KambysesCambyses

The second king of the Persian Empire; the son of Kyrus (Cyrus) the Great and Kassandane (Cassandane); he ruled the Persian Empire from 529-522 BCE (seven years and five months).

According to the historian Herodotus, Kambyses was so harsh and arrogant that the Persians called him The Master, whereas Kyrus was known as The Father and Kambyses’ successor, Darius, was known as The Huckster; he ruled the empire with callous contempt for his subjects and his family.

While Kambyses was occupied with the subjugation of Egypt, he had a dream that implied that his brother, Smerdis, was going to usurp the throne of Persia in his absence; he sent an assassin back to Persia and had Smerdis secretly murdered (this covert act would nearly cause the downfall of the Persian Empire).

While Kambyses was in Africa, he conducted unsuccessful military campaigns against the city of Carthage, the city of Ammon, and the nation of Ethiopia; the mercenary sailors that Kambyses hired refused to engage the Carthaginians for fear of jeopardizing their trade cartel in the Mediterranean Sea; the fifty thousand soldiers he sent to burn the oracle of Zeus in Ammon disappeared in the desert and the army he led against Ethiopia nearly starved to death before they were forced to abandon their march; the frustration of these failed campaigns combined with Kambyses’ cruel nature caused him to commit every type of blasphemy against the Egyptian gods and their temples.

Contrary to Persian tradition, Kambyses married two of his sisters and murdered one of them; Kambyses’ madness progressed as he stayed in Egypt and when he finally decided to return to Persia he was hated and feared by the Egyptians, the Persians and his closest advisors; Kambyses had inherited the captured Lydian king, Kroesus (Croesus), from his father and, while in Egypt, Kroesus was forced to flee for his life because he dared to contradict Kambyses and offer criticism for the mad deeds that Kambyses inflicted on all those around him.

The oracle at Buto had told Kambyses that he would die in the city of Agbatana and Kambyses believed that he would die of old age in the Persian city by that name but while he was traveling through Syria, he stopped at the Syrian city of Agbatana and died of a wound from his own sword; before he died Kambyses received news from his capital city, Susa, that his brother, Smerdis, had assumed the throne; Kambyses knew that his brother was dead and he correctly surmised that an imposter was on his throne; he called the highest ranking Persians of his army to his death-bed and told them that he had ordered the murder of his brother and that he could not possibly be on the throne of the Persian empire; he told them that a false-Smerdis had assumed the throne and must be deposed at all costs; the Persians, who were accustomed to Kambyses’ madness, simply refused to believe him and accepted the false-Smerdis as their new king; after a life of manipulation and indulgence, Kambyses died without heirs, respect or honor.

• Histories, book 3, chapters 1-39 and 61-66