he should not hold any dealings with the rest
of Egypt.

152. This Psammetichos had formerly been a fugitive from the Ethiopian
Sabacos who had killed his father Necos, from him, I say, he had
then been a fugitive in Syria; and when the Ethiopian had departed in
consequence of the vision of the dream, the Egyptians who were of the
district of Sais brought him back to his own country. Then afterwards,
when he was king, it was his fate to be a fugitive a second time
on account of the helmet, being driven by the eleven kings into the
fen-country. So then holding that he had been grievously wronged by
them, he thought how he might take vengeance on those who had driven
him out: and when he had sent to the Oracle of Leto in the city of Buto,
where the Egyptians have their most truthful Oracle, there was given to
him the reply that vengeance would come when men of bronze appeared from
the sea. And he was strongly disposed not to believe that bronze men
would come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certain
Ionians and Carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled to
come to shore in Egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronze
armour, one of the Egyptians, not having before seen men clad in bronze
armour, came to the fen-land and brought a report to Psammetichos that
bronze men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. So he,
perceiving that the saying of the Oracle was coming to pass, dealt in a
friendly manner with the Ionians and Carians, and with large promises he
persuaded them to take his part. Then when he had persuaded them, with
the help of those Egyptians who favoured his cause and of these foreign
mercenaries he overthrew the kings.

153. Having thus got power over all Egypt, Psammetichos made for
Hephaistos that gateway of the temple at Memphis which is turned towards
the South Wind; and he built a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept
when he appears, opposite to the gateway of the temple, surrounded all
with pillars and covered with figures; and instead of columns there
stand to support the roof of the court colossal statues twelve cubits
high. Now Apis is in the tongue of the Hellenes Epaphos.

154. To the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped him Psammetichos
granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite to one another with
the river Nile between, and these were called "Encampments": 133 these
portions of land he gave them, and he paid them besides all that he