The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos Part 5

One day Paqrur of Goshen appeared at Memphis to do him homage, much to the surprise and delight of the Ethiopian king. As Paqrur was the prince of Pi-Sopd or Goshen, who had been sent to Nineveh along with Necho, the date of Tuatan-Amon is pretty clear. How he came to quit Egypt, however, he does not vouchsafe to explain.

Whether Urd-Aman were Rud-Amon or Tuatan-Amon, he gave a good deal of trouble to the a.s.syrians. Thebes was securely in his hands, and from thence he marched upon Memphis. The a.s.syrian garrison and its allies were defeated in front of the city, which was then blockaded and taken after a long siege. Necho was captured and put to death, and Psammetikhos escaped the same fate only by flight into Syria. But a.s.syrian revenge did not tarry long. a.s.sur-bani-pal determined to put an end to Egyptian revolt and Ethiopian invasion once for all. A large army was despatched to the Nile, which overthrew the forces of Rud-Amon in the Delta and pursued him as far as Thebes. Thence he fled to Kipkip in Ethiopia, and a terrible punishment was inflicted on the capital of southern Egypt. The whole of its inhabitants were led away into slavery. Its temples-at once the centres of disaffection and fortresses against attack-were half-demolished, its monuments and palaces were destroyed, and all its treasures, sacred and profane, were carried away. Among the spoil were two obelisks, more than seventy tons in weight, which were removed to Nineveh as trophies of victory. The injuries which Kambyses has been accused of inflicting on the ancient monuments of Thebes were really the work of the a.s.syrians.

How great was the impression made upon the oriental world by the sack of Thebes may be gathered from the reference to it by the prophet Nahum (iii.

8-10). Nineveh itself is threatened with the same overthrow. "Art thou better than No of Amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, (the Nile), and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains." As the destruction of Thebes took place about B.C. 665, the date of Nahum's prophecy cannot have been much later.

In the a.s.syrian inscriptions Thebes is called Ni', corresponding with the No of the Old Testament. Both words represent the Egyptian Nu, "city,"

Thebes being pre-eminently "the city" of Upper Egypt. Its patron-deity was Amon, to whom its great temple was dedicated, and hence it is that Nahum calls it "No of Amon." Divided as it was into two halves by the Nile, and encircled on either side by ca.n.a.ls, one of which-"the southern water"-still runs past the southern front of the temple of Luxor, it could truly be said that its "rampart was the sea." To this day the Nile is called "the sea" by the natives of Egypt.

The Ethiopians penetrated into Egypt no more. The twenty satrapies were re-established; and Psammetikhos received his father's princ.i.p.ality, though the precedence among the va.s.sal-kings was given to Paqrur of Goshen. For a time the country was at peace.

Fifteen years later, however, an event occurred which shook the a.s.syrian empire to its foundations. A revolt broke out which spread throughout the whole of it. The revolt was headed by a.s.sur-bani-pal's brother, the Viceroy of Babylonia, and for some time the result wavered in the balance.

But the good generalship and disciplined forces of a.s.syria eventually prevailed, and she emerged from the struggle, exhausted indeed, but triumphant. The empire, however, was shrunken. Gyges of Lydia had thrown off his allegiance, and had a.s.sisted Psammetikhos of Sais to make Egypt independent. While the a.s.syrian armies were battling for existence in Asia, Psammetikhos, with the Ionian and Karian mercenaries from Lydia, was driving out the a.s.syrian garrisons and overcoming his brother satraps. One by one they disappeared before him, and at last he had the satisfaction of seeing Egypt a united and independent monarchy, under a monarch who claimed to be of native race.

The blood of the founder of the twenty-sixth dynasty was, however, mixed.

He seems to have been, partly at least, of Libyan descent, and it is even doubtful whether his name is pure Egyptian. Like his father, he surrounded himself with foreigners: the Greeks and Karians, with whose help he had gained his throne, were high in favour, and const.i.tuted the royal body-guard. The native Egyptian army, we are told, deserted the king in disgust and made their way to Ethiopia. However that may be, Greek troops were settled in "camps" in the Delta, Greek merchants were allowed to trade and even to build in Egypt, and the Karians became dragomen, guides, and interpreters between the natives and the European tourists who began to visit the Nile.

