Ebook The History of Egypt

During the next two hundred years, beginning with the conquest of the country by Cambyses, Egypt was mostly a province of Persia, and when not smarting under the tyranny of a foreign satrap was suffering as severely from its own half-successful attempts to regain its freedom. In these struggles between the Egyptians and their conquerors both parties trusted much to the courage of Greek mercenaries and allies; the Athenians were ranged on one side and the Spartans on the other; Persians and Egyptians had both placed the sword in the hands of the Greeks; and hence, when the power of Macedonia rose over the rest of Greece, when the Greek mercenaries ?ocked to the standard of Alexander, he found little difficulty in adding Persia, and its tributary province Egypt, to the rest of his conquests. For three hundred years after the Macedonian conquest Egypt was an independent Greek kingdom, and nearly as remarkable for wealth and power under Ptolemy and his descendants, as it had been under its native sovereigns, and that at a time respecting which the faint traditions of con sular Rome do not deserve the name of history. Though the Nubian gold mines were no longer worth working, the.