Amasis and the Greeks in Egypt

Abstract

The excuse for this article is that the accepted reconstruction of the Hellenic policy of Amasis misinterprets statements of Herodotus and ignores the archaeological evidence. Most historians seem to agree that Amasis was put on the throne as the nominee of a fervid nationalist party; that about 565, to please this party, he concentrated the Greeks in Naucratis, reorganised, if not founded, at this time, and only permitted them access to Egypt by the Canopic branch of the Nile; that at the same time he brought to Memphis from Stratopeda, usually equated with Daphnae and Tell Defenneh, the Greek and Carian mercenaries—either to have them more securely under control or from latent philhellenism; and that later he began more openly to favour the Greeks. Further, the date of the foundation of Naucratis needs further discussion: the view most widely held puts it back to the middle of the seventh century.