nour in every possible way besides: and when they had done this
too until they were wearied out, for the corpse being embalmed held out
against the violence and did not fall to pieces in any part, Cambyses
gave command to consume it with fire, enjoining thereby a thing which
was not permitted by religion: for the Persians hold fire to be a god.
To consume corpses with fire then is by no means according to the
custom of either people, of the Persians for the reason which has been
mentioned, since they say that it is not right to give the dead body
of a man to a god; while the Egyptians have the belief established that
fire is a living wild beast, and that it devours everything which it
catches, and when it is satiated with the food it dies itself together
with that which it devours: but it is by no means their custom to give
the corpse of a man to wild beasts, for which reason they embalm it,
that it may not be eaten by worms as it lies in the tomb. Thus then
Cambyses was enjoining them to do that which is not permitted by the
customs of either people. However, the Egyptians say that it was not
Amasis who suffered this outrage, but another of the Egyptians who was
of the same stature of body as Amasis; and that to him the Persians did
outrage, thinking that they were doing it to Amasis: for they say that
Amasis learnt from an Oracle that which was about to happen with regard
to himself after his death; and accordingly, to avert the evil which
threatened to come upon him, he buried the dead body of this man who was
scourged within his own sepulchral chamber near the doors, and enjoined
his son to lay his own body as much as possible in the inner recess of
the chamber. These injunctions, said to have been given by Amasis with
regard to his burial and with regard to the man mentioned, were not
in my opinion really given at all, but I think that the Egyptians make
pretence of it from pride and with no good ground.

17. After this Cambyses planned three several expeditions, one against
the Carthaginians, another against the Ammonians, and a third against
the "Long-lived" Ethiopians, who dwell in that part of Libya which is by
the Southern Sea: and in forming these designs he resolved to send
his naval force against the Carthaginians, and a body chosen from his
land-army against the Ammonians; and to the Ethiopians to send spies
first, both to see whether the table of the Sun existed really, which is
said to exist among these E