discontent, at all events amongst those who,
living in the Delta, had had their patriotism or their interests most
affected by the downfall of the Saite dynasty. It would appear that the
priests of Buto, whose oracles exercised an indisputable influence alike
over Greeks and natives, had energetically incited the people to revolt.
The storm broke in 486, and a certain Khabbisha, who perhaps belonged
to the family of Psammetichus, proclaimed himself king both at Sais and
Memphis.*

* Herodotus does not give the name of the leader of the
rebellion, but says that it took place in the fourth year
after Marathon. A demotic contract in the Turin Museum bears
the date of the third month of the second season of the
thirty-fifth year of Darius I.: Khabbisha's rebellion
therefore broke out between June and September, 486. Stern
makes this prince to have been of Libyan origin. From the
form of his name, Revillout has supposed that he was an
Arab, and Birch was inclined to think that he was a Persian
satrap who made a similar attempt to that of Aryandes. But
nothing is really known of him or of his family previous to
his insurrection against Darius.

[Illustration: 221.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OF DARIUS AT HABIT]

Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Cailliaud.

Darius did not believe the revolt to be of sufficient gravity to delay
his plans for any length of time. He hastily assembled a second
army, and was about to commence hostilities on the banks of the Nile
simultaneously with those on the Hellespont, when he died in 485, in the
thirty-sixth year of his reign. He was one of the great sovereigns of
the ancient world--the greatest without exception of those who had ruled
over Persia. Cyrus and Cambyses had been formidable warriors, and the
kingdoms of the Bast had fallen before their arms, but they were purely
military sovereigns, and if their successor had not possessed other
abilities than theirs, their empire would have shared the fate of that
of the Medes and the Chaldaeans; it would have sunk to its former level
as rapidly as it had risen, and the splendour of its opening years
would have soon faded from remembrance. Darius was no less a general
by instinct and training than they, as is proved by the campaigns which
procured him his crown; but, after having conquered, he knew how to
organise and build up a solid fabric out of the materials which his
predec