e
nature of their life; but the name of Pallacides which he
applies to them proves that their manner of life was really
that which Strabo describes.

It is uncertain how long Assur-bani-pal in the north, and Tanuatamanu
in the south, respectively maintained a precarious sovereignty over the
portions of Egypt nearest to their own capitals.

[Illustration: 338.jpg STATUE OF A THEBAN QUEEN]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Bissing. The
statue, whose feet are missing, represents either Amenertas
I. or Mutertas; it was never completely finished, and
several of the parts have never received their final polish.

The opening of the reign of Psammetichus seems to have been fraught with
difficulties, and the tradition which represents him as proscribed by
his peers, and confined to the marshes of the sea-coast, has probably a
certain basis of truth. Pakruru, who had brought all the western part
of the Delta under his own influence, and who, incessantly oscillating
between Assyria and Ethiopia, had yet been able to preserve his power
and his life, had certainly not of his own free will renounced the
hope of some day wearing the double crown. It was against him or his
successor that Psammetichus must have undertaken his first wars, and
it was perhaps with the help of Assyrian governors that the federal
coalition drove him back to the coast. He extricated himself from this
untoward situation by the help of Greek and Asiatic mercenaries, his
Ionians and Carians. Some historians stated that the decisive battle
was fought near Memphis, in sight of the temple of Isis; others affirmed
that it took place at Momemphis, that several of the princes perished
in the conflict, and that the rest escaped into Libya, whence they never
returned; others, again, spoke of an encounter on the Nile, when the
fleet of the Saite king dispersed that of his rivals. It is, in fact,
probable that a single campaign sufficed for Psammetichus, as formerly
for the Ethiopian pretenders, to get the upper hand, and that the
Egyptian feudal lords submitted after one or two defeats at most, hoping
that, as in days gone by, when the first dash made by the new Pharaoh
was over, his authority would decline, and their own would regain the
ascendency. Events showed that they were deceived. Psammetichus, better
served by his Hellenes than Tafnakhti or Bocchoris had been by
their Libyans, or Pionkhi and Tanuatamanu by their