deserts; and,
for a successful advance upon her from the direction of Asia, it was
desirable both to obtain a quiet passage for a large army through the
desert of El-Tij, and also to have the support of a powerful fleet in
the Mediterranean. This latter was the paramount consideration. An army
well supplied with camels might carry its provisions and water through
the desert, and might intimidate or overpower the few Arab tribes which
inhabited it; but, unless the command of the sea was gained and the
navigation of the Nile closed, Memphis might successfully resist
attack. Cambyses appears to have perceived with sufficient clearness
the conditions on which victory depended, and to have applied himself at
once to securing them. He made a treaty with the Arab Sheikh who had the
chief influence over the tribes of the desert; and at the same time
he set to work to procure the services of a powerful naval force. By
menaces or negotiations he prevailed upon the Phoenicians to submit
themselves to his yoke, and having thus obtained a fleet superior to
that of Egypt, he commenced hostilities by robbing her of a dependency
which possessed considerable naval strength, in this way still further
increasing the disparity between his own fleet and that of his enemy.
Against the combined ships of Phoenicia, Cyprus, Ionia, and AEolis,
Egypt was powerless, and her fleets seem to have quietly yielded the
command of the sea. Cambyses was thus able to give his army the support
of a naval force, as it marched along the coast, from Carmel probably
to Pelusium; and when, having defeated the Egyptians at the last-named
place, he proceeded against Memphis, he was able to take possession of
the Nile, and to blockade the Egyptian capital both by land and water.

It appears that four years were consumed by the Persian monarch in his
preparations for his Egyptian expedition. It was not until B.C. 525 that
he entered Egypt at the head of his troops, and fought the great battle
which decided the fate of the country. The struggle was long and bloody.
Psammenitus, who had succeeded his father Amasis, had the services, not
only of his Egyptian subjects, but a large body of mercenaries besides,
Greeks and Carians. These allies were zealous in his cause, and are said
to have given him a horrible proof of their attachment. One of
their body had deserted to the Persians some little time before the
expedition, and was believed to have given important advice t