It was during the reign of Psammetikhos I. (B.C. 664-610) that the great invasion of nomad Scyths, referred to in the earlier chapters of Jeremiah, swept over Western Asia. They sacked the towns of the Philistines and made their way to the Egyptian frontier, but there they were bought off by Psammetikhos. After their dispersion, the Egyptian Pharaoh turned his eyes towards Palestine, with the intention of restoring the Asiatic empire of Ramses II. The twenty-sixth dynasty was an age of antiquarian revival; not content with restoring Egypt to peace and prosperity, its kings aimed also at restoring the Egypt of the past. Egyptian art again puts on an antique form, temples are repaired or erected in accordance with ancient models, and literature reflects the general tendency. The revival only wanted originality to make it successful; as it is, the art of the twenty-sixth dynasty is careful and good, and under its rule Egypt enjoyed for the last time a St. Luke's summer of culture and renown.

The power of a.s.syria was pa.s.sing away. The great rebellion, and the wars in Elam which followed, had drained it of its resources. The Scythic invasion destroyed what little strength was left. Before Psammetikhos died Nineveh was already surrounded by its foes, and four years later it perished utterly.

The provinces of the west became virtually independent. Josiah of Judah still called himself a va.s.sal of the a.s.syrian monarch, but he acted as if the a.s.syrian monarchy did not exist. The a.s.syrian governor of Samaria was deprived of his authority, and Jewish rule was obeyed throughout what had been the territory of the Ten Tribes.

The weakness of a.s.syria was the opportunity of Egypt. The earlier years of the reign of Psammetikhos were spent in reorganising his kingdom and army, in suppressing all opposition to his government, and in rebuilding the ruined cities and temples. Then he marched into Palestine and endeavoured to secure once more for Egypt the cities of the Philistines. Ashdod was taken after a prolonged siege, and an Egyptian garrison placed in it.

The successor of Psammetikhos was his son Necho, who carried out the foreign policy of his father. The old ca.n.a.l which ran from the Red Sea at Suez to the Nile near Zagazig, and which centuries of neglect had allowed to be choked, was again partially cleared out, and "the tongue of the Egyptian sea was cut off" (Isa. xi. 15). Ships were also sent from Suez under Phnician pilots to circ.u.mnavigate Africa. Three years did they spend on the voyage, and after pa.s.sing the Straits of Gibraltar, finally arrived safely at the mouths of the Nile. There an incredulous people heard that as they were sailing westward the sun was on their right hand.

But long before the return of his ships, Necho had placed himself at the head of his army and entered on the invasion of Asia. The Syrians were defeated at Migdol, and Gaza was occupied. The Egyptian army then proceeded to march along the sea-coast by the ancient military road, which struck inland at the Nahr el-Kelb. But the Jewish king, pleading his duty to his a.s.syrian suzerain, attempted to block the way; the result was a battle in the plain of Megiddo, where the Jewish forces were totally routed, and Josiah himself carried from the field mortally wounded. Necho now overran northern Syria as far as the Euphrates, and then returned southward to punish the Jews. Jerusalem was captured by treachery, and Jehoahaz, the new king, deposed after a reign of only three months. The Pharaoh then made his brother Eliakim king in his stead, changing his name to Jehoiakim. The city was fined a talent of gold and a hundred talents of silver, and Necho sent his armour to the temple of Apollo near Miletus as a thank-offering to the G.o.d of his Greek mercenaries.

The empire of Thothmes was restored, at all events in Asia. But it lasted hardly more than three years. In B.C. 605 a decisive battle was fought at Carchemish, on the Euphrates, now Jerablus, between Necho and the Babylonian prince Nebuchadrezzar, who commanded the army of his father Nabopola.s.sar. The Egyptians fled in confusion, and the Asiatic empire was utterly lost. The Jewish king transferred his allegiance to the conqueror, and for three years "became his servant." Then he rebelled, probably in consequence of a fresh attempt made by the Egyptians to recover their power in Palestine. The attempt, however, failed, and a Babylonian army was sent against Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was already dead, but his son Jehoiachin, along with the leading citizens, the military cla.s.s, and the artisans-"ten thousand captives" in all-was carried into exile in Babylonia (B.C. 599). His uncle Zedekiah was placed on the throne, and for nearly nine years he remained faithful to his Babylonian master.

