hen the Persians had arrived within a few days' march of
Sidon, Tennes proclaimed that a general assembly of the Phoenician
deputies was to be held, and under pretext of escorting the hundred
leading men of his city to the appointed place of meeting, led them into
the enemy's camp, where they were promptly despatched by the javelins of
the soldiery. The Sidonians, deserted by their king, were determined
to carry on the struggle, in the expectation of receiving succour from
Egypt; but the Persian darics had already found their way into the hands
of the mercenary troops, and the general whom Nectanebo had lent them,
declared that his men considered the position desperate, and that he
should surrender the city at the first summons. The Sidonians thereupon
found themselves reduced to the necessity of imploring the mercy of the
conqueror, and five hundred of them set out to meet him as suppliants,
carrying olive branches in their hands. Bub Ochus was the most cruel
monarch who had ever reigned in Persia--the only one, perhaps, who was
really bloodthirsty by nature; he refused to listen to the entreaties of
the suppliants, and, like the preceding hundred delegates, they were all
slain. The remaining citizens, perceiving that they could not hope for
pardon, barricaded themselves in their houses, to which they set fire
with their own hands; forty thousand persons perished in the flames, and
so great was the luxury in the appointments of the private houses,
that large sums were paid for the right to dig for the gold and silver
ornaments buried in the ruins. The destruction of the city was almost as
complete as in the days of Esarhaddon. When Sidon had thus met her fate,
the Persians had no further reason for sparing its king, Tennes, and he
was delivered to the executioner; whereupon the other Phoenician kings,
terrified by his fate, opened their gates without a struggle.

Once more the treachery of a few traitors had disconcerted the plans of
the Pharaoh, and delivered the outposts of Egypt into the hands of the
enemy: but Ochus renewed his preparations with marvellous tenacity, and
resolved to neglect nothing which might contribute to his final success.
His victories had confirmed the cities of the empire in their loyalty,
and they vied with one another in endeavouring to win oblivion for their
former hesitation by their present zeal: "What city, or what nation of
Asia did not send embassies to the sovereign? what wealth did the