Towards the Jews, however, he acted with exceptional lenity, protecting them from persecution and securing them the enjoyment of their legal privileges.
Amasis, sent to meet them and quell the revolt, was proclaimed king by the rebels, and Apries, who had now to rely entirely on his mercenaries, was defeated and taken prisoner in the ensuing conflict at Momemphis; the usurper treated the captive prince with great lenity, but was eventually persuaded to give him up to the people, by whom he was strangled and buried in his ancestral tomb at Sais.
This ill-judged lenity provoked a few months later an intolerable insult to his dignity.
Severity and extreme lenity were strangely mingled in the treatment he received.
This savage punishment was approved by the higher officers of the navy, who showed great lenity to men of their own rank.