Cambyses
- The husband of Mandane, and father of the elder Cyrus, Just. 1, 4, 4.—
- II The son and successor of the elder Cyrus, Just. 1, 9; 1, 11, 3; Val. Max. 6, 3, ext. 3; Luc. 10, 280.
- A A river in Albania, which rises on the Caucasus and empties into the Cyrus, now Jora, Mel. 3, 5, 6; Plin. 6, 13, 15, § 39.—
- B A river of Media, Amm.23, 6, 40.
(Καμβύσης).
1. The father of Cyrus the Great, according to Herodotus and Xenophon, the former of whom tells us (1.107), that Astyages, being terrified by a dream, refrained from marrying his daughter Mandane to a Mede, and gave her to Cambyses, a Persian of noble blood, but of an unambitious temper. (Comp. Just. 1.4.) The father of Cambyses is also called 'Cyrus' by Herodotus (1.111). In so rhetorical a passage as the speech of Xerxes (Hdt. 7.11) we must not look for exact accuracy in the genealogy. Xenophon (Xen. Cyrop. 1.2) calls Cambyses the king of Persia, and he afterwards speaks of him (Cyrop. 8.5) as still reigning after the capture of Babylon, B. C. 538. But we cannot of course rest much on the statements in a romance. The account of Ctesias differs from the above. [Astyages.]
2. A son of Cyrus the Great, by Amytis according to Ctesias, by Cassandane according to Herodotus, who sets aside as a fiction the Egyptian story of his having had Nitetis, the daughter of Apries, for his mother. This same Nitetis appears in another version of the tale, which is not very consistent with chronology, as the concubine of Cambyses; and it is said that the detection of the fraud of Amasis in substituting her for his own daughter, whom Cambyses had demanded for his seraglio, was the cause of the invasion of Egypt by the latter in the fifth year of his reign, B. C. 525. There is, however, no occasion to look for any other motive than the same ambition which would have led Cyrus to the enterprise, had his life been spared, besides that Egypt, having been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, seems to have formed a portion of the Babylonian empire. (See Jerem. xliii. xlvi.; Ezek. xxix.--xxxii.; Newton, On the Prophecies, vol. i. p. 357, &c.; comp. Hdt. 1.77.) In his invasion of the country, Cambyses is said by Herodotus to have been aided by Phanes, a Greek of Halicarnassus, who had fled from the service of Amasis; and, by his advice, the Persian king obtained the assistance of an Arabian chieftain, and thus secured a safe passage through the desert, and a supply of water for his army. Before the invading force reached Egypt, Amasis died and was succeeded by his son, who is called Psammenitus by Herodotus, and Amyrtaeus by Ctesias. According to Ctesias, the conquest of Egypt was mainly effected through the treachery of Combapheus, one of the favourite eunuchs of the Egyptian king, who put Cambyses in possession of the passes on condition of being made viceroy of the country. But Herodotus makes no mention either of this intrigue, or of the singular stratagem by which Polyaenus says (7.9), that Pelusium was taken almost without resistance. He tells us, however, that a single battle, in which the Persians were victorious, decided the fate of Egypt; and, though some of the conquered held out for a while in Memphis, they were finally obliged to capitulate, and the whole nation submitted to Cambyses. He received also the voluntary submission of the Greek cities, Cyrene and Barca [see p. 477b.], and of the neighbouring Libyan tribes, and projected fresh expeditions against the Aethiopians, who were called the "long-lived," and also against Carthage and the Ammonians. Having set out on his march to Aethiopia, he was compelled by want of provisions to return; the army which he sent against the Ammonians perished in the sands; and the attack on Carthage fell to the ground in consequence of the refusal of the Phoenicians to act against their colony. Yet their very refusal serves to shew what is indeed of itself sufficiently obvious, how important the expedition would have been in a commercial point of view, while that against the Ammonians, had it succeeded, would probably have opened to the Persians the caravan-trade of the desert. (Hdt. 2.1, 3.1_26; Ctes. Pers. 9 ; Just. 1.9; comp. Heeren's African Nations, vol. i. ch. 6.)
