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Piye
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==Conquest of Egypt== [[File:GD-EG-Alex-MuséeNat065.JPG|thumb|Image of [[Shepenupet II]], "Divine adoratrice of Amón" and daughter of Piye.]] [[File:Gebel Barkal Amun temple (B500).JPG|thumb|Ruins of the Temple of [[Gebel Barkal]].]] As ruler of [[Nubia]] and Upper Egypt, Piye took advantage of the squabbling of [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]]'s rulers by expanding Nubia's power beyond Thebes into Lower Egypt. In reaction to this, [[Tefnakht]] of [[Sais]] formed a coalition between the local kings of the Delta Region and enticed Piye's nominal ally—king [[Nimlot of Hermopolis]]—to defect to his side. Tefnakht then sent his coalition army south and besieged [[Heracleopolis Magna|Herakleopolis]] where its king [[Peftjauawybast]] and the local Nubian commanders appealed to Piye for help. Piye reacted quickly to this crisis in his [[regnal year]] 20 by assembling an army to invade Middle and Lower Egypt and visited Thebes in time for the great [[Opet Festival]] which proves he effectively controlled Upper Egypt by this time. His military feats are chronicled in the Victory stela at [[Gebel Barkal]]: {{quote|Hear what I have done in exceeding the ancestors. I am the king, the representation of god, the living image of Atum, who issued from the womb marked as ruler, who is feared by those greater than he, [whose father] knew and whose mother perceived even in the egg that he would be ruler, the good god, beloved of the gods, the Son of Re, who acts with his two arms, Piye, beloved of Amon ....|Victory Stele of Piye.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Literature Of Ancient Egypt |pages=368 ff |url=https://archive.org/details/TheLiteratureOfAncientEgyptKellySimpsonBySamySalah/page/n389/mode/2up |language=ar}}</ref>}} Piye viewed his campaign as a [[religious war|holy war]], commanding his soldiers to cleanse themselves ritually before beginning battle. He himself offered sacrifices to the great god [[Amun]].<ref name=draper>"[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text The Black Pharaohs] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506165440/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text |date=2014-05-06 }}", by Robert Draper, ''National Geographic'', February 2008.</ref> Piye then marched north and achieved complete victory at Herakleopolis, conquering the cities of Hermopolis and [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]] among others, and received the submission of the kings of the [[Nile Delta]] including [[Iuput II]] of [[Leontopolis]], [[Osorkon IV]] of Tanis and his former ally Nimlot at Hermopolis. Hermopolis fell to the Nubian king after a siege lasting five months. Tefnakht took refuge in an island in the Delta and formally conceded defeat in a letter to the Nubian king but refused to personally pay homage to the Kushite ruler. Satisfied with his triumph, Piye proceeded to sail south to Thebes and returned to his homeland in Nubia never to return to Egypt. Despite Piye's successful campaign into the Delta, his authority only extended northward from Thebes up to the western desert oases and Herakleopolis where Peftjauawybast ruled as a Nubian vassal king. The local kings of Lower Egypt—especially Tefnakht—were essentially free to do what they wanted without Piye's oversight. It was [[Shebitku]], Piye's successor, who later rectified this unsatisfactory situation by attacking Sais and defeating Tefnakht's successor [[Bakenranef]] there, in his second regnal year.
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