CHAP. IT. EGYPT AND NUBIA. 47 



tribute of a hundred talents of silver and one 

 talent of gold, and extended his conquest over 

 the whole of Syria, and even to the banks of the 

 Euphrates. 



At this time a new power, whose existence 

 however was transient, had arisen in Babylon, 

 out of the ruins of the Assyrian monarchy, and 

 had reached its highest grandeur under Nebu- 

 chadnezzar. That king, at the head of his vic- 

 torious troops, advanced to meet Necho. A 

 tremendous battle was fought ; the Egyptians 

 were compelled to abandon their conquests, and 

 were in their turn invaded by the Babylonian 

 armies 1 . The erection of a naval power in 

 Egypt was the consequence of the loss of this 

 battle. Necho built ships on the Red Sea and 

 on the shores of the Mediterranean, and sought 

 to enable both to join in repelling invasion, and 

 for that purpose undertook to construct a canal 

 from one sea to the other. This project did not 

 succeed at that time, though it was afterwards 

 executed by the Persians under Darius. Nebu- 

 chadnezzar overran and plundered Egypt ; but 

 on his return to his kingdom, a revolt once more 

 established the throne of that country under 

 Apries, who, with his Mediterranean fleet, in- 

 vaded Phoenicia, and captured Sidon. 2 Apries 



1 The description of this battle is most poetically given by 

 the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xlvi. 



2 Herodotus, book ii. c. 161. 



