Minor. Gyges received his
application favourably, and sent him a strong Asiatic contingent,
chiefly composed of Ionians and Carians. Both races were at this time
warlike, and wore armour of much greater weight and strength than any
which the Egyptians were accustomed to carry. It was in reliance,
mainly, on these foreigners, that Psamatik ventured to proclaim himself
"King of the Two Countries," and to throw out a gage of defiance at once
to his Assyrian suzerain and to his nineteen fellow-princes.

The gage was not taken up by Assyria. Immersed in her own difficulties,
threatened in three quarters, on the south, on the south-east, and on
the east by Babylonia, by Elam, and by Media, she had enough to do at
home in guarding her own frontiers, and seeking to keep under her
immediate neighbours, and was therefore in no condition to engage in
distant expeditions, or even to care very much what became of a remote
and troublesome dependency. Thus Assyria made no sign. But the petty
princes took arms at once. To them the matter was one of life or death;
they must either crush the usurper or be themselves swept out of
existence. So they gathered together in full force. Pakrur from Pisabtu,
and Petubastes from Tanis, and Sheshonk from Busiris, and Tafnekht from
Prosopitis, and Bek-en-nefi from Athribis, and Nakh-he from
Heracleopolis, and Pimai from Mendes, and Lamentu from Hermopolis, and
Mentu-em-ankh from Thebes, and other princes from other cities, met and
formed their several contingents into a single army, and stood at bay
near Momemphis, the modern Menouf, in the western Delta, on the borders
of the Libyan Desert. Here a great battle was fought, which was for some
time doubtful; but the valour of the Greco-Carians, and the superiority
of their equipment, prevailed. The victory rested with Psamatik; his
adversaries were defeated and dispersed; following up his first success,
he proceeded to attack city after city, forcing all to submit, and
determined that he would nowhere tolerate even the shadow of a rival.
Disintegration had been the curse of Egypt for the space of above a
century; Psamatik put an end to it. No more princes of Bubastis, or of
Tanis, or of Sais, or of Mendes, or of Heracleopolis, or of Thebes! No
more eikosiarchies, dodecarchies, or heptarchies even! Monarchy pure,
the absolute rule of one and one only sovereign over the whole of Egypt,
from the cataracts of Syene to the shores of the Mediterranean, and