with the conquests of cambyses egypt became subject to a new set of rulers, by whom its manners and customs were, in a degree, changed or modified. yet such are its inherent characteristics that it has been often said of egypt, as of greece, that she rather impressed herself upon her masters, than was impressed by them. through the persian period, to that of the ptolemies, women retired into the background, and no one name comes into prominence, at least in an official character. it is in connection with persia rather than with egypt that we learn of the queens, some, perhaps most of whom, remained in their own land, while their husbands were absent, engaged in wars and conquests. the kings, distracted by wars in all directions, often made hurried visits to their conquered territories, leaving satraps and deputies to rule in their absence. the legal queen, we may believe, tarried at home, while the warriors left their women behind or were accompanied by their concubines, to whom no formal honors were paid.
hence it is more than possible that although nominally queens of egypt but few of them ever[313] resided in the country, those of the kings who reigned longest, of course, being most likely to do so. the persian kings usually chose their wives from among their own nobility, the concubines were of varied nationality.
in thinking of these royal ladies we seem to see a veiled figure, with beautiful shining eyes, wandering among the gardens of the palaces, which gardens were said to be less formally laid out than those of the native egyptians, but she is silent. or behind palace walls we hear the echo of distant music, and perchance the sound of soft singing, to the accompaniment of a lute, or some other instrument. if she looked forth from her windows it was from behind curtains and lattice work, and if she appeared in public it was with a veiled countenance, only the eyes showing.
the ruins at persepolis, ecbatana, the capital of media, and suza acquaint us with the construction of persian palaces, which differ somewhat from the egyptian. when in egypt the persian kings probably accepted, to a considerable extent, the architecture and general arrangements of that country. madame ragozin gives us, from an earlier source, an account of the palace built by darius, at persepolis. “a central hall flanked by two sets of apartments, of four rooms each, with a front entrance, composed of a door and four windows, opening on a porch, supported by four columns, and forming at the same time the landing between the two flights of stairs,” such the ruins disclose. “the throne and audience hall, the reception and banqueting hall, was two hundred and twenty-seven[314] feet every way, with cedar and cypress beams upborne by a hundred columns ten rows of ten, tall and slender, they rested lightly on their inverted flower base, carrying the raftered ceilings proudly and with ease on the strong, bent necks of the animals which adorned their capitals, of that peculiarly and matchless fanciful type which is the most distinctive feature of akhaemenian architecture.”
the king’s throne was supported by rows of warriors and he wore the flowing median garb, or the tight-fitting persian doublet and hose. the master of ceremonies kept his hand before his mouth, and all who approached kept their hands hidden in their sleeves in token of peaceful intentions. the remains of the palace of xerxes, the ahasuerus of the bible, have also been found, similar to, but not so fine as, those of darius. the buildings were usually of one story and set on a terrace or platform, sometimes made of columns. of the great hall of xerxes mr. fergusson says: “we have no cathedral in england that at all comes near it in dimensions; nor indeed in france and germany is there one that covers so much ground. cologne comes nearest.”
of the women’s appointed place we read:
“between the porphyry pillars that upheld
the rich moresque-work of the roof of gold
aloft the haram’s curtained galleries rise
where through the silken net-work glancing eyes,
from time to time, like sudden gleams that glow
[315]
through autumn clouds, shine on the pomp below.”
