Cambyse II

Cambyse II , in Greek old Καμϐύσης/ Kambysês († 522), Large King achéménide of the Persian empire of 529 to its death in 522, is especially known to have conquered the Egypt.

Origins

Cambyse is the son of Cyrus II. Hérodote (III, 1) brings back three traditions concerning his/her mother. Cyrus, after the conquest of the Palestine, had sights on the Egypt. Advised by an Egyptian magus, it required Pharaon Amasis that it sent one of his daughters to him. In fact, Amasis sent Nitètis, a girl of the preceding Pharaon, Apriès. According to the Egyptian tradition, Nitètis married Cyrus and gave rise to Cambyse. According to the Persian tradition, Nitètis married Cambyse. Lastly, another tradition reports that Cassandane was the mother of Cambyse, and that this one was so jealous of Nitètis that his/her son him the Jura to avenge it.

Cyrus had indicated Cambyse like its heir well before his death, with the detriment of his/her oldest son Bardiya, which involved thereafter a certain competition between the two brothers. The first years of the reign of Cambyse after its accession with the throne in -529 are badly known; it is known only that it completed the conquest of the countries of in addition to Euphrate while seizing the Phénicie and of Cyprus. These two maritime forces made it possible the Persian army to be provided with a very powerful fleet.

The conquest of Egypt

When Cambyse directs its army towards Egypt in 525, the country is in a critical situation. Amasis died the previous year, Psammétique III succeeded to him. Two combined weights were lacking to him: Polycrate de Samos, the very powerful Master of the Cyclades joined Cambyse, like Phanès of Halicarnasse, an important mercenary, chief of the troops cariennes of the Pharaon, and having a great knowledge of Egypt, in particular of the access roads.

After having conquered Gaza with the passage, which will be used as head of bridge in all the campaigns towards Egypt, the Persian army crosses the the Sinai with the assistance of the Arab tribes. The Egyptian army massed with Péluse, main door of Egypt. After a long seat, the Egyptians are obliged to withdraw itself with Memphis, where they are again besieged. The city ends up falling, Psammétique III is captured and Cambyse penetrates as a winner in the capital.

Like Cyrus with the empire mède, Cambyse took again on its account the conquests in the course of Egypt towards the Libya and the Cyrénaïque, and towards the Ethiopia. Libya and Cyrène were subjected without fighting, on the other hand the countryside towards Ethiopia was a failure. The troops phenicians of the Persian army refused to attack Carthage, and the expansion of the Persian empire under Cambyse stopped there.

Once main of the country, Cambyse was made crown Pharaon High and Low Egypt. The tradition, reported mainly by the Greeks, makes of Cambyse a man at the edge of the madness, tyrannical and cruel. One reproaches him the destruction of many temples and idols crowned, the massacre of most of the elite, as well Egyptian as Persian, the murder of the bull Apis, of which it would have made whip the corpse, etc It is clear that the Egyptians were particularly shocked overflows and plunderings of the Persian army, but it does not seem that there was a systematic will of destruction of the temples. Excavations made it possible to find in the Serapeum of Memphis the mummy of Apis died during the reign of Cambyse; it is accompanied by the traditional inscriptions of the Persian Pharaon, indicating that Cambyse took part in the worship of Apis like any other Pharaon. In addition, the cruelty of certain punishments under its reign are in fact rather typical of manners of the Persian sovereigns; most known of them was the torment of the judge Sisamnès.

The death of Cambyse

It is probable that Cambyse made assassinate his/her older brother Bardiya, and that a usurper replaced this one as king de Babylone in 522, then like Grand King. Whereas it returned in haste towards Persia, Cambyse died of one gangrene following a wound with the thigh in Syria, at the beginning of summer 522.

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