Ahmóse II.

Amasis II

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Faraon Ahmóse II, egyptský panovník


- vládl v letech 570 - 526 př. n. l.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Ahmose-II-t23984#89358 Version : 0
The date of birth of Pharaoh Ahmose II is unknown. Ahmose (Amásis in Greek) was not a blood relative of his predecessors of the 26th so-called Saiyan dynasty on the Egyptian throne. A native of Siuf near Sais, he was an officer in the army of Pharaoh Vahjebre (Greek Apriés, Old Testament Hofra) and came to power in 570 BC.


In 570 BC, Vahjebre, whose position of power had already been weakened by his defeat by the Neo-Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 588 BC, decided to intervene militarily against the Greek colony of Cyrene (northern Libya), founded by Greek islanders from the island of Thera (Santorini) in 630 BC. The thriving colony attracted an increasing number of Greek settlers, who inevitably came into conflict with the local Libyan tribes, who were being pushed out of their territories. The Egyptian army, which fought on the side of the Libyan chieftain Adikran against the Cyrenaic king Batt II, suffered a heavy defeat. A part of the Egyptian army, the so-called machimoi (a military class of Libyan origin domesticated in Egypt), denounced obedience to the pharaoh, whom they accused of treachery, and proclaimed the machimoi officer Ahmose as pharaoh of Egypt.


A civil war broke out as the Greek and Carian mercenaries remained loyal to Vahjebre. Ahmose emerged victorious from the battles in the Nile Delta. Although Vahyebre remained formally the ruler of Egypt, the real executive power in Egypt passed to Ahmose. In 568 B.C., Vahjebre, with an uprising of Greeks and Carians serving in the Egyptian army, attempted to regain the lost power, but the uprising was defeated and Vahjebre himself was killed in the fighting. The victorious Ahmose ascended the Egyptian throne in 568 BC as Pharaoh Ahmose II.


After his victory, Ahmose II faced the difficult task of uniting a country divided by civil war and aversion to foreigners. Ahmose II was aware of the hostility of the Egyptians against foreigners, but on the other hand he understood that foreigners were indispensable to him, especially in the army and the civil service. Ahmose II withdrew the mercenary army from garrisons stationed throughout Egypt to the strategically located former capital of Mennofer, from where the mobilized soldiers could respond relatively quickly to a possible uprising or invasion by foreign troops.


Ahmose II also abolished the Greek trading posts scattered throughout Egyptian territory and in return handed over the settlement of Naukratis in the north-western part of the Nile Delta to the Greeks for self-government around 560 BC. In Naukratis, the Greeks could live according to their customs and worship their gods without provoking the native population. Moreover, the Greeks in Naukratida were granted a monopoly on trade between Egypt and the Greek cities in the Mediterranean, and the settlement began to prosper unprecedentedly. Ahmose II became a popular ruler for the Greeks. Being a friend of Ahmose II was an honour in the Greek world, and many famous Greeks, such as Solon, Pythagoras or Thalétos, boasted, sometimes fictitiously, of their friendly relations with Ahmose II.


Ahmose II's popularity among the Greeks was skillfully enhanced. He donated financially to Greek shrines, and when the temple of Apollo at Delphi burned in 548 BC, he contributed to its rebuilding. His popularity among the Greeks is evidenced by the 3rd century BC novella 'Ammasis and the Boatman', where Ahmose II is portrayed as a popular ruler with a quirky sense of humour. Here, for example, the sick Ahmose calms down the wailing courtiers: "What the heck, I've just drunk too much wine and now I'm hungover".


On the domestic scene, Ahmose II scored points, following the example of Psammtek I and Nekóa II, with the support of an influential priesthood. Although Ahmose II was of humble origins, a fact he did not even try to conceal, his reign belongs to the peak period of the so-called Saiyan Renaissance.


Ahmose II's foreign policy was characterised by the promotion of peaceful coexistence between the great powers of Ancient Asia, among which Ahmose II counted Lydia, Media and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. His ally, which the future would prove to be less than loyal, was the powerful Greek tyrant Polycrates of Samos. Egypt's only territorial conquest at that time was the conquest of Cyprus, which did not fall within the sphere of influence of the named powers. The occupation of Cyprus was made possible by the powerful naval fleet built by Neco II Ahmose II saw his main enemy as the expanding Persian Empire. In opposing the Persians, Ahmose II supported both the Lydian king Croisus and the last Neo-Assyrian king Nabonidus. Even the dissensions among the Greeks in Cyrenaica did not tempt him to intervene militarily and retaliate for the bloody defeat of 570 BC.


However, all the efforts of Ahmose II to prevent the emergence of a powerful Persian empire were in vain. In 550 BC, the Median vassal Cyrus, later Persian king Cyrus II. Cyrus the Great, conquered the Median metropolis of Ectabanus and overthrew his fief lord, King Astyages. Three years later, Lydia, whose king Croisus had vainly discouraged an attack on Persia, also fell under Persian onslaught. After the conquest of Babylon and the shattering of the Neo-Assyrian empire in 539 BC, Ahmose II was left alone.


The rise of Persia did not leave even the tyrant Polycrates alone. He pragmatically assessed the situation, sided with the stronger man and put his fleet at the disposal of the Persians. The death of the Persian king Cyrus II. Cyrus the Great only delayed the fall of the Saxon dynasty. In 526 BC. Ahmose II dies. The reign of his son, the last Saxon pharaoh Psammtek III, was only a few months episode. In 525 BC, Egypt collapses before the army of the Persian king Cambyses II.


Sources:
http://faraon.wz.cz/historie/vlada2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amasis_II

Ahmóse II. - Busta faraona Ahmóse II
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92683103

Busta faraona Ahmóse II
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org

Ahmóse II. - Klečící faraon Ahmóse II
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60941935

Klečící faraon Ahmóse II
commons.wikimedia.org

Ahmóse II. - Faraon Ahmóse II obětuje víno bohu
Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22693360

Faraon Ahmóse II obětuje víno bohu
Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org

URL : https://www.valka.cz/Ahmose-II-t23984#101816 Version : 0

This post has not been translated to English yet. Please use the TRANSLATE button above to see machine translation of this post.

Vyobrazenie osobnosti.
Ahmóse II. - Faraón Ahmose II. zobrazený ako egyptský boh smrti Osiris.

Faraón Ahmose II. zobrazený ako egyptský boh smrti Osiris.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Ahmose-II-t23984#132043 Version : 0
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