the gardens attached to the palaces we may well believe favorite resorts of the queen and her attendant ladies. shaded paths, sparkling fountains, retired resting places and beds ablaze with flowers, all these made a charming retreat. in the midst was usually a hall, kiosk or arbor, raised on several steps, a fountain in the centre making a musical murmur and spreading coolness around. it was enclosed with gilded lattices over which rioted in careless grace vines of jassamine, honeysuckle and other creepers—a fair green wall overhung and protected by tall trees. here, too, doubtless the king enjoyed some of his hours of leisure, wrapped about with the perfume of violets and sipping a sherbet of violets and sugar, a favorite drink in persia. we learn of a “betel-carrier and taster of sherbets to the emperor.” lest poison might secretly be prepared for the royal palate it was always necessary to have a taster, the first victim in case of evil intent. to this other duties were added such as “chief holder of the girdle of beautiful forms and grand nazir or chamberlain of the harem.” king canute sat on the brink of the ocean and ordered it to come no further; king darius or xerxes laid a similar prohibition on the waxing proportions of his spouse—neither perhaps was strictly obeyed by dame nature. at least it appears to have been the duty of the “holder of the girdle of beautiful forms” to do what he could—“permit me, most gracious lady.[316] alas, one inch beyond the line of beauty!” subsequently perhaps starvation and tears to insure return to the stipulated measure.
costly materials rather than shape were prized by the persians, and their ornaments were less ornate and elaborate than those of the egyptians; rings and bracelets were of plain gold, collars of twisted gold, but comparatively unartificial. their household utensils too seem to have been few and simple in pattern, a covered dish and a goblet with an inverted saucer over it are often pictured in the hands of the royal attendants. occasionally, but rarely, we hear of persian women indulging in manly sports, as roxane, daughter of idernes, and half sister of terituchmes was skilled in the use of the bow and the javelin.
the queen mother, when the widow of the late king, took precedence of her daughter-in-law, the wife of the reigning monarch, had certain privileges, peculiar to herself, was attended by a band of eunuchs and dined with her son in the women’s apartment. though not nominally in public life her influence was often very great and at times used or abused most cruelly.
as in the earlier times, certain cities in egypt were assigned to furnish the revenues of the queen, and that of anthylla was appointed to provide her with shoes. this must also, it would seem, have applied to the females of her household, as a single pair of feet, even though royal, could have been but a slight tax on the revenues of a town.
to return to the thread of history which we[317] are following. king apries was overthrown and succeeded by amasis, who, usurper though he was, seems to have reigned long and well. the date given for the close of the reign of apries is b. c. 579, and amasis ruled for forty-five years; his son psammetic iii had been on the throne but a few months when cambyses conquered egypt.
syria appears to have been held by egypt during the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, while later egypt disputed its possession with assyria, and lastly the ptolemies and califs ruled it from egypt. but the egypt of which we now make study was no longer a country united under one head and going forth to conquer and demand tribute from surrounding nations. she was alternately divided under the sovereignty of a number of petty kings or ground under the heel of some all-conquering but more or less temporary master. wars and internal dissentions were constant, with now and then a longer period of comparative peace and tranquility, in which the country had breathing space to recover from the desolation and ruin that had preceded it.
the persians, numbered as the twenty-seventh dynasty, came in as masters who desired rather to trample upon than conciliate their subjects. they outraged the sensibilities and prejudices of the people, and, it is said, that the arts, long in decline, received a severe blow from their invasion, while many of the finest buildings in egypt were mutilated and destroyed by cambyses, hence revolts against the new authority were frequent. cambyses himself appears to have acted at times[318] like a cruel madman, and whether the story of his stabbing the revered apis bull be true or not, and, like all old stories, its authenticity is sometimes disputed, the incident is but an illustration of the general course which he pursued.
he was son of cyrus the great, king of persia, said to be the grandson of the median king astyages, and his mother was said by ctesias to be amytias and, by herodotus, to be cassandane or kassomdane, daughter of pharnespes, a member of the royal family, who died before her husband. cambyses was in every way inferior to his father. the children of this marriage were two sons and three daughters, the sons cambyses and smerdis, the daughters atossa, roxana and artystone.