Cambyses appears to have ruled Egypt with a stern and strong hand; and to him perhaps we may best refer the prediction of Isaiah: "The Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord" (Is. 19.4; see Vitringa, ad loc.); and it is possible that his tyranny to the conquered, together with the insults offered by him to their national religion, may have caused some exaggeration in the accounts of his madness, which, in fact, the Egyptians ascribed to his impiety. But, allowing for some over-statement, it does appear that he had been subject from his birth to epileptic fits (Hdt. 3.33); and, in addition to the physical tendency to insanity thus created, the habits of despotism would seem to have fostered in him a capricious self-will and a violence of temper bordering upon frenzy. He had long set the laws of Persia at defiance by marrying his sisters, one of whom he is said to have murdered in a fit of passion because she lamented her brother Smerdis, whom he had caused to be slain. Of the death of this prince, and of the events that followed upon it, different accounts are given by Herodotus and Ctesias. The former relates that Cambyses, alarmed by a dream which seemed to portend his brother's greatness, sent a confidential minister named Prexaspes to Susa with orders to put him to death. Afterwards, a Magian, who bore the same name as the deceased prince and greatly resembled him in appearance, took advantage of these circumstances to personate him and set up a claim to the throne [Smerdis], and Cambyses, while marching through Syria against this pretender, died at a place named Ecbatana of an accidental wound in the thigh, B. C. 521. According to Ctesias, the name of the king's murdered brother was Tanyoxarces, and a Magian named Sphendadates accused him to the king of an intention to revolt. After his death by poison, Cambyses, to conceal it from his mother Amytis, made Sphendadates personate him. The fraud succeeded at first, from the wonderful likeness between the Magian and the murdered prince; at length, however, Amytis discovered it, and died of poison, which she had voluntarily taken, imprecating curses on Cambyses. The king died at Babylon of an accidental wound in the thigh, and Sphendadates continued to support the character of Tanyoxarces, and maintained himself for some time on the throne. (Hdt. 3.27_38, 61-66; Ctes. Pers. 10-12; Diod. Exc. de Virt. et Vit. p. 556, ed. Wess.; Strab. x. p.473, xvii. pp. 805, 816; Just. 1.9.) Herodotus says (3.89), that the Persians always spoke of Cambyses by the name of δεσπότης, in remembrance of his tyranny. [E.E]
CAMBY´SES (Yori or Gori), a river of Albania, rising in the Caucasus, or, according to Mela, in the Coraxici M., flowing through the district of Cambysene, and falling into the Cyrus (Kur), after uniting with the Alazonius (Alasan). Pompey marched along its banks, on his expedition into these regions in pursuit of Mithridates, B.C. 65. Its water was remarkable for its coldness. (Mel. 3.5.6; Plin. 6.13. s. 15 ; Dio Cass.; Epit. Strab. ap. Hudson, Geogr. Min. vol. 2. p. 148.)
[P.S]CAMBYSES (Καμβύσης, Ptol. 6.2.1; Ammian. 23.6), a river of Media Atropatene, which appears, from the notice in Ptolemy, to have flowed into the Caspian Sea. It is not possible to determine its exact locality; but if the order in Ammianus be correct, it would seem to have been near the Amardus, now Sefid-Rúd. In the Epitome of Strabo (xi.) a nation of the Caspians is spoken of περὶ τὸν Καμβύσην ποταμόν.
[V](Καμβύσης). (1) An early monarch of the line of the Achaemenides, the successor of Teïspes, who was himself the successor of Achaemenes. He must not be confounded with Cambyses the son of Cyrus, who was, in fact, the second of the name in the line of Persian kings (Herod.vii. 11).
(2) A Persian of good family, to whom Astyages, king of Media, gave his daughter Mandané in marriage. The issue of this union was Cyrus the Great (Herod.i. 46, 107).
