the XXVIth dynasty, or that Ammeris was
only enthroned at Memphis after the death of Sabaco; but the
lists of the Syncellus and of Sothis assign 27 years to the
reign of Stephinates.

** The astrological works of Nekhepsos are cited, among
others, by Pliny, and it is probably he whom a Greek papyrus
of the Salt Collection mentions under the name of Nekheus.

Necho had already occupied the throne for three or four years when the
invasion of 670 B.C. delivered him from the Ethiopian supremacy. He is
represented as being brave, energetic, and enterprising, ready to hazard
everything in order to attain the object towards which the ambition of
his ancestors had been tending for a century past, namely, to restore
unity to the ancient kingdom under the rule of the house of Sais. The
extent of his realm, and, above all, the possession of Memphis, gave him
a real superiority, and Esarhaddon did not hesitate to esteem him above
his competitors; the Ninevite scribes placed him in the first rank, and
he heads the list of the Egyptian vassals. He soon had an opportunity
of proving his devotion to his foreign suzerain. Taharqa did not
quietly accept his defeat, and Egypt looked to him to be revenged on the
Assyrian as soon as he should have reorganised his army. He once more,
accordingly, took the field in the middle of 669 B.C.; the barons of the
Said rallied to his standard without hesitation, and he soon re-entered
the "White Wall," but there his advance was arrested. Necho and the
neighbouring chiefs of the Delta, held in check by the presence of
Semitic garrisons, did not venture to proclaim themselves on his
side, and awaited under arms the arrival of Assyrian reinforcements.*
Esarhaddon, in spite of failing health, assumed command of the troops,
and before leaving home carried out the project to which the conspiracy
of the preceding year had given rise; he assigned the government of
Babylon to Shamash-shumukin, and solemnly designated Assur-bani-pal
as the heir to Assyria proper, and to the suzerainty over the whole
empire.**

* The first Egyptian campaign of Assur-bani-pal is also the
last campaign of Esarhaddon, and Assur-bani-pal appropriated
all the earlier incidents of it, some of which belong to the
sole reign of his father, and some to the few weeks in which
he shared the throne with him.

** The association of Assur-bani-pal with his father on the
th