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30.
From this city you make a journey by water equal in distance to that by which you came from Elephantine to the capital city of Ethiopia, and you come to the land of the Deserters. These Deserters are called Asmakh, which translates, in Greek, as “those who stand on the left hand of the king”.
[2]
These once revolted and joined themselves to the Ethiopians, two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of fighting age. The reason was as follows. In the reign of Psammetichus, there were watchposts at Elephantine facing Ethiopia, at Daphnae of Pelusium facing Arabia and Assyria, and at Marea facing Libya.
[3]
And still in my time the Persians hold these posts as they were held in the days of Psammetichus; there are Persian guards at Elephantine and at Daphnae. Now the Egyptians had been on guard for three years, and no one came to relieve them; so, organizing and making common cause, they revolted from Psammetichus and went to Ethiopia.
[4]
Psammetichus heard of it and pursued them; and when he overtook them, he asked them in a long speech not to desert their children and wives and the gods of their fathers. Then one of them, the story goes, pointed to his genitals and said that wherever that was, they would have wives and children.
[5]
So they came to Ethiopia, and gave themselves up to the king of the country; who, to make them a gift in return, told them to dispossess certain Ethiopians with whom he was feuding, and occupy their land. These Ethiopians then learned Egyptian customs and have become milder-mannered by intermixture with the Egyptians.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (32 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(11):
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, B. Konsonanten.
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AETHIO´PIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ELEPHANTI´NE
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MAREIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SEMBRI´TAE
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SYE´NE
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TAHPA´NIS
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter V
- Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, The Article
- Smith's Bio, Psammi'tichus
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Aristotle, Rhetoric, Aristot. Rh. 3.16
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(20):
- LSJ, Σύρος
- LSJ, ἀφίστημι
- LSJ, ἀντι-δωρέομαι
- LSJ, ἀπολύω
- LSJ, ἀριστερός
- LSJ, αἰδοῖον
- LSJ, δείκνυμι
- LSJ, ἔπος
- LSJ, ἐξαιρ-έω
- LSJ, εἶπον
- LSJ, εἰσοικ-ίζω
- LSJ, φρουρά
- LSJ, φρουρ-έω
- LSJ, φυ^λα^κ-εύς
- LSJ, ἥμερος
- LSJ, ἦθος
- LSJ, καταλαμβάνω
- LSJ, μυ_ρι^-άς
- LSJ, πρός
- LSJ, τέκνον
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