The Battle of Pelusium was the first major battle between the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
and
Egypt. This decisive battle transferred the throne of the
Pharaohs to
Cambyses II of
Persia, marking the beginning of the Achaemenid
Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt. It was fought near
Pelusium
Pelusium ( Ancient Egyptian: ; cop, /, romanized: , or , romanized: ; grc, Πηλουσιον, Pēlousion; la, Pēlūsium; Arabic: ; Egyptian Arabic: ) was an important city in the eastern extremes of Egypt's Nile Delta, 30 km to ...
, an important city in the eastern extremes of
Egypt's
Nile Delta, 30 km to the southeast of the modern
Port Said, in 525 BC. The battle was preceded and followed by sieges at
Gaza and
Memphis.
Background
Herodotus on motives and background
The most common recounting of the events leading to the battle of Pelusium is from
Greek historians
Hellenic historiography (or Greek historiography) involves efforts made by Greeks to track and record historical events. By the 5th century BC, it became an integral part of ancient Greek literature and held a prestigious place in later Roman histo ...
, particularly
Herodotus. According to Herodotus, the conflict between the Pharaoh
Amasis II
Amasis II ( grc, Ἄμασις ; phn, 𐤇𐤌𐤎 ''ḤMS'') or Ahmose II was a pharaoh (reigned 570526 BCE) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais. He was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conque ...
of Egypt and Cambyses II of Persia was a gradual process involving multiple personalities, mostly Egyptians. According to Herodotus, an Egyptian physician was requested by Cambyses from Amasis on good terms, to which Amasis complied. The physician (most likely an ancient
ophthalmologist
Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders.
An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...
) resented the forced labor that Amasis had imposed on him, and in retaliation, persuaded Cambyses to ask of Amasis a daughter in marriage, knowing how Amasis would dislike losing his daughter to a Persian. Cambyses complied, requesting the hand of the daughter of Amasis in marriage.
Amasis, unable to let go of his offspring, and unwilling to start a conflict with the Persians, instead sent an Egyptian girl named Nitetis, who was a daughter of an Egyptian named
Apries
Apries ( grc, Ἁπρίης) is the name by which Herodotus (ii. 161) and Diodorus (i. 68) designate Wahibre Haaibre, a pharaoh of Egypt (589 BC570 BC), the fourth king (counting from Psamtik I) of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. He was eq ...
. According to Herodotus, Apries was the previous pharaoh whom Amasis had defeated and killed, and whose daughter was now to be sent in place of Amasis's own offspring. Once greeted by Cambyses as "the daughter of Amasis", Nitetis explained the trickery employed by Amasis to avoid giving away his own daughter to the king. This infuriated Cambyses, who vowed to avenge the insult.
According to Herodotus, another motivation that solidified Cambyses's expedition into Egypt was
Phanes of Halicarnassus
Phanes of Halicarnassus ( grc-gre, Φάνης) was a wise council man, a tactician, and a mercenary from Halicarnassus, serving the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis II (570–526 BC). Most of what history recounts of Phanes is from the account of Hero ...
.
Originally a council man and advisor to Amasis, an unknown course of events led to bitterness developing between them to the point that Amasis sent an Egyptian
eunuch after Phanes, pursuing him to
Lydia. Phanes was captured in
Lycia but outwitted his guards by getting them drunk and escaped to Persia, and assisted the Persian king in all manners of strategy, and was instrumental in shaping his resolve for conquest of Egypt.
Despite having full control over the
Neo-Babylonian empire and its sub-regions including northern Arabia, Cambyses sent a message to the King of Arabia requesting safe passage through the desert road from Gaza to Pelusium.
The Arabian king, himself an enemy of Amasis and glad to facilitate his destruction, granted safe passage to Cambyses and even supplied him with troops.
According to
Polybius, even with all the precautions taken on entering the border of Egypt, only the city of Gaza resisted the Persians, which fell after a long siege. When the news of the impending battle reached Egypt,
Psamtik III
Psamtik III ( Ancient Egyptian: , pronounced ), known by the Graeco-Romans as Psammetichus or Psammeticus ( Ancient Greek: ), or Psammenitus ( Ancient Greek: ), was the last Pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt from 526 BC to 525 BC. Most ...
(Psammenitus), son and heir of Amasis II, gathered the Egyptian army, stationing it along the fork of the
Red Sea and the river
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ri ...
. Amasis himself died six months before Cambyses reached Egypt.
Psamtik had hoped that Egypt would be able to withstand the threat of the Persian attack by an alliance with the
Greeks, but this hope failed, as the Cypriot towns and the tyrant
Polycrates of Samos
Polycrates (; grc-gre, Πολυκράτης), son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant.
Sources
The main source for Polycrates' life and activi ...
