emphis
that they might be close to the king, and at the same time overawe the
native Egyptians, and Amasis himself married a Greek wife. The invasion
of Egypt by Nebuchadrezzar in B.C. 567 showed that the policy of Amasis
had been a wise one. The Babylonians were unable to penetrate beyond the
eastern part of the Delta; the Greek troops fought too well. The limits
of the Babylonian empire were permanently fixed at the frontiers of
Palestine.

That empire, however, was overthrown by Cyrus, and it was easy to see
that the conqueror who had proved so irresistible in Asia would not
allow Egypt to remain at peace. Amasis prepared himself accordingly for
the coming storm. Cyprus was occupied, and therewith the command of the
sea was assured. The maritime policy of the Twenty-sixth dynasty was an
indication of Greek influence; in older days the sea had been to the
Egyptian a thing abhorred.

Kambyses carried out the invasion which his father, Cyrus, had planned.
Unfortunately for the Egyptians, Amasis died while the Persian army was
on its march, and the task of opposing it fell to his young and
inexperienced son. The Greek mercenaries fought bravely, but to no
purpose: the battle of Pelusium gave Egypt to the invader, Memphis was
taken, and the Pharaoh put to death. In the long struggle between Asia
and Egypt, Asia had been finally the victor.

The Egyptians did not submit tamely to the Persian yoke. Kambyses indeed
seemed inclined to change himself into an Egyptian Pharaoh; he took up
his residence at Memphis and sent an expedition to conquer the Sudan.
But under Darius and his successors, whose Zoroastrian monotheism was of
a sterner description, there was but little sympathy between the
conquered and their conquerors. Time after time the Egyptians broke into
revolt, once against Xerxes, once again against Artaxerxes I., and a
third time against Artaxerxes II. The last insurrection was more
successful than those which had preceded it, and Egypt remained
independent for sixty-five years. Then the crimes and incompetence of
its last native king, Nektanebo II., opened the way to the Persian, and
the valley of the Nile once more bowed its neck under the Persian yoke.
Its temples were ruined, the sacred Apis slain, and an ass set up in
mockery in its place.

A few years later Egypt welcomed the Macedonian Alexander as a
deliverer, and recognised him as a god. The line of the Pharaohs, the
incarnations of the Sun-god, had re