Third Intermediate Period
Tantamani (Tanutamun)
25th Dynasty (Kushite/Nubian) · 747-656 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Tantamani's brief recapture of Memphis provoked an Assyrian retaliation so severe that the fall of Thebes under his reign was still being invoked as a byword for divine punishment in the biblical Book of Nahum decades later. Background from: UCL Digital Egypt.
Reign dates: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The dream stele
Tantamani was the nephew of Taharqa. Upon taking the throne in Nubia, he recorded a vision on his Dream Stele where he saw two snakes, representing Upper and Lower Egypt. Interpreting this as divine authorization, he marched an army north, successfully recapturing Memphis and killing the Assyrian-appointed vassal king, Necho I.
The fall of Thebes
This victory provoked a swift and catastrophic retaliation from Ashurbanipal. The Assyrian military machine returned to Egypt, forcing Tantamani to abandon Memphis and flee south. The Assyrians pursued him all the way to Thebes. They completely sacked the ancient capital, carrying off incalculable wealth, including two solid electrum obelisks. Tantamani escaped back to Napata, and the 25th Dynasty's rule over Egypt was permanently broken.
An echo in the Hebrew Bible
The shock of Thebes's fall, a city the Greek poet Homer later described as having a hundred gates and long considered impregnable, reverberated far beyond Egypt. The biblical Book of Nahum invokes the sack of "No-Amon," the Hebrew name for Thebes, as a warning of what awaited the Assyrian capital Nineveh itself, describing the city's destruction in the past tense. Because the book refers to the event as already having happened, biblical scholars use it to date Nahum's composition to sometime after 663 BCE, making Tantamani's defeat one of the few Third Intermediate Period events with a direct, datable footprint in the Hebrew Bible.
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.