In 525 BC, a war broke out in the Perussim region of the Nile Delta, between Egypt, which was now crumbling, and the new Achaemenid Empire (the First Persian Empire). The war ended with the defeat of Egypt. King Camsis II of Persia, who led Persia to win the war, was crowned as an Egyptian pharaoh, ushering in the era of the Persian dynasty in Egypt.
This was the beginning of the 27th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, its penultimate 5th Dynasty. In another two hundred years, ancient Egypt will be completely integrated into the Macedonian Empire, and ancient Egyptian civilization will gradually move towards the Hellenistic era.
Later paintings by French painters, imaginary encounters between Cambises II and the Egyptian pharaohs
Because it is so old, our understanding of the battle today basically comes from Greek scholars hundreds of years after the battle, such as Herodotus and Polyanus. These scholars have diligently and diligently sorted out, recorded, and preserved these historical fragments for us a thousand years later, including the causes, processes, and effects of wars.
Flipping through the history books, we find a particularly interesting point: an important reason why the Persians won this battle was actually cats and cats.
The Battle of Pelusium, an illustration by Simon Setz for the Encyclopedia of World History
The 2nd-century Greek scholar Polyanus recorded in his Strategy of War that "the invading Persians cunningly used cats to protect themselves from Egyptian arrows." According to him, King Cambises II of Persia persuaded his army to bring these "mysterious animals" to the battlefield to prevent a counterattack by the Egyptian army.
Cats? war? What's going on? It turned out that Cambicis II used a clever tactic in this war - psychological warfare. In the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, the cat was a sacred animal, and the Egyptians could not violate the cat under any circumstances, and the same was true on the battlefield.
Here, let's first talk about the ancient Egyptian love and worship of cats.
The ancient Egyptians had great reverence for all forms of life: life was given by God, and the reverence for life extended beyond human limitations to all living things. The ancient Egyptians ate animal flesh, but they also thanked the animals for their sacrifices while eating them. For pets and wildlife, the ancient Egyptians were very caring and respectful.
This "animism" idea of "animism" exists in many parts of the world ( especially in primitive regions ) , such as the Ainu people of Hokkaido , Japan.
Bronze statue of an ancient Egyptian cat
Among the many animals, cats are the most loved and respected as pets. This is related to the ancient Egyptian belief in the Goddess Buster. Buster, the daughter of the sun god Ra, is the goddess of protection, pleasure, health, family, pregnancy and childbirth, and is often depicted as a slender woman with a cat's head.
Buster goddess
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Buster drove through the sky with his father the sun god during the day and protected his father, and at night he transformed into a cat and fought against his father's greatest enemy, the great snake Apep, so she was seen as a "protective" force. This may have something to do with the fact that domestic cats can catch mice and can deftly catch poisonous snakes from Egypt to protect families.
In addition, perhaps because of the cat's ability to conceive, Buster is also regarded as the goddess of family and pregnancy and childbirth. Therefore, she is a goddess who is both fierce and determined, but also loving and gentle, just like a cat.
The Buster Cultural Creation produced by the British Museum is not an advertisement
In ancient Egypt, Buster was widely worshipped and believed as protector of Lower Egypt and defender of the Egyptian pharaohs. The cat is considered to be the physical existence of the buster goddess, and is also considered a demigod, so it is also loved and revered by people.
In ancient Egypt, there were numerous cat sculptures, frescoes, and bronze statues. If someone kills a cat, he may be executed for it. If a cat dies, the whole family will be miserable and mummified the dead cat like a human being — hundreds of cat mummies have been unearthed in Egypt, and rich families even set gems on the mummies of cats. How much did the ancient Egyptians love cats? Herodotus once wrote:
"Egyptians trapped in burning buildings will certainly save cats before they can save themselves or put out the fire." "All people who live in houses where cats die naturally shave their eyebrows to show their sadness."
Ancient Egyptian cat mummy
Although the Battle of Pelusium took place at the end of ancient Egyptian history, the ancient Egyptians' worship and love of buster goddesses and cats increased unabated. At that time, the annual festival of the Temple of Buster was the largest in the country, with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims participating every year.
King Campisses II of Persia took a fancy to this tradition of the ancient Egyptians and skillfully used the psychological weakness of the ancient Egyptians to win the war.
The immediate cause of the Battle of Pelusium was that Cambyses II considered himself "insulted" by Egypt. Before the war, Cambyses II wrote to the then Egyptian pharaoh Amasis, asking Himsis to marry one of his daughters to himself. However, ancient Egypt did not have a tradition of "peace and affinity", and Egyptian princesses never married kings of other countries, so Amasis ostensibly agreed, but turned around and sent the daughter of the former pharaoh to Persia. The young girl was so distraught that when she arrived in Persia, she confided in Cambises II. Cambises II, believing himself to have been deceived and humiliated, launched a war against Egypt.
