Amyrtaeus

Amyrtaeus governed Egypt from 404 BC to 398 BC, with chronology reliable to within a year. Originating from Sais in the western Delta, he launched a widespread rebellion against the Persian satrapy during the succession turmoil following the death of Darius II. By 404 BC, he had succeeded in expelling Persian authorities from Lower Egypt, later bringing Upper Egypt under his control.

His six-year reign forms the entire Twenty-eighth Dynasty. Because his rule was preoccupied with securing the realm against foreign counterattacks and internal rivals, he left no surviving monuments or temples. His reign ended violently in 398 BC when he was defeated and executed by Nepherites I of Mendes. Historians know of Amyrtaeus primarily through Demotic legal documents, the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine, and later accounts such as the Demotic Chronicle. His burial site remains entirely unknown.

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