cyrus left his kingdom to his elder son, but placed so much power also in the hands of the younger that cambyses caused his brother to be secretly murdered that his rights might be undisputed. following the egyptian custom, or setting up a law for himself, since it does not seem to have been the habit of the persian monarchs, he married his two sisters, atossa and roxana. the persian judges said it was not lawful for a man to marry his sister, but the king could of course do as he pleased. the unfortunate roxana excited the fury of this monster by mourning for her brother smerdis, and is said also to have been killed by cambyses with a kick. a greek inscription at behistan affirms that smerdis was murdered before cambyses started for egypt; that the latter committed suicide in the end; that the rebellion was a religious one, and that the[319] magian was not smerdis but gomates, and the discovery of the imposture is not as generally given. other authorities claim that smerdis was murdered by cambyses’ orders during his absence, but the affair seems much involved in mystery.
cambyses adopted as his horus name “horus, the unifier of two lands,” and styled himself “born of ra.” for a third wife he took nitetis, daughter of the previous egyptian king, apries, but sent to him as the daughter of amasis, the reigning monarch. upon this deception, it is asserted, hinged the invasion of egypt. there seems to be a discrepancy in dates, some holding that nitetis would have been too old a bride for cambyses, and therefore it must have been cyrus that took her to wife, and that cambyses was her son rather than her husband. but this tale is believed to be of egyptian origin, made up to remove from their shoulders the stigma of being merely a conquered people and set up a pretence that cambyses had some legal right to the throne by descent from an egyptian princess.
another tale is thus given by herodotus. a persian woman visited the harem of king cyrus, was struck with the beauty of the children of cassadane and praised them greatly to their mother. “yet would you believe it,” said cassadane, “cyrus neglects me, the mother of such children as these, to pay honor to an egyptian interloper!” on this cambyses, her eldest son, a boy of ten years of age, exclaimed: “therefore, mother, when i am a man, i will turn egypt upside[320] down!” which threat, if ever made by him, was most surely fulfilled.
supposing nitetis to have been the grand-daughter, rather than the daughter of apries, the dates become more intelligible. it is this period of history that ebers has selected for his romance of an “egyptian princess,” which, like all his historical novels, if lacking perhaps great vitality in the individual characters, has a carefully studied and interesting ground work of historical fact. the truth or the tradition, which ever it be, runs thus: amassis, king of egypt, sent by request to the king of persia, suffering with some trouble of the eyes, his special oculist. the physician, resentful of long ostracism from home and friends, suggested to his patron that he should demand in marriage the daughter of the egyptian king. the plan was proposed not in good faith, but with a desire to make trouble.
perhaps the reputation of cambyses was already evil and well known. at any rate, the proposal produced consternation rather than joy and satisfaction in the circle of the bride-elect. possibly amasis held with special tenderness the daughter in question. be this as it may, he sent not the princess demanded, but one who was probably considered of inferior dignity. doubtless she went adorned in regal splendor that the deception might not be suspected. her finger tips would have been tinged with henna to look like branches of coral; she would perhaps wear the persian head dress, composed of a light golden chain work set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant about the size of a crown piece[321] on which was impressed an arabian prayer and which hung upon the cheek below the ear. the kohl’s jetty dye would give that “long, dark, languish to the eye.” a small coronet of jewels would be placed upon her head and over all a rosy veil. the veils the eastern women wore over the head were coquettishly managed to add to their attractions. says the poet in “lalla rooke”:
“veiled by such a mask as shades
the features of young arab maids,
a mask that leaves but one eye free
to do its best in witchery.”
the arab women wear black masks prettily disposed, and niebuhr mentions their showing but one eye in conversation, and again says moore:
“and bright the glancing looks they hide
beneath their litters roseate veils.”
so nitetis, hardly a happy bride, was wedded to the persian king, and “nightingales warbled their enchanting notes and rent the thin veils of the rosebud and the rose,” according to a favorite image of the oriental poets. but not joy, peace and happiness resulted—rather wars and bloodshed. perhaps in innocence, perhaps in malice, the new queen revealed the secret of her identity to the king. since he did not put her to death we may believe that she herself had some attractions for him, but the deception he[322] would not forgive and seized upon it, only too gladly, as a pretext for invading egypt.
