Cambyses II
Cambyses II (Persian: کمبوجيه دوم; Old Persian: 𐎣𐎲𐎢𐎪𐎡𐎹, Kɑmboujie; Aramaic כנבוזי, Kanbūzī; Greek Καμβύσης, Kambúsēs; Latin Cambyses; Medieval Hebrew כמבישה, Kambisha) (d. 522 BC) son of Cyrus the Great (r. 559–530 BC), was King of Kings of Persia. Cambyses' grandfather was Cambyses I, king of Anshan. Following Cyrus the Great's conquest of the Near East and Central Asia, Cambyses II further expanded the empire into Egypt during the Late Period by defeating the Egyptian Pharaoh Psamtik III during the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC. After the Egyptian campaign and the truce with Libya, Cambyses invaded the Kingdom of Kush (located in what is now the Republic of Sudan) but with little success.
Rise to power
When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC, Cambyses was employed in leading religious ceremonies. In the cylinder which contains Cyrus' proclamation to the Babylonians, Cambyses' name is joined to his father's in the prayers to Marduk. On a tablet dated from the first year of Cyrus, Cambyses is called king of Babylon, although his authority seems to have been ephemeral. Only in 530 BC, when Cyrus set out on his last expedition into the East, did Cyrus associate Cambyses with the throne. Numerous Babylonian tablets of the time date from the accession and the first year of Cambyses, when Cyrus was "king of the countries" (i.e., of the world).
Cambyses (disambiguation)
Cambyses can refer to two ancient rulers and two plays:-
See also
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire (/əˈkiːmənɪd/; c. 550–330 BC), also called the First Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great, notable for including various civilizations and becoming the largest empire of ancient history, spanning at its maximum extent from the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east. It is equally notable for its successful model of a centralised, bureaucratic administration (through satraps under a king), for building infrastructure such as a postal system and road systems and the use of an official language across its territories and a large professional army and civil services (inspiring similar systems in later empires). It is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in the empire as well.
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