﻿By the late 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great had established the Achaemenid Empire as the
first major superpower in the Near East. Following Cyrus’ death, his son and successor,
Cambyses II, sought to continue his father’s legacy by mounting an invasion against the
final great power remaining in the region, the kingdom of Egypt.
Cambyses’ talent for warfare led him to dominate his African neighbor and become the first Persian pharaoh of Egypt!
Cambyses II was born the eldest son of Cyrus the Great and Queen
Cassandana during the early 6th century BC. His family belonged to the Achaemenid dynasty,
which made him a descendant of the dynasty’s legendary eponymous founder, King Achaemenes,
who reigned over the Persian city of Anshan during the late 8th century BC.
His father, Cyrus, had formed the First Persian Empire by conquering the lands of the Medes,
the Neo-Babylonians, and the Lydians. This made Cambyses heir to the largest and
most powerful empire in the world.
Both Cyrus and his son carried the royal titles “King of Babylon" and "King of the
Lands” to reinforce the idea that Cambyses was the intended successor to the Persian throne.
The Cyrus Cylinder, which is a small clay artifact that is inscribed all around in
Akkadian cuneiform script, tells of how Cyrus and Cambyses both received blessings from the
supreme Babylonian deity, Marduk, further solidifying their roles as ruler and heir.
According to the 5th-century Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses went along with Cyrus on his
final campaign in 530 BC but was sent away before his father’s defeat at the hands of Queen Tomyris
and her nomadic Massagetae warriors. As the new king of the Achaemenid Empire,
Cambyses sought to continue his father’s policies and fulfill his vision of incorporating the whole
of the Near East under Persian hegemony by conquering the kingdom of Egypt.
However, according to Herodotus, Cambyses’ primary motivation for invading Egypt was to
get revenge on Pharaoh Amasis II for deceiving him during a marriage arrangement.
Cambyses had requested to wed the pharaoh’s daughter, which the Egyptian ruler accepted,
but fearing that she would become the king’s concubine, Amasis decided to send an
imposter named Nitetis instead, whom Herodotus described as being "tall and beautiful".
Unwilling to take part in the deception, Nitetis immediately revealed her true
identity and the pharaoh’s nefarious plot upon her arrival in Persia.
Cambyses became enraged and quickly began preparing for a full-scale invasion of Egypt.
The king would never get revenge personally because the aging pharaoh
died soon thereafter and was succeeded by his inexperienced son, Psamtik III in 526 BC.
In preparation, Cambyses established Persia’s navy by ordering the construction of 300
trireme warships, which Phoenicians predominantly built and manned.
Phoenicians had a reputation for being masters of the sea and were often hired by foreign
powers for their seafaring abilities. Leveraging his newly commissioned navy,
Cambyses easily subdued the island of Cyprus, which had been under Egyptian
control for nearly a half-century prior. The native Kings of Cyprus were allowed to
continue ruling but had to pay tribute to the Achaemenid Empire from there forward.
In addition, Cambyses cleverly negotiated a treaty with the Arabs, who controlled the desert
lands between his territory and Egypt. The treaty provided the Persian army with
safe passage and enough water to reach the Nile River.
It also allowed Cambyses to exercise authority over prominent independent
regions like Gaza, which the king chose as the headquarters for his invasion.
The first major battle between Persia and Egypt happened in May of 525 BC,
at the city of Pelusium, located in the far northeast of the Nile Delta.
The Persians exploited the Egyptians' fear of harming animals that they viewed as sacred, such
as cats, dogs, and sheep, by having them placed all along the front lines of the battlefield.
The fear of angering their gods was so great that many Egyptian soldiers fled or surrendered
rather than risk injuring an animal. Supposedly, Persian warriors went as far as
tossing cats at their enemies during battle and even strapping them to the front of their shields
as a way of avoiding enemy archer fire. This is one of the first instances in recorded
history of psychological warfare being employed.
The Persians overwhelmed their enemies, resulting in a massacre that killed about
50,000 Egyptians, but only 7,000 Persians. Herodotus even claimed that he walked through a
sea of skulls when visiting the site 80 years after the Battle of Pelusium.
