CHAPTER II. 



THE Egyptian ports were, for the first time, opened to 

 general foreign commerce by Psaininetichns I., in 640 

 B. C. Thereupon a stream of immigrants from all parts 

 of Hellas came pouring into the Nile land. Up to this 

 time, Egypt had been a hermit nation, discouraging inter- 

 course, restricting trade and prohibiting the circulation 

 within her territory of foreigners, whom she regarded as 

 cannibals and pirates. Nevertheless there had come to 

 the outer world, reports of her magnificent cities, her 

 great temples, and of a people so ancient and so learned, 

 that, to the barbarians of the North, these stories seemed 

 like legends of the gods. The curiosity of all men con- 

 cerning her was keen and whetted with the expectation 

 of centuries. 



The Egyptian king had triumphed in the civil war 

 against his colleagues by the aid of Greek mercenaries. 

 The unbarring of the country to the men to whom he 

 owed his throne was a political necessity, regardless of the 

 involved violation of customs and traditions hoary with 

 age. The change in national policy was radical, and, once 

 made, the logical consequences followed. Not merely the 

 lonians, but the people of all Greece, and, in fact, of all 

 states, flocked to the Delta of the Nile, and the swarthy 

 and black-haired builders of the obelisks saw, for the first 

 time, the red-haired and blue-eyed barbarians from the huts 

 of the far north. 



The Greek who came then to Egypt lived in a world 

 greater than that which was included within the shadowy 

 boundaries of Hellas, conterminous only with Greek speech 

 and Greek customs. For he abided in one of his own 

 creation, and it abided with him: a world peopled by his 



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