History of the Peloponnesian War

Meanwhile the Athenians in Egypt and their allies were still there, and encountered all the vicissitudes of war.

First the Athenians were masters of Egypt, and the king sent Megabyzus, a Persian, to Lacedaemon with money to bribe the Peloponnesians to invade Attica and so draw off the Athenians from Egypt.

Finding that the matter made no progress, and that the money was only being wasted, he recalled Megabazus with the remainder of the money, and sent Megabuzus, son of Zopyrus, a Persian, with a large army to Egypt.

Arriving by land he defeated the Egyptians and their allies in a battle, and drove the Hellenes out of Memphis, and at length shut them up in the island of Prosopitis, where he besieged them for a year and six months. At last, draining the canal of its waters, which he diverted into another channel, he left their ships high and dry and joined most of the island to the mainland, and then marched over on foot and captured it.