sourced story
525 BCEReputable source · 3 sourcesWell documented

Cambyses II Breaks Egypt at Pelusium and Ends Its Independence

On the timeline · around 525 BCE · Foreign ConquestForeign ConquestCambyses II Breaks Egypt at Pelusium and Ends Its Independence900 BCE800 BCE700 BCE600 BCE500 BCE400 BCE300 BCE200 BCE

What happened

Persian king Cambyses II invaded Egypt and reached the frontier city of Pelusium in 525 BCE, where his forces defeated Pharaoh Psamtik III's army after Psamtik lost key support when his own admiral and mercenary allies switched sides to Cambyses. Cambyses pushed on to besiege Memphis, and by August 525 BCE all of Egypt was in Persian hands. He had himself crowned pharaoh at Sais and took part in Egyptian religious ceremonies to legitimize his rule, but Egypt's independence as a native kingdom, unbroken since its earliest dynasties, was over. Psamtik III was taken prisoner and initially treated well, but was executed after he tried to raise a revolt.

Why it matters

This was Egypt's first major conquest by a foreign empire since the beginning of its civilization, and Persian control did not run uninterrupted from here to Alexander as popular summaries often suggest. Amyrtaeus broke away and founded the native Twenty-Eighth Dynasty around 404 BCE, and native rule continued for roughly six decades until Artaxerxes III's forces defeated Nectanebo II, the last native Egyptian pharaoh, in 343 BCE and reconquered the country a second time. That two-phase Persian rule, broken by two generations of genuine Egyptian independence, is often collapsed in popular retellings into one unbroken occupation.

How we know

The battle and conquest timeline draws on classical accounts of Cambyses's campaign alongside the Egyptian dynastic record. The two-phase structure of Persian rule, the Twenty-Eighth through Thirtieth Dynasty interruption and the 343 BCE reconquest under Artaxerxes III, is documented in the native Egyptian king lists and inscriptions from that period, which record real, independently reigning pharaohs rather than Persian satraps during the interruption.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineAncient Egypt26 events · Three thousand years of pharaohs, from the first unification of the Nile valley to Cleopatra's death, and the two nineteenth and twentieth-century discoveries that let the modern world read and see it all again.View all →
Cambyses II Breaks Egypt at Pelusium and Ends Its Independence · Ancient Egypt · SourcedStory