.

In imitation, doubtless, of the plan formerly proposed by Iphicrates to Pharnabazus, Nicostratus forced some peasants, whose wives and children were in his power, to guide him to one of the mouths of the Nile, which had been left unfortified, and there he landed his body of troops, and fortified himself in the rear of Nectanebo. The enterprise, undertaken with too few men, was more than rash, and if the mercenaries had contented themselves with harassing Nicostratus, without coming to an open battle, they would have forced him to re-embark or surrender. But their impatience spoilt everything, for the five thousand men forming the garrison of the neighbouring town marched under Clinias of Cos against the Argive and were beaten. The breach was at last made and the Persians, encouraged by the success of Nicostratus, ran the risk of being separated from the troops on the eastern frontier and utterly destroyed, for he had turned back to the Delta. Whilst he was trying to muster a fresh army at Memphis, Pelusium surrendered to Lacrates; Mentor took possession of Bubastis, and the strongest cities fearing the same fate as Sidon opened their gates almost without resistance.

Nectanebo, in despair at these successive defections, fled to Ethiopia with his treasures, and the successful _coup de main_ of Nicostratus re-established the empire of the Great King.

Egypt had certainly prospered under the administration of her latter indigenous kings. From the reign of Amyrtæus to that of Nectanebo, the sovereigns had conscientiously worked to efface the traces of the foreign invasions and to restore the kingdom to its old prosperity. The two capitals Thebes and Memphis, were not forgotten, and the cities of the Delta, Sebennytus, Bubastis, and Pithom were also embellished. And in spite of the short time given to the work, the majority of these works bear no trace of haste or carelessness; and the artists being quite conversant with the methods of ancient art, knew how to produce _chefs d’œuvre_ comparable to those of the Saïtic period.

But now the victory of Ochus was a more fatal blow to Egypt than the invasion of Cambyses had been. Ochus had personal feelings of hate against his new subjects, and he has been compared to Typhon for cruelty, and he was dubbed an ass, because it is the animal consecrated to the god of evil.

Arrived at Memphis, he gave orders for the Apis bull to be roasted for a banquet, and he enthroned and worshipped an ass in the temple of Ptah.

The goat of Mendes shared the fate of Apis, the temples were sacked, the sacred books carried off to Persia, the walls of the city razed to the ground, and the chief partisans of the indigenous royalty were massacred.

When these acts were over, the Greek mercenaries returned to their country, laden with booty, and the Great King returned to Susa, leaving the reconquered satrapy in charge of Pherendates. The success of the expedition had been mainly due to the eunuch Bagoas and Mentor the Rhodian; and to them Ochus entrusted the government of the empire. Bagoas directed the politics of the interior, and Mentor, placed at the head of the maritime provinces, soon reduced them to order.

Artabazus retired from the struggle and sought refuge with Philip of Macedon. Some tyrants on the coast of the Ægean Sea willingly submitted to the new dominion, and others resisting, like Hermias of Atarneus, the friend of Aristotle, were seized and put to death.

Thus Persia in a few years seemed to regain the widespread power which she had lost since the accession of Artaxerxes II, and Ochus ranked as high in the minds of his contemporaries as her great conquerors, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. But Ochus himself was only an oriental despot of the common type. His empire still had the appearance of strength, but the races, strangers to each other, and with difficulty suppressed by the satraps, inclined more and more to detachment from him, and already some of the governments of the previous century only existed in name. In the north towards the sources of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Halys, there was nothing but a confused mass of kingdoms and tribes, of which some like the Armenians still recognised the suzerainty of the Persians, and others, like the Chalybes and the Tibareni retained their independence. The kings of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus still paid tribute in an intermittent fashion; but the Mysians, Pisidians, Lycaonians, had ceased payment. The countries beyond the Tigris were in the same disorder. The Cadusians, the Amardians, and the Tapuri, protected by the mountains of the Caspian Sea, withstood every effort to dislodge them. India and the Sacæ had passed from the state of subjects to that of friendly allies, and the savage hordes of Gedrosia and Paropamisus rebelled against all authority. During the dismemberment of the empire the order of administration, so cleverly organised by Darius, was broken by the feebleness of his mercenaries. Not only had the custom of annually sending inspectors to the provinces become a mere formality, which was often omitted, but the distinction between the civil and military power had disappeared. The officer who commanded the troops nearly always filled the post of governor and united several satrapies under one rule.

