4 THALIA.

" deceived you; he has adorned my person, and sent
" me to you as his daughter; but Apries was my fa-
" ther, whom Amasia, with his other rebellious sub-
" jects, dethroned and put to death." This speech
and this occasion immediately prompted Cambyses,
in great wrath, to commence hostilities against Egypt.
Such is the Persian account of the story.

II. The Egyptians claim Cambyses as their own,
by asserting that this incident did not happen to him,
but to Cyrus, from whom, and from this daughter of
Apries, they say he was bom. This, however, is
certainly not true. The Egyptians are of all man­
kind the best conversant with the Persian manners,
and they must have known that a natural child could
never succeed to the throne of Persia, while a le­
gitimate one was alive. It was equally certain that
Cambyses was not born of an Egyptian woman, but
was the son of Cassandane, the daughter of Phar-
naspe, of the race of the Achaemenides. This story,
therefore, was invented by the Egyptians, that they
might from this pretence claim a connexion with the
house of Cyrus.

III. Another story also is asserted, which to me
seems improbable. They say that a Persian lady
once visiting the wives of Cyrus, saw standing near
their mother, the children of Cassandane, whom she
complimented in high terms on their superior excel­
lence of form and person. "Me," replied Cassandane,
"who am the mother of these children, Cyrus ne-
" gleets and despises; all his kindness is bestowed on
" this Egyptian female." This she said from resent­
ment against Nitetis. They add that Cambyses, her
eldest son, instantly exclaimed, "Mother, as soon as
" I am a man, I will effect the utter destruction of
" Egypt." These words, from a prince who was then
only ten years of age, surprised and delighted the
women; and as soon as he became a man, and suc­
ceeded to the throne, he remembered the incident, and
commenced hostilities against Egypt.

IV. He had'another inducement to this undertak­
ing. Among the auxiliaries of Amasis was a man
named Phanes, a native of Halicarnassus, and greatly