y, and even if the Assyrians should succeed in dislodging them and
curbing the power of Bocchoris, the fall of Sais or Memphis, far from
putting an end to the war, would only raise fresh complications. Above
Memphis stretched the valley of the Nile, bristling with fortresses,
Khininsu, Oxyrhynchus, Hermopolis, Siut, Thinis, and Thebes, the famous
city of Amon, enthroned on the banks of the river, whose very name
still evoked in the minds of the Asiatics a vivid remembrance of all its
triumphal glories.*

* Thebes was at that time known among the Semites by its
popular name of _the city of Amon_--which the Hebrew writers
transcribed as No-Amon (_Nahum_ iii. 8) or No alone (Jer.
xlvi. 25; Ezek. xxx. 14, 15, 16), and the Assyrians by Ni.

Thebes itself formed merely one stage in the journey towards Syene,
Ethiopia, Napata, and the unknown regions of Africa which popular
imagination filled with barbarous races or savage monsters, and however
far an alien army might penetrate in a southerly direction, it would
still meet with the language, customs, and divinities of Egypt--an Egypt
whose boundary seemed to recede as the invader advanced, and which was
ever ready to oppose the enemy with fresh forces whenever its troops had
suffered from his attacks. Sargon, having reached Kaphia, halted on the
very threshold of the unexplored realm whose portals stood ajar ready to
admit him: the same vague disquietude which had checked the conquering
career of the Pharaohs on the borders of Asia now stayed his advance,
and bade him turn back as he was on the point of entering Africa. He
had repulsed the threatened invasion, and as a result of his victory the
princes and towns which had invoked the aid of the foreigner lay at his
mercy; he proceeded, therefore, to reorganise the provinces of Philistia
and Israel, and received the homage of Judah and her dependencies. Ahaz,
while all the neighbouring states were in revolt, had not wavered in his
allegiance; the pacific counsels of Isaiah had once more prevailed over
the influence of the party which looked for safety in an alliance with
Egypt.*

* Sargon probably alludes to homage received at this time,
when he styles himself "the subduer of far-off Judah." It
is not certain that Ahaz was still King of Judah; it was for
a long time admitted that Hezekiah was already king when
these events took place, in accordance with 2 Kings xviii.
9, 10,