Amasis II: The Pharaoh of Prosperity, Diplomacy, and Cultural Revival
Amasis II, also known by his Egyptian name Ahmose II, was one of the most remarkable rulers of Egypt’s Late Period. Reigning during the height of the 26th Dynasty, Amasis II presided over an era of stability, wealth, and cultural confidence that stands out as Egypt’s final great flowering before foreign domination. His rule followed the achievements of Psamtik I, but Amasis transformed political recovery into long-term prosperity.
Statue of Psamtik I
Amasis II or Ahmose II was a pharaoh (reigned 570 – 526 BCE) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais. He was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conquest.
Head of Amasis II
Amasis II Life
According to the Greek historian, he was of common origins. He was originally an officer in the Egyptian army. His birthplace was Siuph at Sais. He took part in a general campaign of Pharaoh Psamtik II in 592 BC in Nubia.
Amasis II Family
Some information is known about the family origins of Amasis: his mother was a certain Tashereniset, as a bust of hers, today located in the British Museum, shows. A stone block from Mehallet el-Kubra also establishes that his maternal grandmother, Tashereniset’s mother. She was a certain Tjenmutetj.
Statue of Tasherenese, mother of king Amasis II
How did he have the throne?
A revolt which broke out among native Egyptian soldiers gave him his opportunity to seize the throne. These troops, returning home from a disastrous military expedition to Cyrene in Libya, suspected that they had been betrayed in order that Apries, the reigning king, might rule more absolutely by means of his Greek mercenaries; many Egyptians fully sympathized with them. General Amasis, sent to meet them and quell the revolt, was proclaimed king by the rebels instead, and Apries, who then had to rely entirely on his mercenaries, was defeated (though it is suggested that Apries had more native support than classical sources describe).
Apries then fled to an “island” (possibly an elevated or isolated base of Apries within Egypt and was killed while mounting a final insurrection against Amasis in 567 BCE with the aid of a shipborne force (probably Greek and maybe Carian), while the Babylonians also invaded Egypt the same year. An inscription confirms the struggle between the native Egyptian and the foreign soldiery, and proves that Apries was killed and honourably buried in the fourth year of Amasis (c. 567 BCE). Amasis’ revolt against Apries is also alluded to in Jeremiah 44:30. Amasis then married Khedebneithirbinet II, one of the daughters of his predecessor Apries, to legitimise his kingship.
His court is relatively well known. The head of the gate guard Ahmose-sa-Neith appears on numerous monuments, including the location of his sarcophagus. He was referenced on monuments of the 30th Dynasty and apparently had a special significance in his time. Wahibre was ‘Leader of the southern foreigners’ and ‘Head of the doors of foreigners’, so he was the highest official for border security. Under Amasis the career of the doctor Udjahorresnet began, who was of particular importance to the Persians. Several “heads of the fleet” are known. Psamtek Meryneit and Pasherientaihet / Padineith are the only known viziers.
Statue of Amasis II
The confrontation with the Persian armies
Herodotus describes how Amasis II would eventually cause a confrontation with the Persian armies. According to Herodotus, Amasis was asked by Cambyses II or Cyrus the Great for an Egyptian ophthalmologist on good terms. Amasis seems to have complied by forcing an Egyptian physician into mandatory labour, causing him to leave his family behind in Egypt and move to Persia in forced exile. In an attempt to exact revenge for this, the physician grew very close to Cambyses and suggested that Cambyses should ask Amasis for a daughter in marriage in order to solidify his bonds with the Egyptians. Cambyses complied and requested a daughter of Amasis for marriage.
Amasis, worrying that his daughter would be a concubine to the Persian king, refused to give up his offspring; Amasis also was not willing to take on the Persian empire, so he concocted a deception in which he forced the daughter of the ex-pharaoh Apries, whom Herodotus explicitly confirms to have been killed by Amasis, to go to Persia instead of his own offspring.
This daughter of Apries was none other than Nitetis, who was, as per Herodotus’s account, “tall and beautiful”. Nitetis naturally betrayed Amasis and upon being greeted by the Persian king explained Amasis’s trickery and her true origins. This infuriated Cambyses and he vowed to take revenge for it. Amasis died before Cambyses reached him, but his heir and son Psamtik III was defeated by the Persians.
Herodotus also describes how, just like his predecessor, Amasis relied on Greek mercenaries and councilmen. One such figure was Phanes of Halicarnassus, who would later leave Amasis, for reasons that Herodotus does not clearly know, but suspects were personal between the two figures. Amasis sent one of his eunuchs to capture Phanes, but the eunuch was bested by the wise councilman and Phanes fled to Persia, meeting up with Cambyses and providing advice for his invasion of Egypt. Egypt was finally lost to the Persians during the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC
Egypt’s wealth during his Reign
- Amasis brought Egypt into closer contact with Greece than ever before. Herodotus relates that under his prudent administration, Egypt reached a new level of wealth; Amasis adorned the temples of Lower Egypt especially with splendid monolithic shrines and other monuments (his activity here is proved by existing remains). For example, a shrine built by him was excavated at Tell Nebesha.
