There still remained to these misguided Jews one consolation which they shared in common with the prophets—­the certainty of seeing the hereditary foes of Israel involved in the common overthrow:  Ammon had been already severely chastised; Tyre, cut off from the neighbouring mainland, seemed on the point of succumbing, and the turn of Egypt must surely soon arrive in which she would have to expiate in bitter sufferings the wrongs her evil counsels had brought upon Jerusalem.  Their anticipated joy, however, of witnessing such chastisements was not realised.  Tyre defied for thirteen years the blockade of Nebuchadrezzar, and when the city at length decided to capitulate, it was on condition that its king, Ethbaal III., should continue to reign under the almost nominal suzerainty of the Chaldeans (574 B.C.).*

* The majority of Christian writers have imagined, contrary to the testimony of the Phoenician annals, that the island of Tyre was taken by Nebuchadrezzar; they say that the Chaldaeans united the island to the mainland by a causeway similar to that constructed subsequently by Alexander.  It is worthy of notice that a local tradition, still existing in the eleventh century of our era, asserted that the besiegers were not successful in their enterprise.

Egypt continued not only to preserve her independence, but seemed to increase in prosperity in proportion to the intensity of the hatred which she had stirred up against her.

[Illustration:  436.jpg BRONZE LION OF BOHBAIT]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an engraving in Mariette.

Apries set about repairing the monuments and embellishing the temples:  he erected throughout the country stelae, tables of offerings, statues and obelisks, some of which, though of small size, like that which adorns the Piazza della Minerva at Borne,* erected so incongruously on the back of a modern elephant, are unequalled for purity of form and delicacy of cutting.  The high pitch of artistic excellence to which the schools of the reign of Psam-metichus II. had attained was maintained at the same exalted level.  If the granite sphinxes** and bronze lions of this period lack somewhat in grace of form, it must be acknowledged that they display greater refinement and elegance in the technique of carving or moulding than had yet been attained.

     * [One of the two obelisks of the Campus Martius, on which
     site the Church of S. Maria Sopra Minerva was built.—­Tr.]

     ** Above the summary of the contents of the present chapter,
     will be found one of these sphinxes which was discovered in
     Rome.

[Illustration:  437.jpg THE SMALL OBELISK IN THE PIAZZA DELLA MINERVA AT HOME]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.