396 empires and dynasties: The Middle East The first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (ca 672– 525 b.c.e.) was Neko I (r 672–664 b.c.e.) of Sais He was an Assyrian puppet who was killed by Tantamani His successor was Psamtek I (r 664–610 b.c.e.) Although he began as an Assyrian vassal, during his long reign Psamtek I slowly rebuilt the Egyptian government With Assyria distracted by wars elsewhere in the Near East, Egypt reoccupied part of Palestine in 630 b.c.e., and in 616 b.c.e Psamtek’s army invaded Syria After Babylon overcame Assyrian dominance, its new king, Nebuchadnezzar II, attacked Egypt in 601 b.c.e and again in 581 b.c.e These invasions were repelled decisively by the pharaohs Neko II (r 610–595 b.c.e.) and Apries (r 589–570 b.c.e.) The Egyptian general Amasis (r 570–526 b.c.e.) deposed Apries in 570 b.c.e., but Apries returned to Egypt at the head of a Babylonian army to reclaim his throne He was defeated and probably killed by an army led by Amasis Amasis and his successor, Psamtek III (r 526–525 b.c.e.), were shrewd statesmen who won many friends in other nations, but they were outmatched by Persia Persia defeated Babylon in 539 b.c.e and, when Amasis died, invaded Egypt, defeating the forces of Psamtek III These events began the Twenty-seventh Dynasty (525–404 b.c.e.), which consisted of Persia’s kings, who treated Egypt as a province of Persia The Persian kings Cambyses (r in Egypt 525–522 b.c.e.) and Darius I (521–486 b.c.e.) ruled somewhat benevolently, spending long periods in Egypt while behaving like traditional pharaohs; thereafter the reign of Persians in Egypt was notable for its brutality Around 404 b.c.e Amyrtaeus (r ca 404–ca 399 b.c.e.), the ruler of Sais, succeeded in driving out the Persians Amyrtaeus was the only pharaoh of the Twenty-eighth Dynasty The Twenty-ninth Dynasty (ca 399–ca 380 b.c.e.) and the Thirtieth Dynasty (ca 380–ca 343 b.c.e.) ruled an Egypt that was slowly regaining its influence in the Near East and Mediterranean When Persia invaded in 374 b.c.e., it was defeated When Persia invaded again in 351 b.c.e., it was defeated again, but the cost of the war nearly bankrupted the Egyptian government When Persia’s Artaxerxes III Ochus (ruled Egypt 343–338 b.c.e.) invaded in 343 b.c.e., he not only conquered Egypt but also desecrated its sacred sites The last pharaoh of the Thirtieth Dynasty, Nectanebo II (r 360–343 b.c.e.), briefly clung to power in Upper Egypt He was the last native Egyptian pharaoh The Thirty-first Dynasty (ca 343– ca 332 b.c.e.), known as the Second Persian Period, consisted of Persian kings (Artaxerxes III, Arses, Darius III) who were despised by the Egyptians GRECO-ROMAN PERIOD When Alexander the Great’s army drove the Persians out of Egypt in about 332 b.c.e., the Macedonian king was greeted as a hero He cultivated his hero status by honoring Egyptian gods and following Egyptian customs, and the Egyptians gave him the status of pharaoh When Alexander the Great died in 323 b.c.e., his empire broke into pieces, and one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, eventually took over Egypt from the Mace- donian kings and made himself Ptolemy I (r 304–284 b.c.e.) He and his immediate successors (almost all named Ptolemy) tried to force Egypt to adopt a Greek-style culture Ptolemy I changed the names of cities and gods to Greek ones, and he enforced laws that reduced women from partners of men, as had long been the Egyptian practice, to mere servants of men The language of government became Greek, and using Egyptian was discouraged As a result, the Egyptians viewed the Ptolemaic Dynasty (304–30 c.e.) with resentment Nonetheless, the Greek pharaohs viewed Egypt as an independent nation, and they reasserted Egypt’s ancient claim to domination of Palestine Ptolemy III (r 247–221 b.c.e.) conquered territory all the way to Syria and Babylon, and by the end of his reign Egyptian ships ruled much of the Mediterranean The Greek pharaohs negotiated treaties with the Nubian kingdom of Kush, thereby regaining Egypt’s access to trade in both the Near East and Africa The Greeks also introduced new farming techniques that increased the yield of crops Rome began to interfere in Egyptian politics when its Senate nominated Philometer to become the pharaoh, which he did under the royal name Ptolemy VI (r 180–144 b.c.e.) In 51 b.c.e the Senate named two coregents, Ptolemy XIII (r 51–47 b.c.e.) and his sister and wife, Cleopatra VII (r 51– 30 b.c.e.) Ptolemy XIII was succeeded by Cleopatra’s other brother and second husband, Ptolemy XIV (r 47–44 b.c.e.), and then by her son with Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV (r 44–30 b.c.e.) Courtiers tried to exclude Cleopatra VII from rule, but Julius Caesar and Marc Antony championed her cause, and she became the dominant political figure in Egypt Rather than submit to the rule of the Roman emperor Augustus, she committed suicide With her death came the end of the Egyptian empire and its dynasties THE MIDDLE EAST BY KIRK H BEETZ EARLY SETTLEMENTS By 3500 b.c.e there were many cities in Mesopotamia, the lands around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers Eventually, these became the city-states of Sumer The residents of these cities spoke a common language and worshiped the same gods, and they recognized themselves as all being part of the same culture People who lived in the cities and those who lived in land around the cities were passionate about their love for their particular city, often treating their entire city as a sacred entity with a life of its own The cities were governed by a chief administrator, and there is evidence for the existence of city councils as well The invention of writing in about 3400 b.c.e allowed city governments to become more centralized because writing gave them the means to keep track of large amounts of goods, taxes, and population As the city-states grew, they competed with one another for good farmland, and they fought wars, for which they needed good leaders The chief city adminis-