10 Facts About Psamtik I

Psamtik I was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, against the Kushite rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, but later gained more autonomy as the Assyrian Empire declined.

Necho I died in battle and his son Psamtik I fled to Syria, while Pakruru became the spokesperson of the Delta kinglets during the peace negotiations with Tantamani at Memphis.

Necho I's son Psamtik I returned to Egypt with this invading force, was installed by the Assyrians as the ruler of Sais and Memphis, and concluded with the Assyrians an agreement, some type of superior-inferior relation, but unfortunately none of the Assyrian sources details the arrangements.

Psamtik I might have been aided in these military campaigns by Arabs from the Sinai Peninsula.

Likewise, Gyges's military support of Psamtik I was not directed against Assyria and is not mentioned as hostile to Assyria or allied with other countries against Assyria in Assyrian records; the Assyrian disapproval of Gyges's support for Psamtik I was primarily motivated by Gyges's refusal to form an alliance with Assyria and his undertaking of these actions independently of Assyria, which the Assyrians interpreted as an act of arrogance, rather than by the support itself.

In 655 and 654 BCE, that is his 10th and 11th regnal years, Psamtik I carried out a war with Libyan tribes who had seized control of the area from the Oxyrhynchite nome around the Bahr Yussef till the Mediterranean Sea, and who had been joined by Psamtik I's previously defeated enemies from his wars in the Delta.

Some time between 623 and 616 BCE, the Scythians reached as far south as Judah and Edom until Psamtik I met them and convinced them to turn back by offering them gifts.

Psamtik I's intervention implied that an alliance had already been concluded between him and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, although it is unknown whether it was a new alliance between him and the new Assyrian king Sin-shar-ishkun or a renewal of the old alliance signed when Psamtik I had been enthroned by the Assyrian army as king of Sais in 664 BCE.

Psamtik I died in 610 BCE and was succeeded by his son, Necho II.

Relief of Psamtik I making an offering to Ra-Horakhty.