THE ATHENIAN EXPEDITION TO EGYPT AND THE VALUE OF CTESIAS Eyal Meyer introduction In ca 463 b.c., shortly after the death of Xerxes, a rebellion against Persian rule erupted in Egypt. A confederate fleet of the Delian League intervened on behalf of the Egyptian rebels, but the Greco-Egyptian alliance was ultimately crushed by the Persians in 454 b.c. 1 Our knowledge concerning the exploits and grim end of the Athenian expedition to Egypt is derived primarily from the accounts of Thucydides, Ctesias, and Diodorus. 2 There are, as is often the case, discrepancies in the sources. The tendency among modern scholars has been to dismiss the account of Ctesias, deeming it to be of low historical value. In what follows I demonstrate that the disagreements between the accounts of Thucy- dides, Diodorus, and Ctesias are of minor significance and that they are not mutually exclusive. Ctesias’ many shortcomings notwithstanding, his account provides valuable information which allows a more complete reconstruction of this episode. the egyptian episode According to Thucydides, the revolt began at Marea, a town that was situ- ated in Lower Egypt opposite the island of Pharos. After establishing himself as the ruler over the country (a[t˜w Ärxvn gen—menow, Thuc. 1.104.1), Inarus asked the Athenians to support the rebellion. Coincidentally there was a con- federate fleet of approximately 200 ships operating near Cyprus. The Athenians redirected the fleet, and soon enough the confederate armada established its control over the Nile and two-thirds of the capital city of Memphis. The Per- sian forces retreated to the city’s citadel called the White Fort, 3 where they were besieged by the Athenians (1.104.2). Although Artaxerxes i made an attempt to bribe the Peloponnesians to invade Attica, thus forcing the Athenians to recall I would like to thank Matt Waters and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and comments, which greatly contributed to improving the final version of the present study. Any errors which this article may contain are mine alone. 1 The traditional dating for the Athenian involvement in Egypt is 460 b.c. to 454 b.c. Cf. Meiggs 1943: 29, n. 42; Meritt et al. 1950: 174–177; Lloyd 1975: 38–43; Rhodes 2010: 50; Hornblower 2011: 29. For a heterodox dating, see Green 2006: 150–151, n. 302 (462–456 b.c.) and Kahn 2008 (463/2–458/7 b.c.). 2 Thuc. 1.104, 109–110; Ctes. FGrH 688 F14 §36–38; Diod. Sic. 11.71.3–6, 74–75, 77.1–3, 13.25.2. See also Hdt. 3.12, 160.2, 7.7.1; Isoc. 5.86; Pl. Menex. 241d–e; Ael. VH 5.10. Aristodemus FGrH 104 F11; Just. Epit. Prologi 3. 3 Love 2003: 71; Snape 2014: 170. PHOENIX,VOL. 72 (2018) 1–2. 43