udgment and an able soldier, fell out with Amasis for
some unknown reason, and left him to offer his services to his rival.
This was a serious loss for Egypt, since Phanes possessed considerable
authority over the mercenaries, and was better versed in Egyptian
affairs than any other person. He was pursued and taken within sight of
the Lycian coast, but he treated his captors to wine and escaped from
them while they were intoxicated. He placed Cambyses in communication
with the shekh of the scattered tribes between Syria and the Delta. The
Arab undertook to furnish the Persian king with guides, as one of his
predecessors had done in years gone by for Esar-haddon, and to station
relays of camels laden with water along the route that the invading army
was to follow. Having taken these precautions, Cambyses entrusted the
cares of government and the regulation of his household to Oropastes,*
one of the Persian magi, and gave the order to march forward.

* Herodotus calls this individual Patizeithes, and Dionysius
of Miletus, who lived a little before Herodotus, gives
Panzythes as a variant of this name: the variant passed into
the Syncellus as Pauzythes, but the original form
Patikhshayathiya is a title signifying _viceroy, regent, or
minister_, answering to the modern Persian _Padishah_:
Herodotus, or the author he quotes, has taken the name of
the office for that of the individual. On the other hand,
Pompeius Trogus, who drew his information from good sources,
mentions, side by side with Cometes or Gaumata, his brother
Oropastes, whose name Ahura-upashta is quite correct, and
may mean, _Him whom Ahura helps_. It is generally admitted
that Pompeius Trogus, or rather Justin, has inverted the
parts they played, and that his Cometes is the Pseudo-
Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes; it was, then, the
latter who was the usurper's brother, and it is his name of
Oropastes which should be substituted for that of the
Patizeithes of Herodotus.

[Illustration: 138.jpg Psammetichus III. ]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the
Louvre.

On arriving at Pelusium, he learned that his adversary no longer
existed. Amasis had died after a short illness, and was succeeded by his
son Psammetichus III.

This change of command, at the most critical moment, was almost in
itself, a disaster. Amasis, with his consumma