CAMBISE (Kambugija of the cuneiform documents). - The name of two kings of the Achaemenids (v.). Of the first we know nothing except that he was the father of Cyrus the Great (v.) and king of Anzan in Susiana until 558 B.C.
The second was the son and successor of Cyrus on the Persian throne (529–22). Having had his brother Bardija (the Smerdis of the Greek writers) killed, he led an expedition against Egypt, which he easily conquered thanks to the treachery of the Greek mercenaries, who passed from Egypt’s pay to his own. The attempts to occupy Carthaginian Libya and Ethiopia, however, proved futile. Having meanwhile learned in Egypt that Gaumata, passing himself off as Smerdis, had had himself proclaimed king, he set out again for Persia; but he was assassinated on the way or, according to Herodotus, died through an accidental mishap.
His policy toward the Egyptians was at first tolerant, but later, after the failure of the two expeditions mentioned above, it became cruel and irreverent toward their religion.
#### CAMBOGIA: V. INDOCINA FRANCESE.