Amasis The Troubleshooter

Chapter 162 (part 1 of 3). Amasis seems to have been a man of outstanding persuasive ability, since he is sent to calm the rebellion by his words. When he observes the readiness of the Egyptians to follow him, his ambition surfaces, and he decides to aim at the throne.

In the vocabulary box, note the Ionic dative plural, in which the contraction is not made, and the third person singular pronoun, which can be either masculine or feminine, though it is shown here as masculine. The inflection of our hero's name is shown at the left; it is typical of Ionic i-stems. Sometimes you can identify an Ionic spelling by sounding it out.

On learning this, Apries sent Amasis to them to stop [them] by persuasion. When, having arrived, he was urging the Egyptians not to do these things, and while he was speaking, one of the Egyptians standing behind him placed a helmet on his head, and said in so doing that it bestowed kingship. And this deed did not occur against his will, I suppose, as he showed. For, when the rebellious Egyptians made him king, he prepared to march against Apries.

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