CAMBYSES II, The Mad Persian Shah (530 - 522 BC) Part 2

Go and check out my Part 1 blog on Cambyses II if you haven't seen it already:
https://steemit.com/hive-133974/@oo7harv/cambyses-ii-heir-to-cyrus-the-great-530-522-bc-part-1

CAMBYSES RETURNS TO EGYPT, THE APIS BULL

Cambyses’ return to Memphis took place alongside the Apis Bull appearing, who the Greeks called Epaphus, a king of Egypt in Greek mythology. When this happened, the Egyptian people put on their best clothing and begun celebrating. This was taken the wrong way by Cambyses, who saw the partying as happening due to his failed expeditions. Calling for the governors of Memphis to his presence, Cambyses asked why the Egyptians were behaving as he thought they were, and yet while the governors explained what was really happening, Cambyses accused them of lying and sentenced them all to death. Next, Cambyses summoned the Apis priests, who all gave the same explanation of the partying as he governors did. Cambyses ordered one of the priests to bring Epaphus the calf-bull to him, and having gone more or less insane by now, Cambyses simply attempted to run the calf through with a dagger, but hit its leg instead of its stomach, saying after to the priests:

"You poor fools! Is this what gods are like? Are they creatures of flesh and blood, capable of being wounded by weapons? Well this is the god you Egyptians deserve. But you won’t get away with making me a laughing stock."
-Herodotus, 3.29

[ABOVE: A statue of an Apis ("bull"), 30th Egyptian Dynasty, now in the Louvre, Paris]

Cambyses then ordered his followers to have these priests flogged, and kill any other Egyptians that were present celebrating the festival too. Once the Apis bull died of its wounds, the priests secretly buried it behind Cambyses’ back.

CAMBYSES' INSANITY

SMERDIS/BARDIYA

[ABOVE: Portrait of Bardiya/Smerdis, from the Behistun Inscription: he was either the legitimate Bardiya, or, as stated by Darius, an imposter named "Gaumāta"]

This crime caused Cambyses to go, according to the Egyptians, insane. His first act as such was to have his brother, Smerdis, (also known as Bardiya) killed, being jealous of the fact that Smerdis could pull back the Ethiopian’s notoriously strong bow. Cambyses also allegedly dreamt that Smerdis, currently on his way back to Persia from Egypt, was sitting on the Achaemenid throne with his head touching the clouds. This made Cambyses freak out, thinking that Smerdis had ambitions to kill his brother and take power. Cambyses thus sent his most trusted fellow Persian, Prexaspes, to kill Smerdis in the city of Susa, which he did, killing him either during a hunting trip or whilst visiting the Red Sea, drowning him.

CAMBYSES' SISTER
After deposing of his brother, Cambyses’ next insane act was to depose of his sister, who had already traveled with him to Egypt. Despite it not being a traditional Persian custom but rather one that was uncommon but still somewhat practiced, Cambyses’ sister was also his wife. Two accounts of her death survive: The Greek one states that while she and Cambyses watched a fight that he had organised, between a dog and a lion cub. The dog was saved by its brother, and both dogs went on to beat the lion. She was moved to tears, stating that the fight reminded her of Bardiya’s fate and realising there would be no one to ever come to Cambyses’ defence, Cambyses had her killed. The Egyptian account of her death points to the two eating at their table. When his wife picked up some lettuce, stripped it of its leaves and asked her husband if lettuce was better left or stripped, Cambyses replied that it was better with the leaves on, to which she replied: “But you have stripped the house of Cyrus as bare as this lettuce.” Angry, Cyrus jumped on his wife so aggressively that not only did she die, but her unborn child died too.

