4. The Disgruntled Doctor Who Triggered a War
The rise of Persia in the 6th century BC upended the ancient Middle East, as the surging newcomers conquered left and right, and became the ancient world’s greatest empire until then. For a while, the Persians held off from taking on Egypt, until a disgruntled Egytpian doctor instigated a war. It began when Persia’s king Cambyses II wrote Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis II (570 – 524 BC), asking him to send an eye doctor. The doctor chosen by Amasis was upset at getting picked out of all of Egypt’s physicians to get dragged away from his family and sent to distant Persia. So upon reaching Persia, the doctor got his revenge by advising Cambyses to ask for Amasis’ favorite daughter, knowing that it would put Amasis in a bind: accept and grow wretched at the loss of his daughter, or refuse, and offend Cambyses.
Amasis did not want want to send his beloved daughter to Persia, knowing that Cambyses did not even want her as a wife, but just as a mere concubine. However, the Egyptian ruler was also intimidated by Persia’s power. So Amasis sent the daughter of a former Pharaoh, claiming that she was his. The former Egyptian princess was no more pleased than the Egyptian doctor had been at getting sent to Persia. Soon as she reached the Persian king, she told Cambyses of the ruse. Angered, he declared war and prepared to invade Egypt.