Source: Wikipedia
Now it seems that Cambyses II may have been the initiator of the war. The king, who was familiar with Egyptian culture and even the significance of cats to the Egyptians, could not have been unaware of the ancient Egyptian tradition of "discord." His practice of writing a letter to "court" may have been to make the Egyptian pharaoh embarrassed and take the opportunity to provoke war. Because ancient Egypt was already in decline at that time, both weapons and tactics were far behind Persia, and Persia was a thriving and expanding empire.
We do not know much about the course of the war, because all historical sources are limited to the records of Greek scholars a thousand years ago. It is recorded that Egypt at that time was well prepared, but in the end it was defeated, and it was a swift and complete defeat. According to the ancient Greek historian Ctecias, the Egyptian side suffered 50,000 casualties, while Persia lost only 7,000.
So why did Egypt fail? We may never know this, because few historians have documented the course of the battle. But a 2nd-century Greek historian, Polyanus, recorded in his book the "cat" tactics we mentioned earlier.
In his book, Polyanus wrote that Cambyses II had his men paint the image of the goddess Buster on a shield and drive the cat before the procession. Looking at their revered goddess and beloved cat, no Egyptian dared to shoot arrows, and everyone was afraid of hurting these holy relics. Therefore, the Persians drove straight in and directly drove the defeated Egyptians back to their hometowns.
Polyanus also wrote that in addition to cats, the Persians had driven a group of dogs, sheep, storks, etc. to the front. These animals were all respected by the Egyptians (the aforementioned "animism" of the Egyptians), so the Egyptians could not let go of their hands and feet.
Paul-Marie Lernois's painting on the battle, 1872 (Poor cat...) ）
Doesn't this history sound very bizarre? If true, the Battle of Pelusium would probably be the first "psychological warfare" in human history. The two sides fight not weapons and strength, but to see who can disintegrate the other party's psychological defense line and consume the other party's combat awareness. The battle also taught us that understanding each other's cultures and traditions can sometimes play a surprisingly successful role in war. This may be the original meaning of the existence of social sciences!
Regrettably, this interesting history is most likely fictional. Because all the accounts of cats in this war come from the author of Polyanus, whose time was seven hundred years since that war, he was also hearsay. In the book, even Polyanus himself says that "according to legend" Campisses used ingenious strategy. And modern research suggests that Polyanus, a retired veteran Macedonian general, was "more interested in novelty than in historical accuracy." So the authenticity of this history is really in doubt.
If you think about it, you know how unreasonable it is to drive a group of animals to the front line in a war. Not to mention how to control these animals from running around, even raising them requires huge logistics. Modern researchers generally agree that this history is fictional, or that the Persians simply painted various Egyptian deities on their shields and did not really bring cats to the battlefield.
And even without cats, it was only a matter of time before ancient Egypt was occupied by Persia. Because this dying aging empire has long been the plate of the young empire next to it.
Persian soldiers
But whether because of cats or for other reasons, Egypt was utterly defeated. After the Egyptian army escaped and collapsed, the Persian army marched unimpeded, all the way south into Memphis, the capital of Egypt at the time, and occupied it. At this time, the Egyptian pharaoh was already the son of the old pharaoh who sent the "false daughter" and the kiss, and he eventually committed suicide. Cambyses II took over the crown of the "Pharaoh", and ancient Egypt entered the Persian dynasty era of Cambyses II.
This Persian dynasty in Egypt also died hundreds of years later. For the next thousand years, the Battle of Pelusium, and its legendary connection with cats (true or false), became the talk of the people after dinner.
Ancient Egyptian frescoes
But the relationship between cats and war is more than that, let's talk about two wars that cleverly use "cat" tactics. Of course, whether it is true or not, you can judge it for yourself.
In the 16th century, Germany studied the idea of using cats and even birds to spread poison gas by placing glass jars made of gas bombs on animals and then sending them into enemy fortresses.
During the Battle of Britain during World War II, many families used cats as an "early warning system" for German bombers. Because the kitten will be more keenly aware of the arrival of the plane and find cover.
Graphics and text are irrelevant
But while the history of these cats and wars is interesting, let's not forget that neither war nor the use of cats as "weapons" in war is something we don't want to see.
On the one hand, we need to more or less absorb the ancient Egyptian idea of "animism" and respect all life.
On the other hand, we also hope that there will be no more wars in the world, that both animals and people will not be harmed by war, and that there will be peace in the world.
I am Anatomic Orange, a master's degree in European international relations. Welcome to like, follow, comment!
Thank you to Han for the materials and inspiration!!