Khabbash had done his best to prepare a hot reception for him: he had spent two years in fortifying the coast of the Delta, and had placed strongholds at the mouth of the river to prevent any attack by sea. But all these precautions were in vain when the moment of action came, and he was easily conquered by Xerxes. The nomes of the Delta which had taken part in the rebellion were severely punished, the priests were freed, and the temple of Buto deprived of its treasures, and Khabbash disappeared in the midst of the disaster, without anybody knowing what became of him. Achæmenes, the king’s brother, was then appointed satrap, and took measures to prevent a second rising, but again nobody seemed to think of changing the political constitution of the country, and the nomes remained in the hands of the hereditary princes. Xerxes does not appear even to have suspected that in respecting the local dynasties he retained chiefs always ready to take part in future Egyptian revolts. The defeat and disappearance of Khabbash did not give Xerxes full power. Classic tradition reports that he shocked the polemical sentiment of the Chaldeans by ill-judged curiosity, for he entered the tomb of Belus, but, in spite of his efforts, did not succeed in filling the vessel therein with oil. If this strange story be not true, there is no doubt about the rebellion. Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus, who was satrap of the province by hereditary right, treated the town with unusual severity, the temple of Belus was pillaged, the statue of the god taken away, and its priests massacred, the royal tombs were violated and sacked, and part of the population was reduced to slavery.
[480-464 B.C.]
At last Xerxes started for Europe at the head of the largest army ever seen, and we know the result of the expedition. After having witnessed the destruction of his fleet from the heights of Cape Colias, he fled precipitately, and returned to Asia Minor without waiting to see his troops routed on land. It is said that the victories of Salamis and Platæa saved Europe from barbarism. But this is unjust to both countries, as the Persians were not barbarians in the usual acceptation of the word, for, although, in some respects, they were less cultivated than the Greeks, in others they were superior to them and their culture was of an utterly different type. Moreover it is not saying much for the vitality and genius of Greece if its evolution could have been arrested by defeat and subjugation. The Hellenic race would have had to be utterly annihilated by the invasion of Asia, for Hellenic civilisation to have been exterminated. The Persians did not care about destroying whole nations, they only insisted on tribute and obedience, and then each country could do as it pleased. If Xerxes had been victorious, Hellas would have become a satrapy like Syria and Chaldea, and she would not have lost her characteristics any more than those countries did, but, like Egypt, she would soon have found an opportunity to recover her liberty. The Persian conquest would have changed the political course of Greek history, but it would have been powerless to arrest the general march of civilisation. The defeat of Xerxes resulted in his immediate retreat from the Persian frontier, but some of his garrisons were allowed to remain at Byzantium, till 478, at Eion, till 477; and at Doriscus till 450 and even later. But this concession was granted more as a sop to the pride of the Great King, than from any political or military necessity. Xerxes liked to think that he still had a foothold in Europe, so that he could recommence the war at any time, but Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace soon ceased to recognise his authority and Athenian fleets now sailed menacingly where Phœnician vessels had hitherto had undisputed course. If Greece had been less disunited, and followed up her newly won advantages, all the colonies of Asia Minor would probably have shaken off the Asiatic yoke. But Sparta had no interest in distant enterprises, and Athens had enough to do to rebuild her walls and to organise her fleet, so Persia was spared an invasion.
And during all this time, whilst the fate of his empire hung in the balance, Xerxes was wasting what little courage and intelligence he had, in the intrigues and debauches of his harem. The war went on for twelve years without his attempting to make any effort to invade or even to prevent an invasion. About 466 an Athenian fleet cruising along the coasts of Caria and Lycia encountered the fleet of the Great King anchored at the mouth of the Eurymedon. It was another Mycale—the vessels were destroyed and the Athenian crews landed and routed the Persian army hard by. The conqueror then turned to Cyprus, scattered a second fleet of eighty sailing vessels, and returned to the Piræus laden with booty. Xerxes did not long survive this humiliation; he was assassinated by Aspamithres the eunuch and by Artabanus the captain of the guards in 465.
