ing the security of the
country: her liberty would be imperilled should they revolt during a war
with the neighbouring empire, and hand over the line of defence which
was garrisoned by them to the invader. Amasis therefore dispossessed
their inhabitants, and transferred them to Memphis and its environs.
The change benefited him in two ways, for, while securing himself from
possible treason, he gained a faithful guard for himself in the event of
risings taking place in his turbulent capital. While he thus distributed
these colonists of ancient standing to his best interests, he placed
those of quite recent date in the part of the Delta furthest removed
from Asia, where surveillance was most easy, in the triangle, namely,
lying to the west of Sais, between the Canopic branch of the Nile, the
mountains, and the sea-coast. The Milesians had established here some
time previously, on a canal connected with the main arm of the river,
the factory of Naucratis, which long remained in obscurity, but suddenly
developed at the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty, when Sais became the
favourite residence of the Pharaohs. This town Amasis made over to the
Greeks so that they might make it the commercial and religious centre of
their communities in Egypt.

[Illustration: 120.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF NAUCRATIS]

Reduced by Faucher-Gudin from the plan published by Petrie.
The site of the Hellenion is marked A, the modern Arab
village B, the temenos of Hera and Apollo E, that of the
Dioskuri F, and that of Aphrodite G.

Temples already existed there, those of Apollo and Aphrodite, together
with all the political and religious institutions indispensable to the
constitution of an Hellenic city; but the influx of immigrants was
so large and rapid, that, after the lapse of a few years, the entire
internal organism and external aspect of the city were metamorphosed.
New buildings rose from the ground with incredible speed--the little
temple of the Dioskuri, the protectors of the sailor, the temple of the
Samian Hera, that of Zeus of AEgina, and that of Athene;* ere long the
great temenos, the Hellenion, was erected at the public expense by nine
AEolian, Ionian, and Dorian towns of Asia Minor, to serve as a place of
assembly for their countrymen, as a storehouse, as a sanctuary, and,
if need be, even as a refuge and fortress, so great was its area and so
thick its walls.**

* The temple of Athene, the Nit of the Saite n