across the desert which protected egypt on the northeast marched cambyses and his army, while his fleet, supplied by the phoenician cities and the greeks of asia minor, blockaded the egyptian king (psammetic iii, only recently come to the throne) in memphis. the herald was sent in a greek vessel to demand surrender. the egyptians, with mad and cruel folly, courting their own destruction, since such an act would be sure to infuriate the invader, seized the ship and tore the crew to pieces. if not before, from that moment their doom was sealed. cambyses took memphis, b. c. 525, on the pyramid plain, where later napoleon bade his soldiers do their best, for the centuries looked down upon them. it is said that cambyses put cats and other sacred animals before his troops so that the egyptians were afraid to attack. be this as it may, the persians obtained the mastery, and cambyses took his revenge on amasis for the affront offered him by causing his dead body to be burned.
one cannot help thinking of the homely phrase, “give a dog a bad name,” in connection with this ancient king, all the ruin that occurred for hundreds of years seems set down to the credit of cambyses, who, with the most evil intent in the world, could hardly have accomplished all that was claimed for him. he is said to have left nothing unburnt in thebes that fire would consume. “an earthquake and cambyses,” says curtis, “divide the shame of the partial destruction of memnon.” an old inscription at the base of the[323] statue reads: “i write after having heard memnon. cambyses has wounded me, a stone cut into the image of the sun king. i had once the sweet voice of memnon, but cambyses has deprived me of the accents which express joy and grief.”
tradition also says that cambyses threw down the magnificent statues set up to adorn the temple of victory, built by seti i at old quernah, yet pliny has preserved a story that the same king was so struck by the beauty of a certain statue that he ordered the flames which he had kindled extinguished at its base.
it is probable that all his other crimes paled into insignificance in the eyes of the egyptians before his murder of their sacred bull. for this his memory would have been execrated forever had it been his only deed of violence. but whereas the persians spoke of cyrus as “father” they called cambyses “despot” or “master”; ferocity and cruelty seemed to distinguish most of his actions.
both the hawk and the bull appeared as emblems of royalty and divinity among the egyptians from the earliest times. but the bull was also highly regarded in assyria, india and among other ancient nations. the hawk was sacred to the sun, the apis bull, the living image of osiris, the incarnation of a source of life and creative energy. upon this animal, so revered and worshipped, cambyses dared to lay what was deemed a sacrilegious hand; in the eyes of his new subjects he could have committed no greater crime. says one writer: “at memphis the apis bull was bred, nurtured and honored with all the devotion[324] that asiatic superstition lavished upon the representative of their miscalled deities.”
it was said of the god apis that “his glory was sought for in all egypt,” and an inscription reads: “he was found after some months in the city of ho-shed-abot. he was solemnly introduced into the temple of ptah, beside his father, the memphian god phthah of the south wall by the high priest in the temple of phthah, the great prince of the mashuash petise, the son of the high priest of memphis and great prince of the mashuash, takelut and of the princess of royal race, thes-bast-per.”
the priests would search through the land for the new apis, which must have certain marks upon it. the rules required that the young bull should be black, with a white triangle on his forehead, the likeness of a vulture on his back, a crescent moon on his side, two kinds of hair in his tail and an excrescence under his tongue like the sacred beetle. naturally it took a long time to find just such an animal, and the time between the death of one and the finding of another was kept as a period of fasting and mourning. it is said that when the old apis outlived twenty-five years he was quietly drowned by the priests, and the bodies of the dead bulls were embalmed and buried with royal honors in tombs in the desert. when the new bull was found it was a period of great rejoicing. the mother and calf were brought to the temple and housed with all honor and regard. the bull was consulted as an oracle by offering it food, and the omen was favorable or the reverse, as it accepted or refused[325] it. this doubtless gave opportunity to the priests and care-takers to direct the matter as they saw fit. a hungry bull would be much more apt to give a favorable response, as one may well perceive than an already satiated one.