THE SUCCESSORS OF XERXES
[464-454 B.C.]
The same night the murderers went to the younger son, Artaxerxes, and after accusing another son, Darius, of the crime, they killed him under pretext of punishing the parricide. They then made an attempt on the life of Artaxerxes himself, but they were betrayed by one of their accomplices and executed. Then the sons of Artabanus, wishing to avenge their father, collected a force together, but they perished arms in hand. Hystaspes, the rightful heir to the throne, the eldest brother of the new king, who was in Bactriana at the death of Xerxes, now arrived at the head of an army to claim his rights, but he and his followers were defeated in 462 in two bloody battles.
Every incident which threatened the existence or the integrity of the empire, affected Egypt, and before the generation, which had taken up arms for Khabbash, had passed away, a fresh generation, weary of the Persian yoke, rose up against Artaxerxes. Since the fall of the Saïd, Libya was the most important of the fiefs of the Delta. Being masters of the Marea, and the fertile districts between the Canopic branch of the Nile and the mountain and lake of Mareotis, her rulers probably had suzerainty over the Adyrmachidæ, the Giligammas, the Asbystæ, and the majority of the nomadic tribes of the desert. Inarus, son of a Psamthek, who was then in power, declared war against the Persians, and the population of the Delta, being ill-treated by Achæmenes, received him warmly, drove off the tax-collectors and flew to arms. Since their victory on the Eurymedon, the Athenians always kept a squadron by Cyprus, and its two hundred vessels now had orders to set sail for Egypt and to remain there at the disposal of the insurgent chiefs. Artaxerxes then prepared to take personal command of the naval and military forces, but he finally submitted to the advice of his counsellors who advised him to let his place be taken by Achæmenes, his uncle, who had fled to the court in alarm at the first successes of Inarus. Achæmenes had not much difficulty in thrusting back the Libyans, but the arrival of the Greeks put quite another face on the matter; and he was beaten at Papremis, and his army almost entirely exterminated. Inarus killed him with his own hand in the battle, and sent the corpse to Artaxerxes perhaps out of bravado, and perhaps out of respect for the blood of his victim. Some days later the Athenian squadron under the command of Charitimides encountered the Phœnician fleet hastening to the succour of the Persians, and sank thirty ships, and took twenty. The allies then went up the river and appeared at Memphis, where the rest of the Persians had taken refuge, as the natives had remained faithful to the Great King. The town soon surrendered, but the fortress of the White Wall shut its gates and its resistance gave Artaxerxes time to collect fresh forces.
Before risking his generals in the Delta, the Great King sent his envoys to Greece to try and buy the Lacedæmonians’ assistance for the invasion of Attica. But Spartan virtue happened just then to be proof against the Persian darics, so the troops of the Great King were assembled in Phœnicia and Cilicia, and the three hundred thousand foot-soldiers and the fleet of three hundred vessels were placed under the command of Megabyzus. On the approach of the enemy, the allies raised the siege of the White Wall, and beaten in a first engagement, in which Charitimides was killed, and Inarus wounded in the thigh, they entrenched themselves in the island of Prosopitis, where they sustained a long siege of eighteen months, which ended by Megabyzus succeeding in turning off one of the arms of the river, and the Athenian fleet thus stranded, an opportunity was afforded of storming the place. The majority of the Greek allies perished in the battle, but some succeeded in getting back to Cyrene, and returning thence to their country, and others fled with Inarus, and were forced to give themselves up a little later. To add to their misfortunes, a reinforcement of fifty ships, which arrived at the Mendesian mouth of the Nile, was more than half destroyed by the Phœnician fleet. When laying down his arms, Inarus had stipulated that his life and that of his companions should be saved. Artaxerxes seemed at first inclined to respect the capitulation, but five years later he gave over the prisoners to his mother Amestris, who had Inarus crucified to avenge the death of Achæmenes.
