The Egyptian Expedition: Cambyses II
- When Cambyses was a little boy, he saw that his mother Cassandane was sad. He wanted to know the reason of her sadness, and she said that her husband, Cyrus the Great, didn"t love her anymore, because he was with his Egyptian concubine all the time. When Cambyses heard that, he promised his mother that he would turn Egypt upside down when he grew up.
- When Cambyses was the King of Persia he demanded a doctor due to his eye-problems. The Egyptians had famous doctors at that time, and consequently the Egyptian king, Amasis II, sent a doctor to treat him. The doctor was angry, because he didn"t want to leave Egypt, but he was forced to do so by the Egyptian King. Therefore he wanted to avenge this, and said to Cambyses that the Egyptian king had a very beautiful daughter. Therefore, Cambyses wanted to marry her. Amasis II was afraid now. In either way he would lose something. If he married his daughter to Cambyses, he would never see her again, and if he didn"t send his daughter to Cambyses, he would lose his country to the Persians. So he decided to send another beautiful girl to Persia pretending to be his daughter. Eventually Cambyses found out that it wasn"t an Egyptian princess and he got very angry and decided to conquer Egypt.
- Cyrus the Great had conquered almost all the known world and thus created the largest empire the world had ever seen at that time. When Cambyses was crowned as king, only Egpyt remained unconquered in that area. Subsequently, Cambyses had to conquerer this ancient civilization. One day, a Greek general, Phanes of Halicarnassus, defected to the Persians from Egyptian service. He said to Cambyses that he knew a path into Egypt and would help the Persians to conquer Egypt. Amasis II hoped to stop the coming Persian invasion by allying with the Greeks, but it didn"t happen and a large number of Greek ships from Cyprus and Samos joined the Persian army. Cambyses, allied with the arab chieftains, made the world"s first pipeline with camel-skin, so the Persian army was well-supplied with water when crossing the desert towards Egypt.
The Birth of the Persian Empire: Cyrus the Great
The First Iranian Empire: Media
Northern Iran consisted of Median city-states. In 715 BC, Deioces united these city-states and was considered to be the founder of the Median Empire. The Medes allied with the Babylonians against the Assyrian Superpower. In 612 BC, the alliance captured the Assyrian capital Nineveh and overthrew the Assyrian Empire. The Median Empire emerged as the dominant power and consequently expanded the borders to eastern Anatolia under the Median king, Cyaxares. In 584 BC, Cyaxares was succeeded by his son, Astyages, who became allied with the Lydian king, Croesus. Meanwhile, the Persians were the subjects of the Medians. Astyages" daughter, Mandana, married the Persian king, Cambyses I, and gave birth to the end of the Median Empire... The Median Empire 600 BC