memphis, the “city of the white wall” which was to the greeks as cairo is to us now, the typical oriental city, was especially celebrated for its worship of apis or hapi and was selected for its residence because one of the limbs of osiris, killed by typhon, the evil spirit, were found there. one pauses to wonder at the curious mingling of power and powerlessness which the ancients attributed to their gods. proof against all dangers and performing miracles of all sorts they yet at times, even the very greatest of them, suffered and “died like men.”
thus the sacred bull, selected by certain particular marks and guarded and cared for with special reverence, was looked upon as the incarnation of the god. it is in the serapium (or bulls’ burying place), a word regarded as a contraction of osiris-apis, that various tablets and inscriptions were found which give the chief dates and information which we possess as regards the reigns of certain kings. the records of the apis bulls are more complete than the mnevis bulls, and he is spoken of as “a fair and beautiful image of the soul of osiris.”
it was upon this adored treasure that cambyses cruelly and unwisely vented his evil temper. after the conquest of egypt he again engaged in other aggressive wars and, returning unsuccessful from one of his expeditions against nubia and even[326] more morose and ill-natured than usual, he found the people celebrating one of their religious festivals, and, thinking, or pretending to think, that they were deriding him and rejoicing at his ill-success, he poured out the viols of his wrath. “oh stupid mortals!” he exclaimed. “are these your gods? creatures of flesh and blood and sensible to the touch of steel!” and he caused the sacred bull to be brought forth and stabbed it in the thigh and put several of the priests to death.
one of the most interesting events of modern times was the discovery by mariette of the long lost serapeum in 1850. the temple had been described by strabo, but the lapse of years and the drifting sands of the desert had obliterated it from memory and hidden it from sight. wandering in the neighborhood of the step pyramid of sakkarah, the oldest in the world, believed to have been erected only eighty years after the time of menes, this noted archaeologist stumbled against an object which proved to be the head of a sphinx, and immediately the description of strabo came into his mind. at once, with characteristic patience and determination, he set his men to work and had the immense satisfaction after innumerable difficulties of discovering the avenue of sphinxes which led to the serapeum and the buried temple itself. it extended 640 feet into the solid rock, with long galleries, sixty-four vaulted chambers on either side and a vaulted roof twenty feet high, while the breadth of the gallery was about the same. in one chamber he discovered the apis, who died in the sixtieth year of rameses ii, so fresh and undisturbed did[327] this seem that the finger marks could be seen on the walls and footprints in the sand. a human mummy, which mariette at first took to be an apis, was also discovered, and proved by the inscription to be that of the favorite son of rameses ii kha-em-uas, high priest of the temple of ptah and governor of memphis. the body was covered with jewels, gold chains and amulets, precious and gold washed, all of which are now in the louvre. huge granite sarcophagi were discovered in twenty-four cells, bearing the name of the king on the throne at the time the apis was buried. the most recent mummies discovered were from the time of psammetichus ii of the twenty-sixth dynasty, 660 b. c., to a ptolemy dynasty 500 years later.
at certain periods the votaries of serapis celebrated festivals in the temple and recorded them on votive tablets, which were found in the galleries of the serapeum. from these we gather that the reign of psammetichus was brief; that there were six kings of the twenty-sixth dynasty, 666 b. c.; that following psammetichus i came necho ii, in the sixteenth year of whose reign an apis was born. that another was installed in the temple of ptah in the first year of the reign of psamettic ii; that an apis died in the twelfth year of apries, and that this king was succeeded by amasis and psammetic iii.
