According to Herodotus, a priest called Sethon became pharaoh after Anysis. He had no interest in the military classes, and so he scorned their accomplishments and took some of the land that they had been granted by the previous king. As a result, they refused to defend Egypt when Sanacharib of the Arabians (Sennacherib the Assyrian king) marched against them with a huge army. The priest implored the gods for help, and was told in a dream that no harm would befall him if he went to meet the Assyrian army. He gathered a group of trusty citizens (artisans, shop-keepers etc) and they went out to meet the army. But the god sent the mice of the fields to destroy the army´s weapons, causing them to flee the little band of Egyptians. The princes then constructed a statue of him carrying a small mouse and inscribed on the pedestal "Let him who looks upon me learn to fear the gods".
It is thought that the "priest" was in fact Shebiku, the second of Shabaka´s nephews to rule Egypt. He sided with the Phonecian and Palestinian kingdoms against their Assyrian overlords, but could not prevent their defeat by Sennacherib. The Assyrians did retreat before an advancing Egyptian army, a number of times. But, it was not Shebiku, but his successor Taharqa who fought the Assyrians and forced them to retreat. It seems that Herodotus simply nicked (or was told) a version of the Biblical story of the pestilence which destroyed the Assyrian army before Jerusalem.
