o approach Carthage
by sea. The combined fleets of Ionia and Phonicia were without doubt
numerically sufficient for this undertaking, but the Tyrians refused to
serve against their own colonies, and he did not venture to employ the
Greeks alone in waters which were unfamiliar to them. Besides this, the
information which he obtained from those about him convinced him that
the overland route would enable him to reach his destination more surely
if more slowly; it would lead him from the banks of the Nile to the
Oases of the Theban desert, from there to the Ammonians, and thence by
way of the Libyans bordering on the Syrtes and the Liby-phoenicians. He
despatched an advance-guard of fifty thousand men from Thebes to occupy
the Oasis of Ammon and to prepare the various halting-places for
the bulk of the troops. The fate of these men has never been clearly
ascertained. They crossed the Oasis of El-Khargeh and proceeded to
the north-west in the direction of the oracle. The natives afterwards
related that when they had arrived halfway, a sudden storm of wind fell
upon them, and the entire force was buried under mounds of sand during
a halt. Cambyses was forced to take their word; in spite of all his
endeavours, no further news of his troops was forthcoming, except that
they never reached the temple, and that none of the generals or soldiers
ever again saw Egypt (524). The expedition to Ethiopia was not more
successful. Since the retreat of Tanuatamanu, the Pharaohs of Napata had
severed all direct relations with Asia; but on being interfered with
by Psammetichus I. and II., they had repulsed the invaders, and had
maintained their frontier almost within sight of Philae.* In Nubia proper
they had merely a few outposts stationed in the ruins of the towns of
the Theban period--at Derr, at Pnubsu, at Wady-Halfa, and at Semneh;
the population again becoming dense and the valley fertile to the
south of this spot. Kush, like Egypt, was divided into two regions
--To-Qonusit, with its cities of Danguru,** Napata, Asta-muras, and
Barua; and Alo,*** which extended along the White and the Blue Nile
in the plain of Sennaar: the Asmakh, the descendants of the Mashauasha
emigrants of the time of Psammetichus I., dwelt on the southern border
of Alo.

* The northern boundary of Ethiopia is given us
approximately by the lists of temples in the inscriptions of
Harsiatef and of Nastosenen: Pnubsu is mentioned several
times as