The Twitter Herodotus

2.151 Everything was fine until 1 of the 12, Psammetichus, was driven out by the rest because an oracle prophesied he'd rule Egypt alone.

2.152 Another oracle said he would be helped by men of bronze coming from the sea, & he was: bronze-armored pirates helped him regain power.

2.153 Psammetichus came to power and built a court for the bull god Apis, where he is kept when he appears. (The Greeks call Apis Epaphus.)

2.154 Psammetichus settled the Ionian & Carian pirates who had helped him in Egypt. Egyptian children learned Greek from them.

2.155 So much for Psammetichus. There’s an oracle at Buto in Egypt. I saw there a temple made of a single stone, each wall 60 x 60 ft.

2.156 In the shrine at Buto there is a floating island in a lake where the goddess Leto lived. She hid Apollo there to save him from Typhon.

2.157 Psammetichus was king for 54 yrs. He besieged Azotus in Syria for 29 yrs--to my knowledge the longest siege ever endured by a city.

2.158 Psammetichus' son Necos ruled next. He began digging a canal between Bubastis in the Delta & the Red Sea. 120,000 men died digging it.

2.159 Necos ruled for sixteen years, after which the kingship passed to his son Psammis.

2.160 Eleans came and bragged to Psammis about how just the Olympics were. Psammis said they wouldn't be impartial if foreigners competed.