erprise, some increased
intellectual stir, some improved methods in art, these ameliorations
scarcely compensate for the indications of decline which lie deeper, and
which in the sequel determined the fate of the nation.

The later years of the reign of Psamatik were coincident with a time of
extreme trouble and confusion in Asia, in the course of which the
Assyrian Monarchy came to an end, and south-western Asia was partitioned
between the Medes and the Babylonians. A tempting field was laid open
for an ambitious prince, who might well have dreamt of Syrian or even
Mesopotamian conquest, and of recalling the old glories of Seti,
Thothmes, and Amenhotep. Psamatik did go so far as to make an attack
upon Philistia, but met with so little success that he was induced to
restrain any grander aspirations which he may have cherished, and to
leave the Asiatic monarchs to settle Asiatic affairs as it pleased them.
Ashdod, we are told, resisted the Egyptian arms for twenty-nine years;
and though it fell at last, the prospect of half-a-dozen such sieges was
not encouraging. Psamatik, moreover, was an old man by the time that the
Assyrian Empire fell to pieces, and we can understand his shrinking from
a distant and dangerous expedition. He left the field open for his son,
Neco, having in no way committed him, but having secured for him a ready
entrance into Asia by his conquest of the Philistine fortress.

Neco, the son of Psamatik I., from the moment that he ascended the
throne, resolved to make the bold stroke for empire from which his
father had held back. Regarding his mercenary army as a sufficient land
force, he concentrated his energies on the enlargement and improvement
of his navy, which was weak in numbers and of antiquated construction.
Naval architecture had recently made great strides, first by the
inventiveness of the Phoenicians, who introduced the bireme, and then by
the skill of the Greeks, who, improving on the hint furnished them,
constructed the trireme. Neco, by the help of Greek artificers, built
two fleets, both composed of triremes, one in the ports which opened on
the Red Sea, the other in those upon the Mediterranean. He then, with
the object of uniting the two fleets into one, when occasion should
require, made an attempt to re-open the canal between the Nile and the
Red Sea, which had been originally constructed by Seti I. and Ramesses
II., but had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The Nile mud and th