Cambyses II Invasion of Egypt, Essay Example

Background

Cyrus was the first king of the Achaemenid Empire between 559 and 530.  His oldest son was called Cambyses. According to the Greek researcher Herodotus, Cambyses’ mother was known as Cassandane, but Ctesias stated that she was Amytis, the daughter of the last King of Astyages. The career of King Cyrus has been dazzling since he became the King of Persia in 559, and he was able to subdue Astyages the Mede in 550. After three years, he was able to conduct operations in the West of Tigris, where he could add the region to his Babylon Empire in 539 (Livius 1996). This paper will discuss Cambyses II of Egypt.

Babylonia was one of the ancient kingdoms that played a significant role in the religious and cultural aspects of the ancient Near East. Therefore, if King Cyrus was to subject Babylonia under his rule, he had to act as the King in Babylonia. Thus, King Cyrus presented himself as the one who had been chosen by the supreme god Marduk of the Babylonians (Livius 1996).

However, due to the commitment in his Kingdom, King Cyrus was not in a position to attend the Akitu festival of the Babylonians. Therefore, he appointed his son Cambyses to represent him during the festival. This was meant to ensure that he did not lose much credit with his followers as the previous kings did. Therefore, in this quality, he was present during the Babylonian ceremonies.

During the ceremony, it is not explained what happened exactly. Still, it seems like an incident occurred since Cambyses was inappropriately dressed and his men had carried their arms to the ceremony, which is forbidden. However, the error was corrected, and the Nabû statue was brought back to the Esagila temple according to the regulations of the ritual.

The succession

Cambyses is believed to have reigned in Babylon for one year only. The reasons why he resigned are not given, but it is believed that the incident during the New Year Festival may have played a significant role in his resignation.  Cambyses is believed to have been made the Satrap of Bactria, but this was only speculation (Livius 1996).

According to Herodotus, King Cyrus is recorded to fall in battle against the Massagetes in the last weeks of 530. King Cyrus wrote the last cuneiform letter in November, marking the end of his reign. Before he left, he chose Cambyses as his successor. The first letter to be written in the power of Cambyses was dated 31 August 530.  Therefore, this shows that Cambyses had taken charge of his father’s empire by the end of the year.

Marriages

In Persia, every King had to secure the support of Nobility. This was done by having dynastic marriages. Thus, according to Herodotus, Cambyses married Phaedymia, who was the daughter of Otane. Otane was the brother of Cassandane, who was Cambyses’ Mother.  Therefore, Phaedymia was his cousin who became the queen of Persia (Livius 1996).

The other marriages were between Cambyses d his sisters Roxana and Atossa. Atossa later married the successor of Cambyses Darius.  According to Herodotus, this kind of marriage was called Cambyses’ madness, but they were common in ancient Zoroastrianism.

The Death of Smerdis

The Conquest of Egypt was one of the most important events during the reign of Cambyses’. This, therefore, indicated that the King was away from Persia for quite some time.

From Herodotus and the inscription of Behism, the Persian, King Cambyses ordered for the execution of his brother Smerdis to secure his Kingdom. However, there is a difference in the time of performance of Smerdis between Herodotus and Behism. Herodotus dates it during the Egyptian Campaign, whereas Behism dates it before King Cambyses left Persia. According to the researchers, the slaying of Smerdis was kept as a secret from people the researchers, and therefore, Cambyses was able to go to Egypt (Livius 1996).

The Conquest of Egypt

Like any other country, Egypt had enemies in the early 500s-600s as it tried to establish its reign. Though the vocabulary ‘colonization’ was not so common by then. Nonetheless, to some countries like Egypt, the language had started forming its roots in the country’s history. However, in the contemplation and complete comprehension of the vocabulary by the Pharaoh, Egypt began to establish its strength in terms of battles, making allies with their neighborhood to supplement their weaknesses. It is evident for every country to be set in case of war in the region. The race was meant to acquire more territories and expand the boundaries of the reign (Livius, 1996).

The proper activities of war preparations of Egypt which included embracing the mercenaries of Carian and Greek, making allies with the neighboring countries like Samos, which was headed by King Polycrates, who possessed an undefeatable Navy gave the King of Egypt; by then was Pharaoh Amasis enough boldness and confidence that indeed without any doubts he would win the war and extract victory from the hands of his enemies whatsoever. Vividly, allying himself with the Navy of Samoa, Pharaoh acquired unmovable confidence since it was easy for the Marine to through non-anticipated attack to Persia and its totality in terms of the military while they would be matching through a costal susceptible desert path which was used to cross from Gaza to Pelusium (Livius, 1996).

