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Psammis reigned only six years. He attacked Ethiopia, and died
almost directly afterwards. Apries, his son, succeeded him upon the
throne, who, excepting Psammetichus, his great-grandfather, was
the most prosperous of all the kings that ever ruled over Egypt. The
length of his reign was twenty-five years, and in the course of it he
marched an army to attack Sidon, and fought a battle with the king of
Tyre by sea. When at length the time came that was fated to bring him
woe, an occasion arose which I shall describe more fully in my Libyan
history, only touching it very briefly here. An army despatched by
Apries to attack Cyrene, having met with a terrible reverse, the
Egyptians laid the blame on him, imagining that he had, of malice
prepense, sent the troops into the jaws of destruction. They believed
he had wished a vast number of them to be slain in order that he himself
might reign with more security over the rest of the Egyptians.
Indignant therefore at this usage, the soldiers who returned and the
friends of the slain broke instantly into revolt.
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