this interval, the Athenians having defeated the Persian fleet, and either destroyed or taken fifty of their ships; they went again up that river, landed their forces under the command of Charitimis their general; and having joined Inarus and his Egyptians, they charged Achæmenes, and defeated him in a great battle, in which that Persian general, and an hundred thousand of his soldiers were slain. Those who escaped, fled to Memphis, whither the conquerors pursued them, and immediately made themselves masters of two quarters of the city: but the Persians having fortified themselves in the third, called the white wall, which was the largest and strongest of the three, they were besieged in it nearly three years, during which they made a most vigorous defence, till they were at last delivered by the forces sent to their aid.
Artaxerxes hearing of the defeat of his army, and how much the Athenians had contributed to it; to make a diversion of their forces, and oblige them to turn their arms another way, he sent ambassadors to the Lacedæmonians with a large sum of money, to engage them to proclaim war against the Athenians. But the Lacedæmonians having rejected the offer, their refusal did not abate his ardor, and accordingly he gave Megabysus and Artabazus the command of the forces designed against Egypt. These generals immediately raised an army of three hundred thousand men in Cilicia and Phœnica. They were obliged to wait till the fleet was equipped, which was not till the next year. Artabazus then took upon him the command of it, and sailed towards the Nile, whilst Megabysus, at the head of the land-army, marched towards Memphis. He raised the siege of that city, and afterwards fought Inarus. All the forces on both sides engaged in this battle, in which Inarus was entirely defeated: but the Egyptians, who had rebelled, suffered most in this slaughter. After this defeat, Inarus, though wounded by Megabysus, retreated with the Athenians, and such Egyptians as were willing to follow him; and reached Biblos, a city in the island of Prosopitis, which is surrounded by two arms of the Nile, and both navigable. The Athenians ran their fleet into one of these arms, where it was secured from the attacks of the
