hin the defences of the town. Ochus, with the savage cruelty
which was his chief characteristic, caused the hundred citizens to be
transfixed with javelins, and when 500 more came out as suppliants to
entreat his mercy, relentlessly consigned them to the same fate. Nor did
the traitor Tennes derive any advantage from his guilty bargain.
Ochus, having obtained from him all he needed, instead of rewarding his
desertion, punished his rebellion with death. Hereupon the Sidonians,
understanding that they had nothing to hope from submission, formed the
dreadful resolution of destroying themselves and their town. They had
previously, to prevent the desertion of any of their number, burnt their
ships. Now they shut themselves up in their houses, and set fire each
to his own dwelling. Forty thousand persons lost their lives in the
conflagration; and the city was reduced to a heap of ruins, which Ochus
sold for a large sum. Thus ended the Phoenician revolt. Among its most
important results was the transfer of his services to the Persian king
on the part of Mentor the Rhodian, who appears to have been the ablest
of the mercenary leaders of whom Greece at this time produced so many.

The reduction of Sidon was followed closely by the invasion of
Egypt. Ochus, besides his 330,000 Asiatics, had now a force of 14,000
Greeks--6000 furnished by the Greek cities of Asia Minor; 4000 under
Mentor, consisting of the troops which he had brought to the aid of
Tennes from Egypt; 3000 sent by Argos; and 1000 from Thebes. He divided
his numerous armament into three bodies, and placed at the head of
each two generals--one Persian and one Greek. The Greek commanders were
Lacrates of Thebes, Mentor of Rhodes, and Nicostratus of Argos, a man
of enormous strength, who regarded himself as a second Hercules, and
adopted the traditional costume of that hero--a club and a lion's skin.
The Persians were Rhossaces, Aristazanes, and Bagoas, the chief of the
eunuchs. Nectanebo was only able to oppose to this vast array an army
less than one third of the size. Twenty thousand, however, out of the
100,000 troops at his disposal were Greeks; he occupied the Nile and
its various branches with a numerous navy the character of the country,
intersected by numerous canals, and full of strongly fortified towns,
was in his favor; and he might have been expected to make a prolonged,
if not even a successful, resistance. But he was deficient in generals,
and over-confide