there was given to
him the reply that vengeance would come when men of bronze appeared from
the sea. And he was strongly disposed not to believe that bronze men
would come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certain
Ionians and Carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled to
come to shore in Egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronze
armour, came to the fen-land and brought a report to Psammetichos that
bronze men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. So he,
perceiving that the saying of the Oracle was coming to pass, dealt in a
friendly manner with the Ionians and Carians, and with large promises he
persuaded them to take his part. Then when he had persuaded them, with
the help of those Egyptians who favoured his cause and of these foreign
mercenaries he overthrew the kings. Having thus got power over all
Egypt, Psammetichos made for Hephaistos that gateway of the temple at
Memphis which is turned towards the South Wind; and he built a court for
Apis, in which Apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the gateway of
the temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; and
instead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossal
statues twelve cubits high. Now Apis is in the tongue of the Hellenes
Epaphos. To the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped him
Psammetichos granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite to
one another with the river Nile between, and these were called
"Encampments"; these portions of land he gave them, and he paid them
besides all that he had promised: moreover he placed with them Egyptian
boys to have them taught the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who learnt
the language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpreters
in Egypt. Now the Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of land
for a long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city of
Bubastis, on that which is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile. These
men king Amasis afterwards removed from thence and established them at
Memphis, making them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians:
and they being settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercourse
with them the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginning
from king Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of
foreign tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which they
were removed there still remained down to my time the s