(3) The son and successor of Cyrus the Great, ascended the throne of Persia B.C. 530. Soon after the commencement of his reign, he undertook the conquest of Egypt, being incited to the step, according to the Persian account as given in Herodotus (iii. 1), by the conduct of Amasis, the king of that country. Cambyses, it seems, had demanded in marriage the daughter of Amasis; but the latter, knowing that the Persian monarch intended to make her, not his wife, but his concubine, endeavoured to deceive him by sending in her stead the daughter of his predecessor Apries. The historian gives another account; but it is more than probable that both are untrue, and that ambitious feelings alone on the part of Cambyses prompted him to the enterprise. Amasis died before Cambyses marched against Egypt, and his son Psammenitus succeeded to the throne. A bloody battle was fought near the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, and the Egyptians were put to flight, after which Cambyses made himself master of the whole country, and received tokens of submission also from the Cyrenaeans and the people of Barca. The kingdom of Egypt was thus conquered by him in six months. See Aegyptus.
Cambyses now formed new projects. He wished to send a squadron and subjugate Carthage, to conquer Aethiopia, and to make himself master of the famous temple of Zeus Ammon. The first of these expeditions, however, did not take place, because the Phoenicians, who composed his naval force, would not attack one of their own colonies. The army that was sent against the Ammonians perished in the desert, and the troops at whose head he himself had set out against the Aethiopians were compelled by hunger to retreat. How far he advanced into Aethiopia can not be ascertained from anything that Herodotus says. Diodorus Siculus, however (i. 33), makes Cambyses to have penetrated as far as the spot where Meroë stood, which city, according to this same writer, he founded. (See Meroë.) After his return from Aethiopia, the Persian king gave himself up to the greatest acts of outrage and cruelty. On entering Memphis he found the inhabitants engaged in celebrating the festival of the reappearance of Apis, and, imagining that these rejoicings were made on account of his ill success, he caused the sacred bull to be brought before him, stabbed him with his dagger, of which wound the animal afterwards died. He also ordered the priests to be scourged.
Cambyses is said to have been subject to epilepsy from his earliest years; and the habit of drinking, in which he now indulged to excess, rendered him at times completely furious. No relation was held sacred by him when intoxicated. Having dreamed that his brother Smerdis was seated on the royal throne, he sent one of his principal confidants to Persia, with orders to put him to death, a mandate which was actually accomplished. His sister and wife Atossa, who lamented the death of Smerdis, he kicked so severely as to bring on an abortion. These and many other actions, alike indicative of almost complete insanity, aroused against him the feelings of his subjects. A member of the order called the Magi availed himself of this discontent, and, aided by the strong resemblance which he bore to the murdered Smerdis, as well as by the exertions of a brother who was also a Magian, seized upon the throne of Persia, and sent heralds in every direction, commanding all to obey, for the time to come, Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and not Cambyses. The news of this usurpation reached Cambyses at a place in Syria called Ecbatana, where he was at that time with his army. Resolving to return with all speed to Susa, the monarch was in the act of mounting his horse, when his sword fell from its sheath and inflicted a mortal wound in his thigh. An oracle, it is said, had been given him from Butus that he would end his life at Ecbatana, but he had always thought that the Median Ecbatana was meant by it. He died of his wound soon after, B.C. 522, leaving no children. Ctesias gives a different account. He makes Cambyses to have died at Babylon of a wound he had given himself on the femoral muscle, while shaving smooth a piece of wood with a small knife. According to Herodotus (iii. 66), Cambyses reigned seven years and five months. See Persia.
- son of Teispes, son-in-law of Astyages and father of Cyrus: Hdt. 1.107
- elsewhere mostly a patronymic of Cyrus
- son of Cyrus, his accession: Hdt. 1.208, Hdt. 2.1
- conquest of Egypt: Hdt. 1.1-4, Hdt. 1.9-16
- expeditions to Ethiopia and Libya: Hdt. 1.19-26
- his sacrilegious and criminal acts while in Egypt, especially the murder of his brother: Hdt. 3.27-38
- cuts colossus of Memnon in two: Paus. 1.42.3
- Magian usurpation of the Persian throne, and Cambyses' death: Hdt. 3.61-66
- Greeks in Egypt during Cambyses' occupation: Hdt. 3.139
- Cambyses' punishment of an unjust judge: Hdt. 5.25
- his sword: Paus. 1.28.11