- Amasis was described by Herodotus as a philhellene. He assigned the commercial colony of Naucratis on the Canopic branch of the Nile to the Greeks, and when the temple of Delphi was burnt, he contributed 1,000 talents to the rebuilding. He also married a Greek princess named Ladice daughter of King Battus III and made alliances with Polycrates of Samos and Croesus of Lydia. Montaigne cites the story by Herodotus that Ladice cured Amasis of his impotence by praying to Aphrodite.
the temple of Delphi
- Under Amasis, Egypt’s agricultural-based economy reached its zenith. Herodotus, who visited Egypt less than a century after Amasis II’s death, writes that: It is said that it was during the reign of Ahmose II (Amasis) that Egypt attained its highest level of prosperity both in respect of what the river gave the land and in respect of what the land yielded to men and that the number of inhabited cities at that time reached in total of 20,000.
Amasis II Kingdom
His kingdom consisted probably of Egypt only, as far as the First Cataract, but to this Amasis II added Cyprus, and his influence was great in Cyrene, Libya. In his fourth year, around 568–567 BC, Egypt was invaded by the Babylonians, under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar II. This assault was recorded by a fragmentary Babylonian inscription, with the modern designation BM 33041; the inscription from that year records the word “Egypt” as well as possible traces of the name “Amasis”.
A stele of Amasis from the 4th year of his reign in 567 BC, also fragmentary, may also describe a combined naval and land attack by the Babylonians. Recent evidence suggests that the Babylonians were initially successful during the invasion and gained a foothold in Egypt, but they were repelled by Amasis’ forces. It is believed that this forced Nebuchadnezzar II to retire plans to conquer Amasis’ kingdom.
(However, some have suggested that Nebuchadnezzar came to defeat Apries, with the combined forces of Amasis and Nebuchadnezzar managing to kill him, securing Amasis’ throne, though as a vassal king.) Amasis was later faced with another formidable enemy with the rise of Persia under Cyrus who ascended to the throne in 559 BCE; his final years were preoccupied by the threat of the impending Persian onslaught against Egypt.
With great strategic skill, Cyrus had destroyed Lydia in 546 BCE and finally defeated the Babylonians in 538 BCE which left Amasis with no major Near Eastern allies to counter Persia’s increasing military might. Amasis reacted by cultivating closer ties with the Greek states to counter the future Persian invasion into Egypt but died in 526 BCE shortly before the Persians attacked. The final assault instead fell upon his son Psamtik III, whom the Persians defeated in 525 BCE after he had reigned for only six months.
Statue of military commander Amasis
Death and Succession
Amasis II ruled for more than four decades, one of the longest reigns of the Late Period. Amasis II died peacefully and was buried with full royal honors.
Amasis II was succeeded by his son Psamtik III, who faced the growing Persian threat.
The End of Saite Egypt
Only a few years after Amasis II’s death, Persian forces invaded Egypt. Despite resistance, Egypt fell, marking the end of native rule for centuries.
Many historians note that Amasis’s death marked the end of Egypt’s last truly independent golden age.
Amasis II Tomb & desecration
Amasis II died in 526 BC. He was buried at the royal necropolis of Sais within the temple enclosure of Neith, and while his tomb has not been rediscovered, Herodotus describes it for us:
It is a great cloistered building of stone, decorated with pillars carved in the imitation of palm-trees, and other costly ornaments. Within the cloister is a chamber with double doors, and behind the doors stands the sepulchre.
Herodotus also relates the desecration of Amasis’ mummy when the Persian king Cambyses conquered Egypt and thus ended the 26th (Saite) Dynasty:
No sooner did [Cambyses] enter the palace of Amasis than he gave orders for his [Amasis’s] body to be taken from the tomb where it lay. This done, he proceeded to have it treated with every possible indignity, such as beating it with whips, sticking it with goads, and plucking its hairs. As the body had been embalmed and would not fall to pieces under the blows, Cambyses had it burned.
Amasis II donation stele
Conclusion
Amasis II ruled Egypt at a rare moment of balance, when tradition and adaptation worked together rather than in conflict. Through diplomacy, economic strength, and cultural pride, he preserved Egypt’s independence longer than seemed possible in an age of expanding empires. His reign stands as the final confident chapter of native Egyptian rule, a reminder that power can be sustained not only by conquest but by wisdom, fairness, and understanding the changing world beyond one’s borders.
