n describing Amasis I have followed the excellent description of
Herodotus, which has been confirmed by a picture discovered on an
ancient monument. Herodotus has been my guide too in the leading
features of Cambyses' character; indeed as he was born only forty or
fifty years after the events related, his history forms the basis of my
romance.

"Father of history" though he be, I have not followed him blindly, but,
especially in the development of my characters, have chosen those paths
which the principles of psychology have enabled me to lay down for
myself, and have never omitted consulting those hieroglyphic and
cuneiform inscriptions which have been already deciphered. In most cases
these confirm the statements of Herodotus.

I have caused Bartja's murder to take place after the conquest of Egypt,
because I cannot agree with the usually received translation of the
Behistun inscription. This reads as follows: "One named Cambujiya, son
of Curu, of our family, was king here formerly and had a brother named
Bartiya, of the same father and the same mother as Cambujiya. Thereupon
Cambujiya killed that Bartiya." In a book intended for general readers,
it would not be well to enter into a discussion as to niceties of
language, but even the uninitiated will see that the word "thereupon"
has no sense in this connection. In every other point the inscription
agrees with Herodotus' narrative, and I believe it possible to bring it
into agreement with that of Darius on this last as well; but reserve my
proofs for another time and place.

It has not been ascertained from whence Herodotus has taken the name
Smerdis which he gives to Bartja and Gaumata. The latter occurs again,
though in a mutilated form, in Justin.

My reasons for making Phanes an Athenian will be found in Note 90. Vol.
I. This coercion of an authenticated fact might have been avoided in the
first edition, but could not now be altered without important changes in
the entire text. The means I have adopted in my endeavor to make Nitetis
as young as possible need a more serious apology; as, notwithstanding
Herodotus' account of the mildness of Amasis' rule, it is improbable
that King Hophra should have been alive twenty years after his fall.
Even this however is not impossible, for it can be proved that his
descendants were not persecuted by Amasis.

On a Stela in the Leyden Museum I have discovered that a certain
Psamtik, a member of the fallen dynasty, lived til