Pharaoh Psamtik and his remaining soldiers were in complete disarray
and fled south to the city of Memphis to make a last stand for their lives.
The Persian forces soon laid siege to Memphis, effortlessly killing the
remnants of the Egyptian army. This decisive battle resulted in
Cambyses becoming the first Persian pharaoh in Egyptian history!
Psamtik had only ruled Egypt for six months before being deposed, captured,
and taken in chains to the city of Susa, where he would eventually commit suicide.
Following the victory, Cambyses sought to punish and humiliate the deceased former
pharaoh Amasis by removing his body from its tomb and having it desecrated.
He ordered his soldiers to stab, whip, and burn the pharaoh’s mummified remains.
Burning a dead body was considered to be extremely disrespectful and
even illegal in both Persia and Egypt. Cambyses’ monumental achievement marked the
end of native Egyptian rule and the beginning of Egypt’s 27th dynasty under Persian control.
The dynasty would essentially operate as a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire,
resulting in Egypt being ruled from abroad for the first time in its history.
Cambyses followed in his father’s footsteps
by embracing the traditions of those he conquered.
He participated in religious ceremonies and was given an official royal titulary
by the Egyptian priesthood. However, Herodotus painted Cambyses as
a mad ruler who plundered temples, ridiculed local gods, and desecrated royal tombs.
On the subject of the king’s mental state, the Greek historian wrote, “I am convinced
by all the evidence that Cambyses was seriously deranged. As a matter of fact Cambyses is said
to have had a certain serious illness from birth which some call the sacred disease. In any case,
it would not be at all improbable that someone who had a serious illness of the body would
also suffer from an unhealthy mind.” Herodotus goes on to say that Cambyses sent an
army to threaten the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis, located in Egypt’s Western Desert.
The 50,000 Persian soldiers selected for this mission were halfway through
their desert journey when a powerful sandstorm buried them all alive.
The historian described their demise by writing , "A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly,
bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops
and caused them wholly to disappear." Egyptologists now consider this story to be
fictitious and assume that Cambyses’ Lost Army did not perish in a sandstorm but rather in an
ambush carried out by a rebellious native Egyptian prince named Petubastis III.
After defeating Egypt, the king set his sights on conquering the region
of Cyrenaica, located in eastern Libya. The area was inhabited by the descendants of
Greek colonizers, who had settled the region about a century earlier in 630 BC.
Under their control, Cyrene quickly developed into an intellectual and
cultural powerhouse within the Greek world and was referred to as the “Athens of Africa”.
The region was the birthplace of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy,
which taught that pursuing and attaining pleasure should be one's highest goal in life.
The ruler of Cyrene, King Arcesilaus II realized that his people stood no
chance against the Persians, so he surrendered his sovereignty in an effort to avoid bloodshed.
Cyrenaica was converted into a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, and as reward,
Arcesilaus was allowed to retain his throne, but merely as a puppet king.
Cambyses also safely returned the king’s sister, Princess Ladice of Cyrene, who was discovered
in Egypt following the conquest. The Greek African princess had become
one of Amasis II’s many wives after her father gave her to him as a token of friendship.
Cambyses intended on invading the Phoenician port city of Carthage, but most of the Phoenician
soldiers in his army were reluctant to wage war against their own people.
This forced the king to abandon his plans of conquering one of the ancient
world’s most thriving trade centers. Upon receiving news of a rebellion at home,
Cambyses rushed back to Persia determined on crushing the insurgents.
However, the king would never make it because he mysteriously received a thigh wound en route
that became infected, ultimately leading to his death in the Syrian city of Agbatana just three
weeks later in June of 522 BC. Cambyses failed to produce a male
heir during his seven-year reign and was succeeded by his younger brother, Bardiya,
who is sometimes referred to as “Smerdis”. He ruled for several months before being branded
an imposter and assassinated by seven Persian noblemen.
One of the conspirators, named Darius, who claimed to be a cousin of Cyrus the Great,
would go on to be selected as the new ruler by the other six noblemen.
Through tremendous military power and clever strategy, Cambyses II became Egypt’s first Persian
pharaoh and solidified the Achaemenid Empire’s role as the region’s sole superpower!
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