Then came temptation from the side of Egypt. Psammetikhos II., who had succeeded his father Necho in B.C. 594, prepared to march into Palestine, and contest the supremacy over Western Asia with the Babylonian monarch. A Babylonian army was already besieging the revolted city of Jerusalem when the forces of the Pharaoh appeared in sight. The Babylonians broke up their camp and retired, and it seemed as if the rebellion of the Jewish king had been successful (Jer. x.x.xvii. 5, 11; Ezek. xvii. 15).

But it was not for long. The Egyptians returned to "their own land," and the siege of Jerusalem was recommenced. At last, in B.C. 588, the city was taken, its king and most of its inhabitants led into captivity, and its temple and palace burned with fire. Judah was placed under a Babylonian governor, and the authority of the Babylonians acknowledged as far as Gaza.

Psammetikhos II. had died in the preceding year, and his son Uahabra, the Apries of the Greeks, the Hophra of the Old Testament, occupied his place.

The army which had gone to the help of Zedekiah had doubtless been sent by him. He had recaptured Gaza, and marched along the coast to Sidon, which he captured, and Tyre, which was in rebellion against the Chaldaeans, while his fleet defeated the combined forces of the Cyprians and Phnicians, and held the sea. A hieroglyphic inscription, erected by a native of Gebal and commemorative of the invasion, has recently been found near Sidon. But the Egyptian conquests were again lost almost as quickly as they had been made.

Palestine became a Babylonian province up to the frontiers of Egypt. Many of the Jews who had been left in it fled to Egypt. Their numbers were reinforced by a band of outlaws, of whom Johanan was the leader, who had murdered the Babylonian governor and had dragged into Egypt with them the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch. Jeremiah in vain protested against their conduct, and predicted that Hophra should be slain by his enemies, and that Nebuchadrezzar should set up his throne on that very pavement "at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes" where the prophet was then standing. Tahpanhes is almost certainly Tel ed-Defneh, the Daphnae of Greek geography, which stands in the mid-desert about twelve miles to the west of Kantara on the Suez Ca.n.a.l, and where Professor Flinders Petrie made excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1886. There he found the remains of a great fortress and camp, which had been built by Psammetikhos I. for his Greek mercenaries. The walls of the camp were forty feet in thickness, and the ruins of the fortress still go by the name of the "Castle of the Jew's Daughter." In front of it is a brick pavement, just like that described by Jeremiah.

Daphnae, in fact, was one of the chief fortresses of Egypt on the side of Asia, and it was accordingly the chief station of the Greek mercenaries.

It commanded the entrance to the Delta, and was almost the first place in Egypt that the traveller from Palestine who came by the modern caravan road would approach. It was, therefore, the first settlement at which Jewish fugitives who wished to avoid the Babylonian garrison at Gaza would be likely to arrive. And it was also the first object of attack on the part of an invader from the East. Its possession opened to him the way to Memphis.

That Nebuchadrezzar actually invaded Egypt, as Jeremiah had predicted, we now know from a fragment of his annals. In his thirty-seventh year (B.C.

567) he marched into Egypt, defeating the Pharaoh Amasis, and the soldiers of "Phut of the Ionians," "a distant land which is in the midst of the sea." The enemies, therefore, into whose hands Hophra was to fall were not the Babylonians. They were, in fact, his own subjects.

He had pursued the h.e.l.lenising policy of his predecessors with greater thoroughness than they had done, and had thus aroused the jealousy and alarm of the native population. The Greek mercenaries alone had his confidence, and the Egyptians accused him of betraying the native troops whom he had sent to the help of the Libyans against the Greek colony of Kyrene. Amasis (or Ahmes), his brother-in-law, put himself at the head of the rebels. A battle was fought near Sais between the Greek troops of Hophra on the one side and the revolted Egyptians on the other, which ended in the defeat of the Greeks and the capture of Hophra himself.

