I had already, with Mieczyslaw, devoted myself eagerly to the history of the ancient East, and Lepsius especially approved these studies.

The list of the kings which I compiled at that time, from the most remote sources to the Sassanida, won the commendation of A.von Gutschmid, the most able investigator in this department.

These researches led me also to Persia and the other Asiatic countries.

Egypt, of course, remained the principal province of my work.

The study of the kings from the twenty-sixth dynasty--that is, the one with which the independence of the Pharaohs ended and the rule of the Persians under Cambyses began in the valley of the Nile--occupied me a long time.