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July, 2015 - 03:37 DHWTY
The
Battle of Pelusium is an historically important battle that took place in the
6th century BC, in which the Egyptians were decisively defeated by the
Persians, and the Persians became the new rulers of the land. The battle is one
of the earliest known examples of the use of psychological warfare. Knowing
that the Egyptians worshipped cats as a symbol of the goddess Bastet, Cambyses
II ordered his warriors to paint images of the cat goddess on their shields,
and during the battle itself, the army was said to have followed behind a large
group of cats. The Egyptians, who were unwilling to harm the sacred cats, were
forced to surrender their city to the Persians.
Pelusium
was an important Egyptian city on the eastern edge of the Nile Delta. In
ancient times, this was the gateway from the east into Egypt. Hence, Pelusium
was immensely significant from a military point of view, and any would-be
conqueror of Egypt from the East would need to first take possession of this
city.
Assyrian
invasion at Pelusium
The
Battle of Pelusium was not the first time a foreign invader attempted to invade
Egypt from the East. During the 8th century BC, the Assyrian king, Sennacherib
attempted to invade Egypt, and marched his army to Pelusium. According to the
Greek historian, Herodotus, the Egyptian ruler, Sethos, had angered the warrior
class, who then refused to help defend Egypt when the Assyrians invaded.
Sethos, who was “the priest of Hephaestus” before ascending the throne,
complained to the god about his predicament. The god appeared in Sethos’ dream,
and told him not to worry, as allies would be sent. Sethos gathered what
volunteers he could, and established a base near Pelusium. The Assyrains soon
arrived. During the night, however, a swarm of field-mice “gnawed through their
quivers and their bows, and the handles of their shield as well.” Weaponless,
the Assyrians were forced to flee, and lost many men to the Egyptians.
Persian
invasion at Pelusium
The
Egyptians were not so lucky during the Battle of Pelusium in 525 BC. This time,
it was the turn of the Achaemenid Persians to attempt an invasion of Egypt from
the East. They were led by Cambyses II, the second ruler of the Achaemenid
Empire. The reason for Cambyses’ invasion of Egypt, according to Herodotus
(whose account of this is based on “what the Persians say”), was that Cambyses
was furious after discovering that he had been deceived by the Egyptian ruler,
Amasis. Cambyses had previously requested the hand of Amasis’ daughter in
marriage. Expecting that his daughter would become Cambyses’ concubine, rather
than wife, he was reluctant to fulfil this request. Yet, he also feared the
power of the Achaemenid Empire. Thus, he decided to disguise Nitetis, the
daughter of the previous ruler, Apries, as his own daughter, and sent her to
Cambyses. Nitetis revealed Amasis’ trickery, and Cambyses decided to attack
Egypt.
The
psychological warfare of Cambyses
When
Cambyses arrived on the eastern borders of Egypt, Amasis had already died, and
his son, Psammenitus (Psamtek III) was the new ruler of Egypt. Herodotus does
not say much about the Battle of Pelusium itself, except that “The fighting was
fierce and losses on both sides were very heavy, but in the end the Egyptians
were routed.” Another account concerning the battle can be found in Polyaenus,
a 2nd century A.D. Macedonian writer. In his Stratagems, Polyaenus claims that
it was Cambyses’ cunningness that brought him victory. In order to counter the
missiles fired by the Egyptian defenders, Cambyses placed various animals
sacred to the Egyptians in his front lines. These included cats, dogs, ibises
and sheep. Fearing that they might hurt the animals, the Egyptians stopped
their assault, resulting in the fall of Pelusium to Cambyses.
One
modern source claimed that Cambyses had the image of Bastet (an Egyptian
goddess often represented as a cat) painted on his soldiers’ shields, whilst
another speculated that cats were pinned to the shields’ of Cambyses’ soldiers
to psychologically paralyse the Egyptians. We may never know what actually
happened on the day of the battle.
Herodotus
also provided another colourful tale regarding the Battle of Pelusium. When
Herodotus visited the site of the battle, he was shown the bones of the men who
had fallen during the battle. The remains of the Egyptians were lying on one
side of the field, whilst those of their enemies on another. One way of
identifying whether a skull belonged to an Egyptian or a Persian was to strike
it with a stone. If the stone made a hole in the skull, then it belonged to a
Persian; if it did not, then it belonged to an Egyptian. According to the
historian, this is due to the fact that from young, the Egyptians “shave their
heads and the bone thickens in the sun”, whilst the Persians “wear felt tiaras
from birth and so shelter their heads from the sun”. Once again, we may never
know how much truth there is in this claim.
Featured
image: Meeting Between Cambyses II and Psammetichus III, as imaginatively
recreated by the French painter Adrien Guignet (Wikimedia Commons)
By Ḏḥwty
References
Bresciani, E., 2011. Egypt i. Persians in Egypt in the
Achaemenid period. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/egypt-i
Dunn, J., 2013. Egypt: Pelusium (Tell el-Farama) in the
Sinai. [Online]
Available at: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pelusium.htm
Herodotus, The Histories,
[Waterfield, R. (trans.), 1998. Herodotus’ The Histories. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.]
Holland, T., 2005. Persian Fire: The First World Empire,
Battle for the West. London: Abacus.
Mark, J. J., 2012. The Battle of Pelusium: A Victory Decided
by Cats. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ancient.eu/article/43/
Polyaenus, Stratagems [Online]
[Shepherd, R. (trans.), 1793. Polyaenus’ Stratagems.]
Available at: http://www.attalus.org/info/polyaenus.html
Rickard, J., 2015. Battle of Pelusium, early 525. [Online]
Available at: http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_pelusium_525.html
Read more: http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/battle-pelusium-psychological-warfare-leads-persians-victory-003367#ixzz3f7zZZ36b
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