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The History of Herodotus: Page 10
Volume One - Book II
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BOOK II
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED EUTERPE
1. When Cyrus had brought his life to an end, Cambyses received the
royal power in succession, being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane
the daughter of Pharnaspes, for whose death, which came about before
his own, Cyrus had made great mourning himself and also had proclaimed
to all those over whom he bore rule that they should make mourning for
her: Cambyses, I say, being the son of this woman and of Cyrus,
regarded the Ionians and Aiolians as slaves inherited from his father;
and he proceeded to march an army against Egypt, taking with him as
helpers not only the other nations of which he was the ruler, but also
those of the Hellenes over whom he had power besides.
*****
2. Now the Egyptians, before the time when Psammetichos[1] became king
over them, were wont to suppose that they had come into being first of
all men; but since the time when Psammetichos having become king
desired to know what men had come into being first, they suppose that
the Phrygians came into being before themselves, but they themselves
before all other men. Now Psammetichos, when he was not able by
inquiry to find out any means of knowing who had come into being first
of all men, contrived a device of the following kind:--Taking two new-
born children belonging to persons of the common sort he gave them to
a shepherd to bring up at the place where his flocks were, with a
manner of bringing up such as I shall say, charging him namely that no
man should utter any word in their presence, and that they should be
placed by themselves in a room where none might come, and at the
proper time he should bring to them she-goats, and when he had
satisfied them with milk he should do for them whatever else was
needed.
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These things Psammetichos did and gave him this charge wishing
to hear what word the children would let break forth first, after they
had ceased from wailings without sense. And accordingly so it came to
pass; for after a space of two years had gone by, during which the
shepherd went on acting so, at length, when he opened the door and
entered, both the children fell before him in entreaty and uttered the
word /bekos/, stretching forth their hands. At first when he heard
this the shepherd kept silence; but since this word was often
repeated, as he visited them constantly and attended to them, at last
he declared the matter to his master, and at his command he brought
the children before his face. Then Psammetichos having himself also
heard it, began to inquire about what nation of men named anything
/bekos/, and inquiring he found that the Phrygians had this name for
bread. In this manner and guided by an indication such as this, the
Egyptians were brought to allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient
people than themselves.
3. That so it came to pass I heard from the
priests of that Hephaistos who dwells at Memphis;[2] but the Hellenes
relate, besides many other idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the
tongues of certain women, and then caused the children to live with
these women.
With regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much
as I have said: and I heard also other things at Memphis when I had
speech with the priests of Hephaistos. Moreover I visited both Thebes
and Heliopolis[3] for this very cause, namely because I wished to know
whether the priests at these places would agree in their accounts with
those at Memphis; for the men of Heliopolis are said to be the most
learned in records of the Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I
heard with regard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but
I shall name them only,[4] because I consider that all men are equally
ignorant of these matters:[5] and whatever things of them I may
record, I shall record only because I am compelled by the course of
the story.
4. But as to those matters which concern men, the priests
agreed with one another in saying that the Egyptians were the first of
all men on earth to find out the course of the year, having divided
the seasons into twelve parts to make up the whole; and this they said
they found out from the stars: and they reckon to this extent more
wisely than the Hellenes, as it seems to me, inasmuch as the Hellenes
throw in an intercalated month every other year, to make the seasons
right, whereas the Egyptians, reckoning the twelve months at thirty
days each, bring in also every year five days beyond the number, and
thus the circle of their seasons is completed and comes round to the
same point whence it set out. They said moreover that the Egyptians
were the first who brought into use appellations for the twelve gods
and the Hellenes took up the use from them; and that they were the
first who assigned altars and images and temples to the gods, and who
engraved figures on stones; and with regard to the greater number of
these things they showed me by actual facts that they had happened so.