unable to carry away all of his finds to place them in greater security in various museums, mariette buried some of them temporarily near the spot, which miss edwards says was betrayed and sold by the arabs to a certain austrian arch-duke,[328] who took possession and carried them to trieste. among them was said to be the bull stabbed by cambyses, while in the rooms of the new york historical society the same, or very similar, mummy of an apis is to be seen. whether the wound of the bull proved fatal and he was secretly buried by the priests, or whether he survived till the fourth year of darius’ reign, as the serapeum tablets seem to indicate, is a mooted point. ne-chatano, a subsequent and native egyptian king, is believed to have rebuilt or restored the serapeum in 350 b. c. one tablet in the collection records the death of an apis in the sixth year of cambyses.
but the reign of this cruel king at last came to an end. a revolt took place in persia, the murdered smerdis was represented by an imposter, who for some time deceived the people, and cambyses, hastening home, either died or, some say, committed suicide by stabbing himself with his dagger, so runs the legend, while mounting a horse in the same place as he had wounded the bull. it was the custom of the egyptian women to go two days in the week to the tombs of their dead and to throw upon them a sweet smelling herb, like basil, but for cambyses we can imagine no such mourning was made. the world was well rid of a monster, and even his wives must have felt that they were freed from the tyrant. custom permitted the persian king to have several legal wives, but one only was the legal queen. atossa probably occupied this position. her experiences in husbands were varied and her charms probably great.
[329]
magus, by others called gomates, personated the dead smerdis or bardiya and took cambyses’ wives, but kept them in separate establishments that his secret might not be discovered. the story goes that for some previous crime the ears of the impostor had been cut off, but that he covered the place with his hair. in his sleep, however, one of his wives, the daughter of otanes, suspecting his impersonation, passed her hand over his head, and thus his fraud was made public. in the end he was slain by darius, a member of the royal family, who now laid claim to the throne and proved to be an excellent sovereign.
he again took queen atossa to wife, and her influence over him is said to have been unbounded, and she became the mother of xerxes, who succeeded him. she survived salamis and was actually, in part, contemporary with herodotus, from whom we derive the information regarding her so numerous marriages. cyrus had one legal wife, cambyses three and darius five.
his wives are given as first a daughter of gobryas, whose children were artabazanes, and two others—atossa, by whom he had xerxes; hystaspes, akhaemenes and masistes; arystone, by whom he had arsames and gobryas; parmys, by whom he had ariomardas, and, lastly, phrataguma, by whom he had abrocome and hyperanthe.
darius seems to have been the one persian king beloved by the egyptians, towards whom he showed himself in great contrast to his predecessor, most considerate and regardful, associating[330] with the priests and studying their theology. during his lifetime he was called a god by the egyptians and he is the only persian king whose name is accompanied with a titular shield and whose phonetic shield bears the crest of the vulpauser and disk ‘son of the sun.’ the only one whose phonetic name is accompanied by a pre-nomen, like those of the ancient kings. he obtained while living the title of “divus” and received, after death, the same honors as the native egyptian sovereigns, of the earlier centuries. on an ornament of porcelain in the museum at florence he is called “beneficent god.” he is even represented in sculpture as worshipping the egyptian god athor, and the mummy of osiris, with the lighted lamp, the emblem of fire (the great divinity of persia) in each hand. but in spite of this another authority states that no persian king’s name is found on a public monument in egypt.
when the persian kings were present in egypt comparative peace reigned, but, when they left the government in the hands of deputies, revolts were numerous. darius put his satrap aryandes to death for presuming to coin money; he being so distasteful to the egyptians that they were on the point of revolt when darius returned. but spite of the personal popularity of darius the persian yoke was hateful to the egyptians, and when the king’s back was once turned, his presence withdrawn, and he became involved in other wars, they again rose against the invaders.
while preparing to crush egypt darius died, leaving the task to xerxes, his son by the beloved[331] atossa. his first wife had been a daughter of gobryas and her son, older than xerxes, would naturally have, succeeded, but artobazanes had been born before his father became king, and this fact, coupled doubtless with the paramount influence of queen atossa, decided the question in favor of xerxes, who had been born after his father ascended the throne.
