| May 18, 2013 |
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| Biographies
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Inarus or Inaros
Inaros, son of Psammitichus, a chief of some of the Libyan tribes to the west of Egypt, commenced
hostilities against the Persians at the western extremity of the Delta, and gradually
succeeded in extending them to a general revolt, under his direction, of Egypt.
This, according to Diodorus (xi. 71), would be in B. C. 461. In 460 Inaros called
in the Athenians, who, with a fleet of 200 gallies, were then off Cyprus : the
ships sailed up to Memphis, and, occupying two parts of the town, besieged the
third (Thuc. i. 104). This was probably preceded by a great battle, recorded by
Ctesias and Diodorus (Diod. xi. 74; Ctesias, 32), in which an immense host of
Persians was defeated, and Achacmenes, the brother of the king Artaxerxes, slain
by the hand of Inaros. But a new army, under a new commander, Megabyzus, was more
successful. The Egyptians and their allies were defeated; and Inaros, says Thucydides
(i. 110), was taken by treachery, and crucified, B. C. 455. According to Ctesias
he retreated, when all Egypt fell from him, into the town of Byblus, and here
capitulated with the Greeks, on the promise that his life should be spared. Megabyzus
thus carried him prisoner to the court; and here the urgency of Amytis, the mother
of the king, and Achaemenes, drove Artaxerxes, after five years' interval, to
break the engagement which he had confirmed to his general. Inaros was put to
a barbarous death, a combination, it sees, of impaling and flaying alive (epi
trisi staurois, Ctesias; comp. Plut. Artax. c. 17). Megabyzus, in indignation,
revolted. Herodotus records the death of Achaemenes by the hand of Inaros, and
speaks of having seen the bones of those that fell with him in battle at Papremis
(Herod. vii. 7, iii. 12). He also tells us that though Inaros had done the Persians
more hurt than any man before him, his son Thannyras was allowed to succeed him
in his government, that is, we must suppose, of the Libyan tribes. (Herod. iii.
15)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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