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GREAT AFRICAN LAND OF ANTIQUITY
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF DYNASTIC KMT
PART 6
"Concerning Egypt I will now speak at length, because nowhere are there so many marvelous things, nor in the whole world beside are there to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness."
--Herodotus, The Histories
The Twilight Years: The Decline and Collapse of Dynastic Kmt
In 658 B.C.E. Psametik I, initially an Assyrian vassal, established Kemetic Dynasty XXXVI. With the intervention of Greek mercenaries Psametik eventually managed to successfully throw off the yoke of Assyrian domination. The kings of Dynasty XXVI, which was based at Sau (Sais) in the western Delta, tried to restore Kmt's former grandeur by promoting commercial expansion. Large numbers of foreigners, particularly Greeks, settled in Kmt during Dynasty XXVI. Dynasty XXVI was also a period in which numerous foreign scholars, including Thales (ca. 636-546 B.C.E.) and Pythagoras (ca. 582-507 B.C.E.), studied in Kmt. Additionally, it was during Dynasty XXVI that the prophet Jeremiah (ca. 628-586 B.C.E.) sojourned in Kmt, a bronze statue carrying the name of King Sendji of Dynasty II was made and the near-legendary Imhotep of Dynastic III was deified as a God of science and medicine.
Dynasty XXVI was an era of martial conflicts in which Kmt was largely inadequate. During the long reign of Psametik I the entire military garrison at Abu (Elephantine) deserted to the king of Kush, who is said to have provided them with land grants and wives in the southern portion of the kingdom. In 605 B.C.E. the Kemetic military was soundly defeated by the Babylonians at the battle of Carchemish. The Babylonians never successfully occupied Kmt but they remained a constant threat to the security of the country until the Babylonians themselves were eclipsed by the rising strength of Persia.
In 525 B.C.E. the Persians, under Cambyses II, invaded, conquered and incorporated Kmt into the Persian Empire. It was during Dynasty XXVII, the time of the Persian occupation of Kmt, that Hecataeus of Miletus (ca. 510 B.C.E.) and the great historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus (ca. 450 B.C.E.) visited Kmt. The short-lived Dynasty XXVIII (404-399 B.C.E.), which consisted of only one king, Amyrtaeus, was based at Sau (Sais). It was in Dynasty XXIX that Plato (428-347 B.C.E.) studied in Kmt, while Democritus (ca. 460-370 B.C.E.) pursued his education in Kmt during Dynasty XXX.
It was in 343 B.C.E. that King Nectanebo II was defeated by the Persians under Ataxerxes III. After a brief period of Persian domination, sometimes referred to as Dynasty XXXI, in 332 B.C.E. came the invasion and occupation of Kmt under of Alexander of Macedon (356-323 B.C.E.) and the subsequent Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 B.C.E.). As for Alexander himself, "records say that he wanted to be buried in Egypt's Siwa Oasis, near Libya, but finally was encased in a gold coffin in Alexandria, the Mediterranean city he founded."
One of the most brilliant and influential intellectuals of the early period of Ptolemaic rule in Kmt was the celebrated African scholar and priest--Mer-en-Jehuti--more widely known as Manetho of Sebennytos (ca. 275 B.C.E.). The Lower Kemetic city of Sebennytos had been the nation's capital during Dynasty XXX. Manetho, whose authority has been acknowledged several times in this essay, is credited with having written in the Greek language The Sacred Book, An Epitome of Physical Doctrines and Aegyptica (The History of Egypt). It was in the latter work--still the primary fabric connecting Kemetic history--that the famed African scholar organized the successive reigns of the monarchs of Kmt into our present dynastic structure.
Also see: Bibliography
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Revised: November 04, 2000.
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