for the few succeeding dynasties the balance of power swung between the native rulers and their persian conquerors, xerxes or khshaiarsha, whose wife was named amestris, reconquered egypt in the second year of his reign, and increased its burdens. he also seems to have made love to the wife of his brother masistes and to her daughter, the wife of his son darius, and because xerxes gave this daughter-in-law artaynte, for whom he had an unlawful affection, a beautiful mantle, woven by his wife amestris, the queen had the mother of her rival most cruelly mutilated. xerxes was himself subsequently murdered, apparently a not undeserved fate.
under artaxerxes his son, who succeeded, b. c. 465, the egyptians again threw off the hated yoke, but after various vicissitudes were reconquered. this prince was said to be largely under the influence of his mother amestris and his sister amytir, both women of ill-regulated lives. his only legal wife was damaspia, but he had many children by his concubines. several native rulers who reigned briefly and were murdered in succession, came next. then we have darius ii, previously called ochus, and[332] subsequently nothus, said to be one of the seventeen illegitimate sons of artaxerxes i, who married paraysatis, daughter of xerxes i. darius ii reigned nineteen years and was followed by artaxerxes ii, said to be the last persian king who left any memorial of himself in egypt. he styled himself “beloved of amen-ra,” and “beautiful god, lord of the two lands.”
during this period the egyptians associated themselves with the athenians and amyrtaeus, a descendant of the saite kings, ruled for a period of six years. he is sometimes considered identical with a certain amen-rut and a portion of the coffin of his daughter, ar-bast-utchat-nifu, is in the berlin museum, but that the two are the same king is questioned by others. amyrtaeus was deemed of sufficient importance, however, to be counted as the twenty-eighth dynasty, but we find no mention of his queen.
nepherites is given as the only king of the twenty-ninth dynasty, from mendes, and reigned some years, but again we learn nothing of the queen. akhoris or haker was first king of the thirtieth dynasty, he repaired various temples, and his name is found in several places. several unimportant kings followed, one authority says that the revolt of the medes permitted the authority of the egyptian king hakis, akhorus or achorus, of whom we have made mention, and of whom some memorials are found here and there, and a sphinx in paris bears his name. the kings who succeeded are regarded as of little moment, nectanebus i is frequently considered the next king and he succeeded in[333] keeping the authority in his hands, some say ten, some eighteen years. he seems to have been capable both as a soldier and a ruler, and somewhat revived the pomp which had been so characteristic of the earlier kings. he built some temples and shrines and repaired many of the important ones, and his name appears in various places. an obelisk cut by this king (whose name occurs at philae), but which was not inscribed, was afterwards floated down the nile by ptolemy philadelphus and erected in honor of his sister in the arsinoite home. the fine stone lions once at the fontane di termine at rome, but now placed in the egyptian museum in the vatican, are said to be the last piece of egyptian sculpture executed under native princes. he seems to have been one of the few kings who defeated the persians. nectanebus ii, who was both a builder and a warrior, was the only other king of importance of this dynasty.
ochus, artaxerxes iii, of the thirty-first dynasty, out-heroded herod and led to the final collapse of the persian power in egypt. he emulated and even surpassed cambyses, causing the sacred bull not only to be killed, but cooked and eaten at a feast. darius codomanus was the last persian king, and when alexander came as conqueror of these hated rulers the egyptians made him welcome. he at once began a conciliatory policy, sacrificed to apis, built a temple to isis, and caused himself to be adopted by and proclaimed son of zeus-amon. he remained some time, founded the city of alexandria, placed rulers over egypt and departed from memphis[334] b. c. 331. living he never again saw the land, but his corpse was brought back from babylon and deposited in a sarcophagus in alexandria.
the favorite stone of the persian gem engravers was chalcedony, a semi-transparent, white quartz, the blue variety of which is the sapphire and on this one sometimes finds engraved the head of a persian king.