Although it is difficult to establish an exact number due to periods of significant political confusion, it is generally agreed that around three hundred pharaohs reigned over Ancient Egypt, spread across thirty-three dynasties.

Of these, the most unique was likely the 28th, literally so, since it had only one ruler: Psamtik V, better known as Amyrtaeus, who came to power by rebelling against Persian domination but whose reign lasted only six years before he was overthrown.

Amyrtaeus did not emerge from nowhere. He was a descendant of the Saite pharaohs of the 26th Dynasty, which had regained control of Egypt from Assyrian domination. Ashurbanipal had conquered the country from the Kushites of the 25th Dynasty around 747 BCE. However, after his death, the Assyrian Empire was embroiled in a series of rebellions and civil wars, allowing the Egyptians, who still retained Lower Egypt, to rise in arms and proclaim Necho I in 664 BCE, founding the 26th Dynasty, also called Saite after its capital, Sais.

Near East in the 6th century BCE
Near East in the 6th century BCE. Credit: WillemBK / Rowanwindwhistler / Wikimedia Commons

His successor, Psamtik I, aided by mercenaries from Lydia, Caria, and Greece, finally shook off foreign yoke and reclaimed Upper Egypt, reunifying the country. Subsequent rulers even attempted to expand into the Near East, former Egyptian frontier territories, although they were stopped by Nebuchadnezzar II’s Babylonians.

Eventually, the Persian Cambyses II invaded the Nile Valley, defeated Pharaoh Psamtik at the Battle of Pelusium, and took him in chains to Susa, where he was executed after planning an uprising, thus ending the Saite Dynasty.

In its place was the 27th Dynasty, essentially foreign as it consisted of Achaemenid rulers governing from 525 to 404 BCE. Although Egypt was merely a Persian province, the efficient administration by appointed satraps led to a period of prosperity, peaking under Darius I. However, the defeat of the King of Kings at the famous Battle of Marathon by the Athenian army encouraged the Egyptians to insurrection. Although their repeated attempts failed, they planted the seeds of emancipation.

The expansion of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus II, Cambyses II, and Darius I
The expansion of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus II, Cambyses II, and Darius I. Credit: Ali Zifan / Wikimedia Commons

Artaxerxes I managed to restore some stability, but only briefly, as instability returned under Darius II. The insurgents, led from Sais and again supported by Greek mercenaries, proclaimed independence.

In 401 BCE, Artaxerxes II was still recognized as king in Elephantine for two years, but without actual authority, as his control was limited to part of Upper Egypt. Soon, he lost even that territory as the Egyptians already obeyed Amyrtaeus, who had worn the double crown three years earlier.

It is believed that Amyrtaeus was the grandson of Amyrtaeus of Sais, one of the leaders of the uprising against the satrap Achaemenes between 465 and 463 BCE.

Cartridge with the name of Sa Ra (Son of Ra) by Amyrtaeus
Cartridge with the name of Sa Ra (Son of Ra) by Amyrtaeus. Credit: JMCC1 / Wikimedia Commons

Let’s break it down. Achaemenes, the younger brother of Xerxes I (thus a son of Darius I and Queen Atossa), was appointed to govern the satrapy of Egypt after suppressing a revolt. Besides his participation in the Battle of Salamis, little is known about him. He also died in the Battle of Papremis (a city in the Nile Delta, possibly Xois) in 459 BCE, at the hands of Inaros.

Inaros was a Libyan prince from the Beken tribe, defeated by Ramesses III when they tried to occupy the delta and ultimately allowed to settle there. Some sources identify him as the grandson of Psamtik III. What seems certain is that he commanded the third nome of Lower Egypt and part of Libya with Persian permission, yet maintained close political and commercial ties with Athens. When the Achaemenid Empire began to disintegrate, Inaros led the Egyptian rebellion alongside Amyrtaeus of Sais.

The Amyrtaeus recognized as Psamtik V, possibly his grandson, was on the throne for a little over five years, from 404 to 399 BCE, although he had been fighting the invaders since at least 411 BCE, expelling them from Memphis in 405 BCE with the help of Cretan mercenaries. He then faced the arrival of a Persian army led by Abrocomas, satrap of Syria. The internal struggles between Artaxerxes II and his brother Cyrus the Younger forced the monarch to divert resources from this force, allowing the Egyptians to win. For a brief period, they had two sovereigns: Amyrtaeus in the north and the Achaemenid in the south.

The Elephantine Aramaic papyrus recounting the reign of Amyrtaeus
The Elephantine Aramaic papyrus recounting the reign of Amyrtaeus. Credit: Eduard Sachau / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

According to Diodorus of Sicily, Amyrtaeus tried to appease his rival by murdering Tamos, the Athenian admiral, and redirecting his alliance towards Sparta. The likely reason was more practical: the Spartans had just triumphed—or were about to triumph—in the Peloponnesian War. Artaxerxes II secured his throne by defeating Cyrus and retained it until 358 BCE, but he lost Egypt definitively in 400 BCE, when Amyrtaeus was also recognized in the southern half, reunifying the country.

We know practically nothing about Amyrtaeus, as no monuments or inscriptions remain. Only the Demotic Chronicle (a priestly papyrus preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris containing oracles against the Persians) and some Aramaic and Greek documentary sources tell us about his end.

In fact, one of the Aramaic Papyri from the Jewish community of Elephantine preserved in the Brooklyn Museum, number thirteen, states that in 399 BCE, Amyrtaeus was deposed and executed in Memphis by Nepherites I, the first pharaoh of the 29th or Mendesian Dynasty (from Mendes, another delta city designated as the capital), who, along with his five successors, managed to resist new attempts at reconquest by Artaxerxes II for the next twenty years.


This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on June 18, 2024: Amirteo, el único faraón que tuvo la singular dinastía egipcia XXVIII que puso fin a la dominación persa

SOURCES

Diodoro de Sicilia, Biblioteca histórica

Tucídides, Historia de la Guerra del Peloponeso

David Klotz, Persian Period

Hermann Bengtson, Griegos y persas. El mundo mediterráneo en la Edad Antigua

Francisco Marco Simón y Narciso Santos Yanguas, Textos para la historia del Próximo Oriente antiguo

A. Blasius y B. U. Schipper (eds.), The Demotic Chronicle

Franco Cimmino, Dizionario delle Dinastie Faraoniche

Wikipedia, Dinastía XXVIII de Egipto


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