They said also that the first man[6] who became king of Egypt was
Min;[7] and that in his time all Egypt except the district of
Thebes[8] was a swamp, and none of the regions were then above water
which now lie below the lake of Moiris, to which lake it is a voyage
of seven days up the river from the sea: 5, and I thought that they
said well about the land; for it is manifest in truth even to a person
who has not heard it beforehand but has only seen, at least if he have
understanding, that the Egypt to which the Hellenes come in ships is a
land which has been won by the Egyptians as an addition, and that it
is a gift of the river: moreover the regions which lie above this lake
also for a distance of three days' sail, about which they did not go
on to say anything of this kind, are nevertheless another instance of
the same thing: for the nature of the land of Egypt is as follows:--
First when you are still approaching it in a ship and are distant a
day's run from the land, if you let down a sounding-line you will
bring up mud and will find yourself in eleven fathoms. This then so
far shows that there is a silting forward of the land.
6. Then
secondly, as to Egypt itself, the extent of it along the sea is sixty
/schoines/, according to our definition of Egypt as extending from the
Gulf of Plinthine to the Serbonian lake, along which stretches Mount
Casion; from this lake then[9] the sixty /schoines/ are reckoned: for
those of men who are poor in land have their country measured by
fathoms, those who are less poor by furlongs, those who have much land
by parasangs, and those who have land in very great abundance by
/schoines/: now the parasang is equal to thirty furlongs, and each
/schoine/, which is an Egyptian measure, is equal to sixty furlongs.
So there would be an extent of three thousand six hundred furlongs for
the coast-land of Egypt.[10]
7. From thence and as far as Heliopolis
inland Egypt is broad, and the land is all flat and without springs of
water[11] and formed of mud: and the road as one goes inland from the
sea to Heliopolis is about the same in length as that which leads from
the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to Pisa and the temple of
Olympian Zeus: reckoning up you would find the difference very small
by which these roads fail of being equal in length, not more indeed
than fifteen furlongs; for the road from Athens to Pisa wants fifteen
furlongs of being fifteen hundred, while the road to Heliopolis from
the sea reaches that number completely.
8. From Heliopolis however, as
you go up, Egypt is narrow; for on the one side a mountain-range
belonging to Arabia stretches along by the side of it, going in a
direction from North towards the midday and the South Wind, tending
upwards without a break to that which is called the Erythraian Sea, in
which range are the stone-quarries which were used in cutting stone
for the pyramids at Memphis. On this side then the mountain ends where
I have said, and then takes a turn back;[12] and where it is widest,
as I was informed, it is a journey of two months across from East to
West; and the borders of it which turn towards the East are said to
produce frankincense. Such then is the nature of this mountain-range;
and on the side of Egypt towards Libya another range extends, rocky
and enveloped in sand: in this are the pyramids, and it runs in the
same direction as those parts of the Arabian mountains which go
towards the midday. So then, I say, from Heliopolis the land has no
longer a great extent so far as it belongs to Egypt,[13] and for about
four[14] days' sail up the river Egypt properly so called is narrow:
and the space between the mountain-ranges which have been mentioned is
plain-land, but where it is narrowest it did not seem to me to exceed
two hundred furlongs from the Arabian mountains to those which are
called the Libyan. After this again Egypt is broad.
9. Such is the
nature of this land: and from Heliopolis to Thebes is a voyage up the
river of nine days, and the distance of the journey in furlongs is
four thousand eight hundred and sixty, the number of the /schoines/
being eighty-one. If these measures of Egypt in furlongs be put
together the result is as follows:--I have already before this shown
that the distance along the sea amounts to three thousand six hundred
furlongs, and I will now declare what the distance is inland from the
sea to Thebes, namely six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs:
and again the distance from Thebes to the city called Elephantine is
one thousand eight hundred furlongs.
10. Of this land then, concerning which I have spoken, it seemed to
myself also, according as the priests said, that the greater part had
been won as an addition by the Egyptians; for it was evident to me
that the space between the aforesaid mountain-ranges, which lie above
the city of Memphis, once was a gulf of the sea, like the regions
about Ilion and Teuthrania and Ephesos and the plain of the Maiander,
if it be permitted to compare small things with great; and small these
are in comparison, for of the rivers which heaped up the soil in those
regions none is worthy to be compared in volume with a single one of
the mouths of the Nile, which has five mouths.[15] Moreover there are
other rivers also, not in size at all equal to the Nile, which have
performed great feats; of which I can mention the names of several,
and especially the Acheloös, which flowing through Acarnania and so
issuing out into the sea has already made half of the Echinades from
islands into mainland.