However, as it is usually known, one day in politics is like a million days in reality. This is because a minute in politics can result in many changes, though non- anticipatable. Concerning the principle, Polycrates of Samoa secretly changed his side at the final touches while the war was approaching. This was manifested by sending a message in the form of an envoy to the Cambyses, the son of Cyrus. A man who took his pleasure when it came to gathering together all documents of armies that would be available and encouraged them as a form of preparation to attack Egypt (Livius, 1996).

The envoy sent by the Polycrates was to ask Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, to write a message to Samoa and request army forces to support him in his rivalry against the Egyptians. When the envoy was received, the King of Samoas selected and forwarded those citizens who had shown an interest in rebelling against him and instructed Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, not to send them back to Samoas after the war ended. The betrayal of Polycrates against Pharaoh was a great disappointment to the confident Pharaoh as it weakened and depleted his confidence. However, it is not apparent whether the resistant Citizen joined the war against the Egyptians, but in any way, neither Pharaoh nor Polycrates could use them (Livius, 1996).

In the event of Polycrate’s betrayal, as we do more research, we find that Pharaoh was completely weakened when those close to him also indirectly betrayed him. According to research done on the autobiography of an Egyptian admiral, Wedjahor-Resume, there is nothing mentioned like Navy warfare. It is perhaps watery battles or battles in the sea. As a result, it is anticipated that the miss of those details is that the Egyptian admiral Wedjahor-Resume was corrupt. This is because of the anticipation that he was either bribed it perhaps was offered a beneficial seat in the Government of Cambyses. In support of this, from the analysis of the report given by an unreliable and untrustworthy messenger, Ctesias of Cnidus, it was found that there was a traitor by the name Combaphis in the Government of Egypt. It was anticipated that he was the admiral (Livius, 1996).

As a result of pressures impacted by panic, both internal and external betrayal, being weakened because of fewer allies, the King of Egypt, Amasis Pharaoh, died during the preparations of the battle. This was a great misfortune for the Egyptian army and its totality. Nonetheless, the son of Amasis, Psammetichus III, took his father’s heir and became the King six months later. In a short while after the death of the Amasis, the battle began. The rivalry between Egypt and her enemies was catastrophic. Eventually, Persia and her allies, like Arabs, had succeeded in invading Egypt to the capital, which was Memphis, and made Egypt lose the battle. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus and his men, took over the totality of Egypt as they captured the then Pharaoh Psammetichus III. At the same time, he was alive and honorable treatment (Livius, 1996).

According to the analysis done by researchers on the report given by the unreliable traitor Wedjahor-Resne, it was noted that in a short while, Cambyses had assimilated the whole country of Egypt with the help of his soldiers, and in due time, he became the Pharaoh; the King of Egypt. He took all the foreigners from foreign countries he had defeated with him. To be taught how to behave like an Egyptian, the Pharaoh Cambyses appointed Wedjahor-Resne as his chief physician and instructed him to stay with him, direct him and be his tutor and teach the King all the Egyptian ways. In his reign as the King of Egypt, Cambyses conquered Babylon as he behaved completely like an original Egyptian. With the complementation provided by the direction of Wedjahor-Resne, the King of Egypt Cambyses of Cyrus implemented some Egyptians traditions such as directing the Persian garrison in the holy city of Sais to another camp, making sure that the sanctuary of Neit, the mother of the supreme god Re, and the shrine of Osiris were purified. From the autobiography, we also learn that the conquest of Egypt was full of suffering and catastrophe. Some slaves were sold to Babylon and neighboring countries (Livius, 1996).

After a successful rule in Egypt, King Cambyses found it wise to send his soldiers to the Oasis of the Western desert, where they safely reached Bahariya oasis. Unfortunately, as they stepped to Siwa, a catastrophic simoon storm overtook them and put them down by killing them. After the incident, as the way every new Pharaoh was supposed to do, Cambyses took with him a few of his soldiers and went to the South; the capital of Upper Egypt, Thebes, was occupied, and the army continued along the Nile until it reached the first cataract, where a garrison was posted. When Cambyses approached the second contract, he found a small town named Market of Cambyses Witch, a fortified trading place where the Persians, Egyptians, and Kushites (Nubian) exchanged commodities. Nonetheless, Cambyses wanted to express his conquest in Kush. Still, since his government was not established, he was advised to stay down for a little bit of time to concentrate on establishing a firm government in Egypt first. He was advised to focus on the borders of Egypt to secure his land. This cost him to be moving around the edges of Egypt to show up himself as the King to prevent robbery (Rickard, 2015).

With the intention of vengeance, Psammetichus master mined a plan to start a rivalry against the existing government of Cambyses, to succeed a coup de tat and restore his government. He began the battle with his followers against the government in the absence of the King, who was forced back to Lower Egypt by the sad news. The revolt was destructive, catastrophic, and heavy, such that the Persian government was Mable to stop it or bring it down.

