152. This Psammetichos had formerly
been a fugitive from the Ethiopian Sabacos who had killed his father Necos,
from him, I say, he had then been a fugitive in Syria; and when the Ethiopian
had departed in consequence of the vision of the dream, the Egyptians who were
of the district of Saïs brought him back to his own country. Then afterwards, when
he was king, it was his fate to be a fugitive a second time on account of the
helmet, being driven by the eleven kings into the fen-country. So then holding
that he had been grievously wronged by them, he thought how he might take
vengeance on those who had driven him out: and when he had sent to the Oracle
of Leto in the city of Buto, where the Egyptians have their most truthful
Oracle, there was given to him the reply that vengeance would come when men of
bronze appeared from the sea. And he was strongly disposed not to believe that
bronze men would come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certain Ionians
and Carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled to come to shore in
Egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronze armour, one of the
Egyptians, not having before seen men clad in bronze armour, came to the
fen-land and brought a report to Psammetichos that bronze men had come from the
sea and were plundering the plain. So he, perceiving that the saying of the
Oracle was coming to pass, dealt in a friendly manner with the Ionians and
Carians, and with large promises he persuaded them to take his part. Then when
he had persuaded them, with the help of those Egyptians who favoured his cause
and of these foreign mercenaries he overthrew the kings.
153.
Having thus got power over all Egypt, Psammetichos made for Hephaistos that
gateway of the temple at Memphis which is turned towards the South Wind; and he
built a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the
gateway of the temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; and
instead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossal
statues twelve cubits high. Now Apis is in the tongue of the Hellenes Epaphos.
154. To
the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped him Psammetichos granted portions
of land to dwell in, opposite to one another with the river Nile between, and
these were called "Encampments": these portions of land he gave them, and he
paid them besides all that he had promised: moreover he placed with them
Egyptian boys to have them taught the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who
learnt the language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpreters
in Egypt. Now the Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of land for a
long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city of Bubastis , on that which is called the Pelusian mouth of
the Nile . These men king Amasis afterwards
removed from thence and established them at Memphis, making them into a guard
for himself against the Egyptians: and they being settled in Egypt, we who are
Hellenes know by intercourse with them the certainty of all that which happened
in Egypt beginning from king Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the
first men of foreign tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which
they were removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their
ships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.
155. Thus
then Psammetichos obtained Egypt
and of the Oracle which is in Egypt
- Herodotus, Book II
More Information: Egypt, Herodotus's Book.
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