try, it was necessary for him to take Pelusium, which was as the key of Egypt on that side. But that being a strong place, it was like to give him much trouble: for the preventing hereof by the counsel, it is supposed of Phanes, he had recourse to this stratagem. Finding that the garrison were all Egyptians, in an assault, which he made upon the city, he placed a great number of cats, dogs, sheep, and other of those animals, which the Egyptians reckoned sacred, in the front of the army; and therefore the soldiers, not daring to throw a dart, or shoot an arrow that way, for fear of killing some of those animals, Cambyses made himself master of the place without any opposition: for these being the gods which the Egyptians then adored, it was reckoned the highest impiety to kill any of them, and, when they died of themselves, they buried them with the greatest solemnity. By the time that Cambyses had taken this place, f Psammenitu» came up with his army to oppose his farther progress; whereon ensued a bloody battle between them. At the beginning of it, the Greeks that were in Psammenitus' army, to be revenged on Phanes for his revolt to the enemy, brought forth his children (whom he was forced to leave behind him on his flight,) and slew them in the front of the battle, in the sight of both armies, and drunk their blood. But this served them not in any stead for the victory: for the Persians, being exasperated by a spectacle of so horrid a nature, fell on with such fury and rage to revenge it, that they soon vanquished and overthrew the whole Egyptian army, and cut the greatest part of them in pieces. The remainder fled to Memphis; where Cam byses pursuing them, on his arrival thither, sent into the city by the Nile, on which it stood, a ship of Mitylene, with an herald to summon them to a surrender; but the people rising on him, in their rage slew the herald, and tore him and all that were with him to pieces. But Cambyses, after a short siege, having taken the place, sufficiently revenged their

d Polyænus, lib. 7.

e Herodotus, lib. 2. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1, p. 52.

f Herodotus, lib. 3.

Anno. 525. Cambyses 5.

death, causing ten Egyptians of the first rank to be publicly executed for every one of those that were thus slain; and the eldest son of Psammenitus was one of the number. As to Psammenitus himself,, Cambyses was inclined to have dealt kindly with him: for at first he gave him his life, and allowed him wherewith honourably to live; but he not being contented herewith, endeavoured to raise new troubles for the recovery of his crown; whereon he was forced to drink bulls blood, and ended his life. His reign was only six months. For so much time only intervened from the death of his father to the taking of Memphis; when he fell into the hands of the enemy, and all his power ceased; for hereon all Egypt submitted to Cambyses. This happened in the fifth year of his reign; and he reigned three years after. The Lybians, Cyrenians, and Barceans, hearing of this success, sent ambassadors with presents to make their submission to him. From Memphis he went to Sais, where the Egyptian kings, for several descents past, had kept their usual residence; and there, entering into the palace, caused the body of Amasis to be dug up out of his grave, and, after all manner of indignities had been offered thereto in his presence, he ordered it to be cast into the fire and burned. Which rage against the carcass, sheweth the anger which he had against the man; and, whatsoever it was that provoked it, this seems to be the cause that brought him into Egypt.

Anno. 524. Cambyses 6.

The next year, which was the sixth of his reign, he designed three expeditions, the first against the Carthaginians, the second against the Hammonians, and the third against the Ethiopians. But the Phoenicians refusing to assist him against the Carthaginians, who were descended from them, (they being a colony of the Tyrians,) and not being able to carry on that war without them, he was forced to drop this project. But, his heart being intent upon the other two, he sent ambassadors into Ethiopia, who, under that name, were to serve him as spies, to learn and bring him an account of the state and strength of the country. But the Ethiopians,

country.

