NECHAO. - Pharaoh of Egypt of the XXVI dynasty (609-595 B.C.), the second of his name, son of Psammetichus I, whose work he continued.

Herodotus (II, 158) recalls of him first of all the digging of a trench for navigation from the Nile to the Red Sea (a sort of anticipation of the Suez Canal) and elsewhere the initiative he took for the circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors (IV, 42). Shortly afterward he undertook a campaign against Nabopolassar, king of Assyria (Herodotus, II, 159), and since King Josiah of Judah, despite the pharaoh's protest that he was not marching against him (II Chron. 35, 20-25, cf. Jer. 42, 11), went against him (II Kings 23, 29), he was defeated at Megiddo on the Kishon near Carmel and killed (II Chron. 35, 23-24), leaving the kingdom to his son Jehoahaz, whom N. put in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath, afterward sending him to die in Egypt (II Kings 23, 33-34; II Chron. 36, 3); he placed on the throne instead Eliakim, another son of Josiah, under the name Jehoiakim and on condition that he pay him a large tribute of gold and silver (II Kings 23, 34-36; II Chron. 36, 3-4). To celebrate the victory, N. consecrated his armor to Apollo Didymaeus (Herodotus, II, 159). Then he was defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 (Jer. 46, 2-26) and was forced to cede Syria to him; after which he withdrew to Egypt and never left it again (II Kings 24, 7).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: J. H. Breasted, Ancient records of Egypt, IV, Chicago 1927, p. 497 ff.; G. Posener, Le canal du Nil à la Mer Rouge, in Chronique d'Egypte, 13 (1938), pp. 259-73; A. Calderini, I precedenti del canale di Suez nell'antichità, in Aegyptus, 20 (1940), pp. 214-31.

Aristide Calderini

@incollection{ec8_nechao, author = {Calderini, Aristide}, title = {Nechao}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1725}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/nechao} }

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