Nile valley to Elephantine, which he took, and then endeavoured to
penetrate into Nubia. A check, however, was inflicted on his army by
Nes-Hor, the Governor of the South, whereupon he gave up his idea of
Nubian conquest. Returning down the valley, he completed that ravage of
Egypt which is described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is probable that in
B.C. 565, three years after his first invasion, he took Sais and put the
aged Apries to death.[30] Amasis he allowed still to reign, but only as
a tributary king, and thus Egypt became "a base kingdom" (Ezek. xxix.
14), "the basest of the kingdoms" (ibid. verse 15), if its former
exaltation were taken into account.

The "base kingdom" was, however, materially, as flourishing as ever. The
sense of security from foreign attack was a great encouragement to
private industry and commercial enterprise. The discontinuances of
lavish expenditure on military expeditions improved the state finances,
and enabled those at the head of the government to employ the money,
that would otherwise have been wasted, in reproductive undertakings. The
agricultural system of Egypt was never better organized or better
managed than under Amasis. Nature seemed to conspire with man to make
the time one of joy and delight, for the inundation was scarcely ever
before so regularly abundant, nor were the crops ever before so
plentiful. The "twenty thousand cities," which Herodotus assigns to the
time, may be a myth; but, beyond all doubt, the tradition which told of
them was based upon the fact of a period of unexampled prosperity.
Amasis's law, that each Egyptian should appear once each year before the
governor of his canton, and show the means by which he was getting an
honest living, may have done something towards making industry general;
but his example, his active habits, and his encouragement of art and
architecture, probably did more. His architectural works must have given
constant employment to large numbers of persons as quarrymen, boatmen,
bricklayers, plasterers, masons, carpenters, and master builders; his
patronage of art not only gave direct occupation to a multitude of
artists, but set a fashion to the more wealthy among his subjects by
which the demand for objects of art was multiplied a hundredfold.
Sculptors and painters had a happy time under a king who was always
building temples, erecting colossi, or sending statues or paintings of
himself as presents to foreign states or foreign shrin