of Libya, the sixth of his satrapies, to which
were attached the neighbouring Nubian tribes of the southern frontier.*
The Persian satrap, installed at the White Wall in the ancient palace of
the Pharaohs, was supported by an army of 120,000 men, who occupied the
three entrenched camps of the Saites--Daphnae and Marea on the confines
of the Delta, and Elephantine in the south.** Outside these military
stations, where the authority of the great king was exercised in a
direct manner, the ancient feudal organisation existed intact. The
temples retained their possessions and their vassals, and the nobles
within their principalities were as independent and as inclined to
insurrection as in past times. The annual tribute, the heaviest paid by
any province with the exception of Cossaea and Assyria, amounted only
to 700 talents of silver. To this sum must be added the farming of the
fishing in Lake Moeris, which, according to Herodotus,*** brought in one
talent a day during the six months of the high Nile, but, according to
Diodorus,**** during the whole year, as well as the 120,000 medimni of
wheat required for the army of occupation, and the obligation to furnish
the court of Susa with Libyan nitre and Nile water; the total of these
impositions was far from constituting a burden disproportionate to the
wealth of the Nile valley.

* The Nubian tribes, who are called Ethiopians by Herodotus
and the cuneiform inscriptions, paid no regular tribute, but
were obliged to send annually two chaenikes of pure gold, two
hundred pieces of ebony, twenty elephants' tusks, and five
young slaves, all under the name of a free gift.

** Herodotus states that in his own time the Persians, like
the Saite Pharaohs, still had garrisons at Daphnae and at
Elephantine.

*** Herodotus says that the produce sank to the value of a
third of a talent a day during the six other months.

**** Diodorus Siculus says that the revenue produced by the
fisheries in the Lake had been handed over by Moris to his
wife for the expenses of her toilet.

[Illustration: 219.jpg DARIUS ON THE STELE OF THE ISTHMUS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the _Description de l'Egypte_.

Commerce brought in to it, in fact, at least as much money as the
tribute took out of it. Incorporated with an empire which extended over
three continents, Egypt had access to regions whither the products of
her industry an