Editing Amasis II (section)

==Egypt's wealth==
[[File:Statue of Tasherenese, mother of king Amasis II, 570-526 BCE, from Egypt, currently housed in the British Museum.jpg|thumb|Statue of Tasherenese, mother of king Amasis II, 570-526 BCE, British Museum]]
Amasis brought Egypt into closer contact with Greece than ever before. Herodotus relates that under his prudent administration, Egypt reached a new level of wealth; Amasis adorned the temples of [[Lower Egypt]] especially with splendid [[monolith]]ic [[shrine]]s and other monuments (his activity here is proved by existing remains).<ref name="EB1911"/> For example, a shrine built by him was excavated at [[Tell Nebesha]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/api/download/content/9783700180517_kapitel_65_74.pdf|title=Preliminary Report on the First Season of the Tell Nebesha Project|author=1Nicky Nielsen|author2=Valentina Gasperini|author3=Mandy Mamedow|publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences}}</ref>

Amasis was described by Herodotus as a [[Philhellenism#Philhellenes in antiquity|philhellene]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Herodotus|author-link =Herodotus|title=2.178|translator=G. C. Macaulay|translator-link=George Campbell Macaulay|url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_History_of_Herodotus_(Macaulay)/Book_II|quote=φιλέλλην δὲ γενόμενος ὁ Ἄμασις|trans-quote=Moreover Amasis became a lover of the Hellenes}}</ref> He assigned the commercial colony of [[Naucratis]] on the [[Canopus, Egypt|Canopic]] branch of the [[Nile]] to the Greeks, and when the [[temple of Delphi]] was burnt, he contributed 1,000 [[talent (weight)|talents]] to the rebuilding. He also married a Greek princess named [[Ladice (Cyrenaean princess)|Ladice]] daughter of King [[Battus III of Cyrene|Battus III]] and made alliances with [[Polycrates]] of Samos and [[Croesus]] of Lydia.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]] cites the story by [[Herodotus]] that Ladice cured Amasis of his [[impotence]] by praying to Aphrodite.<ref name=Montaigne>{{cite book|url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/montaigne/michel/essays/complete.html|publisher=The University of Adelaide|title=The Essays of Michel de Montaigne|first=Michel|last=Montaigne, de|translator=Charles Cotton|editor=William Carew Hazlitt|chapter=20|access-date=November 22, 2019|archive-date=July 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702155944/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/montaigne/michel/essays/complete.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Under Amasis, Egypt's agricultural based economy reached its zenith. Herodotus, who visited Egypt less than a century after Amasis II's death, writes that:
{{Blockquote|It is said that it was during the reign of Ahmose II (Amasis) that Egypt attained its highest level of prosperity both in respect of what the river gave the land and in respect of what the land yielded to men and that the number of inhabited cities at that time reached in total 20,000.<ref>Herodotus, (II, 177, 1)</ref>}}

His kingdom consisted probably of Egypt only, as far as the [[First Cataract]], but to this he added [[Cyprus]], and his influence was great in [[Cyrene, Libya]].<ref name="EB1911"/> In his fourth year ({{circa|lk=no|567}} BCE), Egypt was invaded by the Babylonians, under the leadership of [[Nebuchadnezzar II]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ephʿal |first=Israel |date=2003 |title=Nebuchadnezzar the Warrior: Remarks on his Military Achievements |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=187–188 |jstor=27927044}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> It is believed that Amasis managed to repel this invasion, forcing Nebuchadnezzar II to retire plans to conquer his kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alan B. |last=Lloyd |chapter=The Late Period |title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt |editor-first=Ian |editor-last=Shaw |editor-link=Ian Shaw (Egyptologist) |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |year=2002 |edition=Paperback |pages=381–82 |isbn=0-19-280293-3 }}</ref> (However, some have suggested that Nebuchadnezzar came to defeat Apries, the combined forces of Amasis and Nebuchadnezzar managing to kill him, securing Amasis' throne, though as vassal king.)<ref>Josephus, ''Ant.'' 10.9.7, §182</ref><ref name=":2" /> Amasis was later faced with another formidable enemy with the rise of Persia under [[Cyrus II of Persia|Cyrus]] who ascended to the throne in 559 BCE; his final years were preoccupied by the threat of the impending Persian onslaught against Egypt.<ref name="Lloyd.(2002)p.382">Lloyd. (2002) p.382</ref> With great strategic skill, Cyrus had destroyed Lydia in 546 BCE and finally defeated the Babylonians in 538 BCE which left Amasis with no major Near Eastern allies to counter Persia's increasing military might.<ref name="Lloyd.(2002)p.382"/> Amasis reacted by cultivating closer ties with the Greek states to counter the future Persian invasion into Egypt but died in 526 BCE shortly before the Persians attacked.<ref name="Lloyd.(2002)p.382"/> The final assault instead fell upon his son [[Psamtik III]], whom the Persians defeated in 525 BCE after he had reigned for only six months.{{sfn|Griffith|1911}}