The Persian King Cambyses had many disadvantages that made the Egyptians hate him intensely. During the reign of Amasis, the King used to take gifts to the temples, rewarding the priests and making their life simple. During the power of the Persian King, despite trying to behave like an original Egyptian, it was unfortunate for the priests as the King did not give the gifts to the temple. The priests hated the King as he also pardoned people from giving taxes to the temples. This caused great suffering to the priests. The King also instructed against providing the cattle and sacrificing the temples. He said that the priests should go to work like any other citizen in the soil of Egypt (Rickard, 2015).

The Egyptians continued being disadvantaged as the reign of the Persians was extended. This was because of the transfer of the Kingdom from Cambyses to his child after him dying during the war in the North-Eastern corner of the empire. The chance to the throne was completive. In response to that, Cambyses II was obliged to kill his brother Bardiya to secure the throne. However, the Egyptian King Pharaoh Ahmose, who ran the Egyptian government under and by the rules of the Persian government, master-mined a plan to initiate a resistance war against the government by hiring Greek mercenaries. Unfortunately, he died before the plan of the actual battle was established. The Egyptian throne was taken by the Ahmose son Psamtik III, who did not live for long. There were so many issues pressing towards the invasion of the government. Some of the problems are recorded back activities that encouraged the citizens to demand government invasion. For instance, the case of Egyptian doctor took with him a request to the Persian government to ask for a hand in marriage to marry Ahmose’s daughter. However, Ahmose would not want his daughter to be a prostitute in the Persian courts. Instead, he sent Nitetis, the daughter of Aperies, the previous Pharaoh, in his daughter’s place. At first, they gift a few days, Nitetis pretended to be Ahmose’s daughter, but it was not long before Nitetis revealed her true self. This act disappointed Cambyses, and he was mad at Ahmose. His furiousness made him plot an attack against Ahmose. In addition, these stories were given in different versions.

Another version talks of the story in a different manner. This story was the father to Cambyses, Me Cyrus, who requested for an Egyptian daughter to be his princess. In respect to this request, it would have given Cambyses the right to the Egyptian throne. It is said that Cyrus was given Cassandane. The proper evaluation of the story showed that the Egyptians told the story to avoid the stigmatization brought about by the shame of being conquered. Finalizing on these, the two stories are interconnected, manifesting that Nitetis attended the court of Cyrus, and the emperor favored her. This overshadowed Cassandane, daughter of Pharnaspes, who Cambyses mother was. This made Cambyses desire revenge against the Egyptians (Rickard, 2015).

According to the evaluation analysis, it is detected that there might be some truth in the stories. However, developing motives of revenge and invasion was discouraged. Without any comptonization, it is known that Cyrus’s Leadership was perfect, and as a result, his son Cambyses would be obliged to prove himself that he is like his father. It is studied that Cambyses’s invasion of the Egyptian government was to settle his desires of vengeance against the story.

In addition, another reason why the Egyptians attracted charge was that it was a threat to the Persians, who wanted to control Palestine and Syria.  Cambyses was advantaged and had undebatable fortunate has he had a lot of support from different spheres. The support includes 40 triremes from Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos. Cambyses was also able to convince Phanos, one of the Greek mercenaries’ general, to betray Psamtik and send important information to him. The Arabs also provided him with water during the challenging crossing of the Sinai Desert. As a result of the support, when Cambyses went into a war with Egyptians at Pelusium in the Nile delta, he emerged victoriously, making the Egyptians go back to Memphis. His victory benefited him by capturing Heliopolis and then putting Memphis under his Mercy.  Every city bounded to Cambyses commanded. Everything was under him, including the then Egyptian Pharaoh, who was taken into captivity at Susa and Cambyses settled while establishing his rule in Egypt (Rickard, 2015).

After establishing his rule over Egypt so quickly, Cambyses anticipated that other territories would be easy to conquer. However, it did not go as expected because he failed to conquer three countries in consecution. His failure to establish the rule was because of the attack. Carthage died after his Phoenician sailors, who were to help him, refused to attack their former colony. Also, the army that he sent to the Oasis of Amon in the desert west of the Nile was said to have been destroyed by a sandstorm and died.

Nonetheless, Cambyses took with him his soldiers towards the South into Nubia, where he emerged victoriously and came out successively even though they were experiencing a shortage in food and water supplies. After a few months of success, Cambyses established different military bases and troops at Daphne in the eastern part of the Nile delta, Memphis, and Elephantine, which took longer than anticipated. When Cambyses was far away from home, there emerged his brother led a war in Iran, which was said.

Hearing that, Cambyses rushed back to his Kingdom, but on the way, before reaching into his Kingdom, he died, marking the end of the reign of a Cyrus legacy. Darius took the throne of Kingship, who was not closely related to Cyrus (Rickard, 2015).

