IX.

Yet farther to facilitate intercourse, and eradicate LETTER prejudices, Psammitichus put a number of Egyptian boys under the tuition of the more enlightened Greeks, settled in Egypt; in order to be instructed in the Grecian language and discipline. So that the transactions of Egypt were thenceforth intimately known to the people of Greece, who traded to great advantage with that country; and the Egyptians came gradually to have less aversion against strangers, when they grew better acquainted with them.

If the wisdom of Psammitichus was conspicuous in civil, it was equally so in military affairs. As soon as he had settled the interior government and police of his kingdom, he led an army into Syria; with a view of recovering the frontier towns, which the Assyrian emperors had taken from his predecessors. He accordingly invested Azotus or Ashdod, while his generals subdued the neighbouring country; and made himself master of that important place after a siege or blockade of twenty-nine years.

The extraordinary length of this siege can only be accounted for, by the intervention of certain unforeseen events, which threatened the Egyptian monarch with utter ruin. Two hundred thousand of his native troops deserted in a body; because he had given the post of honour and of danger to his Grecian mercenaries, in whose valour he could best confide. Perceiving his error, he endeavoured to conciliate them by concessions, but in vain. They refused to return to the army, and continued their march into their own country. He followed them; and strove, by threats, to subdue their refractory spirit. But

67. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. Herodot, lib. ii.

68. Id. ibid.

69. Diod. Sicul. lib. i.

finding

PART I. finding them obstinate in disobedience, he prudently permitted them to retire into Ethiopia, rather than combat their despair.

That revolt was followed by the approach of a powerful and barbarous enemy. The Scythians, who had, as formerly related", vanquished the Medes under their warlike king Cyaxares; having ravaged all the countries contiguous to the Euphrates and Tygris, were advancing toward the Nile, when the Ant. Chr. sagacity of Psammitichus saved Egypt from their hostile fury. Instead of attempting to obstruct their xra 115. progress, by offering them battle, he advanced into Palestine to meet them, loaded with rich presents, recommended by soothing words: and thus diverted the storm that was ready to break upon his king

632.

Nabonass.

Ant. Chr. 616.

dom".

Nechaoh, the son and successor of Psammitichus, Nabonass. pursued the political system of his father, both with *ra 131. respect to naval and military affairs. In his ardour for commercial intercourse he attempted to cut a navigable canal, from the Nile to the Arabian gulf. But in that great project he failed, after the loss of an hundred and twenty thousand men, and a vast expense of treasure73.

This enlightened monarch, however, was more fortunate in anotherbold undertaking, intimately connected with the former. Having built a fleet in the ports of the Arabian gulf, he put it under the conduct of Phoenician navigators, whom he ordered to discover the extreme point of Africa toward the south, or what is now known by the name of the Cape of Good Hope. And these navigators, after a coasting voyage

70. Id. ibid. et Herodot. lib. ii.

71. Lett. I.

73 Herodot. lib. ii.

72. Herodot. lib. i. cap. cv.

of

IX.

of two years, sailed round the African continent, and LETTER returned to Egypt, in the third year, by the mouth of the Mediterranean sea74. This is the first voyage of discovery mentioned in history, and one of the most successful. It made known a geographical truth of the utmost importance in navigation, but of which the ancients took little advantage; namely, that Africa is surrounded on all sides by the sea, except at the narrow isthmus that connects it with Asia.

610. Nabonass.

æra 137.

While that grand discovery was making, Nechaoh was not inactive. He had equipped a strong fleet on the Mediterranean, as well as on the Red sea, and en- Ant. Chr. tered Syria at the head of a formidable army75. The object of this expedition seems to have been nothing less than the conquest of the whole country from the frontiers of Egypt to the Euphrates. Nor was the idea extravagant. The Assyrian power, as Nechaoh no doubt knew, having been shaken by the Medes before the Scythian invasion, and weakened by the revolt of Nabopolassar, governor of Babylon, was then bending toward its fall, and incapable of any vigorous effort. The Scythians still hung upon the northern frontier of the empire, and the Medes and

