The last insurrection was more successful than those which had preceded it, and Egypt remained independent for sixty-five years.

Then the crimes and incompetence of its last native king, Nektanebo II., opened the way to the Persian, and the valley of the Nile once more bowed its neck under the Persian yoke.
Its temples were ruined, the sacred Apis slain, and an ass set up in mockery in its place.
A few years later Egypt welcomed the Macedonian Alexander as a deliverer, and recognised him as a god.

The line of the Pharaohs, the incarnations of the Sun-god, had returned in him to the earth.

It was not the first time that the Egyptian and the Greek had stood side by side against the common Persian foe.

Greek troops had disputed the passage of Kambyses into Egypt.