Ancient Greece
Persian Rule in Egypt – The Twenty-Seventh Dynasty (525-333 BC)
October 21, 2025
Egypt was originally conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great's son Cambyses, who invaded and subjugated Egypt in 525 BC. It remained under Persian control for over a century - the so-called Twenty-Seventh Dynasty (525-404 BC). Persian control over the fertile land along the Nile survived Persian defeats in the wars with the Greeks, only slipping away when a native Egyptian from the Delta city of Sais, Amyrtaeus, revolted against Persian rule. He was successful, inaugurating the last period of native rule Egypt would see until Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup of 1952.
Egypt was originally conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great’s son Cambyses, who invaded and subjugated Egypt in 525 BC. It remained under Persian control for over a century – the so-called Twenty-Seventh Dynasty (525-404 BC). Persian control over the fertile land along the Nile survived Persian defeats in the wars with the Greeks, only slipping away when a native Egyptian from the Delta city of Sais, Amyrtaeus, revolted against Persian rule. He was successful, inaugurating the last period of native rule Egypt would see until Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup of 1952.
The Persians came back in 343 BC, as Artaxerxes III Ochus, seen on the front of the coin above, defeated the last native Egyptian pharaoh, Nectanebo II, and reinstated Egypt as as a province. In this coin, he wears the pharaonic atef crown, as does his son on the reverse. Egypt was one of the wealthiest provinces of the Persian realm, and Artaxerxes would have wanted to project its restoration to his realm anywhere he could, including on coins. The dynastic element of the coin was also critical, in Persia but especially in Egypt.
Above: Gold daric of the Persian Empire, minted in Sardes, Lydia during the time of Xerxes I – Artaxerxes I (ca. 485-420 BC). The daric was the only major gold coin that circulated in the Persian Empire, though silver coinage was relatively available, particularly in the western territories of Asia Minor and the coastal Levant.
Artaxerxes was not a benevolent conqueror, burning cities and even slaughtering the sacred bull of Apis, which, according to legend, the first Persian conqueror of Egypt, Cambyses, had also done in 525 BC. Perhaps not by coincidence, Persian rule in Egypt would be brief; indeed, the whole empire was on borrowed time. While Artaxerxes was celebrating his triumph in Egypt, Philip of Macedon was uniting the Greek states under his rule and building a formidable army. His son Alexander took that army to Asia, conquering all Persian domains from the Aegean to the Indus, including Egypt in 332 BC. Unlike Artaxerxes, Alexander left the Apis bull alive and even sacrificed to it at the city of Memphis. Greek rule survived in Egypt for three hundred years. Egypt’s second-largest city, Alexandria, still bears his name. There are almost no tangible signs today of the century of Persian rule over Egypt. The lesson: honor and respect the Apis Bull.
Persian Empire – Artaxerxes III (r. 359-338 BC) Silver Obol – Myriandrus, Cilicia – Great King with Pharaonic Crown and Lotus Scepter
Persian (Achaemenid) Empire. Time of the Greek Classical Period. Artaxerxes III Ochus (r. 359-338 BC) AR (Silver) obol. Mint of Myriandrus, Cilicia; struck ca. 342-338 BC, under Mazaeus, satrap of Cilicia. VF; a rare and important late Achaemenid issue, reflecting the reconquest of Egypt. Struck less than a decade before the Persian Empire’s total conquest by Alexander the Great. Portraits of Achaemenid kings, in any medium (coins, sculpture, etc) are scarce; this coin has two of them.