Trouble in the West: Egypt and the Persian Empire, 525-332 BC (Oxford Studies in Early Empires)

"Trouble in the West provides the first full and continuous account of the Persian-Egyptian War, a conflict that continued for nearly the two-hundred-year duration of the Persian Empire. Despite its status as the largest of all ancient Persian military enterprises--including any aimed at Greece--this conflict has never been reconstructed in any detailed and comprehensive way. Thus, Trouble in the West adds tremendously to our understanding of Persian imperial affairs. At the same time, it dramatically revises our understanding of eastern Mediterranean and Aegean affairs by linking Persian dealings with Greeks and other peoples in the west to Persia's fundamental, ongoing Egyptian concerns. In this study, Stephen Ruzicka argues that Persia's Egyptian problem and, conversely, Egypt's Persian problem, were much more important in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean worlds than our conventional Greek-centered perspective and sources have allowed us to see. In looking at this conflict as one stage in an enduring east-west conflict between successive Near Eastern imperial powers and Egypt--one which stretched across nearly the whole of ancient history--it represents an important turning point: by pulling in remote western states and peoples, who subsequently became masters of Egypt, western opposition to Near Eastern power was sustained right up to the 7th century Arab conquests. For classicists and historians of the ancient Near East, Trouble in the West will serve as a valuable, and long-overdue, resource."--Publisher's website Cover 1 Contents 8 Preface 10 Author’s Note 12 List of Illustrations 14 Maps 15 Introduction: Stories and Sources 20 1. Persia and Egypt: The Historical Context 30 2. Persian Success: Conquest and Kingship, 525–518 41 3. Managing Egypt, 518–415 53 4. Losing Egypt, 415–400 62 5. Securing the Eastern Mediterranean, 400–395 68 6. Into the Aegean, 394–392 76 7. To Egypt: Preparations and Campaign, 391–387 93 8. The Egyptian War and the King’s Peace, 387–386 104 9. Egypt Strikes Back: The Cypriot War and the Struggle for the Eastern Mediterranean, 386–379 110 10. Preparing the Second Campaign: Engaging Greeks, 380–373 126 11. Pharnabazus and Iphicrates’ Egyptian Campaign, 373 141 12. Court Politics and the Collapse of the Third Campaign, 372–365 149 13. Egyptian Strategy Shifts: The Genesis of Tachos’ Great Offensive, 364–361 161 14. Tachos: Campaign and Collapse, 360–359 172 15. Persian Counterattack, 359? 178 16. Artaxerxes III: King and Commander, 358–350 181 17. Loss and Recovery of the Middle Territory, 350–345 191 18. Persian Success, 344–342 204 19. From Artaxerxes III to Alexander III, 342–332 226 20. East, West, and Far West after the Persians: The Long View 237 Appendix A. Kings of Egypt and Persia 246 Appendix B. Timeline/Chronological Chart 248 List of Abbreviations 250 Endnotes 254 Bibliography 312 Index 334 A 334 B 335 C 335 D 335 E 336 G 336 H 336 I 336 J 336 K 336 L 336 M 336 N 337 O 337 P 337 Q 338 R 338 S 338 T 338 U 338 W 338 X 338 Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, early empires shaped thousands of years of world history. Yet despite the global prominence of empire, individual cases are often studied in isolation. This series seeks to change the terms of the debate by promoting cross-cultural, comparative, and transdisciplinary perspectives on imperial state formation prior to the European colonial expansion. Book jacket fully reconstructs Persian efforts to conquer, control, and, eventually, reconquer Egypt. Reinterpreting Persian-Greek interactions in the process, it furnishes a new narrative of 5th and 4th century history and places that narrative in the enduring struggle between Near Eastern imperial powers and Egypt that marked the longue duree ancient history