The first documented strike in history
A singular episode from the histories of Herodotus
Herodotus was born in the Dorian city of Halicarnassus, now Bodrum in Turkey, ca. 490 BC. He was then exiled to Samos and, from there, he began to travel. Around the middle of the century, he visited several times the Egypt, which was then under early Persian rule. His "Histories" about Egypt (Book II) are based mainly on stories narrated to him by priests, rather than on eyewitness accounts. Therefore, some of the reports he gives are more credible then others: they constitute mere anecdotes without any particular historical corroboration.
In one of them it is documented what is supposed to be the first clash in History between the Government and the Unions. During the XXII and XXIII dynasties, which were contemporaneous (around the time Rome was founded) with the XXIV and XXV, Egypt was again divided and was in the grip of constant infighting. The situation was aggravated by Assyrian incursions, first with Sennacherib and then with Ashurbanipal, who went so far as to destroy Thebes in 661 BC. This had its negative repercussions on the state treasury, which was totally dry!
It was only under the XXVI Dynasty, with Psammeticus I (664-610) that Egypt regained some unity, but this was neither simple nor immediate.
The garrisons guarding Egypt's southern borders, at Elephantine, and those stationed at Pelusio in the east and Marea (?) in the west, had not been resupplied or rotated for over three years. After continuous, repeated, unsuccessful requests to Pharaoh to rectify the situation, in the absence of positive answer by the authority, the soldiers (about two hundred and forty thousand men) decided by mutual agreement to abandon their position and move south in search of new opportunities.
Warned of this, Pharaoh himself rushed after them to try to dissuade the garrisons from their purpose. However, the deserters, despite his intervention, remained firm in their decision. Psammeticus then, in a desperate attempt to bring them back, decided to play the sentiment card, pleading with them, with tears in his eyes, not to abandon their homeland, their homes, their wives, their children ... In response, one of the soldiers, indicating his own genitals, apparently said "Where there are these, there are also homeland, home, wives and children". So, having left Pharaoh stunned, the whole contingent left for the south, where they were enlisted by the king of Nápata.
In fact, Nàpata had already, in the previous dynasty, been the capital of Egypt and a center of Egyptian culture had been established there, partly with the support of priests who had emigrated from Thebes at the time of Assurbanipal's sacking. The capital was then moved still further south to the city of Meroe, at the height of the fifth cataract of the Nile, near present-day Khartoum, and was the last bastion to the Roman subjugation of Egypt, surviving it, as an independent Egyptian kingdom, for about another three hundred years.
