Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

446 AMASIS II.—PSAMTHEK III.

successful against that of Nebuchadnezzar, and with his
help Tyre held out against that monarch for thirteen
years. Uah-ab-Ka next went to war with the Greeks
of Cyrene, and was there completely defeated. His
soldiers afterwards broke out into open revolt, and
elected Aahmes as their king, who in his turn defeated
the followers of Uah-ab-Ka, took their king prisoner,
and shut him up in his own capital. Herodotus
(bk. ii. 169) says that after this 'the Egyptians took
him (Uah-ab-Ka) and strangled him; but having done
so, they buried him in the sepulchre of his fathers.'

Aahmes (or Amasis) II., B.C. 572-528, was of
extremely low origin, but, marrying the princess
Ankhs-en-Ka-nefert, the daughter of Psamthek II., he
thus made his family to belong to the true royal
line. He appears to have been a brave and energetic
king, and withal prudent. One of his first acts was to
remove the Carian and Ionian mercenaries from the
Delta to Memphis, where he established them as his
body guard. He encouraged commercial enterprise,
and granted Naukratis as a free port to Greek mer-
chants, permitting them at the same time to settle
there. He maintained the old friendship with Phoe-
nicia and conquered Cyprus. He appears to have
been on an amicable footing with the Greek states,
for when the temple at Delphi was burnt down in
b.c. 548 Aahmes sent gifts for its re-building. Instead
of continuing hostilities with Babylon, or attempting
by himself to stem the tide of Persian invasion, then
rapidly setting in, he became an ally of Croesus,
king of Lydia, and promised him a contingent against
Cyrus. On the death of the Persian monarch Canr-
byses immediately attacked Egypt; but Aahmes died
at the beginning of the invasion.

Psamthek IH., b.c. 525.—It was to a lost inherit-