PREXASPES + CROESUS

[ABOVE: Achaemenid Persian coin minted at the city of Sardis, Croesus' home city, likely during the reign of Cambyses II]

It is also said that Cambyses committed an evil act against Prexaspes; He was Cambyses’ personal message bearer, and Prexaspes’ son was also Cambyses’ wine server, a high position to hold. When Cambyses asked Prexaspes what the Persian peoples thought of him, Prexaspes replied:

“They have nothing but good to say about you, except in one respect: they say that you are too fond of wine.”
-Herodotus, 3.34

Angered by this response, Cambyses retorted:

“In fact the Persians are saying that my fondness for wine is driving me mad and making me lose my mind. It follows, then, that their earlier statements are false.”
-Herodotus, 3.34

Previously, in a meeting between Cambyses and his advisors, including Croesus, Cambyses asked them all what they thought of him in comparison to his father, Cyrus. Knowing Cambyses now controlled the entire empire, its armies and all its wealth, they responded that he was a better man. Croesus, however, having been liberated from Cyrus already, stated:

“In my opinion, my lord, you do not bear comparison with your father, because you do not yet have a son of the calibre of the one he left behind.”
-Herodotus, 3.34

This response delighted the Shah, who thought of it when talking to Prexaspes, responding:

“You’ll see whether the Persians are speaking the truth, or whether in saying this they are out of their minds. There’s your son standing on the porch. I’ll shoot at him, and if I hit him right in the heart, that will be proof that the Persians are talking nonsense, whereas if I miss, you can say that the Persians are right and that I am out of my mind.”
-Herodotus, 3.35

Pulling out a bow, Cambyses shot the boy, and ordered his men to cut him open and examine his wound, where they found that he had indeed hit his heart. With glee, Cambyses turned to Prexaspes and said:

“So there you have it, Prexaspes! Thus proves that I am quite sane, and the Persians are out of their minds. Now, tell me: do you know anyone else in the world who can shoot an arrow with such accuracy?”
-Herodotus, 3.35

“Master,” Prexaspes replied in fear, “I don’t think that even the god could have made such a good shot.”
-Herodotus, 3.35

Another insane act of Cambyses was in finding twelve high-ranking Persians guilty of minor crimes and burying them all to their necks.
Seeing it as his duty to do so, Croesus openly disproved of Cambyses’ behaviour:

“My lord, you shouldn’t just give way to your youth and passion; use some self-restraint and control. It is good to exercise forethought, and intelligent to look ahead. You are killing men who are your own countrymen, after convicting them of trivial misdemeanours; you are killing children. If you go on behaving like this, you had better watch out or the Persians will rise up against you. This is me, Croesus, speaking; your father Cyrus often told me to rebuke you and to suggest a good course of action to you, if I saw one.”
-Herodotus, 3.36

Despite this answer being one with the bets of intentions at heart, Croesus responded:

“How can you have the audacity to give me advice? Look how well you ruled over your own country! Look how well you advised my father, when you told him to cross the River Araxes and attack the Massagetae, when they were prepared to cross over into our own territory! You brought about your downfall through your incompetence as a leader of your country, and you brought about Cyrus’ death through his trust in you. But you won’t get away with it: I’ve been wanting to find an excuse to have a go at you for a long time.”
-Herodotus, 3.36

Cambyses grabbed his bow, but Croesus fled the room before being shot at. The Shah ordered his attendants to hunt him down, but knowing what Cambyses was like and knowing he would regret it later, the men kept the Lydian hidden, knowing that if Cambyses didn’t change his mind then they could just kill Croesus behind his back. Even when the Shah found out that Croesus was still alive, and even when he was happy to find out, he still ordered the men who had kept him alive to be killed.

Other examples of Cambyses’ growing levels of insanity exist; during his time spent in Memphis, he opened a selection of ancient Egyptian tombs just to examine the bodies for himself. And during a visit to the sanctuary of Hephaestus he even went as far as to openly mock the revered cult statue. He even once entered the Sanctuary of Cabiri in Thebes (in which only the high priests are ever allowed to enter) and burnt down the sacred statues, after openly ridiculing them too. In my opinion, when you compare him to the great man he succeeded to the throne, it becomes very clear that the citizens of all corners of the Persian Empire would have viewed this new Shah as a mad one.

