Nectanebo: the last native pharaohs
The Thirtieth Dynasty holds off the Persians and builds temples until Artaxerxes III returns Egypt to Persian rule.
Egypt had broken away from Persia as early as 404 BCE, and in 380 the general Nectanebo I takes the throne and founds the Thirtieth Dynasty—the last native one. He repels the Persian invasion of 373, when the flooding Nile catches the enemy in the Delta, and builds across the country: the first pylon of Karnak, the enclosure of the temple at Philae, sanctuaries at Dendera and Hermopolis. His grandson Nectanebo II reigns from 360 and in 343, at the invasion of Artaxerxes III, flees to Nubia; Egypt becomes a satrapy again. Eleven years later Alexander will come—and from then on the country is ruled by Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks, and no Egyptian-born pharaoh will ever sit on the throne again. Later legend will make Nectanebo II the secret father of Alexander.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, books XV–XVI — the invasion of 373 and the campaign of Artaxerxes III
Scholarship
- history of Late Period Egypt — the dating to 380–343 BCE and the buildings of Nectanebo I
Basis: documents and evidence.