124 SUKGEON-QENERAL SIR C. A. GORDON, M.D., K.C.B., ON 



B.C. 



616. Necliao, or Pharaoli Neclio, attempted to connect the Nile 

 and Red Sea (at Suez) by means of a navigable canal. 

 The work was abandoned after 120,000 workmen had died 

 on it. 



In 608 he defeated Josiah at Megiddo and took 

 Jerusalem. In 604 he was himself defeated by Nebu- 

 chadnezzar at Carchemish Circesium. He caused ships 

 to be built both on the Mediterranean and Red Sea. His 

 ships, navigated and manned by Phoenican sailors, 

 having sailed from the Arabian Gulf, rounded Africa, 

 returning to Egypt via Mediterranean. 



591. Apries, or Pharaoh Hophra, sent an expedition against 

 Cyprus, besieged the city of Sidon, and made himself 

 for a short time ruler of nearly all Phoenicia and Pales- 

 tine. Ezekie'ls prophecies against, xxix, 3 ; xvii, 15 ; 

 XXX, 1-3. His subjects revolted against him, and offered 

 the crown to Amasis, who was popular alike with the 

 people and the army. The king retired to Upper Egypt, 

 where for a time he maintained his power while the 

 usurper was acknowledged by the rest of the country. 

 Nebuchadnezzar availing himself of the state of civil war, 

 invaded and devastated Egypt, defeated Apries, who was 

 strangled by order of the conqueror. 



570-526. Amasis conferred considerable privileges on the 

 Greeks. In his reign Egypt enjoyed a prosperity greater 

 than it had done under any of its native rulers. When 

 he died the Persians were about to invade Egypt. 



526. Psammenitns. His army pursued to Memphis by Cam- 

 byses, defeated, and thus Egypt overcome. An army 

 sent by Cambyses against the Ethiopians (Soudanese), 

 perished in the desert. Various revolts against the 

 invaders took place, the first in B.C. 487, in the reign of 

 Darius Hystaspes; but in B.C. 484 it was suppressed by 

 his successor Xerxes; a second which lasted from B.C. 460 

 till B.C. 453, also proved unsuccessful. From circum- 

 stances not known, Egypt for a short time regained its 

 independence under Amyrtaeus, the only king of the 

 twenty-eighth dynasty. The last revolt occurred in about 

 B.C. 358, but in B.C. 350 the country was reconquered bv 

 the Persians. Thenceforward Egypt remains during 286 

 years a portion of Pei'sian dominions till — 



332. When it is conquered by Alexander the Great. 



287. Ptolemy Philadelphus began to repair the fresh- water 

 canal made by Necho. Egypt powerful — famous for its 

 flax. 



284-246. Under Ptolemy II, Philadelphus Manetho, an Egyptian 

 high priest and keeper of the sacred archives of Egypt, 