11. Now there is in the land of Arabia, not far
from Egypt, a gulf of the sea running in from that which is called the Erythraian Sea, very long and narrow, as I am about to tell. With
respect to the length of the voyage along it, one who set out from the
innermost point to sail out through it into the open sea, would spend
forty days upon the voyage, using oars;[16] and with respect to
breadth, where the gulf is broadest it is half a day's sail across:
and there is in it an ebb and flow of tide every day. Just such
another gulf I suppose that Egypt was, and that the one ran in towards
Ethiopia from the Northern Sea, and the other, the Arabian, of which I
am about to speak,[17] tended from the South towards Syria, the gulfs
boring in so as almost to meet at their extreme points, and passing by
one another with but a small space left between. If then the stream of
the Nile should turn aside into this Arabian gulf, what would hinder
that gulf from being filled up with silt as the river continued to
flow, at all events within a period of twenty thousand years? indeed
for my part I am of opinion that it would be filled up even within ten
thousand years. How, then, in[18] all the time that has elapsed before
I came into being should not a gulf be filled up even of much greater
size than this by a river so great and so active?
12. As regards Egypt
then, I both believe those who say that things are so, and for myself
also I am strongly of opinion that they are so; because I have
observed that Egypt runs out into the sea further than the adjoining
land, and that shells are found upon the mountains of it, and an
efflorescence of salt forms upon the surface, so that even the
pyramids are being eaten away by it, and moreover that of all the
mountains of Egypt, the range which lies above Memphis is the only one
which has sand: besides which I notice that Egypt resembles neither
the land of Arabia, which borders upon it, nor Libya, nor yet Syria
(for they are Syrians who dwell in the parts of Arabia lying along the
sea), but that it has soil which is black and easily breaks up,[19]
seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought down from Ethiopia by
the river: but the soil of Libya, we know, is reddish in colour and
rather sandy, while that of Arabia and Syria is somewhat clayey and
rocky.[19a]
13. The priests also gave me a strong proof concerning
this land as follows, namely that in the reign of king Moiris,
whenever the river reached a height of at least eight cubits[20] it
watered Egypt below Memphis; and not yet nine hundred years had gone
by since the death of Moiris, when I heard these things from the
priests: now however, unless the river rises to sixteen cubits, or
fifteen at the least, it does not go over the land. I think too that
those Egyptians who dwell below the lake of Moiris and especially in
that region which is called the Delta, if that land continues to grow
in height according to this proportion and to increase similarly in
extent,[21] will suffer for all remaining time, from the Nile not
overflowing their land, that same thing which they themselves said
that the Hellenes would at some time suffer: for hearing that the
whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is not watered by rivers as
theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at some time be
disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of famine. This
saying means that if the god[22] shall not send them rain, but shall
allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be
destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water to
save them except from Zeus alone.
14. This has been rightly said by
the Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes: but now let me tell how
matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their turn. If, in
accordance with what I before said, their land below Memphis (for this
is that which is increasing) shall continue to increase in height
according to the same proportion as in past time, assuredly those
Egyptians who dwell here will suffer famine, if their land shall not
have rain nor the river be able to go over their fields. It is certain
however that now they gather in fruit from the earth with less labour
than any other men and also with less than the other Egyptians; for
they have no labour in breaking up furrows with a plough nor in hoeing
nor in any other of those labours which other men have about a crop;
but when the river has come up of itself and watered their fields and
after watering has left them again, then each man sows his own field
and turns into it swine, and when he has trodden the seed into the
ground by means of the swine, after that he waits for the harvest; and
when he has threshed the corn by means of the swine, then he gathers
it in.
15. If we desire to follow the opinions of the Ionians as regards
Egypt, who say that the Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its sea-coast
to be from the watch-tower called of Perseus to the fish-curing houses
of Pelusion, a distance of forty /schoines/, and counting it to extend
inland as far as the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and
runs to Pelusion and Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they
assign it partly to Libya and partly to Arabia,--if, I say, we should
follow this account, we should thereby declare that in former times
the Egyptians had no land to live in; for, as we have seen, their
Delta at any rate is alluvial, and has appeared (so to speak) lately,
as the Egyptians themselves say and as my opinion is. If then at the
first there was no land for them to live in, why did they waste their
labour to prove that they had come into being before all other men?
