Late Period
Artaxerxes II
27th Dynasty (First Persian Period) · 525-404 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Artaxerxes II is nominally listed as an Egyptian ruler because he inherited the Persian throne while it still claimed Egypt, but in practice he never controlled the country: it broke away under a native rebel almost immediately, and he spent much of his reign failing to take it back. Additional detail: UCL Digital Egypt.
Dynastic chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
A throne without a province
Artaxerxes II became Great King of Persia around 404 BCE, at almost exactly the moment an Egyptian rebel named Amyrtaeus completed his expulsion of Persian forces from the country and proclaimed himself pharaoh, founding what is counted as Egypt's 28th Dynasty. Artaxerxes never accepted the loss and repeatedly tried to reverse it: an early expedition was called off due to a succession crisis with his own brother, Cyrus the Younger, and later invasion attempts in the 380s and again in 373 BCE were both defeated, the second after an Egyptian-based Persian army, weakened by the Nile flood season and a divided command between the general Pharnabazus and the Athenian mercenary commander Iphicrates, failed to break through.
An independence that outlasted him
Egypt remained free of Persian rule for roughly sixty years following Amyrtaeus's revolt, spanning the entire 28th, 29th, and much of the 30th Dynasties, and outlasted Artaxerxes II's own 46-year reign entirely. The country would not fall back under Persian control until 343 BCE, under Artaxerxes III, more than a decade after Artaxerxes II's death, making his own listed connection to Egypt almost entirely theoretical.
Sources for this profile
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
- Leprohon, R. J. (2013). The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary. Society of Biblical Literature.
- UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Chronology. UCLA.
- University College London. Digital Egypt for Universities.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.