The army and revenue were still, in spite of everything, the greatest in the world, but, if the darics had retained their value, the battalions had lost in strength. The old powers of the Persians, Medes, and Bactrians, and other races of Iran, were doubtless undiminished, but nobody troubled to make them conversant with the progress made during the century in military tactics. Their contingents were only heavy, undisciplined companies, easy to conquer in spite of the incontestable bravery of the individuals composing them; so, as their training would have taken a long time, it was better to add to their ranks mercenaries at a great price.

Since the time of Artaxerxes II the Greeks formed the kernel of the Persian forces; and the armies of the Great King were commanded by Hellenic generals of the school of Agesilaus, Iphicrates, Epaminondas, and the best tacticians of the time.

The fleets were placed under Greek admirals, and the cruel Ochus entirely owed his victories to this preponderance of European command, and the fact was so well known beyond the Ægean Sea that the question was openly discussed there.

If the decadence of the empire was sudden, the fault did not lie with the people. The Persians had remained as they were at the beginning, sober, honest, and intrepid, but the dynasty had degenerated to an irrecoverable degree. The early Achæmenidæ had themselves ruled all the affairs of the state; then, the campaign in Greece having disgusted Xerxes with militant royalty, he shut himself up in his harem and left the perilous honour of fighting to his generals, and the care of administration to the eunuch Aspamithres. This custom, once established, was followed by his successors, and the sovereigns now rarely intervened in the conduct of military operations. Neither Artaxerxes I nor Darius Nothus appeared on the field of battle, and Artaxerxes II only took part in two of the wars which embittered his long reign. Ochus, who had seemed to wish to recover the traditional power of the founders of the empire, returned to Susa after his victories in Syria and Egypt, and the life of the princes was passed in the midst of the intrigues and crimes of the harem. Brought up by women and eunuchs, and surrounded from infancy with pomp and luxury, they soon wearied of thinking and acting, and mechanically fell under the direction of their familiars. The sanguinary Parysatis reigned under the name of her husband, Darius Nothus, and her son, Artaxerxes II; and Bagoas influenced Ochus for nearly six years, and his power was certainly beneficial to the country.

THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE

[Sidenote: [338-330 B.C.]]

Macedonia, which had long remained unconcerned with the general movement, now began to take part in the Hellenic concert. Bagoas saw the danger of letting her take the ascendant, and form a union of all the forces hitherto scattered in Greece. He therefore supported all the enemies of Philip.

Unfortunately, whilst Bagoas was working to prevent the perils menacing the empire, his rivals at Susa lowered him in the esteem of his master, and their intrigues left him no alternative but to strike or die. He therefore poisoned Ochus, gave the throne to Arses, the youngest son of the king, and assassinated all the other children. Egypt was delighted at the news, and saw in the tragic fate of her conqueror a notable revenge of the gods he had outraged.

Arses was at first only a weak tool in the hands of his master, but when years gave him a taste for independence he became impatient at his subjection; so Bagoas sacrificed him to his own safety as he had Ochus. So many successive murders had so completely exhausted the Achæmenian family that he was at loss for a moment to know where to find a king; but he finally decided in favour of one of his friends, Codomannus, who, according to some, was the great-grandson of Darius II, and according to others, was not of royal descent. Codomannus took, on his accession, the name of Darius. Being brave, generous, clement, and desirous of doing well he was superior to the kings who had preceded him, and he deserved to have reigned before the empire was so enfeebled.

