Ashdod, we are told, resisted the Egyptian arms for twenty-nine years;
and though it fell at last, the prospect of half-a-dozen such sieges was
not encouraging. Psamatik, moreover, was an old man by the time that the
Assyrian Empire fell to pieces, and we can understand his shrinking from
a distant and dangerous expedition. He left the field open for his son,
Neco, having in no way committed him, but having secured for him a ready
entrance into Asia by his conquest of the Philistine fortress.

Neco, the son of Psamatik I., from the moment that he ascended the
throne, resolved to make the bold stroke for empire from which his
father had held back. Regarding his mercenary army as a sufficient land
force, he concentrated his energies on the enlargement and improvement
of his navy, which was weak in numbers and of antiquated construction.
Naval architecture had recently made great strides, first by the
inventiveness of the Phœnicians, who introduced the bireme, and then by
the skill of the Greeks, who, improving on the hint furnished them,
constructed the trireme. Neco, by the help of Greek artificers, built
two fleets, both composed of triremes, one in the ports which opened on
the Red Sea, the other in those upon the Mediterranean. He then, with
the object of uniting the two fleets into one, when occasion should
require, made an attempt to re-open the canal between the Nile and the
Red Sea, which had been originally constructed by Seti I. and Ramesses
II., but had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The Nile mud and the
desert sand had combined to silt it up. Neco commenced excavations on a
large scale, following the line of the old cutting, but greatly widening
it, so that triremes might meet in it and pass each other, without
shipping their oars. After a time, however, he felt compelled to desist,
without effecting his purpose, owing to an extraordinary mortality among
the labourers. According to Herodotus, 120,000 of them perished. At any
rate, the suffering and loss of life, probably by epidemics, was such as