ry point of view, indefensible.
Defeated commanders have not, however, always seen this, or, seeing it,
they have allowed prudence to be overpowered by other considerations.
Psamatik, like many another ruler of Egypt, though defeated in the
field, determined to defend his capital to the best of his power. He
threw himself, with the remnant of his beaten army, into Memphis, and
there stood at bay, awaiting the further attack of his adversary.

It was not long before the Persian army drew up under the walls, and
invested the city by land, while the fleet blockaded the river. A single
Greek vessel, having received orders to summon the defenders of the
place to surrender it, had the boldness to enter the town, whereupon it
was set upon by the Egyptians, captured, and destroyed. Contrarily to
the law of nations, which protects ambassadors and their escort, the
crew was torn limb from limb, and an outrage thus committed which
Cambyses was justified in punishing with extreme severity. Upon the fall
of the city, which followed soon after its investment, the offended
monarch avenged the crime which had been committed by publicly executing
two thousand of the principal citizens, including (it is said) a son of
the fallen king. The king himself was at first spared, and might perhaps
have been allowed to rule Egypt as a tributary monarch, had he not been
detected in a design to rebel and renew the war. For this offence he,
too, was condemned to death, and executed by Cambyses' order.

The defeat had been foretold by the prophet Ezekiel, who had said:--

"Woe worth the day! For the day is near,
Even the day of the Lord is near, a day of clouds;
It shall be the time of the heathen.
And a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia;
When the slain shall fall in Egypt;
and they shall take away her multitude,
And her foundations shall be broken down.
Ethiopia and Phut and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Chub,
And the children of the land that is in league,
shall fall with them by the sword....
I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
And I will make Pathros desolate,
And will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No....
Sin [Pelusium] shall be in great anguish,
And No shall be broken up,
and Noph shall have adversaries in the daytime.
The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword:
And these cities shall go i