being fully apprised of the end of their coming, treated them with great contempt. And the Ethiopian king, in return for the present they brought him from Cambyses, sent him back only his bow, advising him then to make war upon the Ethiopians, when the Persians could as easily draw that bow as they could ; and in the mean time to thank the gods, that they never inspired the Ethiopians with a desire of extending their dominions beyond the limits of their own With which answer Cambyses being exceedingly exasperated, immediately on the receipt of it, in a mad irrational humour, commanded his army forthwith to march (without considering, that they were furnished neither with provisions nor any other necessaries for such an expedition,) leaving only the Grecian auxiliaries behind, to keep the country in awe during his absence. On his coming to Thebes, in the Upper Egypt, he detached from his army fifty thousand men to go against the Hammonians, with orders to destroy their country, and burn the temple of Jupiter Hammon that stood in it. But, after several days march over the deserts, a strong and impetuous wind beginning to blow from the south, at the time of their dinner, raised the sands to such a degree, and brought them in such a torrent upon them, that the whole army was overwhelmed thereby, and perished. In the interim Cambyses madly marched on with the rest of the army against the Ethiopians, though he wanted all manner of provisions for their subsistence, till at length, they having eaten up all their beasts of burden, they came to feed upon each other, setting out every tenth man by lot for this purpose. By this Cambyses being convinced, that it was time for him to return, marched back his army to Thebes, after having lost a great part of it in this wild expedition; and from thence returned to Memphis. When he came thither, he dismissed all the Greeks to their respective homes; but, on his entry into the city, finding it all in mirth and jollity, because their god Apis had then appeared among them, he fell into a great rage, supposing all this rejoicing to have been for the ill success of his affairs.

And, when he called the magistrates, and they gave him a true account of the matter, he would not believe them, but caused them to be put to death, as imposing a lie upon him. And then he sent for the priests, who made him the same answer, telling him that their god, having manifested himself unto them, (which seldom happened,) it was always their custom to celebrate his appearance with the greatest demonstrations of joy that they could express. To this he replied, that if their god was so kind and familiar as to appear among them, he would be acquainted with him; and therefore commanded them forthwith to bring him unto him.

The chief god of the Egyptians wasg Osiris, him they worshipped in the shape of a bull, and that not only in imagery, but also in reality. For they kept a bull in the temple of Osiris, which they worshipped in his stead. At Heliopolis he was called Mnevis, at Memphis, Apis. The marks of Apish were these. His body was to be all black, excepting a square spot of white on his forehead. He was also to have the figure of an eagle, say some, of an half moon say others, on his back, a double list of hair on his tail, and a scarabæus or knot under his tongue. When they had found such an one, they brought him with great rejoicing to the temple of Osiris, and there kept him, and worshipped him for that god, as long as he lived; and when he was dead, they buried him with great solemnity, and then sought for another with the same marks, which sometimes it was many years ere they could find; and such an one they having found, on Cambyses' return to Memphis from this Ethiopic expedition, this was the reason of their great rejoicing at that time. And, in imitation of this idolatry was it, that Aaron made the golden calf in the wilderness, and Jeroboam those in Dan and Bethel, and did set them up there to be worshipped by the children of Israel, as the gods that had brought them out of the land' of Egypt.

g Herodotus, lib. 2. h Herodotus, lib. 3. Marcellinus, c. 22.

VOL. I.

Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1.

Plin. lib. 8, c. 46. Solinus, c. 35. Ammianus

42

This Apis being brought to Cambyses, he fell into a rage, as well he might, at the sight of such a god, and drawing out his dagger, run it into the thigh of the beast; and then, reproaching the priests for their stupidity and wretchedness in worshipping a brute for a god, ordered them severely to be whipped, and all the Egyptians in Memphis to be slain that should be found any more rejoicing there on this occasion. The Apis being carried back to the temple, there languished of his wound, and died.

The Egyptians say, that, after this act (which they reckon to have been the highest instance of impiety that was ever found among them,) Cambyses was stricken with madness. But his actions shewed him to have been mad long before; of which he continued to give divers instances. They tell us of these following:

He had a brother, the only son of Cyrus besides himself, and born of the same mother; his name, according to Xenophon, was Tanorxares, but Herodotus calls him Smerdis, and Justin, Mergis. He accompanied Cambyses in his Egyptian expedition; but being the only person among all the Persians that could draw the bow which Cambyses' ambassadors brought him from the Ethiopian king, Cambyses from hence contracted such an envy against him, that he could no longer bear him in the army, but sent him back into Persia. And not long after dreaming, that one came, and told him, that Smerdis sat on the throne, he thereon suspecting of his brother what was afterwards fulfilled by another of his name, sent after him, into Persia, Prexaspes, one of his chiefest confidents, with orders to put him to death; which he accordingly executed. And when one of his sisters, who was with him in the camp, on the hearing of it, lamented his death, he gave her such a blow with his foot in the belly, that she died of it. She was the youngest of his sisters, and, being a very beautiful woman, he fell violently in love with her, so that nothing could satisfy him, but that he must have her to wife; whereon he called together all the royal judges of the Persian nation, to whom the interpreta