Amasis was proclaimed king (B.C. 570), and though the captive Pharaoh was at first treated with respect, he was afterwards put to death.

The change of monarch made little difference to the Greeks in Egypt. They were too valuable, both as soldiers and as traders, for the Pharaoh to dispense with their services. The mercenaries were removed from Daphnae to Memphis, in the very heart of the kingdom, and fresh privileges were granted to the merchants of Naukratis. The Pharaoh married a Greek wife, and a demotic papyrus, now at Paris, even describes how he robbed the temples of Memphis, On and Bubastis of their endowments and handed them over to the Greek troops. "The Council" which sat under him ordered that "the vessels, the fuel, the linen, and the dues" hitherto enjoyed by their G.o.ds and their priests should be given instead to the foreigner. In this act of sacrilege the Egyptians of a later day saw the cause of the downfall of their country. The invasion of Nebuchadrezzar had pa.s.sed over it without producing much injury; indeed, it does not seem to have extended beyond the eastern half of the Delta. But a new power, that of Cyrus, was rising in the East. Amasis had foreseen the coming storm, and had occupied Cyprus in advance. If Xenophon is to be believed, he had also sent troops to the aid of Krsus of Lydia. But all was of no avail. The power of Cyrus steadily increased. The empires of Lydia and Babylonia went down before it, and when his son Kambyses succeeded him in July, B.C. 529, the new empire extended from the Mediterranean to India and from the Caspian to the borders of Egypt. It was clear that the fertile banks of the Nile would be the next object of attack.

Greek vanity a.s.serted that the actual cause of the invasion was the Greek mercenary Phanes. He had deserted to Kambyses, and explained to him how Egypt could be entered. That Phanes was a name used by the Egyptian Greeks we know from its occurrence on the fragment of a large vase discovered by Professor Petrie at Naukratis. Here we read: "Phanes the son of Glaukos dedicated me to Apollo of Naukratis." But the invasion of Egypt by Kambyses was the necessary consequence of the policy which had laid the whole of the oriental world at his father's feet.

Amasis died while the army of Kambyses was on its march (B.C. 526), and his son Psammetikhos III. had to bear the brunt of the attack. A battle was fought near Pelusium, and though the Greek and Karian auxiliaries did their best, the invading forces gained the day. The Pharaoh fled to Memphis, which was thereupon besieged by Kambyses. The siege was a short one. The city of "the White Wall" was taken, Psammetikhos made a prisoner, and his son, together with two thousand youths of the leading Egyptian families, was put to death. For a while Psammetikhos himself was allowed to live, but the fears of the conqueror soon caused him to be executed, and with his death came the end of the twenty-sixth dynasty and the independence of Egypt.

CHAPTER V. THE AGE OF THE PTOLEMIES.

Judah had profited by the revolution which had been so disastrous to the monarchy of the Nile. The overthrow of the Babylonian empire and the rise of Cyrus had brought deliverance from exile and the restoration of the temple and its services. In the Jewish colony at Jerusalem, Cyrus and his successors had, as it were, a bridle upon Egypt; grat.i.tude to their deliverer and freedom to enjoy the theocracy which had taken the place of the Davidic monarchy made the Jewish people an outpost and garrison upon whose loyalty the Persian king could rely.

The yoke of the Zoroastrian Darius and his descendants pressed heavily, on the other hand, upon the priests and people of Egypt. Time after time they attempted to revolt. Their first rebellion, under Khabbash, saved Greece from the legions of Darius and postponed the day of Persian invasion to a time when the incapable Xerxes sat upon the throne of his energetic father. A second time they rose in insurrection in the reign of Artaxerxes I., the successor of Xerxes. But under Artaxerxes II. came a more formidable outbreak, which ended in the recovery of Egyptian independence and the establishment of the last three dynasties of native kings.

