empts which might be made upon it by the Persian fleet, and
doubtless prepared himself also to resist an invasion by land. But he
was quite unable to do anything effectual. Though Darius died in the
year after the revolt, B.C. 486, yet its suppression was immediately
undertaken by his son and successor, Xerxes, who invaded Egypt in the
next year, easily crushed all resistance, and placed the province under
a severer rule than any that it had previously experienced. Achaemenes,
his brother, was made satrap.

Twenty-five years of tranquillity followed, during which the Egyptians
were submissive subjects of the Persian crown, and even showed
remarkable courage and skill in the Persian military expeditions. Egypt
furnished as many as two hundred triremes to the fleet which was brought
against Greece by Xerxes, and the squadron particularly distinguished
itself in the sea-fights off Artemisium, where they actually captured
five Grecian vessels with their crews. Mardonius, moreover, set so high
a value on the marines who fought on board the Egyptian ships, that he
retained them as land-troops when the Persian fleet returned to Asia
after Salamis.

No further defection took place during the reign of Xerxes; but in B.C.
460, after the throne had been occupied for about five years by Xerxes'
son, Artaxerxes, a second rebellion broke out, which led to a long and
terrible struggle. A certain Inarus, who bore rule over some of the
African tribes on the western border of Egypt, and who may have been a
descendant of the Psamatiks, headed the insurrection, and in conjunction
with an Egyptian, named Amyrtaeus, suddenly attacked the Persian garrison
stationed in Egypt, the ordinary strength of which was 120,000 men. A
great battle was fought at Papremis, in the Delta, wherein the Persians
were completely defeated, and their leader, Achaemenes, perished by the
hand of Inarus himself. Memphis, however, the capital, still resisted,
and the struggle thus remained doubtful. Inarus and Amyrtaeus implored
the assistance of Athens, which had the most powerful navy of the time,
and could lend most important aid by taking possession of the river.
Athens, which was under the influence of the farsighted Pericles,
cheerfully responded to the call, and sent two hundred triremes, manned
by at least forty thousand men, to assist the rebels, and to do as much
injury as possible to the Persians. On sailing up the Nile, the Athenian
fleet found a Persian