They needed not to have made trial of the children to see what
language they would first utter. However I am not of opinion that the
Egyptians came into being at the same time as that which is called by
the Ionians the Delta, but that they existed always ever since the
human race came into being, and that as their land advanced forwards,
many of them were left in their first abodes and many came down
gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that in old times
Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this[23] the circumference
measures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.
16. If then we
judge aright of these matters, the opinion of the Ionians about Egypt
is not sound: but if the judgment of the Ionians is right, I declare
that neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know how to
reckon since they say that the whole earth is made up of three
divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya: for they ought to count in
addition to these the Delta of Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia
nor to Libya; for at least it cannot be the river Nile by this
reckoning which divides Asia from Libya,[24] but the Nile is cleft at
the point of this Delta so as to flow round it, and the result is that
this land would come between Asia and Libya.[25]
17. We dismiss then the opinion of the Ionians, and express a judgment
of our own in this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which is
inhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited by
Kilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we
know of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya except
the borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which is
commonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of
Egypt, beginning from the Cataract[26] and the city of Elephantine, is
divided into two parts and that it thus partakes of both the names,
since one side will thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for
the Nile from the Cataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt
through the midst; and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows
in one single stream, but from this city onwards it is parted into
three ways; and one, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards
the East; the second of the ways goes towards the West, and this is
called the Canobic mouth; but that one of the ways which is straight
runs thus,--when the river in its course downwards comes to the point
of the Delta, then it cuts the Delta through the midst and so issues
out to the sea. In this we have[27] a portion of the water of the
river which is not the smallest nor the least famous, and it is called
the Sebennytic mouth. There are also two other mouths which part off
from the Sebennytic and go to the sea, and these are called, one the
Saïtic, the other the Mendesian mouth. The Bolbitinitic and Bucolic
mouths, on the other hand, are not natural but made by digging.
18.
Moreover also the answer given by the Oracle of Ammon bears witness in
support of my opinion that Egypt is of the extent which I declare it
to be in my account; and of this answer I heard after I had formed my
own opinion about Egypt. For those of the city of Marea and of Apis,
dwelling in the parts of Egypt which border on Libya, being of opinion
themselves that they were Libyans and not Egyptians, and also being
burdened by the rules of religious service, because they desired not
to be debarred from the use of cows' flesh, sent to Ammon saying that
they had nought in common with the Egyptians, for they dwelt outside
the Delta and agreed with them in nothing; and they said they desired
that it might be lawful for them to eat everything without
distinction. The god however did not permit them to do so, but said
that that land which was Egypt which the Nile came over and watered,
and that those were Egyptians who dwelling below the city of
Elephantine drank of that river. Thus it was answered to them by the
Oracle about this: 19, and the Nile, when it is in flood, goes over
not only the Delta but also of the land which is called Libyan and of
that which is called Arabian sometimes as much as two days' journey on
each side, and at times even more than this or at times less.
As regards the nature of the river, neither from the priests nor yet
from any other man was I able to obtain any knowledge: and I was
desirous especially to learn from them about these matters, namely why
the Nile comes down increasing in volume from the summer solstice
onwards for a hundred days, and then, when it has reached the number
of these days, turns and goes back, failing in its stream, so that
through the whole winter season it continues to be low, and until the
summer solstice returns. Of none of these things was I able to receive
any account from the Egyptians, when I inquired of them what power the
Nile has whereby it is of a nature opposite to that of other rivers.
And I made inquiry, desiring to know both this which I say and also
why, unlike all other rivers, it does not give rise to any breezes
blowing from it.
