Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt

Egypt
Province of Achaemenid Empire
← 525 BC–402 BC →
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Historical era		Achaemenid era
•	Battle of Pelusium	525 BC
•	Disestablished	402 BC

The Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt also known as the First Egyptian Satrapy was effectively a province (satrapy) of the Achaemenid Persian Empire between 525 BC to 402 BC.

History

Main article: History of Achaemenid Egypt § Satrapies

The last pharaoh of the Twenty-Sixth dynasty, Psamtik III, was defeated by Cambyses II of Persia in the battle of Pelusium in the eastern Nile delta in May 525 BC. Egypt was then joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Thus began the first period of Persian rule over Egypt (also known as the 27th Dynasty), which ended around 402 BC.

After an interval of independence, during which three indigenous dynasties reigned (the 28th, 29th, and 30th dynasty), Artaxerxes III (358 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief second period (343 BC), which is called the thirty-first dynasty of Egypt.

Historical sources

• Herodotus (Histories)
• Fragments of Ctesias (Persica)
• Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War)
• Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca historica)
• Fragments of Manetho (Aegyptiaca)
• Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews)

See also

• Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt (343 BC−332 BC) — also known as the 2nd Egyptian Satrapy.

External Links

• Persian Period from the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology