Piye (Piankhi)

The Nubian conquest

Piye was the Kushite king ruling from Napata who launched a massive military campaign to conquer a politically fractured Egypt. Viewing himself as the true preserver of traditional Egyptian religion, he marched north to crush the Libyan coalition led by Tefnakht. He successfully laid siege to Hermopolis and captured the heavily fortified city of Memphis using a brilliant naval assault, using the masts of his ships to scale the city walls.

The victory stele and the horses

Much of what is known about this campaign comes from the Victory Stele of Piye, a 159-line inscription written in classic Middle Kingdom literary style. Following the surrender of Hermopolis, the stele records that Piye inspected the stables of the defeated King Nimlot. Discovering the animals were malnourished from the siege, Piye furiously reprimanded Nimlot, stating that starving the horses was a worse crime than the political rebellion itself. After forcing the northern kings to submit as vassals, Piye returned to Nubia and ruled from afar.