Psammetichus I

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Psammetichus, or Psamtik I, was the first of three kings of the Saite, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. The story in Herodotus of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful. It is known from cuneiform texts that twenty local princelings were appointed by Esarhaddon and confirmed by Assurbanipal to govern Egypt. Necho I, father of Psammetichus, was the chief of these kinglets, but they seem to have been quite unable to hold the Egyptians to the hated Assyrians against the more sympathetic Nubians. The labyrinth built by a king of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt is ascribed by Herodotus to the Dodecarchy, or rule of 12, which must represent this combination of rulers. If the dynasties were numbered thus before Manetho, the numeral may be the cause of Herodotus's confusion. After his father's death, Psamtik managed to free Egypt from Assyrian control and restored Egypt's prosperity through his long 54 Year reign.

Psamtik I reunified Egypt in his 8th Year when he dispatched a powerful naval fleet in March 656 BC to Thebes and compelled the existing God's Wife of Amun at Thebes to adopt his daughter Nitocris as her Heiress in the so-called Adoption Stela. Psamtik's success destroyed the last vestiges of the Nubian Dynasty's control over Upper Egypt under Tantamani since Thebes now accepted his authority. Nitocris would serve in office for 70 years from 656 BC until her death in 586 BC. Thereafter, Psamtik I campaigned vigorously against those local princes who opposed his reunfication of Egypt. One of his victories over certain Libyans marauders is mentioned in a Year 10-11 stela from Egypt's Western Desert Oasis town of Dakhla. Psamtik I himself was a great Pharaoh of Egypt who won Egypt's independence from the Assyrian Empire. He also established intimate relations with the Greeks and encouraged many Greek settlers to establish colonies in Egypt and serve in the services of his army.

The Greek historian Herodotus conveyed a story about Psammetichus in the second volume of his Histories. During his travel to Egypt, Herodotus heard that Psammetichus ("Psamtik") sought to discover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When one of the children cried “becos” with outstretched arms the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of Phyrgian word for “bread.” Thus, they concluded that the Phyrgian were an older people than the Egyptians. Whether or not the Herodotus story is true is not known.

Preceded by:
Necho I 		Pharaoh of Egypt
664 – 610 BC
Twenty-sixth Dynasty 		Succeeded by:
Necho II
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References

fr:Psammétique Ier pl:Psametych I pt:Psamético I ru:Псамметих I zh:普萨美提克一世

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