POLYCRATES' SHORT FRIENDSHIP WITH AMASIS, CAMBYSES AND THE EMNITY OF SPARTA

[ABOVE: "Polycrates with Pharaoh Amasis II", 19th century German illustration]

While Cambyses was campaigning in Egypt, the Spartans attacked the island nation of Samos, where the tyrant Polycrates was currently ruling. Having divided the city between himself and his brothers and then banishing them both from the city to claim sole power, Polycrates made close ties with Amasis, and having never lost one of his campaigns, word of his affairs fast spread to all of Greece, and eventually to Amasis in Egypt. The Pharaoh expressed in a letter to his friend about his disproval of Polycrates’ rapid conquests, and when the tyrant read it he threw away an emerald ring he wore into the ocean to symbolise him tossing his friendship with Amasis away in exchange for his personal pursuits. When the ring was miraculously brought back to him by a fisherman, and when word of this got to Amasis, he realised it wasn’t possible for one of them to rescue the other from what was about to happen, declaring that as Polycrates was so lucky to find something he’d thrown far away, the tyrant was fated to die horribly, and thus dissolved the two’s friendship.

[ABOVE: Coin from Samos during the time of Polycrates' tyranny, c.530-528 BC]

The relevance of this story to the Persians is that while Cambyses was attacking Egypt, Polycrates noted this mutual disliking towards Amasis and thus requested the Persian king send some of his own troops to aid against his Spartan threat. Complying, Cambyses in return asked Polycrates to send him troops to aid against the Egyptians, which he did, but only ones that were likely to revolt soon after, asking Cambyses that they not be returned to him in Samos after. Two different accounts state that these Samian reinforcements eventually went on to sail back to Samos; one version says that they never even reached Egypt and just changed their minds half way there, and another claims that they did reach Egypt, only to be held in custody there and eventually escaping. This second telling of events continues, claiming that Polycrates came out to meet his troops in battle against them, being defeated at sea but then winning in a following land engagement. The defeated Samians thus set sail for Sparta. As a safe-guard against these Samians returning one day, Polycrates took the wives and children of the soldiers and locked them up in a hastily-made shipyard, under the threat that he could burn them up should he have to. Once the Samians reached Sparta, they asked for aid against Polycrates, and they eventually accepted.

[ABOVE: Coin from Samos during Polycrates' tyranny, showing a winged boar with a lion's scalp facing to a dotted square, c.526-522 BC]

The next blog post will look into the death of Cambyses, the Conspiracy of the 7 and the ascent of Darius the Great - stay tuned!

SOURCES

• Herodotus's "The Histories"
• Oswyn Murray's "Early Greece"
• Nic Field's "Thermopylae 480 BC"

All images used are license-free.

YOUTUBE LINK

(I do NOT own this video)

Timeline - World History Documentaries' "The Persian Army That Vanished | King Cambyses II | Timeline":

This has been the fifth part in many blogs on the Achaemenid Empire. Go and check out the rest if you haven't already:

THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE

https://steemit.com/hive-133974/@oo7harv/the-persian-empire-history-s-first-superpower

CYRUS THE GREAT 1

https://steemit.com/hive-133974/@oo7harv/cyrus-the-great-conquests-of-media-and-lydia

CYRUS THE GREAT 2

https://steemit.com/hive-133974/@oo7harv/cyrus-the-great-2-conquest-of-babylon-and-his-downfall

CAMBYSES II Part 1

https://steemit.com/hive-133974/@oo7harv/cambyses-ii-heir-to-cyrus-the-great-530-522-bc-part-1

PERSIAN PROVERBS

https://steemit.com/quotes/@oo7harv/persian-proverbs

THE HISTORY COMMUNITY

https://steemit.com/created/hive-133974

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