In the reign of Cambyses, Egypt was the most troubled territory as he administered a new way of doing things. After his death, there were a series of rebellion wars insisting on invasions. The Egyptians could assist wars severally at conquest, remaining independent until 343. A final invasion war was fought in 337-336. Still, only a few years later, Alexander the Great overthrew Darius III, the last Achaemenid emperor, marking the start of a new period in Egyptian history. From that period, history has been re-recorded (Rickard, 2015).

Reasons why Cambyses Conquered Egypt

The three reasons why Cambyses invaded Egypt included the fraud done to him by Amasis, the Egyptian Ruler, towards him. Cambyses asked Amasis to send his daughter for her hand in marriage. Still, Amasis sent Nitetis, who was the daughter of his predecessor, since he suspected that his daughter would be a concubine t King Cambyses.  When Cambyses discovered the fraud, he was furious, and therefore, he decided to invade Egypt so that he could punish Amasis (Lang 1972)

The second reason was that King Cyrus had also requested Amasis, the Ruler of Egypt, to marry his daughter by Cambyses, but he refused. Therefore, Cambyses attacked Egypt also as a way of avenging his father.  The other reason was that Cyrus had also preferred the Egyptian as the wife to his son since his mother was a true Persian queen and had consoled her by promising that Cambyses would turn Egypt upside down (Lang 1972)

From these stories, it can be seen that the second one assumed the genuine role of the Egyptian bride and the support of marriage to conquer Egypt. However, the story is not correct as to why Cambyses was motivated to invade Egypt. Still, it shows that Cambyses was claiming for his maternal inheritance, but the variant of the transaction of the bride was dated back in the generations. The third story depended on the second, but it provided the motivation that Cambyses needed to Invade Egypt. This meant that the Egyptian woman was to be in the generation of Cambyses’ father (Lang 1972). The Egyptian woman plays an essential role in the three good stories in the three stories.  The fact behind these stories is that the Egyptian woman Nitetis was the kernel of the truth in the adapted folktale motifs. She was the primary cause of trouble motifs and the leading cause of war.

The Madness of Cambyses II

According to Herodotus, the King of the Achaemenid Empire was a person who was very cruel and that he abused his power in Ancient Egypt. The brutality was seen in the brutalization of Amasis’s body as well as the murder of Apis, the bull god. Cambyses is believed to torture the Pharaoh as well as mutilate his body, but he did not execute him.

Cambyses is also said to have set bizarre as well as violent tortures, which are not stated by Herodotus. These tortures included hair plucking and sticking pins in the bodies of the victims and flagellation, among others. He also set ablaze a stiff embalmed corpse as the final solution.

He also murdered his brother Bardiya who was also known as Smerdis, according to Darius I the Great.

The death of Cambyses II

A rebellion in Persia made Cambyses leave Egypt to go help manage and control the former. This section will discuss the death of Cambyses II.

The death of Cambyses II was a strange happening as he died suddenly while traveling through Syria. His death has remained a historical riddle. This is because he received a thigh wound but died three weeks later, in July 522B.C from the infection of the bacteria on the wound (Brown 1982).

Cambyses II was a good friend to Darius I, and they maintained a good relationship until his death. Atossa, who was the daughter of Cyrus the Great, married Darius the great and gave birth to Xerxes I. Upto the time of his death, Darius was the lance-bearer of Cambyses. According to Darius, Cambyses II stabbed himself deliberately, but Herodotus claimed that the death of Cambyses II was accidental.

Conclusion

Cyrus ruled in the Achaemenid Empire between 559 and 530. He was able to subdue Astyages the Mede in 550. After three years, he was able to conduct operations in the West of Tigris, where he could add the region to his Babylon Empire in 539. Cambyses was the son of Cyrus. Cambyses is believed to have reigned in Babylon for one year only. The reasons why he resigned are not given, but it is believed that the incident during the New Year Festival may have played a significant role in his resignation. Cambyses had a set of bizarre as well as violent tortures, which are not stated by Herodotus.

References

Brown, T. S. (1982). Herodotus’ portrait of Cambyses. Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte, (H. 4), 387-403.

Lang, Mabel L. “War and the rape-motif, or why did Cambyses invade Egypt?” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 116, no. 5 (1972): 410-414.

Livius (1996). Cambyses II. Part I. https://www.livius.org/articles/person/cambyses-ii/

Livius (1996). Cambyses II. Part II. https://www.livius.org/articles/person/cambyses-ii/

Rickard J, (2015). Persian Conquest of Egypt, 525 BC http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_persian_egypt_525.html#:~:text=Rickard%2C%20J%20(24%20March%202015)%2C%20Persian%20Conquest%20of%20Egypt%2C%20525%20BC%20%2C%20http%3A//www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_persian_egypt_525.html