When Bagoas saw that his protégé intended to reign by himself, he wished to get rid of him, but, betrayed by one of his people, he was made to drink the poison he had destined for Darius. However, Darius did not long enjoy in peace the power which had been so much envied. Having ascended the throne the same year as Alexander, some days before the battle of the Chersonesus, he saw the dangers threatening him from the Macedonian’s ambition, and he was powerless to prevent them.

He was beaten at the Granicus, beaten at Issus, beaten at Arbela, and then killed in flight by one of his satraps. Alexander then took possession of his empire, and henceforth the Greek race supplanted the Persians in the part they had played for two centuries as the ruling power of the world.[e]

[Sidenote: [330 B.C.]]

Bessus the Satrap of Bactria, who murdered the fleeing Darius, assumed the royal title and the name of Artaxerxes IV. His adventures and plans were numerous, but on the farther side of the Oxus he fell into Alexander’s hands and was speedily put to death.[a]

THE OLD ORIENT AT THE END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

We have followed the political history of the Old Orient and have now seen it swallowed up in Alexander’s empire. Before we turn to the new races that are to demand our attention, let us take a final look at the countries which were the scene of the history of the early world, and see what they had become. On the south, on the ancient frontier of the Semitic races, Elam was divided into the mountainous district, and the district of the plains, and the history of these two districts was quite distinct one from another. For the people of the Oxus mountains, the Elamites and the Kossæans, retained their independence and made raids on the neighbouring territories from their unassailable haunts, whilst the people of the plains gladly submitted to the Persian yoke and readily accepted any ruler that appeared.

The favourable situation of Susa or Shushan had early attracted the attention of the Achæmenians; and the old palace of the Elamites, built upon an artificial elevation and cooled in the summer by the mountain breezes, and warmed in winter by the soft air from the Persian Gulf, became their favourite residence. Darius, son of Hystaspes, finding it too small for him, had it rebuilt and it was burnt in the reign of Artaxerxes I, and restored by Artaxerxes II.

The nations of the tableland of Asia Minor, and the mountains of the Tigris and Euphrates, those of Urartu and Van, Mushke [Moschi], Tubal, and the neighbouring peoples of northern Assyria, being decimated by the Scythian invasions, had submitted to the younger, less tried races. The Mushke and Tubal nations were divided into two branches, many of their tribes, with probably the rest of the Cimmerians, remained in the deep defiles of the Taurus; and the others having pushed towards the north, dwelt with other tribes at the time of Herodotus, on the mountains bordering the Black Sea.

When the Median conqueror arrived in those parts which are known as Cappadocia, he only found there Leuco-Syrians, the rest of the Hittites, and a new people called Armenians. The Armenians, who had come from Phrygia towards the end of the seventh century, settled at first in the districts adjoining their own country, then they gradually arrived at the source of the Halys, and in the time of Herodotus they were in possession of the districts on the east of the Euphrates (the Asia Minor of Roman geographers), and the western side of the Arsanias. They formed a satrapy of their own (the thirteenth), whilst the people of Urartu, the Alarodians, were included in the eighteenth. During the troubles which followed the campaign of Greece, the aspect of the country changed once more. The Moschi separated themselves from the Tibareni and joined the Colchians in the basin of the Phasis. The Alarodians, pushed back towards the north, joined the half savage races of the Caucasus. The Armenians, driven further to the east, gradually took possession of the imposing mountainous district between Asia Minor and the Caspian Sea, and came down into the plains of the Araxes. At the time of Alexander’s appearance in Asia, they were settled in their new district, having subjugated, or destroyed all the aborigines who had not emigrated, and their princes exercised a truly royal authority under the modest title of satrap.

Cappadocia was divided into two provinces, Cappadocia Proper, and Pontus, of which the hereditary governors, connected with the Achæmenian family, only waited an opportunity for declaring themselves kings. The old dynasties, names and races, and the warlike, barbarous world that the Assyrian conquerors had known between the plain of Mesopotamia and the Black Sea were now extinct, and the three kingdoms evolved from the ruins had even effaced the memory of it. In the domain proper of the Semitic races, between the coasts of the Mediterranean and the last abutment of the plain of Iran, the decadence was less general and apparent. Half of the old races, such as the Ruthennu and the Hittites, had disappeared with the cities of Carchemish, Arpad, and Kadesh, and although Batnæ, Hamath, and Damascus, escaped destruction, they fell into obscurity, and whole districts lapsed into desert land for want of hands to till them.

