TAHPA´NIS
TAHPA´NIS or
TEHAPHE´NES (
Jerem. 43.7, 44.1;
Ezek. 30.18;
ἐς Τάφνας, LXX.), is supposed to be the same place with the Daphne of Pelusium of the Greeks.
It was the seat of a garrison under the native and the Persian kings of Aegypt (
Hdt. 2.30), and was probably a place of considerable strength and importance, since it commanded the high road to Syria (
Strab. xvii. p.802).
According to the Hebrew writers, Tahpanis was also occasionally a royal residence in Pharaonic times.
In the reign of Psammitichus (B.C. 670, foll.) the troops quartered at Tahpanis, in common with the rest of the native Aegyptian army, offended by the king's favour to his Carian and Greek mercenaries, abandoned their country, and established themselves in the Regio Dodecaschoenus S. of Syene (
Diod. 1.67). From the Itineraries it appears that Daphne or Tahpanis was 16 Roman miles from Pelusium.
Tel-defenneh, lying nearly in a direct line between the modern
Sala-kéëeh and Pelusium, is supposed to be on the site of Tahpanis.
[
W.B.D]
