Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab
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HISTORY OF PERSIA. 33<br />
fessed submission, and, had Cambyses<br />
been content<br />
with such peaceful acquisitions, his future reign might<br />
have been one of repose and prosperity. Cambyses,<br />
however, inherited something of his fa<strong>the</strong>r's grandeur of<br />
character: <strong>to</strong> have left, <strong>the</strong>refore, Ethiopia and Carthage<br />
unsubdued, seemed <strong>to</strong> him unchivalrous. He failed,<br />
however, utterly in both of <strong>the</strong>se schemes: in <strong>the</strong><br />
case of Carthage, <strong>the</strong> Phoenicians, as yet unsub-<br />
dued by <strong>Persia</strong>, refused <strong>to</strong> fight against <strong>the</strong>ir kindred<br />
colonies ; and, in <strong>the</strong> case of Lybia, one army sent<br />
<strong>from</strong> Thebes against Ammon, perished in <strong>the</strong> desert,<br />
while ano<strong>the</strong>r, led by <strong>the</strong> king in person, failed <strong>to</strong><br />
force its way in<strong>to</strong> Nubia. The only result was that<br />
<strong>the</strong> <strong>Persia</strong>ns lost heart, while <strong>the</strong> Egyptians were<br />
encouraged <strong>to</strong> resist, and that Cambyses at once saw<br />
his error and his danger. The old king of Egypt, up <strong>to</strong><br />
this time well treated, was now seized and executed ;<br />
while <strong>the</strong> native officers were apprehended and slain,<br />
and a severity adopted wholly alien <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> usual habits<br />
of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Persia</strong>ns. The priests, as <strong>the</strong> natural leaders of<br />
<strong>the</strong> people, were everywhere exposed <strong>to</strong> needless insult<br />
and cruelty; Cambyses, it is said, setting <strong>the</strong> example<br />
by stabbing <strong>the</strong> sacred calf, believed by all Egyptians<br />
<strong>to</strong> be <strong>the</strong> incarnation of Apis. Egypt, "<strong>the</strong> basest of<br />
<strong>the</strong> nations," tamely submitted, and made no furt ier<br />
effort for many years <strong>to</strong> shake off <strong>the</strong> iron yoke of<br />
<strong>the</strong> <strong>Persia</strong>ns, becoming thus, as Professor Rawlinson<br />
observes, " <strong>the</strong> obsequious slave of <strong>Persia</strong>," and obey-<br />
mandates she had not<br />
ing, as it would seem cheerfully,<br />
<strong>the</strong> spirit <strong>to</strong> resist.<br />
But a new trouble was about <strong>to</strong> befall Cambyses, <strong>the</strong><br />
first springs of which were, as has been remarked, sug-