Phœnicia, impoverished by the destruction of Tyre and Sidon, had trouble to repair her losses; all her colonies were gone, and the little kingdoms of Cyprus with the towns of Citium and Amathus, had enough to do to defend their independence against the Greeks.

Assyria herself was only a vague memory of the past. The district between the Tigris and Euphrates was almost deserted. Some places, as Nisibis, still retained some of their old importance, and existed as well as they could on their own resources, but towards the south the numberless cities discovered in former times by the Ninevite conquerors, as they marched toward Syria, were now only heaps of ruins. On the banks of the Tigris the people were neither plentiful nor prosperous. The Assyrian exiles, liberated by Cyrus after the fall of Babylon, had rebuilt Asshur and enriched themselves by the cultivation of the land, and by commerce, but the district between the Upper and Lower Zabs was quite deserted, while Assyria Proper had not recovered from her ruin.

Calah was inhabited: “Its walls 25 feet wide and 100 long and two parasangs in circumference, were built of brick upon a substratum of stone 20 feet high.” The pyramidal tower of the goat temple, still in existence, “was in stone and one plethrum broad and two high.”

Two hundred years had scarcely elapsed since the death of Saracus [Sin-shar-ishkun] when Xenophon travelled through the country, and the people of the neighbouring small towns were already ignorant of the names of the ruined Calah and Nineveh by which they were living. They called the first Larissa, and the second Mespila, and the historians themselves were not much better informed; for the long line of terrible conquerors, beginning with Tukulti-Ninib and ending with Asshurbanapal, was summed up under the mythical names of Semiramis and Sardanapalus. Semiramis was credited with the victories and conquests, and Sardanapalus with the refined and intellectual qualities of the race. Everything Assyrian was attributed to one or other of these two.

In Babylonia, Ur was now only an insignificant town, but Erech was the seat of a school of theology and science, as celebrated throughout the East as that of Borsippa. Babylon by itself was regarded as the whole of Chaldea by the majority of travellers. Babylon was in fact the second capital of the Persian empire. The court resided there part of the year, as it was the centre of commerce and industry which was wanting in Susa. The city made several attempts during the first century after the conquest to restore her national dynasty, but after she was sacked by Xerxes seems to have submitted to her subjugation. But even in her abjection the city was a source of many surprises to the traveller. Unlike Greek cities, it was built on a regular plan, by which the streets crossed each other at right angles, some parallel, and others at right angles to the Euphrates; and the latter terminated at a gate of brass, which opened on to the works of the quay, and gave access to the river. The street throngs numbered specimens of every Asiatic race brought hither by the demands of commerce, and the natives of the place were distinguished by their elegant dress, consisting of a linen tunic reaching to the feet and surmounted with another tunic made of wool, with a sort of white tippet.

When the Persian rule succeeded the Chaldean, the Aramæan language did not lose its importance. It became the official language of all the western provinces and it is found on the coins of Asia Minor, upon the papyrus and steles of Egypt, in the edicts and correspondence of the satraps, and even on those of the Great King.

From Nisibis to Raphia, and along the banks of the Gulf of Persia to the shores of the Red Sea, it supplanted all languages, Semitic or otherwise, hitherto in use.

The Phœnician language, however, held its own with some success at first, and it was used for a long time on the coast and in the island of Cyprus; but Hebrew, which had begun to fall into disuse during the captivity, gradually disappeared as it came in contact with the dialects spoken by the races near Jerusalem. It existed as the “noble language” of the aristocracy, faithful to the discipline of Judah and then when Aramæan robbed it of this last service, it remained as the literary liturgical language.[e]

FOOTNOTES

[32] [We reserve full details of the Persian wars with Greece for the next volume.]