20. However some of the Hellenes who desired to gain
distinction for cleverness have given an account of this water in
three different ways: two of these I do not think it worth while even
to speak of except only to indicate their nature; of which the one
says that the Etesian Winds are the cause that makes the river rise,
by preventing the Nile from flowing out into the sea. But often the
Etesian Winds fail and yet the Nile does the same work as it is wont
to do; and moreover, if these were the cause, all the other rivers
also which flow in a direction opposed to the Etesian Winds ought to
have been affected in the same way as the Nile, and even more, in as
much as they are smaller and present to them a feebler flow of stream:
but there are many of these rivers in Syria and many also in Libya,
and they are affected in no such manner as the Nile.
21. The second
way shows more ignorance than that which has been mentioned, and it is
more marvellous to tell;[28] for it says that the river produces these
effects because it flows from the Ocean, and that the Ocean flows
round the whole earth.
22. The third of the ways is much the most
specious, but nevertheless it is the most mistaken of all: for indeed
this way has no more truth in it than the rest, alleging as it does
that the Nile flows from melting snow; whereas it flows out of Libya
through the midst of the Ethiopians, and so comes out into Egypt. How
then should it flow from snow, when it flows from the hottest parts to
those which are cooler? And indeed most of the facts are such as to
convince a man (one at least who is capable of reasoning about such
matters), that it is not at all likely that it flows from snow.[29]
The first and greatest evidence is afforded by the winds, which blow
hot from these regions; the second is that the land is rainless always
and without frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain must necessarily
come within five days, so that if it snowed in those parts rain would
fall there; the third evidence is afforded by the people dwelling
there, who are of a black colour by reason of the burning heat.
Moreover kites and swallows remain there through the year and do not
leave the land; and cranes flying from the cold weather which comes on
in the region of Scythia come regularly to these parts for wintering:
if then it snowed ever so little in that land through which the Nile
flows and in which it has its rise, none of these things would take
place, as necessity compels us to admit.
23. As for him who talked
about the Ocean, he carried his tale into the region of the unknown,
and so he need not be refuted;[30] since I for my part know of no
river Ocean existing, but I think that Homer or one of the poets who
were before him invented the name and introduced it into his verse.
24. If however after I have found fault with the opinions proposed, I
am bound to declare an opinion of my own about the matters which are
in doubt, I will tell what to my mind is the reason why the Nile
increases in the summer. In the winter season the Sun, being driven
away from his former path through the heaven[31] by the stormy winds,
comes to the upper parts of Libya. If one would set forth the matter
in the shortest way, all has now been said; for whatever region this
god approaches most and stands directly above, this it may reasonably
be supposed is most in want of water, and its native streams of rivers
are dried up most.
25. However, to set it forth at greater length,
thus it is:--the Sun passing in his course by the upper parts of
Libya, does thus, that is to say, since at all times the air in those
parts is clear and the country is warm, because there are no cold
winds,[32] in passing through it the Sun does just as he was wont to
do in the summer, when going through the midst of the heaven, that is
he draws to himself the water, and having drawn it he drives it away
to the upper parts of the country, and the winds take it up and
scattering it abroad melt it into rain; so it is natural that the
winds which blow from this region, namely the South and South-west
Winds, should be much the most rainy of all the winds. I think however
that the Sun does not send away from himself all the water of the Nile
of each year, but that he also lets some remain behind with himself.
Then when the winter becomes milder, the Sun returns back again to the
midst of the heaven, and from that time onwards he draws equally from
all rivers; but in the meanwhile they flow in large volume, since
water of rain mingles with them in great quantity, because their
country receives rain then and is filled with torrent streams. In
summer however they are weak, since not only the showers of rain fail
then, but also they are drawn by the Sun. The Nile however, alone of
all rivers, not having rain and being drawn by the Sun, naturally
flows during this time of winter in much less than its proper volume,
that is much less than in summer;[33] for then it is drawn equally
with all the other waters, but in winter it bears the burden alone.
Thus I suppose the Sun to be the cause of these things.
26. He is also
the cause in my opinion that the air in these parts is dry, since he
makes it so by scorching up his path through the heaven:[34] thus
summer prevails always in the upper parts of Libya. If however the
station of the seasons had been changed, and where now in the heaven
are placed the North Wind and winter, there was the station of the
South Wind and of the midday, and where now is placed the South Wind,
there was the North, if this had been so, the Sun being driven from
the midst of the heaven by the winter and the North Wind would go to
the upper parts of Europe, just as now he comes to the upper parts of
Libya, and passing in his course throughout the whole of Europe I
suppose that he would do to the Ister that which he now works upon the
Nile.
