Apries

Apries inherited the throne from his father, pharaoh Psamtik II, in February 589 BC. Apries was an active builder who constructed "additions to the temples at Athribis (Tell Atrib), Bahariya Oasis, Memphis and Sais."{{cite book |first1=Ian |last1=Shaw |author-link=Ian Shaw (Egyptologist) |first2=Paul |last2=Nicholson |title=The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |year=1995 |pages=36–37 |isbn=0-8109-3225-3 }} In Year 4 of his reign, Apries' sister Ankhnesneferibre was adopted as the new God's Wife of Amun at Thebes. However, Apries' reign was also fraught with internal problems. In 588 BC, Apries dispatched a force to Jerusalem to protect it from Babylonian forces sent by Nebuchadnezzar II (Jer. 37:5; 34:21). His forces quickly withdrew, however, apparently avoiding a major confrontation with the Babylonians.{{cite journal |title=The Stela of King Apries from El-Qantara Gharb: A Royal Journey to the Eastern Borders |journal=Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur |last=Nour |first=Mostafa Hassan |volume=52 |pages=221–239 |last2=Iskander |first2=John M. |year=2023 |issn=0340-2215 |last3=Hashem |first3=Sameh}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=-hz3EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA238 Link] for page 238. Jerusalem, following an 18-month-long siege, was destroyed by the Babylonians in either 587 BC or 586 BC. Apries's unsuccessful attempt to intervene in the politics of the Kingdom of Judah was followed by a mutiny of soldiers from the strategically important Aswan garrison.{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=J. Maxwell |author-link1=J. Maxwell Miller (biblical scholar)|last2=Hayes |first2=John H. |title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah |publisher=Westminster Press |edition=Hardback |page=414 |year=1986 |isbn=0-664-21262-X }}

According to classical historians, Apries campaigned in the Levant, took Sidon and so terrified the other cities of Phoenicia that he secured their submission.Herodotus, (II, 161) Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, (Book I, Chapter 68) However, this supposed submission was likely short lived.{{Cite book |title=The History of Phoenicia |last= Elayi |first= Josette |publisher= Lockwood Press |year= 2018 |pages=195–196}} A recently uncovered stela from Tahpanhes records that Nebuchadnezzar II attempted to invade Egypt in 582 BC, but Apries' forces were capable to repel the invasion.{{Cite journal |title=Une stèle de l'an 7 d'Apriès découverte sur le site de Tell Défenneh |journal=Revue d'Égyptologie |last1=Abd El-Maksoud |first1=Mohamed |volume=64 |pages=1–13 |last2=Valbelle |first2=Dominique |doi=10.2143/RE.64.0.3011326 |year=2013 |language=fr}}

In Cyrenaica to the west, Battus II of Cyrene had encouraged further Greek settlement in his city, especially from the Peloponnese and Crete. This sparked conflict with the indigenous Libyans, whose king Adicran appealed to Apries for help around 570 BC. Apries launched a military expedition against Cyrene, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Irasa.{{sfn|Kenrick|2013|p=2}}{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=19}}

When the defeated army returned home, a civil war broke out in the Egyptian army between the indigenous troops and the foreign mercenaries. The Egyptians threw their support to Amasis II, a general who had led Egyptian forces in a highly successful invasion of Nubia in 592 BC under Pharaoh Psamtik II, Apries' father. Amasis quickly declared himself pharaoh in 570 BC, and Apries fled Egypt and sought refuge in a foreign country. When Apries marched back to Egypt in 567 BC with the aid of a Babylonian army to reclaim the throne of Egypt, he was likely killed in battle with Amasis' forces.[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/wahibre.html Wahibre]Shaw & Nicholson write that Apries "probably died in battle in 567 BC" Alternatively, Herodotus (Histories 2.169) holds that Apries survived the battle, and was captured and treated well by the victorious Amasis, until the Egyptian people demanded justice against him, whereby he was placed into their hands and strangled to death.Herodotus, Histories, Book II, Chapter 169 Amasis thus secured his kingship over Egypt and was then its unchallenged ruler.

Amasis, however, reportedly treated Apries' mortal remains with respect and observed the proper funerary rituals by having Apries' body carried to Sais and buried there with "full military honours." Amasis, the former general who had declared himself pharaoh, also married Apries' daughter, Khedebneithirbinet II, to legitimise his accession to power. While Herodotus claimed that the wife of Apries was called Nitetis (Νιτῆτις) (in Greek), "there are no contemporary references naming her" in Egyptian records.

Eusebius placed the eclipse of Thales in 585 BC, in the eighth or twelfth year of Apries' reign.

An obelisk which Apries erected at Sais was moved by the 3rd century AD Roman Emperor Diocletian and originally placed at the Temple of Isis in Rome. It is today located in front of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva basilica church in Rome.

File:Sphinx of Apries-N 515-IMG 0583-gradient.jpg|Sphinx of Pharaoh Apries, from the collection of Count Caylus, now in the Louvre Museum

File:Pulcino della Minerva (Leverich).jpg|Apries' obelisk in Rome is known as the Pulcino della Minerva

{{Commons category|Apries}}

• Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt family tree
• List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources

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• {{cite book |last1=Kenrick |first1=Philip |title=Cyrenaica |date=2013 |series=Libya Archaeological Guides |volume=2 |publisher=Silphium Press |isbn=978-1-900971-14-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rC_qngEACAAJ}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rosamilia |first1=Emilio |title=La città del silfio. Istituzioni, culti ed economia di Cirene classica ed ellenistica attraverso le fonti epigrafiche |date=2023 |publisher=Scuola Normale Superiore |location=Pisa |isbn=978-88-7642-736-7 |language=it}}

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{{Pharaohs}}

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Category:570s BC deaths

Category:6th-century BC pharaohs

Category:Pharaohs of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Pharaohs in the Bible