The story of Emperor Cambyses II who accidentally killed himself
The story of Emperor Cambyses II, who married his two sisters, secretly killed his brother, ruled Egypt, and killed himself by mistake.
Cambyses II was the eldest son of Emperor Cyrus the Great and his wife Cassandan, and had a younger brother named Smerdis. Some ancient inscriptions mentioned that Cambyses had killed Smerdis' sister during the first years of his reign.
The Greek historian Herodotus depicts Cambyses II as a mad king who committed many acts of abuse during his stay in Egypt, including burning the body of Pharaoh Ahmose II and slaughtering the sacred calf in the city of Apis, who was worshiped as a god in the ancient Egyptian religion, but it seems that this The history is mostly derived from the Egyptian oral traditions, and therefore it may be biased somewhat in the wisdom, especially that "Herodotus" was trying through his narration to mobilize the Greeks to unite to confront this empire and the robbery of its huge property.
In addition, Herodotus interprets Cambyses' murder of his brother Smerdis and his marriage to his sister as signs of his insanity, as he accused him of committing many atrocities in Egypt.
Emperor Cambyses II, who fulfilled the dream of the mother of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great is known as the largest Persian emperor in history. He is the emperor who eliminated the empire of Babylon and the empire of Lydia and also included the property of the Phoenicians to his empire, so Persia (the Achaemenid Empire at the time) became the largest pole of the world at that time, but his dream was not completed in his life to include the Egyptian state to wisdom .
But his son Cambyses II, who ruled for years much less than the years of his father's rule, was able to invade Egypt and subject it to wisdom and authority, but this victory and other victories that Cambyses II achieved in just 8 years ended his father's dream of building a huge and unified empire that would be inherited by his children and grandchildren.
When Cyrus died in December 530 BC, he was succeeded by his son and heir Cambyses II. The years were as early as 539 BC when Cyrus conquered Babylon and annexed it to his rule. Cambyses occupied the position of crown prince, as Babylonian documents described him as "King of Babylon" and his father's title was Cyrus "King of the Lands", and then appointed Cambyses as King of Babylon in preparation for the succession of the Persian throne.
The reign of Cambyses as king of Babylon began with his participation in the Babylonian New Year celebration on March 27, 538 BC, and the most important role of the Babylonian New Year ceremony was to transfer the divine legitimacy to the ruling human king.
The first to rule Cambyses is relatively calm.
Although the famine that occurred in Babylon between 528 and 526 BC may have led to rumors that the gods did not approve of the new king.
Some ancient inscriptions mention a series of events that followed the death of King Cyrus, including that Cambyses had killed the younger sister of Smerdis during the early years of his reign. It was not known among the people at the time that Smerdis had been killed.
According to the Greek historian "Ctesias" that Cyrus appointed Smerdis to the position of "Kesatrap", the governor of the province in the ancient Persian state, a position usually reserved for the crown prince, and since Cambyses did not have an heir, Smerdis was next in the line of succession, and Cambyses probably feared that He killed him in secret.
In 525 BC, Cambyses II sent to Ahmose II, Pharaoh of Egypt, at the time asking him to marry off his daughter, but Ahmose hated his daughter’s marriage to Cambyses, so he made a trick that was revealed later, which was that Ahmose sent Cambyses his son, the previous pharaoh, “Abris.” When Cambyses discovered the trick, he decided to invade Egypt.
Cambyses fulfills his father's dream and includes Egypt to his lands to complete the rule of the ancient world completely. On his way to Egypt, he received the news of the death of the Pharaoh of Egypt, "Ahmose II", and his son "Psamtik III" took his place. Cambyses, on the other hand, had made an agreement with the king of the island of Samos to provide him with a fleet Huge sea.
Egypt was known during the reign of Ahmose II with great progress and stability throughout his reign. However, there were some weaknesses that seemed to pose a clear danger in the structure of the state, which is that the Egyptian army was mainly composed at that time of many foreign mercenaries, which made them doubt, The result of this was that one of the army commanders joined the ranks of the Cambyses army and was informed of the plans and locations of the Egyptian army on the desert roads.
Cambyses marched with an army along the Mediterranean coast backed by a strong Phoenician fleet. Psmatic III tried to stop the Phoenician fleet, as he had hope that Egypt would be able to withstand the threat of Persian attack through an alliance with Greece, but they preferred to join the Persians, and Psamtik III remained alone without allies. .
Cambyses' forces reached the city of Pelusium and the Persian forces defeated the Egyptian forces in the battle and continued the siege of Memphis.
After the fall of Memphis, Cambyses continued his march along the Nile until Egypt was completely controlled by Cambyses II, and then he went to the Egyptian capital, Sail al-Hajar to crown himself Pharaoh, and then took over the Egyptian throne and participated in the Egyptian celebrations as his father did at the conquest of Babylon.
Cambyses II, ruling Egypt, received new news about the revolutions in Persia indicating that Smerdis' sister was claiming the throne. Cambyses gathered an army and returned to his country and confessed to his leaders that he had secretly killed the real Smerdis for years, and that this man who claims to be Smerdis and claims the throne is nothing but a liar.
Herodotus claims that Cambyses died in his country Syria after his sword slipped and pierced his thigh in the same place where he had stabbed the calf of Apis, sacred to the ancient Egyptians, and this is the justice of heaven, but this story is not reliable as the other opinion is biased that he committed suicide or was assassinated by his leaders .
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