s that the fault must be laid on Pharnabazus alone, and
that Iphicrates was entirely blameless.

Three thousand men were despatched with all secrecy to the mouth of the
Mendesian branch of the Nile, and there disembarked unexpectedly before
the forts which guarded the entrance. The garrison, having imprudently
made a sortie in face of the enemy, was put to rout, and pursued so
hotly that victors and vanquished entered pell-mell within the walls.

[Illustration: 293.jpg ARTAXERXES II.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a silver stater in the _Cabinet
des Medailles_.

After this success victory was certain, if the Persians pursued their
advantage promptly and pushed forward straight into the heart of the
Delta; the moment was the more propitious for such a movement, since
Nectanebo had drained Memphis of troops to protect his frontier.
Iphicrates, having obtained this information from one of the prisoners,
advised Pharnabazus to proceed up the Nile with the fleet, and take
the capital by storm before the enemy should have time to garrison it
afresh; the Persian general, however, considered the plan too hazardous,
and preferred to wait until the entire army should have joined him.
Iphicrates offered to risk the adventure with his body of auxiliary
troops only, but was suspected of harbouring some ambitious design, and
was refused permission to advance. Meanwhile these delays had given the
Egyptians time to recover from their first alarm; they boldly took
the offensive, surrounded the position held by Pharnabazus, and were
victorious in several skirmishes. Summer advanced, the Nile rose more
rapidly than usual, and soon the water encroached upon the land; the
invaders were obliged to beat a retreat before it, and fall back towards
Syria. Iphicrates, disgusted at the ineptitude and suspicion of his
Asiatic colleagues, returned secretly to Greece: the remains of the
army were soon after disbanded, and Egypt once more breathed freely.
The check received by the Persian arms, however, was not sufficiently
notorious to shake that species of supremacy which Artaxerxes had
exercised in Greece since the peace of 387. Sparta, Thebes, and Athens
vied with each other in obtaining an alliance with him as keenly as if
he had been successful before Pelusium. Antalcidas reappeared at Susa in
372 B.C. to procure a fresh act of intervention; Pelopidas and Ismenias,
in 367, begged for a rescript similar to that of Antalcidas; an