Amasis II
Amasis II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ahmose II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reign | 570–526 BCE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Apries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Psamtik III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Consort | 26th dynasty |
Amasis II (
Life
Most of our information about him is derived from
A revolt which broke out among native Egyptian soldiers gave him his opportunity to seize the throne. These troops, returning home from a disastrous military expedition to
Some information is known about the family origins of Amasis: his mother was a certain Tashereniset, as a bust of her, today located in the British Museum, shows.[15] A stone block from Mehallet el-Kubra also establishes that his maternal grandmother—Tashereniset's mother—was a certain Tjenmutetj.[15]
His court is relatively well known. The head of the gate guard Ahmose-sa-Neith appears on numerous monuments, including the location of his sarcophagus. He was referenced on monuments of the 30th Dynasty and apparently had a special significance in his time. Wahibre was 'Leader of the southern foreigners' and 'Head of the doors of foreigners', so he was the highest official for border security. Under Amasis the career of the doctor, Udjahorresnet, began, who was of particular importance to the Persians. Several "heads of the fleet" are known. Psamtek Meryneit and Pasherientaihet / Padineith are the only known viziers.
Amasis, worrying that his daughter would be a concubine to the Persian king, refused to give up his offspring; Amasis also was not willing to take on the Persian empire, so he concocted a deception in which he forced the daughter of the ex-pharaoh Apries, whom Herodotus explicitly confirms to have been killed by Amasis, to go to Persia instead of his own offspring.[16][17][18]
This daughter of Apries was none other than
Herodotus also describes how, just like his predecessor, Amasis relied on Greek mercenaries and councilmen. One such figure was
Egypt's wealth
Amasis brought Egypt into closer contact with Greece than ever before. Herodotus relates that under his prudent administration, Egypt reached a new level of wealth; Amasis adorned the temples of Lower Egypt especially with splendid monolithic shrines and other monuments (his activity here is proved by existing remains).[6] For example, a temple built by him was excavated at Tell Nebesha.[citation needed]
Amasis assigned the commercial colony of
Under Amasis, Egypt's agricultural based economy reached its zenith. Herodotus, who visited Egypt less than a century after Amasis II's death, writes that:
It is said that it was during the reign of Ahmose II (Amasis) that Egypt attained its highest level of prosperity both in respect of what the river gave the land and in respect of what the land yielded to men and that the number of inhabited cities at that time reached in total 20,000.[20]
His kingdom consisted probably of Egypt only, as far as the
Tomb and desecration
Amasis II died in 526 BC. He was buried at the royal necropolis of Sais within the temple enclosure of Neith, and while his tomb has not been rediscovered, Herodotus describes it for us:
[It is] a great cloistered building of stone, decorated with pillars carved in the imitation of palm-trees, and other costly ornaments. Within the cloister is a chamber with double doors, and behind the doors stands the sepulchre.[26]
Herodotus also relates the desecration of Amasis' mummy when the Persian king Cambyses conquered Egypt and thus ended the 26th (Saite) Dynasty:
No sooner did [Cambyses] enter the palace of Amasis that he gave orders for his [Amasis's] body to be taken from the tomb where it lay. This done, he proceeded to have it treated with every possible indignity, such as beating it with whips, sticking it with goads, and plucking its hairs... As the body had been embalmed and would not fall to pieces under the blows, Cambyses had it burned.[27]
Later reputation
From the fifth century BCE, there is evidence of stories circulating about Amasis, in Egyptian sources (including a demotic papyrus of the third century BCE), Herodotus, Hellanikos, and Plutarch's Convivium Septem Sapientium. 'In those tales Amasis was presented as a non-conventional Pharaoh, behaving in ways unbecoming to a king but gifted with practical wisdom and cunning, a trickster on the throne or a kind of comic Egyptian Solomon'.[28]
Gallery of images
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Relief showing Amasis from the Karnak temple
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Papyrus, written in demotic script in the 35th year of Amasis II, on display at theLouvre
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Grant of a parcel of land by an individual to a temple. Dated to the first year of Amasis II, on display at the Louvre
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A stele dating to the 23rd regnal year of Amasis, on display at the Louvre
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-500-28628-9.
- ^ Schmitz, Philip C.. "Chapter 3. Three Phoenician "Graffiti" at Abu Simbel (CIS I 112)". The Phoenician Diaspora: Epigraphic and Historical Studies, University Park, US: Penn State University Press, 2021, pp. 35-39. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575066851-005
- ISBN 0-19-521693-8
- ^ Mason, Charles Peter (1867). "Amasis (II)". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 136–137.
- ISBN 0-500-28628-0.
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Griffith, Francis Llewellyn (1911). "Amasis s.v. Amasis II.". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 782. This cites:
- W. M. Flinders Petrie, History, vol. iii.
- James Henry Breasted, History and Historical Documents, vol. iv. p. 509
- Gaston Maspero, Les Empires.
- ISSN 0307-5133.
- ISSN 0307-5133.
- ^ Ladynin, Ivan A. (2006). THE ELEPHANTINE STELA OF AMASIS: SOME PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF STUDY, pp. 10-12
- ^ Ladynin, Ivan A. (2006). THE ELEPHANTINE STELA OF AMASIS: SOME PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF STUDY, pp. 7-11
- ^ a b The Elephantine Stela of Amasis
- ^ a b The Chronicles of the Babylonian Kings, Nbk 329
- ^ a b Ladynin, Ivan A. (2006). THE ELEPHANTINE STELA OF AMASIS: SOME PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF STUDY
- ^ "Amasis". Livius. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
- ^ ISBN 0-500-05128-3.
- ^ a b c Herodotus (1737). The History of Herodotus Volume I,Book II. D. Midwinter. pp. 246–250.
- ^ Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1837). Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians: including their private life, government, laws, art, manufactures, religions, and early history; derived from a comparison of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments still existing, with the accounts of ancient authors. Illustrated by drawings of those subjects, Volume 1. J. Murray. p. 195.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-158955-3.
- ^ Montaigne, de, Michel. "20". In William Carew Hazlitt (ed.). The Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Translated by Charles Cotton. The University of Adelaide. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Herodotus, (II, 177, 1)
- JSTOR 27927044.
- ISBN 0-19-280293-3.
- ^ Josephus, Ant. 10.9.7, §182
- ^ a b c Lloyd. (2002) p.382
- ^ Griffith 1911.
- ISSN 1884-1392.
- ^ Herodotus, The Histories, Book III, Chapter 16
- ^ Konstantakos, Ioannis M. (2004). "Trial by Riddle: The Testing of the Counsellor and the Contest of Kings in the Legend of Amasis and Bias". Classica et Mediaevalia. 55: 85–137 (p. 90).
Further reading
- Ray, John D. (1996). "Amasis, the pharaoh with no illusions". History Today. 46 (3): 27–31.
- ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5, S. 265–283 (Online).