CAMBYSES (Kambūgija in cuneiform documents). — Name of two kings of the Achaemenids (cf. v.). Of the first we know nothing else except that he was the father of Cyrus the Great (cf. v.) and king of Anzan in Susiana until 558 BC.
The second was the son and successor of Cyrus on the Persian throne (520–22 BC). After having his brother Bardiya (the Smerdis of Greek writers) put to death, he led an expedition against Egypt, which he easily conquered thanks to the treachery of Greek mercenaries who had deserted from Egypt’s service to his. His attempts, however, to occupy Carthaginian Libya and Ethiopia proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, learning from Egypt that Gaumata, posing as Smerdis, had had himself proclaimed king, he set out on the return journey to Persia; but he was assassinated along the way or, according to Herodotus, died in a chance accident.
His policy toward the Egyptians was at first tolerant, but later, after the failure of the two expeditions mentioned, it became cruel and disrespectful toward their religion.