Psammetĭchus

, a king of Egypt. He was one of the 12 princes who shared the kingdom among themselves; but as he was more popular than the rest, he was banished from his dominions, and retired into the marshes near the sea-shore. A descent of some of the Greeks upon Egypt proved favourable to his cause: he joined the enemy, and defeated the 11 princes who had expelled him from the country. He rewarded the Greeks, by whose valour he had recovered Egypt, he allotted them some territory on the sea-coast, patronized the liberal arts, and encouraged commerce among his subjects. He made usele inquiries to find the sources of the Nile, and he stopped, by bribes and money, a large army of Scythians that were marching against him. He died 617 years before the christian era, and was buried in Minerva’s temple at Sais. During his reign there was a contention among some of the neighbouring nations about the antiquity of their language. Psammetichus took a part in the contest. He confined two young children and fed them with milk; the shepherd to whose care they were entrusted was ordered never to speak to them, but to watch diligently their articulations. After some time the shepherd observed, that whenever he entered the place of their confinement they repeatedly exclaimed Beccos , and he gave information of this to the monarch. Psammetichus made inquiries, and found that the word Beccos signified bread in the Phœnician language, and from that circumstance, therefore, it was universally concluded that the language of Phœnicia was of the greatest antiquity. Hero dot us , bk. 2 , ch. 28 , . — Polyænus , bk. 8 .— Strabo , bk. 16 .――A son of Gordius, brother to Per i an der, who held the tyranny at Corinth for three years, B.C. 584. Aristotle , Politics , bk. 5 , ch. 12 .