s asked for my judgment of the issue,
and answered,

"Strike and at once, since we cannot hope to storm Sais, which is far
away. Moreover such strength as we have is now gathered and if it is
idle and perhaps unpaid, will disperse again. But if we can destroy
Idernes and his army, it will be long before the King of kings, who is
sending all his multitudes against the Greeks, can gather another, and
during this time Egypt may again become a nation and able to protect
herself under Peroa her own Pharaoh."

In the end I, and those who thought like me, prevailed, so that before
the dawn I was sailing down the Nile with the fleet, having two thousand
men under my command. Also I took with me the six hunters whom I had won
from the Great King, since I knew them to be faithful, and thought that
their knowledge of the Easterns and their ways might be of service. Our
orders were to hold a certain neck of land between the river and the
hills where the army of Idernes must pass, until Peroa and all his
strength could attack him from behind.

Four hours later, the wind being very favourable to us, we reached that
place and there took up our station and having made all as ready as we
could, rested.

In the early afternoon Bes awakened me from the heavy sleep into which
I had fallen, and pointed to the south. I looked and through the desert
haze saw the chariots of Idernes advancing in ordered ranks, and after
them the masses of his footmen.

Now we had no chariots, only archers, and two regiments armed with long
spears and swords. Also the sailors on the boats had their slings and
throwing javelins. Lastly the ground was in our favour since it sloped
upwards and the space between the river and the hills was narrow,
somewhat boggy too after the inundation of the Nile, which meant that
the chariots must advance in a column and could not gather sufficient
speed to sweep over us.

Idernes and his captains noted all this also, and halted. Then they sent
a herald forward to ask who we were and to command us in the name of the
Great King to make way for the army of the Great King.

I answered that we were Egyptians, ordered by Peroa to hold the road
against the Satrap who had done affront to Egypt by demanding that
its Royal Lady should be given over to him to be sent to the East as
a woman-slave, and that if the Satrap wished to clear a road, he could
come and do so. Or if it pleased him he could go back towards Memphis,
or stay