. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria . Cometes is thePseudo-Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes ; it was, then, the latter whowas the usurpers brother, and it is his name of Oropastes which should besubstituted for that of the Patizeithes of Herodotus. 138 THE IRANIAN CONQUEST march forward. On arriving at Pelusium, he learned thathis adversary no longer existed. Amasis had died after ashort illness, and was succeeded by hisson Psammetichus III. This changeof command, at the most criticalmoment, was almost in itself adisaster. Amasis, with his con-summate experience of
. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria . Cometes is thePseudo-Smerdis, and not, as he says, Oropastes ; it was, then, the latter whowas the usurpers brother, and it is his name of Oropastes which should besubstituted for that of the Patizeithes of Herodotus. 138 THE IRANIAN CONQUEST march forward. On arriving at Pelusium, he learned thathis adversary no longer existed. Amasis had died after ashort illness, and was succeeded by hisson Psammetichus III. This changeof command, at the most criticalmoment, was almost in itself adisaster. Amasis, with his con-summate experience of menand things, his intimate know-ledge of the resources of Egypt,his talents as a soldier anda general, his personal prestige,his Hellenic leanings, com-manded the confidence of hisown men and the respect offoreigners; but what could beexpected of his unknown suc-cessor,^ and who could saywhether he were equal to theheavy task which fate had as-signed to him ? The whole ofthe Nile valley was a prey togloomy presentiment. Egypt was threatened not only, as. 1>SAMMETICHUS III.^ 1 Psammetichus III. has left us very few monuments, which is accountedfor by the extreme shortness of his reign. For the same reason doubtlessseveral writers of classical times have ignored his existence, and have madethe conquest of Egypt take place under Amasis. Ctesias calls the PharaohAmyrtseus, and gives the same name to those who rebelled against thePersians in his own time, and he had an account of the history of the con-quest entirely different from that of Herodotus. ^ Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the Louvre. ACCESSION OF PSAMMETICHUS III. 139 in the previous century, by the nations of the Tigris andEuphrates, but all Asia, from the Indus to the Hellespont,was about to fall on her to crush her. She was destituteof all human help and allies, and the gods themselvesappeared to have forsaken her. The fellahin, inspired withvague alarm, recognised evil omens in all around
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