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When Apries, at the head of his mercenaries, and Amasis, in
command of the whole native force of the Egyptians, encountered one
another near the city of Momemphis, an engagement presently took
place. The foreign troops fought bravely, but were overpowered by
numbers, in which they fell very far short of their adversaries. It
is said that Apries believed that there was not a god who could cast
him down from his eminence, so firmly did he think that he had
established himself in his kingdom. But at this time the battle went
against him, and his army being worsted, he fell into the enemy's
hands and was brought back a prisoner to Sais, where he was lodged in
what had been his own house, but was now the palace of Amasis.
Amasis treated him with kindness, and kept him in the palace for a
while; but finding his conduct blamed by the Egyptians, who charged
him with acting unjustly in preserving a man who had shown himself so
bitter an enemy both to them and him, he gave Apries over into the
hands of his former subjects, to deal with as they chose. Then the
Egyptians took him and strangled him, but having so done they buried
him in the sepulchre of his fathers. This tomb is in the temple of
Minerva, very near the sanctuary, on the left hand as one enters.
The Saites buried all the kings who belonged to their canton inside
this temple; and thus it even contains the tomb of Amasis, as well as
that of Apries and his family. The latter is not so close to the
sanctuary as the former, but still it is within the temple. It stands
in the court, and is a spacious cloister built of stone and adorned
with pillars carved so as to resemble palm trees, and with other
sumptuous ornaments. Within the cloister is a chamber with folding
doors, behind which lies the sepulchre of the king.
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