Le roi Cambyse au siège de Péluse, 1872. Paul-Marie Lenoir’s bizarre depiction of the Battle of Pelusium in which he takes the legend of the cat shields a step beyond Polyaenus’ description.

A map of the eastern Mediterranean and major locations for this episode.

A map of Ancient Egypt and Kush with the locations of named locations and battles marked. Image from Jeff Dahl via Wikimedia Commons under GNU Free Documentation License

In 525 BCE, the Persian army crossed into Egypt, in what seems to have been the culmination of years of antagonism between the the new empire and the last great kingdom of the Near East. To accomplish his task, the new King of Kings, Cambyses, mustered all his resources. He assembled a huge land army, constructed Persia’s first navy, and formed alliances from the Greek islands in the Aegean to tribal kings in Arabia. Over the following three years, he established and consolidated Persian rule over the kingdom of the two lands, bringing one of the oldest civilizations in the world under Persian domination.

Streaming

Download



Archaeologists May Have Found 2,500-year-old Persian Military Base in Northern Israel



The History of Egypt Podcast

+Apple

+Spotify

