Page "Amasis II" Paragraph 10

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.

In his fourth year ( c. 567 B. C. E.

), Amasis was able to defeat an invasion of Egypt by the Babylonians under Nebuchadrezzar II ; henceforth, the Babylonians experienced sufficient difficulties controlling their empire that they were forced to abandon future attacks against Amasis.

However, Amasis was later faced with a more formidable enemy with the rise of Persia under Cyrus who ascended to the throne in 559 B. C. E.

; his final years were preoccupied by the threat of the impending Persian onslaught against Egypt.

With great strategic skill, Cyrus had destroyed Lydia in 546 B. C. E.

and finally defeated the Babylonians in 538 B. C. E.

which left Amasis with no major Near Eastern allies to counter Persia's increasing military might.

Amasis reacted by cultivating closer ties with the Greek states to counter the future Persian invasion into Egypt but was fortunate to have died in 526 B. C. E.

shortly before the Persians attacked.

The final assault instead fell upon his son Psamtik III, whom the Persians defeated in 525 B. C. E.

after a reign of only six months.