74. Herodot. lib. iv. cap. xlii.

75. Herodot. lib. ii. Joseph. lib. x.

76. I am sensible that Josephus (Antiq.lib. x.) has represented the Assyrian empire as already subverted; and makes Nechaoh march into Syria, in order to repress the growing greatness of the Medes and Babylonians," who had dissolved that empire" (Id. ibid.). But this account is as inconsistent with political probability, as with the general scope of history. Yet have the bold assertions of the Jewish his. torian (who lived in too late an age to be entitled to assume the tone of confidence, in regard to such ancient matters) misled many modern writers, and among others the learned Prideaux. A proper attention to sacred history, however, would have preserved them from this error; for there we are told, that " Pharaoh-Nechaob, king of Egypt. came up against the king of Assyria." 2 Kings, chap. xxiii. ver. 29. Babylonians

PARTI. Babylonians were ready to seize the first opportunity to accomplish its ruin.

The good Josiah, king of Judah, however, faithful in his allegiance to his superior sovereign, took arms to obstruct the progress of the Egyptian monarch; although no attempt had been made to disturb his repose, and many remonstrances were offered to induce him to remain quiet". Obstinate in his purpose, he accordingly posted himself with his forces in the valley of Megiddo; where he was mortally wounded, and obliged to retreat78. And the king of Egypt prosecuted his march toward the Euphrates.

Having taken the city of Charchemish, near that river, and reduced under his obedience all the northern part of Syria, Nechaoh returned into Palestine; degraded Jehoiahaz, the younger son of Josiah, who had assumed the sovereignty, and placed Eliakim, the elder brother, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim, upon the throne of Judah; imposed upon the kingdom an annual tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold; then retired into Egypt, carrying along with him Jehoiahaz in chains”.

But Nechaoh had the mortification, before the close of his reign, to see himself stripped of all his Syrian conquests. Nabopolassar finding himself firmly seated on the throne of Babylon, and strengthened by the alliance of Cyaxares I. king of Media, sent his son Nebuchadnezzar with an army into Syria. And that youthful commander, whom his father had associated with himself in the supreme power, reduced the gar

77. 2 Kings, chap. xxiii, ver. 29, 30. 2 Chron. chap. xxxv. ver. 20, 21.

78. 2 Chron. chap. xxxv. ver. 22, 23.

79. 2 Kings chap. xxiii. ver. 33, 34. 2 Chron. chap. xxxvi, ver. 1—4. 80. Alex. Polyhist. ap. Synceel. Joseph. Antiq. lib. x.

IX.

Ant. Chr. 607.

rison of Carchemish, in defiance of all the force of LETTER Egypt, and drove the Egyptians from every place which they held, from the Euphrates to the bottom of the Arabian gulf. The name of this warlike prince, whose exploits we have already had occasion Nabonass. to mention, recalls us to the great line of oriental history.

æra 140.

Nebuchadnezzar, in expelling the Egyptians from Syria, had brought under his dominion the tributary kingdom of Judah. Having taken Jerusalem, and made Jehoiakim prisoner, he plundered the temple of its most precious vessels, and sent them to Babylon®2. He also sent thither many captives of high rank, and threatened to include the king of Judah among the number. But on the humble submission of that Ant. Chr. prince to the conqueror, he was permitted to retain the Jewish sceptre, and left as a kind of viceroy over the kingdomR3.

Before Nebuchadnezzar had completed the conquest of Syria, he received an account of the death of his father84. This event made his presence necessary at Babylon; where, and in the neighbouring country, he spent some years, in fortifying and adorning that city, and in regulating the government of the kingdom of which it was the metropolis85. Meantime,

Cyaxares having freed his territories from the incursions of the Scythians, by the massacre of their chieftains86; and terminated, through the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar, whom Herodotus calls Labynetus,

81. 2 Kings, chap. xxiv. ver. 7.

Jeremiah, chap. xlvi. ver. 2. 82. 2 Kings, chap. xxiv. ver. 1. 2 Chron. chap. xxxvi. ver. 6, 7, Joseph. Antiq. lib. x.

83. Id. ibid.

84. Beros. ap. Joseph. Antiq. lib. x.

85 Id. ibid.

86. Herodot. lib. i.

606. Nabonass.

æra 141.

a war