History of Persian Egypt

The history of Persian Egypt refers to the two periods when ancient Egypt was controlled by the Achaemenid Empire:

Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (525–404 BC), established by the first Achaemenid conquest of Egypt.

Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt (343–332 BC), established by the second Achaemenid conquest of Egypt.

These two periods of satrapies were punctuated by a brief interval of Egyptian independence from 404 BC to 343 BC.

Background

In the 6th century BC, Persian kings, particularly Cyrus the Great, sought to expand their imperialist agenda to include Egypt. Expansionism was a key strategy for empires of the ancient Near East to establish military and economic dominance, and Egypt was one such priority for Cyrus, in large part due to the desirability of the Nile as an economic asset. The contemporaneous Egyptian pharaoh Amasis attempted to ward off the Persian invasion by forming alliances with neighbouring rulers, namely the Greek tyrant Polycrates of Samos, who also had a vested interest in preventing Persian expansionist campaigns from succeeding across the region. This strategy proved successful for a time, as Cyrus himself did not see Egypt conquered, though his son Cambyses II would achieve this feat during his own reign by 525 BC. Cambyses ousted the Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus III and claimed the title for himself, bringing Egypt into the Persian realm as a prosperous resource. In 404 BC, the Egyptians detached from Persian administration under the pharaoh Amyrtaeus, who was the only ruler of the twenty-eighth dynasty. However, by 343 BC, Egypt was again conquered by the Persians under Artaxerxes III, but this re-assertion of authority lasted only for a decade, as the Achaemenid Empire itself fell to Alexander the Great.

History

First Egyptian satrapy

Cambyses II

Cambyses II was given the regnal name of Mesuti-Ra, beginning the twenty-seventh dynasty of Egypt (and the first satrapy), which lasted from 525 to 404 BC. A regnal name for a pharaoh was a significant tradition for Egyptian royalty, as it highlighted the perception of the pharaoh as being a vessel for the gods, and therefore, a divine being in their own right. Though, following the conquest, Cambyses did try to maintain respect for Egyptian culture and traditions, sources suggest that he was unpopular, particularly amongst Egyptian priests, as the subsumption of Egypt into the Persian realm meant the effective erasure of Egyptian culture as the mainstream.