Amasis ( 550–500 BCE) was a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

of the tribe of the

Maraphii The Maraphii ( Old Persian: ''Marafiya'') were an Iranian tribe from Persis ('' Parsa'' in Old Persian) or Persia, in modern southwestern Iran. This tribe was one of the three main and leading Persian tribes (the Persians were and are one of the Ir ...

who was sent by

Aryandes Aryandes (Old Iranian: ''Aryavanda'' or ''Arvanta'', Ancient Greek: ''Ἀρυάνδης'') was the first Achaemenid satrap of ancient Egypt between 525 BCE and 496 BCE, during the early 27th Dynasty of Egypt. Career When king Cambyses II defeat ...

, the governor of Egypt under Cambyses, at the head of an army to assist

Pheretima ''Pheretima'' is a genus of earthworms found mostly in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia. Species belonging to the genus Pheretima have a clitellum, which is a band of glandular tissue present on segments 14 to 16. Individuals are hermaph ...

, the mother of

Arcesilaus III Arcesilaus III of Cyrene ( el, Ἀρκεσίλαος, flourished 6th century BC) was the sixth Greek Cyrenaean King and was a member of the Battiad dynasty. He succeeded his father as king of Cyrene in 530 BC and was ruler until he was killed b ...

, king of Cyrene. Amasis was joined by Badres, who was a Pasargade noble. He took Barca by stratagem and treachery, and made an unsuccessful attempt upon Cyrene. Amasis was able to secure a treaty during this campaign, which he later breached when he captured the Barcaeans. He was then recalled by Aryandes. On its march back, the Persian army suffered severely from the Libyans and a little later it is claimed they appointed the soon to be Egyptian king Amasis II as their leader. An account later cited that Cambyses tried to arrange a marriage with the daughter of Amasis but he ended up attacking Egypt when this diplomatic maneuver failed. The name "Amasis" is Egyptian; but Harrison and Irwin (2018) suggest that this was the result of the name's being Egyptianized after the fact (from an original such as *Amasrī-, *Amazāta-, etc.), as opposed to an Iranian's actually possessing an Egyptian name.

References

Philologist Edward Pococke (''India in Greece'', page 89) associates the Maraphii with the Berhi-pae of Kartakeyu. {{DEFAULTSORT:Amasis Military leaders of the Achaemenid Empire 6th-century BC Iranian people