For sixty-five years (from B.C. 414 to 349) Egypt preserved its independence. More than once the Persians sought to recover it, but they were foiled by the Spartan allies of the Pharaoh or by the good fortune of the Egyptians. But civil feuds and cowardice sapped the strength of the Egyptian resistance. Greek mercenaries and sailors now fought in the ranks of the Persians as well as in those of the Egyptians, and the result of the struggle between Persia and Egypt was in great measure dependent on the amount of pay the two sides could afford to give them. The army was insubordinate, and between the Greek and Egyptian soldiers there was jealousy and feud. Nektanebo II. (B.C. 367-49), the last of the Pharaohs, had dethroned his own father, and though he had once driven the Persian king Artaxerxes Ochus back from the coasts of Egypt, he failed to do so a second time. The Greeks were left to defend themselves as best they could at Pelusium, while Nektanebo retired to Memphis with 60,000 worthless native troops. From thence he fled to Ethiopia with his treasures, leaving his country in the hands of the Persian. Ochus wreaked his vengeance on the Egyptian priests, destroying the temples, demanding a heavy ransom for the sacred records he had robbed, setting up an a.s.s-a symbol in Egyptian eyes of all that was evil and unclean-as the patron-G.o.d of the conquered land, and slaying the sacred bull Apis in sacrifice to the new divinity.

The murder of Ochus by his Egyptian eunuch Bagoas was the penalty he paid for these outrages on the national faith.

Egypt never again was free. Its rulers have been of manifold races and forms of faith, but they have never again been Egyptians. Persians, Greeks and Romans, Arabs, Kurds, Circa.s.sians, Mameluk slaves and Turks, Frenchmen and Englishmen, have all governed or misgoverned it, but throughout this long page of its history there is no sign of native political life.

Religion or taxation has alone seemed able to stir the people into movement or revolt. For aspirations after national freedom we look in vain.

The Persian was not left long in the possession of his rebellious province. Egypt opened her gates to Alexander of Macedon, as in later ages she opened her gates to the Arab 'Amru. The Greeks had long been a.s.sociated in the Egyptian mind with opposition to the hated Persian, and it was as a Greek that Alexander entered the country. Memphis and Thebes welcomed him, and he did his best to prove to his subjects that he had indeed come among them as one of their ancient kings. Hardly had he reached Memphis before he went in state to the temple of Apis and offered sacrifice to the sacred bull. Then, after founding Alexandria at the spot where the native village of Rakoti stood, he made his way to the Oasis of Ammon, the modern Siwah, among the sands of the distant desert, and there was greeted by the high-priest of the temple as the son of the G.o.d. Like the Pharaohs of old, the Macedonian conqueror became the son of Amon-Ra, and in Egypt at least claimed divine honours.

Before leaving Egypt Alexander appointed the nomarchs who were to govern it, and ordered that justice should be administered according to the ancient law of the land. He also sent 7000 Samaritans into the Thebaid; some of them were settled in the Fayyum, and in the papyri discovered by Professor Petrie at Hawara mention is made of a village which they had named Samaria. Appointing Kleomenes prefect of Egypt and collector of the taxes, Alexander now hurried away to the Euphrates, there to overthrow the shattered relics of the Persian Empire.

It was while he was at Ekbatana that his friend Hephaestion died, and Alexander wrote to Egypt to inquire of the oracle of Ammon what honours it was lawful for him to pay to the dead man. In reply Hephaestion was p.r.o.nounced to be a G.o.d, and a temple was accordingly erected to him at Alexandria, and the new lighthouse on the island of Pharos was called after his name.

When Alexander died suddenly and unexpectedly, the council of his generals which a.s.sembled at Babylon declared his half-brother, Philip Arridaeus, to be his successor. But they reserved to themselves all the real power in Alexander's empire. Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, chose Egypt as the seat of his government, which was accordingly handed over to him by Kleomenes on his arrival there, a year after the accession of the new king. His first act was to put Kleomenes to death.

Then came the long funeral procession bearing the corpse of Alexander from Babylon to the tomb that was to be erected for him in his new city of Alexandria. More than a year pa.s.sed while it wound its way slowly from city to city, till at last it arrived at Memphis. Here the body of the great conqueror rested awhile until the gorgeous sepulchre was made ready in which it was finally to repose.

