Talk:Pelusium

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).

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[edit] Site

The fact the ruins "are found at Tineh, near Damietta" is very unlikely. It is very doubtful that Champollion or Dénon would say so. Of course "near" is very subjective. Yet you need to be observing from Mars to find they are near.--Connection 18:21, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] battles

One of the battles was won by the Persians as their king had the soldiers holding cats as they went into battle, which was sacrilege for the Egyptians. I will get a source. Chris 03:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Caveat lector! This credulous story is all over the Web at various cat sites. Few know to credit the Macedonian rhetorician Polyaenus (2nd century CE), writing in his Stratagems in war (Στρατηγηματα), and giving as an example the historical battle of Pelusium of 525 BCE, who states that the attacking Persian soldiers shielded themselves behind live sacred animals, including cats. The Egyptians, unable to fire at the Persians for fear of killing their deities, lost the battle. The only truth of the story is in its display of the Hellenistic sense of superiority to native Egyptians, whom they regarded as hidebound and superstitious. Earlier, Herodotus, Histories ii, gives many instances, which also need to be taken with a grain of salt, for the same reasons. The cat story, in sum, is a cock-and-bull story. --Wetman 07:47, 1 November 2006 (UTC)