Cambyses

• cruel ruler


  difficult to form opinions as ruler as there are only infomation from his conquest of Egypt (negatively portrayed in Egypt)
• wanted to live up to his father - Cyrus
• Not good leader - failed expeditions


  Ethiopia expedition:

  had to resort to cannibalism

  Army to Oracle of Amun:

  Herodotus says 50,000 men got killed by sandstorm on one expedition
• Why he attacked Egypt

  Revenge on the Egyptian king

  the influence of an Egyptian woman

  Amasis II’s broken promise to marry Cambyses to his daughter

  to fulfil his father’s ambitions/Persian expansionism

  the wealth and resources of Egypt
• Cambyses Nickname and why

  Cambyses the madman

  disrespects local gods according to Herodotus
• Story of Cambyses and Apis Bull

  Herodotus:

  Cambyses came back from failed expedition to see people celebrating religious festival

  thought they were celebrating his failure so he went mad, took a knife and stabbed the Sacred Apis Bull in the leg

  (maybe foreshadow to Cambyses’s death, he tried to get onto his horse but the cap fell off the sheath of the sword, stabbing him where he stabbed the Apis Bull)
• Source for Cambyses being a good Egyptian ruler

  Temple in Memphis, the Serapeum - Cambyses ensured that this Apis Bull had been buried with full ceremonies, Cambyses was fully respectful of local religious tradition

  Udjahorresnet - Cambyses portrayed as a restorer of order who supports the worship of Egyptian Gods
• Herodotus reliability for Cambyses

  known for being a storyteller and not a historian

  used Egyptian priests as source who were bias against him - according to Herodotus Cambyses laughed at priests and made fun of the god for having flesh and blood when he stabbed the Apis Bull
• Cambyses acting as ruler of Egypt

  Married sister which was not common Persian tradition but common for Egyptian pharaohs

  Cambyses saw himself as the Egyptian ruler
• Persian view on Cambyses

  Persians think of Cambyses positively

  He conquered Egypt (one of biggest empires at the time) and created Persian navy (brought naval states into empire)
• While he was gone a lot of people in Persia started to rebel he tried to go back to break it up but he never got there
• Gaza


  The capital of Palestine country, but controlled and frontier of Egyptian territory
• Cambyses is good at getting his enemies to desert, but Egyptians are hoping to get Greek mercenaries because they have good infantry
• Phanes deserts to Cambyses. Phanes was the general (Greek) and went over to the Persian side, probably because they offered Phanes more money and because the Persians were more likely to win
• The new pharaoh of Egypt died in battle
• Cambyses becomes king of Upper and Lower Egypt
• Cambyses has a dream that his brother Bardia will overthrow him. That part is the same in the Darius sources
• There is resistance of Egyptian priests
• Bardia looked like Smerdis and people had no idea that Smerdis or Bardia was dead
• People (Astyages and Cambyses) try and stop a prophecy from coming true but it always comes true, but not in the way it's expected
• Seven months passed and Smerdis is never seen in public (said by Herodotus)
• Darius kills Magus