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AMASIS II. was the last great ruler of Egypt before the

Persian conquest, 570-526 B.C. Most of our information

about him is derived from Herodotus (ii. 161 et seq.) and

can only be imperfectly controlled by monumental evidence.

According to the Greek historian he was of mean origin.

A revolt of the native soldiers gave him his opportunity.

These troops, returning home from a disastrous expedition to

Cyrene, suspected that they had been betrayed in order that

Apries, the reigning king, might rule more absolutely by

means of his mercenaries, and their friends in Egypt fully

sympathized with them. Amasis, sent to meet them and quell

the revolt, was proclaimed king by the rebels, and Apries,

who had now to rely entirely on his mercenaries, was defeated

and taken prisoner in the ensuing conflict at Momemphis; the

usurper treated the captive prince with great lenity, but

was eventually persuaded to give him up to the people, by

whom he was strangled and buried in his ancestral tomb at

Sais. An inscription confirms the fact of the struggle

between the native and the foreign soldiery, and proves that

Apries was killed and honourably buried in the 3rd year of

Amasis. Although Amasis thus appears first as champion of

the disparaged native, he had the good sense to cultivate

the friendship of the Greek world, and brought Egypt into

closer touch with it than ever before. Herodotus relates

that under his prudent administration Egypt reached the

highest pitch of prosperity; he adorned the temples of Lower

Egypt especially with splendid monolithic shrines and other

monuments (his activity here is proved by remains still

existing). To the Greeks Amasis assigned the commercial

colony of Naucratis on the Canopic branch of the Nile, and

when the temple of Delphi was burnt he contributed 1000

talents to the rebuilding. He also married a Greek princess

named Ladice, the daughter of Battus, king of Cyrene, and

he made alliances with Polycrates of Samos and Croesus of

Lydia. His kingdom consisted probably of Egypt only, as

far as the First Cataract, but to this he added Cyprus, and

his influence was great in Cyrene. At the beginning of his

long reign, before the death of Apries, he appears to have

sustained an attack by Nebuchadrezzar (568 B.C.). Cyrus

left Egypt unmolested; but the last years of Amasis were

disturbed by the threatened invasion of Cambyses and by

the rupture of the alliance with Polycrates of Samos. The

blow fell upon his son Psammetichus III., whom the Persian

deprived of his kingdom after a reign of only six months.

See NAUCRATIS: also W. M. Flinders Petrie, History,

vol. iii.; Breasted, History and Historical Documents,

vol. iv. p. 509; Maspero, Les Empires. (F. LL. G.)

Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed