Nectanebo II

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Name of Nectanebo II.
Horus name
G5
U6
N19
Srxtail2.svg
Meri-taui
Mrj-t3wj Who
loves the two countries
Sideline
G16
s H
r
F34 R8 G43
Seheru-ib-netjeru
Shrw-jb-nṯrw Who satisfies the heart of godhood
Gold name
G8
s mn
N35
H p
Y1
Z7
Z2
Semen-hepu
Smn-hpw Who lets the laws stand
Throne name
M23
X1
L2
X1
Hiero Ca1.svg
C2 C12 s V28 ib
Z1
U21
n
Hiero Ca2.svg
Senedjem-ib-Re-setep-en-heret
Snḏm-jb-Rˁ-stp-n-ḥrt Who delights
the heart, a Re ,
chosen by Onuris
Proper name
G39 N5
Hiero Ca1.svg
B1 U6 D40 G5 W4 X1
O49
Hiero Ca2.svg
Nechethorenhebit-Merienhathor
(Nechet Hor en hebit meri en Hathor)
Nḫt Ḥr n ḥbt mrj Ḥtḥr The mighty Horus of Hebit , loved by Hathor
Greek
for Manetho
Nectanebes
Tête de Nectanébo II, XXX dynasty.JPG
Statue head of Nectanebo II
(Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon )

Nectanebos II ( ancient Egyptian Nechethorenhebit , also Night Thorehebit ) was the last native pharaoh (king) in ancient Egypt . With him an almost 3000 year long era of Egyptian history ended. Four Persian kings followed him, then the Greco-Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Nectanebo II ruled as the third ruler of the 30th dynasty from the summer of 359 BC. Probably until spring 341 BC. BC Nectanebos II. Was the nephew of his predecessor Tachos , who was overthrown by Nectanebos II after the betrayal of his brother Tjaihepimu .

Life

Domination

Nectanebos II accompanied Tachos on his campaign against the Persian great king Artaxerxes II , when Tjaihepimu, who remained in Egypt as governor, rebelled and proclaimed his son Nectanebos II as the new pharaoh. This was also supported by the old Spartan King Agesilaos II , who had fallen away from Tachos. Tachos had to flee, perhaps to the court of his previous Persian archenemy. But even Nectanebo II could not take over his rule unchallenged, as an unknown rival to the throne came from Mendes , but Nectanebo II was able to defeat with Agesilaos' help. Agesilaos then wanted to travel home and was dismissed with a rich gift from Nectanebos II, but died on the way home.

In the first years of his rule, Nectanebo II seems to have ruled relatively unchallenged; Even on Egypt's southern border, things must have remained calm. The Pharaoh carried out extensive building activities and gifted the Horus Temple of Edfu with extensive land.

In the winter of 351/50 BC The Persian great king Artaxerxes III started. an attack on Egypt, about which little more is known than that it failed. Greek generals, namely the Athenian Diophantos and the Spartan Lamios, are said to have contributed significantly to the Egyptian victory. Nectanebo II then supported the approximately 346/345 BC. A rebellion against Persian supremacy broke out in Phenicia and Cyprus by sending 4,000 Greek mercenaries under the command of Mentor of Rhodes to the aid of the rebellious King Tennes of Sidon . However, it is not certain whether the uprising, as is often assumed, was a consequence of the Persian defeat against Egypt in 351/50 BC. Was.

After initial setbacks, Artaxerxes III. defeat the rebels. According to the ancient historian Diodorus, he recruited 10,000 Greek mercenaries . Sidon fell through the betrayal of Mentor and Tennes, the latter nevertheless being executed on the orders of the Persian king. The revolt in Cyprus was also put down. Artaxerxes III. now able to concentrate fully on conquering Egypt.

Fall

Diodorus dated the attack on Egypt both in the 18th year of the reign of Artaxerxes III. as well as of Nectanebo II, based on one in 362 BC. Artaxerxes III came to power. On this basis, the campaign against Egypt was scheduled for the year 343 BC. From the demotic papyrus Traum des Nektanebos it emerges that the summer of the year 343 BC. Is to be equated with the 16th year of the reign of Nectanebo II. From the sixth year of reign of Artaxerxes III. is for November 22nd, 353 BC. A lunar eclipse evidenced. His first year of reign did not therefore begin until December 359 BC. After the dates of Diodorus have been corrected, the attack on Egypt can begin in December 342 BC at the earliest. BC, especially since the flood of the Nile did not end until September or October.

Diodorus based his statements in a strongly abbreviated form, perhaps on the universal history of the fourth century BC. Living Greek historian Ephoros von Kyme , who incorporated his anti-Persian stance into his remarks. An analysis showed that Diodorus used the statements of Ephorus by Kyme repeatedly for his stories. The size information given by Diodorus in connection with the attack on Egypt with regard to the armies of Artaxerxes III. and Nectanebo II. striking parallels with the Diodorus figures from other battles.

The credibility of the details of Diodor's account of the successful Persian attack on Egypt is debatable. The Persian king divided his troops into three army divisions, each commanded by a Greek and a Persian. The commanders of the first contingent of troops were Lakrates and Rhosakes , who in addition to foot soldiers had considerable cavalry units. Nikostratus and Aristazanes commanded 5,000 elite soldiers and 80  triremes who were to go on the offensive by sea . Mentor and Bagoas were the leaders of the third division; they too had numerous ships. Artaxerxes III. as commander in chief, supervised the entire Persian army. According to Diodorus, the Egyptian army is said to have a total strength of 100,000 men: 20,000 Greeks, 20,000  Libyans and 60,000 Egyptians.

Nikostratus entered Egypt with his fleet via a canal and defeated an army of the Kleinias of Kos, which Nectanebo II is said to be so shocked that he retreated to Memphis . Lakrates was not able to conquer the border fortress of Pelusium immediately, but assured its Greek defenders after negotiations that they could leave unmolested if the city was surrendered. When Bagoas now occupied Pelusium, his people are said to have robbed the withdrawing Greeks. Lakrates had avenged the offense, which in retrospect of Artaxerxes III. had been approved. Diodorus credits Mentor and Bagoas with the capture of Bubastis by a ruse, whereupon other Egyptian cities surrendered. Thereupon Nectanebo II apparently lost the power struggle for Egypt and fled to Nubia , where he disappeared. The last records of Nectanebo II come from his 18th year of reign and date to the month of Mecher ( April 341 BC).

reception

The demotic literature comes from the subject of the novel-like legend of the so-called Greek-speaking Alexander romance , the ancient Egyptian ideas regarding the "King birth" took over and Nectanebo II. The "father of Alexander let be." The reports belonging to the text genre of the ancient Egyptian stories were processed in the work of Pseudo-Callisthenes , which transferred the story of the fatherhood of Nectanebo II to Alexander. As further representatives of the demotic literature, the stories The Dream of Nectanebo and The Truth of Nectanebo are known. In the historical work Excerpta Latina Barbari it is mentioned that Nectanebos fled to Macedonia . He would have lived there and taught astrology .

During Napoleon's Egyptian campaign , the French believed they had discovered the empty sarcophagus of Nectanebo II and wanted to ship it to France, but the English were able to intercept the transport in 1801. Today the sarcophagus is in the British Museum .

See also

literature

  • Pierre Briant : From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire . Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2002, ISBN 1-57506-031-0 .
  • Leo Depuydt : Saite and Persian Egypt, 664 BC-332 BC (Dyns. 26-31, Psammetichus I to Alexander's Conquest of Egypt). In: Erik Hornung , Rolf Krauss, David A. Warburton (eds.): Ancient Egyptian Chronology (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Section 1: The Near and Middle East. Volume 83). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2006, ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 , pp. 265-283 ( online ).
  • Friedhelm Hoffmann , Joachim Friedrich Quack : Anthology of demotic literature (= introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Volume 4). Lit, Berlin / Münster 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0762-2 .
  • Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Chr . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 48-53 .
  • Hanna Jenni: The decoration program of the sarcophagus Nektanebos' II (= Aegyptiaca Helvetica. Volume 12). Editions de Belles-Lettres, Geneva 1986, ISSN  1017-5474 .
  • T. Holm-Rasmussen: Nektanebos II and Temple M at Karnak (North). In: Göttinger Miscellen . Volume 26, 1977, pp. 37-42.
  • Susanne Martinssen-von Falck: The great pharaohs. From the New Kingdom to the Late Period. Marix, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-7374-1057-1 , pp. 240–246.
  • Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , pp. 177-178.
  • Zbigniew Szafránski: A New Inscription of Nektanebo II from Ashmunein. In: Göttinger Miscellen. Volume 112, 1989, pp. 65-66.

Web links

Commons : Nektanebos II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The hieroglyph C12 (Amun) was used as an alternative because the depicted god Onuris is not included in the Wikipedia font.
  2. Sources with partly contradicting information: Xenophon , Agesilaos 2, 28–31; Diodor , Bibliothéke historiké 15, 92f .; Plutarch , Agesilaus 36-40; Cornelius Nepos , Agesilaus 8.
  3. Diodor, Bibliothéke historiké 16, 48, 2.
  4. Werner Huss: Egypt in Hellenistic times. Pp. 49-52.
  5. Carsten Binder: Plutarch's Vita des Artaxerxes. A historical comment . de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020269-4 , p. 359.
  6. Friedhelm Hoffmann, Joachim Friedrich Quack : Anthology of demotic literature. P. 162.
  7. Carsten Binder: Plutarch's Vita des Artaxerxes . P. 359.
  8. The eighth month of the Babylonian lunar calendar fell in the 17th year of the reign of Artaxerxes III. (since the earliest start in the ninth month) and lasted until December 5th ( dates of the Julian calendar ). The 18th year of reign can therefore be in December 342 BC at the earliest. Have begun; see also the reigns: Nectanebo II from 359 to 341 BC According to Madeleine DellaMonica: Les derniers pharaons: Les turbulents Ptolémées, d'Alexandre le Grand à Cléopâtre la Grande. Les temples ptolémaïques . Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-7068-1272-9 , p. 6, Miriam Lichtheim : Ancient Egyptian Literature: A book of readings. Vol. 3: The late period . University of California Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 0-520-24844-9 , p. 41; and Jona Lendering: Nectanebo II . In: Livius.org (English): 359/358 to 342/341 BC. Chr.
  9. Hans Förster: The beginnings of Christmas and Epiphany. A request to the origin hypotheses; Studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 3-16-149399-0 , pp. 117-118.
  10. Pierre Briant: From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire . P. 785.
  11. Diodor, Bibliothéke historiké 16, 44
  12. ^ A b Pierre Briant: From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire . P. 784.
  13. Diodor, Bibliothéke historiké 16, 47 .
  14. Diodor, Bibliothéke historiké 16, 48–51.
  15. Jonah Lendering: Nectanebo II . In: Livius.org (English).
predecessor Office successor
Speedometers Pharaoh of Egypt
359 to 341 BC Chr.
Artaxerxes III.