27. As to the breeze, why none blows from the river, my opinion
is that from very hot places it is not natural that anything should
blow, and that a breeze is wont to blow from something cold.
28. Let these matters then be as they are and as they were at the
first: but as to the sources of the Nile, not one either of the
Egyptians or of the Libyans or of the Hellenes, who came to speech
with me, professed to know anything, except the scribe of the sacred
treasury of Athene at the city of Saïs in Egypt. To me however this
man seemed not to be speaking seriously when he said that he had
certain knowledge of it; and he said as follows, namely that there
were two mountains of which the tops ran up to a sharp point, situated
between the city of Syene, which is in the district of Thebes, and
Elephantine, and the names of the mountains were, of the one Crophi
and of the other Mophi. From the middle between these two mountains
flowed (he said) the sources of the Nile, which were fathomless in
depth, and half of the water flowed to Egypt and towards the North
Wind, the other half to Ethiopia and the South Wind. As for the
fathomless depth of the source, he said that Psammetichos king of
Egypt came to a trial of this matter; for he had a rope twisted of
many thousands of fathoms and let it down in this place, and it found
no bottom. By this the scribe (if this which he told me was really as
he said) gave me to understand[35] that there were certain strong
eddies there and a backward flow, and that since the water dashed
against the mountains, therefore the sounding-line could not come to
any bottom when it was let down.
29. From no other person was I able
to learn anything about this matter; but for the rest I learnt so much
as here follows by the most diligent inquiry;[36] for I went myself as
an eye-witness as far as the city of Elephantine and from that point
onwards I gathered knowledge by report. From the city of Elephantine
as one goes up the river there is country which slopes steeply; so
that here one must attach ropes to the vessel on both sides, as one
fastens an ox, and so make one's way onward; and if the rope break,
the vessel is gone at once, carried away by the violence of the
stream. Through this country it is a voyage of about four days in
length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the river Maiander,
and the distance amounts to twelve /schoines/, which one must traverse
in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in which the Nile
flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions above
Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who also occupy
half of the island,[37] and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining this
island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad
tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the
stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this you
will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the
Nile sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many
reefs, by which it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after
having passed through this country in the forty days which I have
said, you will embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve
days; and after this you will come to a great city called Meroe. This
city is said to be the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and
they who dwell in it reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone,
and these they greatly honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus
established, and make warlike marches whensoever this god commands
them by prophesyings and to whatsoever place he commands.
30. Sailing
from this city you will come to the "Deserters" in another period of
time equal to that in which you came from Elephantine to the mother-
city of the Ethiopians. Now the name of these "Deserters" is /Asmach/,
and this word signifies, when translated into the tongue of the
Hellenes, "those who stand on the left hand of the king." These were
two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of the warrior class, who
revolted and went over to the Ethiopians for the following cause:--In
the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set, one towards the
Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towards the Arabians
and Assyrians at Daphnai of Pelusion, and another towards Libya at
Marea: and even in my own time the garrisons of the Persians too are
ordered in the same manner as these were in the reign of Psammetichos,
for both at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians have outposts. The
Egyptians then of whom I speak had served as outposts for three years
and no one relieved them from their guard; accordingly they took
counsel together, and adopting a common plan they all in a body
revolted from Psammetichos and set out for Ethiopia. Hearing this
Psammetichos set forth in pursuit, and when he came up with them he
entreated them much and endeavoured to persuade them not to desert the
gods of their country and their children and wives: upon which it is
said that one of them pointed to his privy member and said that
wherever this was, there would they have both children and wives. When
these came to Ethiopia they gave themselves over to the king of the
Ethiopians; and he rewarded them as follows:--there were certain of
the Ethiopians who had come to be at variance with him; and he bade
them drive these out and dwell in their land. So since these men
settled in the land of the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have come to be
of milder manners, from having learnt the customs of the Egyptians.
More History
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