Hello, this is Bertie. Welcome to StoryNory, and I'm here with an edition from my series based on the histories of Herodotus.

In the previous few episodes, I talked a lot about Ancient Egypt.

It's a subject that interests me a lot. I'm writing a novel about Lapis the Cat, set in Ancient Egypt, which I hope you'll enjoy when I've finally finished it.

But that's fiction, and today we're talking about history. Does that mean it's all true? Well, not necessarily. Perhaps it isn't all true.

You should listen to what Herodotus said about the information he gathered and decide for yourself. Does it have the ring of truth or not?

We're staying with Egypt for one last episode. I'm going to tell you how the Ancient Kingdom was finally conquered and folded into the Persian Empire.

We've already heard about a Persian king called Cyrus, who's still considered to this day to have been a wise and just ruler.

After he died, his son, Cambysys, took over. He had a very different reputation. Herodotus thought he was mad, and that label has stuck.

The Egyptian Pharaoh, Amosus, was friends with the Greeks, and also tried to stay on the right side of the Persians.

When he heard that their king, Cambysys, had problems with his eyesight, he sent an Egyptian eye doctor to help him out.

This doctor really did not want to leave his family behind in Egypt, and so he had a grudge against Amosus.

When he arrived in Persia, he suggested that Cambysys should marry the daughter of Amosus.

Often in the past, all ruling families from different countries have married their children to one another in the spirit of peace.

The theory runs that it's harder to go to war against your own in-laws.

According to Herodotus, Amosus really did not want to part with his daughter and send her so far away.

If she went to live in Persia, he would never see her again, and he wasn't sure that Cambysys would treat her right.

So he came up with a trick. There was a beautiful girl in his court who was the daughter of the previous Pharaoh, Apriés.

Amosus had rebelled against Apriés, kicked him off the throne, and taken his place.

So he sent the daughter of Apriés to Cambysys, saying that she was his own.

But when she arrived, she told Cambysys the truth that Amosus had tricked him.

Cambysys flew into a rage and decided to conquer Egypt as a matter of revenge.

Cambysys plans for war faced a great obstacle, the desert.

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