page_title: Amyrtaeus
section_title: Sources and identity
hierarchical_section_title: Amyrtaeus / Biography / Sources and identity
caption_attribution_description: English: Double daric of Artaxerxes II, Babylonia, ca. 330–300 BC; obverse: Persian king running holding a bow. Français&#160;: Double darique d'Artaxerxès II Memnon, Babylonie, v.&#160;330-300 av. J.-C., droit&#160;: roi archer courant vers la droite. Ελληνικά: Διπλός δαρεικός του Αρταξέρξη Β΄, που κόπηκε στη Βαβυλώνα περί το 330-300 π.Χ.· στη μία όψη ο Πέρσης βασιλιάς με τόξο.
context_page_description: Amyrtaeus or Amyrtaios of Sais, is the only pharaoh of the Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt and is thought to be related to the royal family of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. He ended the first Persian occupation of Egypt and reigned from 404 BC to 399 BC. Amyrtaeus' successful insurrection inaugurated Egypt's last significant phase of independence under native sovereigns, which lasted for about 60 years until the Battle of Pelusium in 343 BC.
context_section_description: Sextus Julius Africanus (Chronographiai) calls him "Amyrteos", while Eusebius of Caesarea (Chronicon) calls him "Amirtaios" — both of them recording that he reigned for 6 years. An ancient Egyptian prophetic text, the Demotic Chronicle (3rd/2nd century BC), states:
  The first ruler who came after the foreigners who are the Medes [Persians] was Pharaoh Amenirdais [Amyrtaios].
  — from the Demotic Chronicle
  Amyrtaeus was probably the grandson of the Amyrtaeus of Sais who, with the Libyan chief, Inaros II (himself a grandson of Pharaoh Psamtik III),  led a rebellion between 465 BC and 463 BC against the Satrap of Artaxerxes I. He is known from Aramaic and ancient Greek sources, and is mentioned in the Demotic Chronicle. A "virtually unknown ruler", he is not known to have left any monuments, and his name in Egyptian is only reconstructed from demotic notices: no hieroglyphic writing of his names has been found.
caption: Daric of Artaxerxes II, against whom Amyrtaeus rebelled. Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.4", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:20 22:52:37", "Image Artist": "Marie-Lan Nguyen", "Image Copyright": "Wikimedia Commons", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "3188", "Image Tag 0x9216": "[1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3300", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10967", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/4", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "500", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:13 13:57:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:13 13:57:22", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "2", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "24", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}