Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / Cambyses II and the Lost Army of Egypt
Transcript
- Lucas: We've spent a lot of time on the big names—Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes. But there's one king who usually gets skipped over, and his story is absolutely wild. I'm talking about Cambyses II. Luna: Cyrus's son, right? The one who conquered Egypt? Lucas: Exactly. Cambyses II reigned from 530 to 522 BCE, and his main achievement was adding Egypt to the Persian Empire. But the way he did it, and what happened afterward, is a mix of military brilliance, religious controversy, and outright legend. Herodotus paints him as a madman, but we have to take that with a grain of salt. Luna: Because Herodotus was Greek, and the Greeks weren't exactly fans of Persia. Lucas: Right. So let's start with the conquest itself. In 525 BCE, Cambyses led a massive army across the Sinai desert into Egypt. The Egyptians were under Pharaoh Psamtik III, who had only been on the throne for six months. There was a big battle at Pelusium, the gateway to Egypt. Herodotus gives us a vivid detail: the Persians used cats and other animals sacred to the Egyptians as shields, knowing the Egyptians wouldn't fire on them. It's a great story, but we can't confirm it. Luna: Wait, really? Cats as shields? Lucas: That's what Herodotus says. Whether it's true or not, the Persians won decisively. Psamtik was captured, and Cambyses took the title of Pharaoh. He even adopted Egyptian royal names and rituals—he was crowned in the temple of Neith at Sais, and he made offerings to Egyptian gods. He was trying to present himself as a legitimate ruler, not a foreign conqueror. Luna: So far, that sounds pretty savvy, not mad. Lucas: Exactly. But things get weird after that. According to Herodotus, Cambyses then embarked on a series of disastrous campaigns. First, he sent an army to conquer the oasis of Siwa, deep in the Libyan desert. The army of 50,000 men supposedly got lost in a sandstorm and was never seen again. Then he planned campaigns against Nubia and Carthage, but the Carthage campaign was abandoned because the Phoenician fleet refused to attack their own colony. And the Nubian campaign went poorly—his supply lines failed, and his soldiers resorted to cannibalism. Luna: Cannibalism? That's a bit much. Is Herodotus exaggerating again? Lucas: Probably. But the lost army of Cambyses is a genuine mystery. Modern archaeologists have searched for it. In the 1930s, a British explorer named László Almásy—the real 'English Patient'—claimed to have found ancient weapons and bones near the Siwa oasis, but nothing conclusive. More recently, Italian and Egyptian teams have used satellite imagery to look for traces, but no definitive evidence has turned up. It might just be a legend, but it's a persistent one. Luna: And the Apis bull story? That's the famous one, right? Lucas: Oh, that's the centerpiece of the 'mad Cambyses' narrative. Herodotus says that after his failed campaigns, Cambyses returned to Memphis and found the Egyptians celebrating the appearance of a new Apis bull—a living manifestation of the god Ptah. He supposedly mocked their religion, drew his sword, and stabbed the bull in the thigh, killing it. Then he went completely insane, started killing his own family members, including his brother Smerdis, and eventually died from an accidental wound to his own thigh. Luna: That sounds like Greek propaganda to discredit a Persian king. Lucas: It very likely is. We actually have an Egyptian source that contradicts Herodotus: the Apis bull burial records. The Apis bull that died during Cambyses's reign was buried with full honors in the Serapeum at Saqqara. The stele even shows Cambyses kneeling before the Apis. So he didn't kill it. In fact, he may have been more respectful than later Persian kings. This is a classic case of 'history written by the victors'—or in this case, the rivals. Luna: So what actually happened to Cambyses? Lucas: He died in 522 BCE while returning to Persia to deal with a usurper named Gaumata, who claimed to be his brother Smerdis. Cambyses died of a gangrenous wound, possibly self-inflicted, but there's no evidence of madness. The Greek accounts are colored by their desire to portray Persian kings as decadent and tyrannical, in contrast to the 'free' Greeks. So while Cambyses may have had his flaws, the image of a raving lunatic is almost certainly an exaggeration. Luna: It's fascinating how much of what we think we know about Persia comes through a Greek lens. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's why we have to be careful. But the mystery of the lost army—that's still out there. Maybe one day someone will find the bones in the desert, and we'll finally know what happened. Luna: I hope so. It's one of those stories that just sticks with you. Lucas: It is. And it reminds us that even the most powerful empires can have moments of vulnerability and loss. The Achaemenids were incredibly successful, but not invincible.