its native kings. General after general had been employed
in vain attempts to reduce the rebels to obedience. Ochus determined
to attempt the recovery of the revolted province in person. Though
a rebellion had broken out in Asia Minor, which being supported by
Thebes, threatened to become serious, he declined to be diverted from
his enterprise. Levying a vast army, he marched into Egypt, and engaged
Noctanebo, the king, in a contest for existence. Nectanebo, however,
having obtained the services of two Greek generals, Diophantus, an
Athenian, and Lamius, a citizen of Sparta, boldly met his enemy in the
field, defeated him, and completely repulsed his expedition. Hereupon
the contagion of revolt spread. Phoenicia assumed independence under the
leadership of Sidon, expelled or massacred the Persian garrisons, which
held her cities, and formed an alliance with Egypt. Her example was
followed by Cyprus, where the kings of the nine principal towns assumed
each a separate sovereignty.

The chronology of this period is somewhat involved; but it seems
probable that the attack and failure of Ochus took place about B.C. 351;
that the revolts occurred in the next year, B.C. 350; while it was not
till B.C. 346, or four years later, that Ochus undertook his second
expedition into these regions. He had, however, in the meanwhile,
directed his generals or feudatories, to attack the rebels, and bring
them into subjection. The Cyprian war he had committed to Idrieus,
prince of Caria, who employed on the service a body of 8000 Greek
mercenaries, commanded by Phocion, the Athenian, and Evagoras, son of
the former Evagoras, the Cyprian monarch; while he had committed to
Belesys, satrap of Syria, and Mezseus, satrap of Cilicia, the task of
keeping the Phoenicians in check. Idrieus succeeded in reducing Cyprus;
but the two satraps suffered a single defeat at the hands of Tennes, the
Sidonian king, who was aided by 40,000 Greek mercenaries, sent him by
Nectanebo, and commanded by Mentor the Rhodian. The Persian forces were
driven out of Phoenicia; and Sidon had ample time to strengthen its
defences and make preparations for a desperate resistance. The approach,
however, of Ochus, at the head of an army of 330,000 men, shook the
resolution of the Phoenician monarch, who endeavored to purchase his
own pardon by treacherously delivering up a hundred of the principal
citizens of Sidon into the hands of the Persian king, and then admitting
him wit