, who possessed a large fleet, now preferred to join the Persians. That one of Egypt's most prominent tactical advisers, Phanes of Halicarnassus, had already gone over to the Persian side meant that Psamtik was entirely dependent on his own limited military experience. Polycrates sent 40
triremes to the Persians. Psamtik, in a violent act of revenge prior to the confrontation with the Persian army, arrested all the sons of Phanes and stood them between two bowls. He then cut them one by one, draining their blood and mixing it with wine. Psamtik then drank of it and made every other councilman drink their blood before the battles.
The battle
The decisive military conflict happened at Pelusium. As Herodotus describes a sea of skulls at the Nile basin, upon the remnants of which he remarks on the differences between the Persian and the Egyptian heads. According to
Ctesias
Ctesias (; grc-gre, Κτησίας; fl. fifth century BC), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire.
Historical events
Ctesias, who lived in the f ...
, fifty thousand Egyptians fell, whereas the entire loss on the Persian side was only seven thousand. After this short struggle, the troops of Psamtik fled, and soon the retreat became a complete rout. Disoriented, and fleeing, the Egyptians took shelter in
Memphis.
The Egyptians were now besieged in their stronghold of Memphis.
Aftermath
According to Herodotus, Cambyses, in a last attempt to bring an end to the struggle, sent a Persian herald in a ship to exhort the Egyptians to give up before further bloodshed. Upon sighting the Persian vessel at the port of Memphis, the Egyptians ran out, attacking the ship and killing every man in it, carrying their torn limbs with them back to the city.
As Cambyses advanced to Memphis, it is said that for every
Mytilenian killed during the siege of Memphis, ten Egyptians died, which makes the number of dead Egyptians two thousand, who may have been executed at the time or after the siege, because two hundred Mytileneans were killed. Pelusium probably surrendered itself immediately after the battle. The pharaoh was captured after the fall of Memphis and allowed to live under Persian watch. He later committed suicide after attempting a revolt against the Persians.
Herodotus on the battle
The fields around were strewn with the bones of the combatants when
Herodotus visited. He noted that the skulls of the Egyptians were distinguishable from those of the Persians by their superior hardness, a fact confirmed he said by the mummies, and which he ascribed to the Egyptians' shaving their heads from infancy, and to the Persians covering them up with folds of cloth or linen.
Polyaenus
Polyaenus or Polyenus ( ; see ae (æ) vs. e; grc-gre, Πoλύαινoς, Polyainos, "much-praised") was a 2nd-century CE Greek author, known best for his ''Stratagems in War'' ( grc-gre, Στρατηγήματα, Strategemata), which has been pr ...
, "a retired Macedonian general more interested in novelty than historical accuracy", claims that, according to legend, Cambyses captured Pelusium by using a clever strategy. The Egyptians regarded certain animals, especially cats, as being sacred (they had a cat goddess named
Bastet
Bastet or Bast ( egy, bꜣstjt, cop, Ⲟⲩⲃⲁⲥⲧⲉ, Oubaste , Phoenician: 𐤀𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: ’bst, or 𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: bst) was a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion, worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty (289 ...
), and would not injure them on any account. Polyaenus claims that Cambyses had his men carry the "sacred" animals in front of them to the attack. The Egyptians did not dare to shoot their arrows for fear of wounding the animals, and so Pelusium was stormed successfully. This would be an early form of
psychological warfare.
Herodotus, however, makes no mention of any such strategy, and "gives hardly any information" about the fighting in general. According to Herodotus, Cambyses initially behaved with a certain moderation, sparing the son of Psamtik due to feeling "a touch of pity",
but later, dissatisfied with his victory and unable to punish the already deceased Amasis for his trickery, decided to commit what Herodotus calls an un-Persian act: he desecrated the tomb of the mummified Amasis and ordered the mummy burned.
However,
Pierre Briant concludes that Herodotus' recorded information regarding Cambyses' actions in Egypt after the victory is false.
[
Cambyses then made peace with Libyans, accepting their offer for truce. Egypt became a possession of Persia, and Cambyses its Pharaoh. Because they defeated the pharaohs of the twenty-sixth dynasty, Persian monarchs were acknowledged as pharaohs and came to be known as Egypt's ]Twenty-seventh Dynasty
The Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVII, alternatively 27th Dynasty or Dynasty 27), also known as the First Egyptian Satrapy (), was effectively a province (Satrapy) of the Achaemenid Persian Empire between 525 BC and 404 BC. ...
(or the first Persian period).
References
Further reading
* Herodotus.'' The Histories''. Suffolk, England: Penguin Books, 1975.
* Dupuy, R. Ernest, and Trevor N. Dupuy. ''The Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 BC. to the present''. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.
* Fuller, J.F.C. ''A Military History of the Western World'', Volume One. N.P.: Minerva Press, 1954.
* Harbottle, Thomas. ''Dictionary of Battles''. New York: Stein and Day, 1971.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelusium, Battle of
6th-century BC conflicts
Battles involving ancient Egypt
Battles involving the Achaemenid Empire
6th century BC in Egypt
525 BC
Naval history of Egypt
Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt
Psychological warfare
Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
6th century BC in Iran
Cambyses II