The ruin of all this community came suddenly. Apries trusted to the Greek mercenaries, and defied the old Egyptian party (if indeed he was king at all according to Egyptian law); and Amasis, who had married the royal princess (and who was therefore a legal ruler), took the national side, and ousted his brother-in-law. Civil war was the consequence, and the Greeks—though straining all their power—were completely crushed by Amasis. He then carried out the protective policy of Egypt, and depopulated Daphnae, and all other Greek settlements excepting Naukratis, which latter thus became the only treaty-port open to Greek merchants. Hence, as we can date the founding of Defenneh almost to a year, about 665 B.C., when Psamtik established his mercenary camps, so we can also date its fall to a year in 564 B.C. when Amasis struck down the Greek trade. And this just accords with what we find, as there is a sudden cessation of Greek pottery at a stage someway before the introduction of red figured ware, which took place about 490 B.C.
It appears likely that as Naukratis was the home of the scarab trade to Greece, so Daphnae was the home of the jewellery trade, and the source of the semi-Egyptian jewellery so often found in Greek tombs. Much evidence of the goldsmith’s work was discovered; pieces of gold ornaments, pieces partly wrought, globules and scraps of gold, and a profusion of minute weights, such as would only be of use for precious metals.
46. Daphniote Gold Work.
We see then that Daphnae is the complement of Naukratis: they were twin cities, and teach us even more by their contrasts than their resemblances. We again reach back, as at Naukratis, through the pre-Alexandrine period to the foundation of Greek power in Egypt. We again find the interaction of Greek and Egyptian civilization. We again see the rise of a local school of pottery, and have the great advantage of its being confined to just a century, of which we know the exact limits. On the Jewish side of the history the arrangement of ‘the king’s house in Tahpanhes’ exactly explains the narrative; the very name of the place echoes the sojourn of the fugitive heiresses of Judah; and a valuable light is thrown on the early contact of the Hebrew race with the language and thought of the Greeks with whom they here dwelt.
47. Silver Shrine, and Gold Figure of Ra.