It was plain that Ptolemy was aiming at independent power. Perdikkas, the regent, accordingly attacked him, carrying in his train the young princes, Philip Arridaeus, and Alexander aegos, the infant son of Alexander. But the invading army was routed below Memphis, Perdikkas was slain, and the young princes fell into the hands of the conqueror. From this time forward, Ptolemy, though nominally a subject, acted as if he were a king.

Nikanor was sent into Syria to annex it to Egypt. Jerusalem alone resisted the invaders, but it was a.s.saulted on the Sabbath when the defenders withdrew from the walls, and all further opposition was at end. Palestine and Cle-Syria were again united with the kingdom on the Nile.

The union, however, did not last long. In B.C. 315 Philip Arridaeus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed successor to his empty dignity. The year following, Antigonus, the rival of Ptolemy in Asia Minor, made ready to invade Egypt. But Ptolemy had already conquered Kyrene and Cyprus, and was master of the sea. Syria and Palestine, however, submitted to Antigonus, and though Ptolemy gained a decisive victory over his enemies at Gaza, he did not think it prudent to pursue it. He contented himself, therefore, with razing the fortifications of Acre and Jaffa, of Samaria and Gaza.

In B.C. 312 the generals of Alexander, who still called themselves the lieutenants of his son, came to a general agreement, each keeping that portion of the empire which he had made his own. The agreement was almost immediately followed by the murder of Alexander aegos. Cleopatra, the sister of the great Alexander, and his niece Thessalonika alone remained of the royal family, and Cleopatra, on her way to Egypt to marry Ptolemy, was a.s.sa.s.sinated by Antigonus (in B.C. 308), and Alexander's niece soon afterwards shared the same fate. The family of "the son of Ammon," the annihilator of the Persian Empire, was extinct.

Two years later, in B.C. 306, an end was put to the farce so long played by the generals of Alexander, and each of them a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king.

Ptolemy took that of "king of Egypt." To this the Greeks afterwards added the name of Soter, "Saviour," when his supplies of corn had saved the Rhodians from destruction during their heroic defence of their city against the mult.i.tudinous war-ships of Antigonus.

Throughout his rule, Ptolemy never forgot the needs and interests of the kingdom over which he ruled. Alexandria was completed, with its unrivalled harbours, its stately public buildings, its broad quays and its s.p.a.cious streets. From first to last it remained the Greek capital of Egypt. It was Greek in its origin, Greek in its architecture, Greek in its population; Greek also in its character, its manners, and its faith. Cut off from the rest of Egypt by the Mareotic Lake, and enjoying a European climate, it was from its foundation what it is to-day, a city of Europe rather than of Egypt. From it, as from an impregnable watch-tower, the Ptolemies directed the fortunes of their kingdom: it was not only the key to Egypt, it was also a bridle upon it. The wealth of the world pa.s.sed through its streets and harbours; the religions and philosophies of East and West met within its halls. Ptolemy had founded in it a university, a prototype of Oxford and Cambridge in modern England, of the Azhar in modern Cairo. In the Museum, as it was called, a vast library was gathered together, and its well-endowed chairs were filled with learned professors from all parts of the Greek world, who wrote books and delivered lectures and dined together at the royal charge.

But the Greeks were not the only inhabitants of the new city. The Jews also settled there in large numbers on the eastern side of the town, attracted by the offers of Ptolemy and the belief that the rising centre of trade would be better worth inhabiting than the wasted fields of Palestine. All the rights of Greek citizenship were granted to them, and they were placed on a footing almost of equality with Ptolemy's own countrymen.

The native Egyptians were far worse treated. They had become "the hewers of wood and carriers of water" for their new Greek masters. It was they who furnished the government with its revenue, but in return they possessed no rights, no privileges. When land was wanted for the veterans of the Macedonian army, as, for example, in the Fayyum, it was taken from them without compensation. Taxes, ever heavier and heavier, were laid upon them; and every attempt at remonstrance or murmuring was visited with immediate punishment. The Egyptian had no rights unless he could be registered a citizen of Alexandria, and this it was next to impossible for him to be.