ambyses would have
given the new town which he built there the name of his
sister Meroe. The traditions concerning Cambusis and Meroe
belong to the Alexandrine era, and rest only on chance
similarities of sound. With regard to the Ethiopian province
of the Persian empire and to the Ethiopian neighbours of
Egypt whom Cambyses subdued, the latter are not necessarily
Ethiopians of Napata. Herodotus himself says that the
Ethiopians dwelt in the country above Elephantine, and that
half of what he calls the island of Takhompso was inhabited
by Ethiopians: the subjugated Ethiopians and their country
plainly correspond with the Dodekaschenos of the Graeco-Roman
era.

Cambyses had to rest content with the acquisition of those portions of
Nubia adjoining the first cataract--the same, in fact, that had been
annexed to Egypt by Psammetichus I. and II. (523). The failure of this
expedition to the south, following so closely on the disaster which
befell that of the west, had a deplorable effect on the mind of
Cambyses. He had been subject, from childhood, to attacks of epilepsy,
during which he became a maniac and had no control over his actions.
These reverses of fortune aggravated the disease, and increased the
frequency and length of the attacks.*

* Recent historians admit neither the reality of the illness
of Cambyses nor the madness resulting from it, but consider
them Egyptian fables, invented out of spite towards the king
who had conquered and persecuted them.

The bull Apis had died shortly before the close of the Ethiopian
campaign, and the Egyptians, after mourning for him during the
prescribed number of weeks, were bringing his successor with rejoicings
into the temple of Phtah, when the remains of the army re-entered
Memphis. Cambyses, finding the city holiday-making, imagined that it was
rejoicing over his misfortunes. He summoned the magistrates before him,
and gave them over to the executioner without deigning to listen to
their explanations. He next caused the priests to be brought to him, and
when they had paraded the Apis before him, he plunged his dagger into
its flank with derisive laughter: "Ah, evil people! So you make for
yourselves divinities of flesh and blood which fear the sword! It is
indeed a fine god that you Egyptians have here; I will have you to know,
however, that you shall not rejoice overmuch at having deceived me!