First Achaemenid conquest of Egypt
[6] The conquest was led by Cambyses II, who defeated the Egyptians at the Battle of Pelusium (525 BCE), and crowned himself pharaoh.
According to Herodotus, Amasis was asked by Cyrus the Great or Cambyses II for an Egyptian ophthalmologist on good terms.
[9] Amasis II died in 526 BCE, before the Achaemenid invasion, and was succeeded by Psamtik III, who only ruled for six months.
A few days after his coronation, rain fell at Thebes, which was a rare event that frightened some Egyptians, who interpreted this as a bad omen.
After the Persians under Cambyses had crossed the Sinai desert with the aid of the Arabians, a bitter battle was fought near Pelusium, a city on Egypt's eastern frontier, in the spring of 525 BCE.
Shortly thereafter, Cambyses ordered the public execution of two thousand of the principal citizens, including (it is said) a son of the fallen king.
[17]The Egyptian anthropoid sarcophagi of Sidonian kings Eshmunazar II and that of his father Tabnit were manufactured around the time of the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt.
Similar Egyptian sarcophagi, with characteristic plump and squarish broad faces, and smooth unarticulated bodies, are known to have been produced in the area of Memphis, during the reigns of Psamtik II (ca.
According to René Dussaud, the new sarcophagus may have been ordered by his surviving mother, Queen Amoashtart, who arranged for the inscription to be made.
Herodotus does recount an event in which Cambyses II "ransacked a burial ground at Memphis, where coffins were opened up and the dead bodies they contained were examined", quite possibly providing the occasion on which the sarcophagi were removed and reappropriated by his Sidonian subjects.
[26] "Egypt" under the traditional name of Ḳemet (𓈎𓅓𓏏𓊖, "Black Land" ), appears among the subject countries of the Achaemenid Empire, at the bottom of the statue.
