Cambyses II

We now have an entry who represents Egypt at its lowest point in power, which contrasts sharply with the previous one. Cambyses II was Persian, not Egyptian. He was the second king of the Achaemenid Empire and the son of Cyrus the Great. Egypt's once-powerful kingdom was reduced to a minor component of an even larger empire after Cambyses' conquest and ascension as the first pharaoh of the 27th Dynasty, and it was never able to rise to the heights it previously did.

The 26th Dynasty came to an end in 525 BC when Cambyses defeated Pharaoh Psamtik III in the Battle of Pelusium. The 27th Dynasty, which ruled Egypt for 125 years and was primarily composed of Persian pharaohs with a few native Egyptians who managed to revolt for a short while, was part of the Achaemenid Empire when Egypt next became a part of it.

Ancient Egypt under Cambyses II underwent a paradigm shift. The kingdom had previously been under the control of foreign pharaohs, but they always managed to turn the tide and reclaim their independence. They succeeded in doing so here as well, but only for a brief 60-year period before the Persians under Artaxerxes III retook the region. Alexander the Great then followed. His former general Ptolemy established the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty after his death. The era of the pharaohs came to an end when the Romans overcame them.

Reign: 530 – July 522 BC
Predecessor: Cyrus the Great
Successor: Bardiya
Co-ruler: Cyrus the Great (530 BC)