History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 357 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12).

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 357 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12).

     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 endeavours, no

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.