308 Dr Morton on the Origin of the 



assumed as a thing of course ; for the Meroites would naturally 

 avail themselves of every expedient to establish their power 

 by augmenting the number of their exotic confederates, and 

 by extending to them those privileges which had once been 

 sacred to particular castes. For these and other oppressive 

 acts, the Meroite kings were hated by the Egyptians ; and no 

 sooner were they expelled than their names were erased from 

 the monuments.* 



The third epoch dates from the conquest by Cambyses, B.C. 

 525, and continues through the whole of the Persian dynasty, 

 or in other words, until the Ptolemaic era, B.C. 332, — a period 

 of nearly two hundred years. 



Every one knows that the Persian dominion in Egypt was 

 marked by an utter disregard of all the established institutions. 

 No occasion was omitted which could humble the pride or 

 debase the character of the people. The varied inhabitants 

 of Europe, Asia, and Nigritia, poured into the valley of the 

 Nile, abolishing in degree the exclusiveness of caste, and 

 involving an endless confusion of races. 



The prelude to these changes and misfortunes can be traced 

 to the reign of Psammeticus the First, who permitted to 

 foreigners, and especially to the Greeks, a freedom of ingress 

 which the laws and usages of the country had previously de- 

 nied them. The same policy appears to have been fostered by 

 the subsequent kings of the same dynasty until its consumma- 

 tion by Amasis (B.C. 569), when, in the language of Cham- 

 pollion Figeac, Egypt became at once Egyptian, Greek, and 

 Asiatic ; her national character was lost for ever ; her armies 

 were filled with foreign mercenaries ; the throne was guarded 

 by European soldiers, and continual wars completed the 

 destruction of a tottering kingdom.-f 



* Among the meagre facts which history has preserved in relation to 

 those intrusive kings, the following is the most remarkable : " Sabakon 

 (the first king of the Ethiopian dynasty,) having taken Boccoris (the 

 legitimate sovereign) captive, burnt him alive." Manetho apud Cory, 

 Frag.j p. 126. Could any circumstances have rendered the Ethiopians 

 more detestable in the eyes of the Egyptians than this first act of barba- 

 rian policy ? 



t Egypte Ancienne, p. 207. 



