[23] Μνηστὴν—νύμφην—γαμετήν.
[24] An illustration of this nicety in waiting occurs in Xen. Cyrop., book i. 3, where Cyrus amuses the company by acting as cupbearer to his grandfather:—Όι τῶν βασιλἐων οἰνοχόοι, κομψῶς τε οἰνοχοοῦσι, καὶ καθαρίως ἑγχἐουσι, καὶ διδόασι τοῖς τρισὶ δακτύλοις οχοῦντες τἡν φιάλήν.
[25] κατευνάσαι τὴν δέσποιναν τὸ μεσημβρινὸν ἐπειγομένη.
... "opulent Egyptian Thebes,
... the city with a hundred gates,
Whence twenty thousand chariots rush to war."
Hom. Il. ix. 381.—Cowper's Tr.
[BOOK VIII.]
The king of Ethiopia had deceived Oroondates by a stratagem, and made himself master of one of the objects of the war—the city of Philœ, always ready to fall a prey to the first invader—and, by so doing, had reduced him to great straits, and to a necessity of using sudden and hurried efforts for its recovery.
Philœ is situated a little above the smaller cataracts of the Nile, about twelve miles distant from Syene and Elephantis. The city was formerly seized upon and inhabited by a band of Egyptian fugitives, which made it debateable land between the governments of Egypt and Ethiopia. The latter were for extending their dominions as far as the cataracts, while the former claimed even the city of Philœ, pretending that they had conquered it in war, because it had been occupied by their exiles. It had been taken and retaken several times by both nations; and was, just before the time I am speaking of, held by an Egyptian and Persian garrison.
The king of Ethiopia dispatched an embassy to Oroondates, to demand the restoration of the city and the emerald mines; and meeting, as has been before observed,[1] with a refusal, he sent ambassadors a second time towards Egypt; (they going in advance) he following a few days later, with a numerous army, set on foot beforehand, but keeping all the while their destination a profound secret.