616 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 



of such mercenaries, defeated his colleagues at the battle of Momemphis, 

 and "became sole ruler of the whole country. 



By the aid of a foreign force the revolution had been ended, but the 

 Opening of the position of Psammetichus was essentially different from that 

 ports of Egypt. o f a ll preceding princes. A foreign force had given him the 

 throne, and a foreign force alone could maintain him on it. Under such 

 circumstances, he took his most politic course, and, breaking through the 

 traditions of twenty-five centuries, opened the ports of Egypt. 



This event necessarily led to a closer intercourse among the Mediter- 

 ranean nations, and insured communication between Europe and Africa. 

 The foreign element quickly made its influence manifest. In the very 

 next reign the Cape of Good Hope was doubled, and Africa circumnavi- 

 gated, and in the course of a very few years we find Pythagoras, Solon, 

 and Thales visiting Egypt, and bringing from thence to Europe the ele- 

 ments of law and natural science. 



The Persian empire in the mean time had attained an attitude of su- 

 The Persian P r emacy in Western Asia. Following the inspirations of its 

 empire: its in- Babylonian predecessors, it was engaged in continual wars 

 with its African neighbor. From the battle of Pelusium, 

 and the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, the political interests of that 

 country and Greece became essentially the same. The Persian con- 

 querors, operating alternately on the north and south shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, betrayed a determination to extend their rule around that sea, 

 and make it a Persian lake. On the one hand they were resisted by the 

 Greeks, on the other by the Egyptians, between whom active communi- 

 cations were kept up. For several centuries these operations were con- 

 ducted with various success. The kings of Persia, several of whom 

 seem to have been men of great capacity, comprehended the political ad- 

 vantages which would arise from the possession of the sea, and would 

 have doubtless carried out their plans as respects the south shore, if the 

 Phoenicians had not opposed obstacles for the sake of their colony at 

 Carthage. And though the Greek historians, with a pardonable motive, 

 speak of the various movements on the north as failures, there are many 

 circumstances which lead us to receive their accounts with allowances. 

 If Memphis was sacked, Athens also was burned ; and even at the open- 

 ing of the Macedonian expedition, Greek history is full of Persian inci- 

 dents and intrigues. 



In speaking of the Egyptian cultivators of philosophy as priests, the 

 Introduction of signification which is now attached to that word gives us an 

 Egyptian phi- erroneous idea of what they really were. The colleges at 

 Memphis, Thebes, Heliopolis, and Sais, were, in reality, each 

 the head-quarters of a fraternity of artists and professional men, and bore 

 no sort t>f resemblance to our modern ecclesiastical institutions. Among 



